How can a word mean anything?

Answer 1

Community consensus. Two people (or more) agree to make it mean something, and it does.

I think even one person can make a "word" mean something special, too. So, maybe it's just down to the crazy way our brain cells are configured.

A word doesn't mean anything all by itself. It does need a receiver who is willing to assign it a meaning.

Answer 2

It's for sure that we have and continue to ascribe the meanings to words, which by and large fit our own mistakes. The word "race" for example is a misnomer. It was primarily used during American slavery to denote that people of African extraction were not "human beings". The rational for this definition is based on nonsense. Since all human beings had the same number of chromosomes: 46(23 from the mother & 23 from the father). Further, all human beings on the planet have a common ancestor in the Austraulopithecus. Granted millions of years of evolution and replicative fading is involved. But the point--and it is a serious one, is that for hundreds of years the term "race" allowed one people to exploit the free labor force of another people. The bad news is that it is still going on today all over the world. We do not seem to learn from our mistakes.

Answer 3

How can it not? We base our communication on the spoken language. We, as a society, have developed a complex vehicle, speech, in order to communicate with one another. We have given meaning to each syllable we use to construct a word.
We are programmed, in a sense, with body language and facial expressions that communicate much better, and more accurately, but its the spoken word that we use.
We have created a written language, to perpetuate the spoken word, to convey to others our ideas, thoughts, feelings, perceptions. We have given words to music to help the listener define the meaning of the sound.

Answer 4

A word means nothing. It is the intent it is used in .

Answer 5

It's called communication. It evolved over time into words, now called language. Words are now the coin of communication and so, for that reason, can mean a lot. Even just one word. Thanks!

Answer 6

The true Way is sublime. It can't be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures? But someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can't read a word.

Answer 7

I know, its wierd isn't it, how we all talk with different tounges and mean the same thiong and are able to pass on ideas through the sounds and move ent of the mouth :D

Answer 8

only because we assign a meaning to it.