I suppose I should add, for those who are really stuck in maths or formal logic, that changing the definition of a symbol in a formal system is not the same thing as changing the meaning of a word in a language. In fact you can’t, individually and as a decision of will, change the meaning of a word in a language. It either changes, as per my previous comment, or it doesn’t.
In fact you can’t, individually and as a decision of will, change the meaning of a word in a language.
New phrases are coined constantly, and people change the meanings of existing words also: ‘gay’ being a good example as it’s changed twice in recent history. Presumably there was some person that started that particular definition-shift, does that not count as “individually as a decision of will”?
I suppose I should add, for those who are really stuck in maths or formal logic, that changing the definition of a symbol in a formal system is not the same thing as changing the meaning of a word in a language. In fact you can’t, individually and as a decision of will, change the meaning of a word in a language. It either changes, as per my previous comment, or it doesn’t.
Unless you’re Dan Savage, of course.
New phrases are coined constantly, and people change the meanings of existing words also: ‘gay’ being a good example as it’s changed twice in recent history. Presumably there was some person that started that particular definition-shift, does that not count as “individually as a decision of will”?