Straying away from anything more English class-ey, let's explore everyone's favorite word:
Gnarly
When you hear "gnarly" you probably get some IMAGES of California surfer dudes with blonde hair transferred into your BRAIN (but obviously if we don't see the same pictures, I've got you with some gnarly videos). "Gnarly" (in culture) generally has two definitions.
1) Something gross/gnarled/repulsive
2) Something impressive/incredible/ground-breaking
If "gnarly" had only one meaning, where would all the fun be in life? You wouldn't know if I was talking about bot flies coming out of peoples eyes or Danny Davis using all his money to shift snow around and invite the greatest (living) snowboarders to give their chops a go. Think of the adrenaline rush!
So besides making your life more confusing/annoying/difficult to use Google Translate/whatever, words having two meanings makes the world more exciting. Obviously "gnarly" is a very shallow example, but if you go into poetry, the double meanings of words don't make it more confusing, but add twice as much imagery to half the character count. It makes language an inconvenience on a surface level, but the ambiguity is what changes it from a grammatical formula to a form of artistic expression.
This was a fascinating exploration of one word that I have never thought of in that much depth.
ReplyDeleteI agree that words with two meanings make language more exciting, but depending on the situation, that could be a bad thing. If it's in poetry,it's great, becoming, as you say, a "form of artistic expression," though I would argue that it can still be more confusing. For example, in 9th grade, my english class (and probably yours too), looked at "My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke, then proceeded to discuss whether the father was being abusive or not. It manages to create to different images with one poem, but it was still somewhat perplexing, as the words pointed in seemingly contradictory directions.
But if it's real life, and someone yells "duck!," one might have to double take and wonder if this person is really excited about seeing a waterfowl, or really worried about the wrecking ball coming towards your head. That split second concern could either result in mild humiliation (ducking for no reason), or serious injury, if not death (looking up, straight into the wrecking ball), either of which would be source of excitement,in a way,but it's definitely types I think I would prefer to avoid.
Ultimately though,multiple meanings per words is more often than not a good thing. Even if there's initial confusiong, hopefully someone will add on enough, with either more words or context, for it too work. For example, with "duck!", hopefully the person yelling would add some more, such as (It's so cute/Oh god, look out) and thereby lessen the ambiguity somewhat.
Wicked post.
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