of residential colleges was changed from master to head, at least in part because of the former term’s associations with slavery.9
Words come and go from dictionaries. Now that many Internet-inspired expressions have crossed over into everyday use, the Oxford English Dictionary approved the addition of the following acronyms to its latest edition: OMG (oh, my God!), LOL (laughing out loud), and BFF (best friends forever). Also added was ego-surfing (the practice of searching for your own name on the Internet).10
Skill Builder
A Time Capsule for Words
1 Briefly define each of the following terms:NetHooking upCougarRapColbert BumpSpamMcJobStraightCrack
2 Show the list without definitions to your parents, older relatives, or older friends, and ask them to provide definitions for the words.
3 Compare your meaning for each term with the meanings given by others. Why do you suppose their meanings differed from yours?
4 Pretend it is now the year 2030. On a separate sheet of paper, create a new meaning for each word listed.
Many “old” words acquire vivid new meanings every decade or so. Viruses today are not just germs spread from person to person, but malicious software that can spread instantaneously from one computer to computers globally.11 Consequently, when we use a word that referred to a particular object at a particular time, we should attempt to determine if it still means the same thing now.
Meaning is Locational
Words’ meanings also change from one region of the country to another. For example, what would you envision having if you were to stop for a soda? For an egg cream? What each word brings to mind probably depends on the region of the country you grew up in.
pixabay/peperompe
In some parts of the United States, soda refers to a soft drink, but in others it refers to a concoction of ice cream and a soft drink. In some sections of the country, egg cream refers to a mixture of seltzer, syrup, and milk, but elsewhere it conjures up the image of an egg mixed with cream.
Do you have examples of situations where place influences the meaning of words?
Experience Influences Meaning
We assign meanings to words based on our past experiences with the words and the things they represent. Consider the word cancer, for example. If you were dealing with three people in a hospital—a surgeon, a patient, and a statistician—how do you imagine each would react to this word? The surgeon might think about operating procedures or diagnostic techniques, or about how to tell a patient that he or she has cancer. The patient might think about the odds for recovery and might well be frightened. The statistician might see cancer as an important factor in life expectancy tables.
Experience also influences whether it is appropriate for us to use jargon or slang.
Jargon
A specialized vocabulary of technical terms that is shared by a community of users, such as the members of a profession, is called jargon. For example, whereas physicians commonly use medical terminology when communicating with other doctors, it is probably inappropriate for them to assume that their patients would understand such terms. In fact, 9 out of 10 adults report finding the medical advice that their physicians provided to them incomprehensible. As a result, federal and state officials advise public health professionals to simplify the language they use to communicate with the public. Instead of warning a patient of hyperpyrexia after a procedure, the physician should instead tell the patient that she might have an abnormally high fever.12 Similarly, when teachers use jargon without defining the terms being used, it can hamper students’ understanding.
Slang
In contrast to jargon, slang is a much more informal vocabulary that bonds its users together while excluding others who do not share an understanding of the terminology. Usually popular with young people, members of marginalized groups, and users of online social networks, examples of slang include “My bad” (I made a mistake), and “lol” (laughing out loud).
Whether Language is Concrete or Abstract Influences Meaning
The language we use varies in specificity. Consider the family pet. We could call it:
A domesticated animal
A dog
A poodle
A standard poodle
My standard poodle Lucy
In each instance, our description becomes somewhat more specific. Alfred Korzybski and S. I. Hayakawa designed an abstraction ladder to describe this process.13 The ladder is composed of a number of descriptions of the same thing. Items lower on the ladder focus specifically on the person, object, or event, while items higher on it are generalizations that include the subject as part of a larger class. As our words move from abstract (less specific) to concrete (more specific), they become more precise in meaning and are more likely to appeal to the senses and conjure up a picture. Specific words, such as Lucy, clarify meaning by narrowing the number of possible images that we imagine.
Using high-level abstractions serves a number of functions. First, because high-level abstractions function like verbal shorthand, they let us generalize, making communication easier and faster. Second, because they also let us be deliberately unclear, high-level abstractions allow us to avoid confrontations when we believe it is necessary. If, for example, your boss asks you what you think of a new corporate strategy and telling the truth appears too risky to you, you can offer an abstract answer to the question and avoid being put on the line. On the other hand, relying on high-level abstractions can also cause meaning to become fuzzy—primarily because the words you use can be misunderstood. The goal is to use the level of abstraction that meets the needs of your communication objectives and the situation.
Barriers to Understanding: Patterns of Miscommunication
If we fail to consider how people’s backgrounds influence them in assigning meaning, we may have trouble communicating with them. Words often have more than a single meaning. In fact, a commonly used word can frequently have more than 20 definitions.
For example, a strike in bowling is different from a strike in baseball. Striking a match is not the same as striking up the band. Thus, we must pay careful attention to a message’s context. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that words are rarely used in one and only one sense, assuming that others will understand our words in only the way we intend them to be understood. Our receivers, however, may assume that their interpretation of our words is the meaning we intended. Let’s explore what happens when this occurs.
Bypassing: Confusing Meanings
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