September 25, 2002
You're just arguing over semantics...
Posted by bopuc at September 25, 2002 12:10 PM
I think I hear this statement more often than any other conversational opt-out; and it always has the same effect of turning my crank.
In communication, it is of utmost importance to be as unambiguous as possible. This means, among other things, that it is very important to use the proper words in the proper context.
People seem to get thrown all off track and lost when I suggest a better way of saying what they are saying. Like I've insulted them or something like that.
So they take the pseudo-intellectual highway outta there and dismiss the conversation as just "arguing over semantics", which it never was; I was just saying I understood what you meant but it may be clearer/more efficient to say (...) .
Sigh.
This is not only in conversation, or candid debate either. One of my professional tasks is web-based UI (User Interface) design. Try explaining the subtle, almost sub-conscious difference between "On/Off" and "Enabled/Disabled" to a software engineer who sees only the underlying "0/1" toggle (not fair, there's a whole context missing here, but anyways).
So, †I think I shall write a book one day called "Semantics ARE improtant, dammit! Why else would they be called "semantics!?""
Hehehehe. Then people will really think I'm insane.
Comments
As I understand it ... you are inferring, that in general conversation, the dynamic symbolic signification of a participant's words are sacrificed on a daily basis due to the misappropriation of the aforementioned participant's youth in the frenetic consumption of drugs and alcohol rather than in the fruitful and ancient pursuit of reading books with no pictures. Hence leading to a general misconception of the meaning of truth and beauty and a limited tv-saturated vocabulary, the aesthetics of which leave an acrid polyinyl chloride aftertaste and make the speaker appear to take on the form of a rather talented amoeba ... or have I misunderstood? Oh ... and yes ... I like run-on sentences.
Posted by: speck of lint 233-5546,1 at September 28, 2002 01:58 PM
"Eshew obfuscation".
But, in a nutshell, yes. Right on the money. :)
Posted by: Boris Anthony at September 28, 2002 02:00 PM
i'd rather eshew eshewing ... its rather tiring.
Posted by: speck of lint 233-5546,1 at September 28, 2002 02:04 PM
Shag a fungo then.
Hehehehe
Posted by: Boris Anthony at September 28, 2002 02:36 PM