Same word many meanings

We have loads of books, references and on-line resources that provide the in’s and out’s of any given word. These provide you with the meaning, use, synonyms, antonyms, grammar, examples of use, idioms, slang, expressions and more for each word. With all of that at your disposition, it should be cut and dry for everyone. However, the same simple word, even in its most basic use, has very different meanings for each person and for a given situation.

Every word has an invisible relationship with each unique person. Grasping the meaning of a word is easier when it is accompanied by body language, voice intonation, gestures, facial expressions and the context of a situation. All of which come from personal exchanges. Even with personal exchanges and each persons invisible relationship with a word can lead to a lot of unexpected outcomes and often times unrecognized misunderstandings.

A friend of mine came over for dinner one night. While I was preparing dinner he was perusing my bookcases which are filled with a vast collection of books on nutrition, biology, holistic health, psychology, dreaming, hypnotherapy, spiritual practices and more. It was surprising because his lifestyle is everything but that of a healthy lifestyle. Everyone, including himself, knew that he lived second to second as the irresponsible spontaneous fun party guy who was struggling with addictions with alcohol, drugs, to junk food, TV, money and more.

Suddenly he chimed out, in exuberance “Now this is the book for me!”. Naively I immediately thought I had a book that would be the epiphany he needed for some long overdue lifestyle changes. I curiously asked “Which one?”. He held it up. It was “Drink your troubles away”. “Drink your troubles away” just happens to be my best and favorite 1967 edition book about vegetable and fruit juicing for health recovery. I understood instantly how he understood the title – drink your troubles away with alcohol. We both doubled over in laughter about the polarly opposite meaning and subject of the book. Even funnier, the authors name is LUST (John Lust). The incident was a good laugh, while also being a good reminder about how our use and understanding of words comes from our own personal unique points of reference and lifestyle.

Like everyone, you probably live in the illusion that everyone uses words in the same way. The reality is, that more often than not your use of words is different from everyone else’s – simply because you and your person are as unique as is your fingerprint.

Every one of your qualities makes you unique.  Your heritage, mother-tongue language, gender, age, generation, geographic location, culture, upbringing, peers, education, personal interests, affiliations, personal/work/social experiences, life events and MORE. All of these are the direct link between you,  every single word and how you use it.

How about an example? It is such a good example, in fact so much so that some may consider my choice to be a curse word that needs to be censored.

Smart ass is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary to be an adjective that means a “wise-guy” or “know-it-all”. Many word reference resources don’t even list it at all because it is considered for them a curse word. While other references consider it to be nothing more than a slang word.

 “You are a smart ass” could be an endearing comment among close friends/family, a flirtatious come-on or a direct reprimand. A personal interaction is likely to give all the cues and indicators about how it is wanting to be understood. The truth of how it wants to be understood will be determined by cultural background, maternal-tongue languages, sarcastic intonation and by reading the social/body/facial cuing as well as understanding the contextual situation in which it is used.

For someone who uses “You are a smart ass” in writing (such as a text message or email) could be a bit toss up as to how it is wanting to be communicated, as well as how it will be received.

One person’s family may have used “smart ass” as a compliment to describe a person’s ability for fast come backs and a quick wit. While another family may have educated the word “smart ass” to be a highly negative personal quality.

Your personal word relationships come from early learning. Later learning evolves as a result of the environments you circulate in and the need to be accepted and belong. Variations such as different maternal language, cultural and other make the opportunity for misunderstandings that much greater.

I learned French in Paris at the age of 21. I was learning the words I needed to get by and have my needs met. After more than a year I was able to form a sentence, but holding a conversation was still very limited. Later I worked for Club Med and my French skills became more administratively oriented and I learned to get ideas across to other staff members who spoke the local French Creole, French Quebecois or speaking to others who spoke French as a second language. I realized how difficult and delicate it was to communicate simple instructions and be understood.

Later I married a Frenchman who didn’t speak English and my French skills took another deep turn. Learning a second language has many levels and layers. Work French is different from social French and love relationships require communication skills of yet another level. In each new French situation I was like a sponge. One day a dear friend was kind enough to share that my French was not fitting of a young American girl. I didn’t understand. She began to explain the expressions I used and their intensity meaning and contextual use. I was horrified. We both laughed because we knew that it was my living with my husband and his “firefighter” manly way of expressing himself that I had soaked up and was using.

Have you ever considered where you adopted your use of the words you use? Or how you may come across to others as a result of it? You can’t ever make a first impression a second time, what is your first impression to others telling them about you? Something to think about huh?

When I understood the invisible yet profound relationships I had with words I began to watch more closely. How was I using words? Why was I using them way? How was I understanding words? Over a short period of time I began to see that not only was I using the same word differently than others, but my relationship with a same word and how I used it was changing with each passing day and my life experiences.

In my 20’s and 30’s I used and understood the term “leisure activity” to mean an extreme sports outing. After my mid 30’s my life radically and dramatically changed as a result of an onslaught of serious medical problems. Soon after “leisure activity” was a simple quiet outing to peaceful and isolated natural setting on a park bench.

 I could give you many more examples, but they would be my examples. While you will grasp my examples, you are more likely to understand what I am sharing if you see how your own use of words has changed over the years. All you have to do is play along. You read the question I ask and then you wait for your own truth to surface.

“Love” is a powerful word. “Love” means something different for each person. Its meaning and depth change as a person moves through life.

What did you love as a child?
How did you love it?
Go back to those times as a kid when you loved something (be it pizza, a toy, a pet or something else). What did love mean to you? And how did you experience love?

As you got older you certainly had a first “love” (or crush)?
What was it like?

How did your understanding of “love” change when you met that one special person (maybe the one you married)?

If you have children, how did your understanding of love change once you had a child enter your life?

Are you divorced? Have you been betrayed? Divorce and deep betrayal often and invariably influence a persons understanding of “love”. How did it change yours?

If you have been married for more than 20 years to the same person, how is your understanding and experience of “love” different now from when you first met them? In what ways is it different?

Has a cherished loved one crossed over?
How did that loss change your understanding of love? Did the loss change the way you express love?

A person who has been married for more than 40 years having a conversation  with a teenager is like two people from different universes trying to find common ground. They both know the same words, but the words mean entirely different things to each of them based on their life experiences.

“Success” is another word that is ever changing for each person as they move through their lives. 

Let’s take a look at your ideas of success and how they have changed over time. Take a deep breath. There are no wrong answers. The more honest your answer, the more this little exercise has to offer.

What signifies success for you right now?

Do you have a goal for success for your future?

For some, “success” maybe material (income, car, house, family, retirement fund or a trophy spouse). For another “success” may revolve around an event such as a big wedding, ceremony, awards or titles. Yet for others success is something that they feel and is materially invisible – such as happiness, peace of mind, joy in their hearts or healing relationships.

“Success” is also a concept very much embedded in your cultural origins. Success in India, Japan or South America is not necessarily the same as “success” for an American. Religion, gender, age, profession, social group and more will also influence how a person(s) sees and perceives success. For a country and culture where fruit is a luxury, success maybe as simple as being able to have a bowl of fresh fruit on the table!

What is important to you has to do with your ideas about “success”. What is important to you? How you prioritize your life also tells you what you beleive to be “success”.

What was important to you back 5 years ago?

What was important to you 10 years ago?

20 years ago?

As you look back you will see that what was important to you changed over time. Your idea of success changed as you either obtained your goals or as you saw what seeking that “goal” took away. How you understand “success” is also how you use and understand the word in your everyday conversations.

It is common to hear a man want riches and fortune. If he achieves the wealth he desires he may begin to see the areas of his life that are less “wealthy” such as emotional and mental well-being. As a person achieves their “success” they begin to see the areas of their lives that are coming up short. At times you may notice your idea of success costs too much. The young executive who wants the job title may begin to realize that his 60-70 hour work week prevents him from sharing his successes with a lover. As a result he may modify his idea of success to have a lower job title, fewer hours and a loving relationship.

Words have different meanings, but words also carry an EMOTIONAL charge. It is as if each word is more or less “heavy” emotionally. This too depends on the word and its relationship to a given persons life and experiences.

Consider the word “murder”. Murder holds a very different emotional charge for a parent whose child was murdered, than it does for a parent whose children are alive and safe. A murderer’s emotional connection to the word murder cannot be compared to someone whose relationship to the word murder is via video gaming, the evening news or media reports.

Emotionally laden words such as labels, are often those words we are reprimanded for saying and are taught not to say. Curse words or racial and religious terms are among them.

Words that don’t require censoring and are in no way hurtful also carry a huge emotional charge, even violent emotional charges. Take sports team names for example. One day I bought a baseball hat with a big red B on it. I needed something simple and casual to keep my face and eyes shielded from the sun’s glare without flying off in high winds. As a girl, my choice was based solely on the color, soft material, proper fit, look and machine washability. The B could have stood for Boy for all I knew since I was in the boys department when I bought it. The first few times I wore it out to keep my eyes and face out of the sun on windy days I was invariably met by honking, screaming, defamatory or cheering from total strangers. I was invariably confused on each occasion. I would look around to see what was causing the uncontrollable emotional outbursts. Would see absolutely nothing and then wonder what on earth I had just done. Several minutes later I would realize it was the B on my baseball hat that was causing the uproar. It was absolutely incredible what the “B” on my baseball hat caused when I wore it in public. It caused such a ruckus that eventually I donated it to goodwill opting for a neutral plain wrap hat that didn’t cause a single emotional peep from anyone.

Before learning French, I never thought about what I was literally communicating in my mother-tongue language. I knew instinctively without knowing why, what I was supposed to say and do based on a situation, surroundings and my role in any given situation. I had been programmed and was basically on automatic pilot without any real consciousness of what I was doing. It remained that way until I moved to France at 21 when I had to think about every single thing I said, did and was communicating via my expressions, body language, voice and words.

As I learned French, culture and customs I began to have a different perspective from which to see my own mother-tongue English. At times I would find myself needing to express an idea in French, but not knowing the words. I would do a mind word translation search and invariably be thinking “omg that is crazy what we say in English – I can’t translate that in French, it is thoroughly ridiculous and meaningless!”. My first experience was the day I had to tell someone that my cat was “fixed”. In French, saying my cat was “fixed” implied that my cat was broken.  What an irony. Look at English for a moment. My cat went to the vet perfect and whole. The vet altered or removed its reproductive organs and then gave the animal back to me “fixed”. Try and explain that English use of words to a foreigner.

Expressions and idioms are a verbal visual bonus feature that offer laughs and a lot of misunderstandings. Arriving at work one day I heard someone say “Elle pete le feu”. I heard, but did I hear right? I didn’t understand so my mind began the translational word search. I repeated in my head “elle…. pete… le… feu…” Did I translate that right? Did they just say she was farting fire? In an effort to understand my mind gave me an image of a lady farting fire to which I was doubled over in laughter. When my laughter calmed I asked what on earth it meant. I knew they would not be telling me about this girls gastro-intestinal upsets and if she was farting fire I probably needed to be on the look-out. What I came to understand was that “She is farting fire” is equivalent to “she is on fire”. Our English equivalent “she is on fire” would invariably lead someone with a different maternal language to a totally different and horrific understanding and visual image.

We so falsely assume that we all use words the same way and that a same word has the same meaning for everyone. Not only do we use words differently, but every single day’s life experiences give us new relationships with each word we use. Understanding the concept “Same Word, Many meanings” can encourage you to ask more questions, make fewer assumptions and to take more time and caring for conversations.

Even though my article’s words are the same for every single reader, these words will impact and reach each person entirely differently. Words are very powerful, but they are also effectively ineffective communicators. Words are important, magical and abstract, but they are complex vehicles. When you see both the advantages and the shortcoming of words, you are best equipped to use them for maximizing best outcomes.

Warmest,

                Krista Umgelter

blog.kristaumgelter.com 

CAMBRIDGE
ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN USE ADVANCED

UNIT 91

One word, many meanings

A

Polysemy A great many words in English have more than one meaning. Linguists call this aspect of vocabulary polysemy. Look at these sentences and think about how you would translate the words in italics into your own language. fair It’s only fair that we should share the housework. The Frankfurt Book Fair is a very important event for most publishers. The forecast is for the weather to stay fair for the next week. I’ve got fair skin and burn easily in the sun. His marks in his final exams ranged from excellent to fair. flat The firefighters managed to save the children from the burning third-floor flat. The countryside round here is terribly flat and boring. To join the Fitness Club, you pay a flat fee of £500. The sonata is in B flat minor. She finished the exercise in five minutes flat. capital Fill in the form in capital letters. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. You need plenty of capital to open a restaurant. Capital punishment has been abolished in many countries. mean What does ‘coagulate’ mean? I didn’t mean to hurt you. He’s far too mean to buy her flowers. The mean temperature for July is 25oC. You shouldn’t be so mean to your little sister. You probably need a different word to translate fair, flat, capital and mean in each sentence. Sometimes the meanings are clearly related – flat as in countryside has a connection with flat as in apartment in that they both include an idea of being on one level. Sometimes, however, there is no connection at all. For example, the meaning of fair as in Book Fair has no obvious connection with any of the other meanings of fair. Words like this can be called homographs (words with the same spellings but different meanings).

B

Being aware of polysemy It is useful to be aware of polysemy in English for several reasons. • You need to remember that the meaning you first learnt for a word may not be the one that it has in a new context. • You need to be aware that in English, words can sometimes be used as different parts of speech. Flat with its apartment meaning, for instance, can become an adjective, e.g. a set of flat keys. • Learning about the range of meanings that a word can have can help you to learn several meanings for the price of one. • It will also help you to understand jokes in English, as these are often based on polysemous words. Language help The context of a word with multiple meanings will usually make it absolutely clear which of the word’s possible meanings is intended. So you can understand what, for example, the noun drill probably means in (a) a dental context, (b) an army context, (c) a road-building context, or (d) a languagelearning context.

EXERCISES

91.1	Find the example sentence in A opposite in which fair, flat, capital or mean has the following meaning. 1 intend 2 exactly 3 proper, just 4 city with the seat of government 5 light in colour 6 unkind 7 fixed 8 neither very good nor very bad 9 money 10 unwilling to spend money
91.2	What part of speech is the italicised word in each of the example sentences in A? Write a synonym or explanation for each of the examples not used in 91.1.
91.3	Here are some more examples of polysemous words in English. Which word can fill all the gaps in each group of sentences? 1 He struck a ____________ and we slowly began to look around the dark cave. The teenage cooks in the competition were a ____________ for any of the adults. Their marriage has been called a ____________ made in heaven. 2 That bird has an unusually long ____________. Don’t forget to keep the receipt when you pay your hotel ____________. Parliament is currently discussing a ____________ proposing changes to copyright legislation. 3 Hannah gave us a lovely ____________ of glasses as a wedding present. Let’s now try and ____________ a date for our meeting next week. My father has very ____________ opinions about how people should behave. 4 I’ve applied for a ____________ in our company’s Paris office. The end of the race is indicated by a ____________ with a flag on it. Why not ____________ your query on an online forum? You’re bound to get a quick response. 5 I didn’t get my assignment back because the teacher hadn’t had time to ____________ it. Sales have already passed the million ____________. You’ve got a red ____________ on your cheek. It looks like lipstick. 6 You need to be a special kind of person to ____________ a successful business. Do you fancy going for a ____________ this evening? Thanks to the hot weather, our shop has had a ____________ on ice cream.
91.4	Look at the Language help box. What does drill mean in each of the four contexts suggested?
91.5	What would the given word be most likely to mean in each of the contexts suggested? Use a dictionary if necessary. 1 register: a a primary school b a post office 2 interest: a people planning a festival b a bank 3 dice: a a kitchen b people playing a board game 4 service: a people playing tennis b in a restaurant 5 case: a in a lawyer’s office b at an airport 6 cue: a people playing snooker b in the theatre
91.6	Explain these one-line jokes. They are all based on polysemy. 1 I wondered why the tennis ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me! 2 Smaller babies may be delivered by a stork but the heavier ones need a crane. 3 Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. 4 You know prices are rising when you buy a winter jacket and even down is up.

ANSWER KEY

To understand this better, let us look at some examples:

CLEAN

1. The cottage needs a good clean.
2. He clean forgot about dropping the letters in the post box.
3. The entertainment was good clean fun for the whole family.
4. He cleaned up his act and came off drugs.

In the above example, we have used the word clean and used it in 4 different sentences, each signifying a different meaning, along with its usage as different parts of speech.

Sentence A — The cottage needs a good clean. The word clean in this sentence means the act or an instance of cleaning. Since this is an act, hence it is a noun.

Sentence B — He clean forgot about dropping the letters in the post box. The meaning of the word clean in this sentence is completely, and since it is modifying the word forgot which a verb (action word) is, it is an adverb.

Sentence C — The entertainment was good clean fun for the whole family. In this case, the meaning of the word clean is fit for everyone, nothing obscene. The word in this case is modifying fun, which is a noun; hence the word here is an adjective.

Sentence D — He cleaned up his act and came off drugs. In this case the word cleans means to rid of undesirable features. Clean has been used to denote an action, and hence in this case it is a verb.

LIGHT

1. The new lamp had good light for reading.
2. Magnesium is a light metal.
3. Rahul likes to travel light.
4. The choice lighted on me.

Sentence A — The new lamp had good light for reading. In this the word light is being is used to mean a particular quality or type of light. And also it has been used as a noun.
Sentence B — Magnesium is a light metal. In this the word is used to mean having relatively low density, also since it is used to describe the word metal which is a noun, it is an adjective.
Sentence C — Rahul likes to travel light. In this, the word light means little equipment, baggage, etc.
Sentence D — the choice lighted on me. In this the word light is used to denote an action thus it is verb and it means to strike or fall on.

Some of the similar kinds of words are:

LOVE

We love you. (Here, love is a verb as it is showing the action in terms of expressing an emotion)
Love is blind. (Here, Love is a noun as it is a name of an emotion)

WATER

We drink water. (Here, water is a noun as it is name of the thing)
They water the plants. (Here, water is a verb as here it means giving water to plants i.e. an action)
This is a water pipe. (Here, water is a adjective as it is describing pipe which is a noun)

ABOVE

The heavens showered blessings from above. (Here, ‘above’ is used as a noun)
She is above average in intelligence. (Here, above is a preposition as here it is showing the position or the status of the pronoun ‘she’)
Analyze the above sentence. (Here, above is an adjective as it telling something about the noun ‘sentence’)

FAST

He did not take anything during the fast. (It names something, so it is a noun)
Muslims fast during Ramazan. (This is an activity, so fast is a verb)
She speaks fast. (This becomes adverb here as it is describing a verb i.e. )

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