LOL, I hope there is no limit in age to join ;)
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One of the most interesting cases for me is the term Autism. In the past years I have used: Asperger, Autistic. Autistic Spectrum Disorder Autism Spectrum Condition Back to autistic People on the Autistic Spectrum (seems be safe, for now)
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I think you missed my point. I never claimed it's fixed 100% through time. I claimed it's fixed within a basic context and with deviation.
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For me that would be stretching the meaning of 'fixed' too much (which in a meta-sort-of-way would prove my point, perhaps)
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So I came in to my office one day and I tidy up the room, everything has a fixed place. A week later I come in and tidy again with everything getting a new fixed place. So yes, exactly, they are fixed even though they also change places.
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I come from a culture which likes to play with words meanings. For instance, to state that someone is witty we say "Eres muy puta" which literally means you are quite a whore. But I bet many ppl wouldn't like their kids to hear it. Words also convey social implicit meanings!

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Yep. Saying a word has a given meaning in a given context says nothing about how it might change in another content or at another time.
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The reason I dislike this: "Which proves it is ultimately about what the speaker means by the words and what the hearer means by the words, not with some objective fact about any particular word."
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Is because it implies, and I may have misunderstood you of course, that speakers and listeners share some equal "blame" so to speak.
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O I think I do! But let's explore. I've used terrible words, but with no terrible connotation on my side. Then finding out (through the reactions of others only, not by looking in some Platonic dictionary), that these connotations existed. After which I stopped using that word.
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That's how I'm learning (spoken) English. Through making mistakes and sometimes offending others.
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Once I said "get lost" to somebody and I didn't even mean it. LOL — worst part is, it was just ~1.5 years ago. *hides*
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At work too. I was like "OMG sorry" but obviously it was already a weird/jokey situation. I have a feeling they (eventually) forgave me.
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I think I was making a joke like "why not arrive late or get lost on the way" but it came out "get lost". The context was something like they had to go somewhere but they wanted to be fashionably late or not seem desperate.
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I think people who are close to you and know you are often forgiving when you mess your words up. Thankfully.
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Yeah. Sadly not close to me in that case — but I tried to make it up to her.
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It is not reasonable to compare use of the term "ladies" with the n-word. Society is evidently split on whether "lady" is even offensive.
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That is absolutely correct. I thought Jelle was trying to make a general point. On the issue "ladies! — 100% agreed.
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I'm afraid I did make a general point. But I am open for changing my views. I don't believe in any absolute semantics of words. And we don't need words to communicate. In language use complex things happen, but fixed referents to content I see not :-)
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I find it amusing that you think I asserted there are absolute semantics.
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