Words are Social Agreements

Words are social agreement

For instance, if you and I speak the English language, we would agree that our definitions are very close in similarity. Therefore we can talk to eachother using the same words. To you, a dog is a dog, and to me a dog is a dog. Our use of the word ‘dog’ is close enough that we can come to an understanding, an agreement.

I mean, all the words above are used under the lens of the English language, if you disagree with the meaning of the words by themselves, then you wouldn’t be able to comprehend any of the sentences in this article.

If the agreements are too loose,
then we get dialects, different ways of saying things and different meanings.
and sparse miscommunication.

For instance, speaking Spanish in Latin America and Speaking Spanish in Catalan are two different Languages, but there’s enough similarity that you could understand the basics to communicate.

If the agreement for the meaning of words becomes a disagreement.

Then we have communication barriers and blockages. Language Barriers.

A Cold War of words in which we limit or fail to communicate properly and may even be misunderstood with good intentions.

And this happens in the same language as well.

We say one thing, mean another.

Yet the listener hears another thing, and thinks it means another thing.

So there are a minimum of four layers of perceptions each time we speak and listen. Four different meanings.

The words we speak have our own intentions.

The words that we use have their own perception.

The words that a listener picks up has it’s own context.

And the Meaning that the listener gets, depends on their internal meaning.

Thus, words are social agreements, and if we agree then we have fluid communication.

If we disagree, then we’re at an impasse.

And the biggest force that allows ourselves to communicate, is the desire to express ourselves coupled with the desire to communicate our intentions or meanings. If you’re in a foreign country and you really need to use the Bathroom, then you’ll find a way to use what language you know and gestures you know to communicate.

If there is a strong enough desire to use communication, you will find a way to communicate. It’s sort of a secondary gain or tertiary objective, the use of communication as a tools, a means to an end, rather than the end itself.

Another point,

In debates, to properly understand eachother, the terms and definitions have to be established.

I once saw a panel of 5 really smart people in various fields talk about the idea and concept of ‘consciousness’ from different perspectives. But it ended in vain and futility because no one on that panel thought to say what ‘consciousness’ is and what it isn’t for establishing a framework to discuss consciousness itself.

And when we define our terms, they may grow and evolve to encompass more definitions. That’s the beauty in art and poetry and communication, that we sort of ‘figure more things out’ in the process of saying what we’ve figured out, and in the end we should leave enriched and richer for it.

Epilogue,

Our lens of society is shaped and given to us as we learn and mimic those around us. This includes multilingual households and communities and even the friend groups we share with secret languages in between or professional fields with their own career-related terms.

Thus each word we speak is contingent on set and setting and context, if we agree on the meaning, then we can communicate.

Because,

Words Mean Things