"You must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and nay, letter by letter. ... you might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) and remain an utterly 'illiterate' uneducated person; but if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter, -- that is to say, with real accuracy -- you are for evermore in some measure an educated person." (Ruskin, Sesame and Liles, 1865.)

"... the genius of the English language ... [is that it is not] periphrastic and literal ... [but rather it is] elliptical and idiomatic. (William Hazlitt, "Mr. Horne Tooke," The Spirit of the Age.)

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Introduction:-
To effectively exchange ideas it is necessary that the meaning of the term be the same in the mind of that person conveying the idea and that person receiving the idea. The lexicographic meaning of a word, if one is uncertain, is to be found in a good dictionary. However, some people, in the use of a particular word, stipulate their own meaning and forget to tell one about it.

"'I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"' 'But 'glory' doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice objected. 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less.' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master- that's all.' (Lewis Carroll, 1832-98, Through the Looking-Glass, Ch. VI.)

It is through language that we give our interpretations of our surroundings, both to ourselves and to others; and, more importantly, it is through language that we take the interpretation of the world from others. The extent and the correctness of our interpretations is a direct function of our knowledge of language. We cannot begin to understand this world without first having a thorough grasp of language, as a topic. First of all, you are going to have to understand that words can, and often do, have different meanings; some expressing a generally accepted notion, others not. Some have no meaning at all. This should be for us a very important study, for as Confucius said, "when words lose their meaning people lose their liberty."

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Weasel Words:-
A weasel has a reputation of being able to remove the contents out of an egg without, seemingly, leaving a mark on the egg, he can some how suck them dry through one of two small holes that he makes. Shakespeare made reference to this marvelous feat in his play, As You Like It, "He can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel can suck eggs." So, when a weasel is finished with an egg one has something that may look like an egg but which is devoid of any content. Some words used by people are just like these eggs, a word with no meaning, a word employed so as to eliminate all implications that challenge one's ideological premises.

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Neutral Terms:-
It was Bentham who recommended that when examining the language used by a person separate out those terms that are sentimental or impassioned, leave only neutral terms, or as he wrote neuter terms. "Neuter terms are those which simply express the thing in question, without introducing any foreign idea of blame or approbation."

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Concept Words:-
Some words might be described as a trigger which once uttered set off a whole concept in ones mind, the concept may be simple, such as that one has with hearing the word "rock," -- to complex, such as "internal combustion engine," or a "human being."

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Emotional Words:-
At times certain language will not set off a concept at all, but rather give rise to simply an emotion, most swear words are examples of this. A good many words, -- and for these, we ever have to be on the outlook -- set off a concept and at the same time give rise to emotion, as for example the word "capitalism."

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Baffle Gab:-
There are those, in the name of "subtlety and acuteness" and to the "applause of the schools," who are out to impress you. These are people who are on the inside and aim at "glory and esteem, for their great and universal knowledge." It is, as Locke points out, easier to pretend than to really acquired knowledge. Obscure language, "this artificial ignorance and learned gibberish," is "a good expedient to cover their ignorance, with a curious and inexplicable web of perplexed words, and procure to themselves the admiration of others, by unintelligible terms, the apter to produce wonder because they could not be understood." The most that they can claim credit for is in "the coining of new words" which are used only to the extent of "perplexing or obscuring the signification of old ones, and so bringing all things into question and dispute ..." Our modern collectivist world, unfortunately, is full of such people as they go about pitching their authority, in order to exercise dominion over those in charge of the purse strings, our elected representatives. Those who seek to spend your tax dollars purposely use "baffle gab" so to employ "the ingenious and idle in intricate disputes about unintelligible terms, and hold them [those who have to make government spending decisions] perpetually entangled in that endless labyrinth." There is no way it seems for the entangled to find their way out, no way "to gain admittance, or give defence to strange and absurd doctrines, as to guard them round about with legions of obscure, doubtful, and undefined words." These are not my words: they are the words of John Locke as he used them in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690: I but subscribe to them.

[ See, also, Blue Pete's essays "On Writing" and "On Argument." ]

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1 Peter Landry is a lawyer and has been, for 20 years, in private practice in the City of Dartmouth. He invites correspondence on the topic and may be contacted at P.O. Box 1200, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B2Y 4B8, or at peteblu@blupete.com.

2 Archibald Henry Sayce wrote these words, in 1874. Sayce's job was, as an Oxford professor and philologist, to unravel the meaning of biblical writings.