Theoretically, yes. In practice, no. Suppose bla becomes a everything word. If anyone asks what bla means, you say it means bla. The other person won't understand, you persist on bla bla bla meaning bla means bla, by which bla can mean anything and you realize that it just doesn't work, because if it "means anything", in reality it means nothing.
Yes yes, yes yes yes. Yes, yes yes yes yes, yes yes yes!
Than*
The simple answer to your question is no. Language is as much about distinction and exclusion as it is about description. The word "circle" stands for the description and properties of the circle, but would be incoherent if it did not also exclude straight lines.
You can often find examples where some things are considered premium or desirable not for the properties is has, but for what it lacks. Just think of all the products marketed to not have something like BPA, fat, sugar, Carbs, gluten, asbestos, lead, and even cruelty.
Smurf yeah we can.
Smurfing hell... I thought I was going to be the smartass in this thread.
Hoogla!
Yes
Marklar
Edit: I just have to bitch about a stupid website called GIFer that uses mp4 not gif... Stupid.
Some of these GIF hosts can be pretty obtuse. I was able to get at this GIF by going to the embed page and clicking/tapping the "copy link" button. In this case, the only difference in the two URLs was the file extension.
Yeah here and AskLemmy get so many replies I’ve sadly had to abandon a few posts due to the sheer number of replies. I really like to reply to everybody that takes the time to comment but in swear I’ve had posts with 400+ comments and I feel overwhelmed.
Im just glad I really didn't need an answer for this one and have just been enjoying reading the replies.
Professional academic linguist here. (Yes, that's a thing.)
Words have the meanings that communities apply to them. There is no governing body over word meanings. There can be a tension (e.g. two groups using the same term in different ways), but that doesn't really mean that the word means both. Words mean different things to different groups. It has to be this way, for epistemic and pragmatic reasons.
In that sense, meanings are not consciously assigned. So the answer to your original question could be "no".
But in another sense, all meanings are possible for any given meaningful sequence around the world. Which means, in principle, given infinite communities of practice, a word could have infinite meanings. A stretch, of course.
Edit:
There is no governing body over word meanings
I'm speaking here in terms of global English. There are some languages that have governing bodies, or at least bodies that claim to be governing bodies, like French with the Académie Française. But this is not at all the norm.
Or, to put it another way, (unprofessional academic linguist here), a word has meanings by what you mean by it, and what the listener understands it to mean.
In a sense, it can mean anything you want it to. In another sense, it can mean anything the listener/reader interprets it as. Most useful though is when you mean the same meaning that the listener understands.
And for "accepted/official meaning", that's just a community all agreeing on a meaning. Optionally with a recognised group (e.g. dictionary writer) affirming certain meanings as accepted in the community.
Professional academic linguist
🧐
It means I'm not a translator and I don't work on one particular language (which is typically termed as an academic linguist), but I'm also based in industry.
There's a sci-fi horror story in there somewhere.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
Aladeen
☹️😐🙂😐☹️😐🙂
I am groot.
I am Groot.
The the the the the, the the the the the the the the; the the the the the the.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
mother-motherfuck
mother-motherfuck-fuck
motherfuck, motherfuck,
Noinch noinch noinch.
"Dude"
Sweeeet
Let me introduce you to Goptjaam, probably the closest "language" that fits what you mean: https://youtu.be/ze5i_e_ryTk
Not really. A word with every meaning is meaningless itself, since it doesn't allow you to narrow down the word's intended meaning from the set of all possible meanings.
[audience looks around] 'What just happened?' 'There must be some context we're missing.'
You sure as squantch can!
My squantch in squantch you can't squantch that in public.
Came here looking for this
Yes, literally.
Ook.
sounds skibidi
There's a sci-fi movie from USSR, "Kin-dza-dza". The natives of another planet in another galaxy were telepathes, but used language consisting of only a few words. "Koo" was for almost any word, "kiu" for swearing, "ketse" for matches (most valuable asset) and a few more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza!
In theory, yes. In practice, no.
The association between meaning and word is arbitrary, but socially dictated. You'd need to have other people accepting that that word conveys that meaning in at least some context.
fnord
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