I'm haunted by "words don't have meaning, people have meaning". It doesn't seem quite true, but it's not false enough to ignore. As is showing up in this discussion, the meanings of words are a matter of unstable group custom.
Also, I currently believe that "articulate" can turn into an insult among people for whom accent is an important status indicator that some people work on.
I grew up in an environment (Wilmington, Delaware suburbs, de facto segregated, middle class, 1950s-60s) where the default accent was completely unproblematic[1], so I assumed that the only possible meaning for "articulate" was "makes one's meaning clear". In places where accent is a big deal, "articulate" really can mean "makes the sounds correctly", a lower order skill.
[1] I did meet someone whose parents didn't like the Delaware 'a', but that seems to be rare.
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zvi and
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Date: 2008-08-01 08:24 pm (UTC)I'm haunted by "words don't have meaning, people have meaning". It doesn't seem quite true, but it's not false enough to ignore. As is showing up in this discussion, the meanings of words are a matter of unstable group custom.
Also, I currently believe that "articulate" can turn into an insult among people for whom accent is an important status indicator that some people work on.
I grew up in an environment (Wilmington, Delaware suburbs, de facto segregated, middle class, 1950s-60s) where the default accent was completely unproblematic[1], so I assumed that the only possible meaning for "articulate" was "makes one's meaning clear". In places where accent is a big deal, "articulate" really can mean "makes the sounds correctly", a lower order skill.
[1] I did meet someone whose parents didn't like the Delaware 'a', but that seems to be rare.