Entry #662089, added on 01-16-10 @ 12:53 am EST
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| English language meanings | Entry #662089 |
I took a course in college under Professor Disraeli about the complexity of language. We had two sentences we always came back to review all semester. They were very simple, but made a good point; context is everything.
The first sentence went like this: "The missionary is ready to serve." Now just what does that mean out of context? Is the missionary ready to serve a round of tennis, as in take a turn? Or volleyball (serve the ball)? Or is he handing out a parking ticket on a day with a traffic cop? (serve a ticket) Is he accompanying someone to "serve" a summons or divorce papers?
Has the missionary taken time off from his calling to serve his country in the military? In a time of war, the missionary might very well be willing and ready to serve in the military. Or might the missionary be serving a dinner, or serving coffee? It could be a statement that he had finished training and learned a language and is ready to go to an assigned field to serve God, or to serve his calling. Maybe he has mustered up his courage and he is ready to serve in some unsavory task, not in the job description, but that he feels is necessary.
Then again maybe, like the movies I watched as a kid-The Three Stooges, or Abbot and Costello, the missionary has been cooked by cannibals and is now tender enough to put on the cannibals' table, as in "the chicken is ready to serve". One usage I did not know about back then, I have since learned from PBS' "Are You Being Served". "The missionary is ready to serve" might mean that he is on duty at his job now and is ready to assist people in a purchase.
The second one is "The lamb is hot." Four words. Here goes:
The lamb is really overheated in his unshorn wool and needs air-conditioning.
The lamb is really sexy, very pretty.
The lamb is very popular right now with all its little lamb friends.
The lamb is angry.
The lamb is feeling the urge to mate.
The lamb upholstery is sexy, popular, best-selling, etc, and not an actual live animal at all. Maybe a toy or Halloween costume. Maybe a vest that's also available in suede.
The lamb is cooked (like the cannibal's missionary) and is hot in temperature, right out of the oven.
The lamb is the butcher's best-selling meat this month.
The lamb, butchered and cooked, is very trendy right now, in a lot of restaurants and stores. Add it to the menu to make money from the trend.
The lamb is very spicy and burns the tongue; cayenne or tobassco, or peppers, or something heat it up.
It's interesting to note than when we eat a cow, we call it beef. When we eat poultry, we still call it chicken or turkey or duck or pheasant. But kill the calf and call it veal; cook a pig and call it pork, or ham or sausages. Fish and shellfish keep their names. Buffalo is still buffalo. Bit I digress.
Context is as important as our vocabulary. And that's why we have so much trouble communicating, and we often misunderstand.
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