Yes, except that in practice, this is very close to “use words as they are already known to be defined” (i.e., following existing common usage / accepted meaning), and very far from “make up entirely new definitions in each conversational context”.
I agree very much with this. By no means am I suggesting making up totally new definitions in every conversational context. Rather, when a conversation gets into difficult territory, there are one or two words whose meaning is understood to be fuzzy, and de-fuzzing them is likely to be a focus of the conversation. Maybe Sidney says something like “there’s a communication issue”, and “communication” is something whose meaning has to be inferred from context (not just the past context, but the continuing context as the conversation proceeds, since the concepts need to be sharpened further). Sidney might be contrasting with simply not talking, or contrasting with miscommunication. The concept of building up a shared context of mutual understanding may be involved, or it could have to do with being able to call out for help on rare occasions of need. Sidney likely can’t articulate the desired connotations right away. At some point, Pat might say something which prompts Sidney to say “that’s not what I meant by communication” (Pat has gone outside of Sidney’s implicit cluster), and so the conversation might focus on more explicitly clarifying the word. Calling out all of this explicitly is fine, but insisting on common usage just blocks progress.
But it definitely involves employing common usage the vast majority of the time. It’s just that it goes sour if you cling to common usage.
My model is something like the model of communication in this paper:
Both speaker and listener are trying to model what each other might be thinking, and words are said in this context. A large part of this involves background knowledge of what concepts are relevant given the situation. All of this is happening under the surface even in ordinary conversations which apparently involve no difficult concepts or non-common usage of words, which is a big part of why linguistics and automated language understanding are so hard. Trying to cut off these processes is a sisyphean dream.
But however bad it is to redefine some existing word (especially if the meaning of that word is in any way subtle, complex, or poorly-understood), it is ten—nay, a hundred—times worse to redefine said word in one way today, and in a different way tomorrow! And if your definition of today is different but similar to your definition of tomorrow, and if any part of your points hinge on the difference, or are materially affected by the difference, then may Bayes have mercy on your soul, because you are an unrepentant sinner against clarity of thought and word.
Well, what do you think about my “communication” example? The words we have in common use just aren’t good enough to want to cling to their common use, because their common use actually involves a lot of possible uses.
I agree very much with this. By no means am I suggesting making up totally new definitions in every conversational context. Rather, when a conversation gets into difficult territory, there are one or two words whose meaning is understood to be fuzzy, and de-fuzzing them is likely to be a focus of the conversation. Maybe Sidney says something like “there’s a communication issue”, and “communication” is something whose meaning has to be inferred from context (not just the past context, but the continuing context as the conversation proceeds, since the concepts need to be sharpened further). Sidney might be contrasting with simply not talking, or contrasting with miscommunication. The concept of building up a shared context of mutual understanding may be involved, or it could have to do with being able to call out for help on rare occasions of need. Sidney likely can’t articulate the desired connotations right away. At some point, Pat might say something which prompts Sidney to say “that’s not what I meant by communication” (Pat has gone outside of Sidney’s implicit cluster), and so the conversation might focus on more explicitly clarifying the word. Calling out all of this explicitly is fine, but insisting on common usage just blocks progress.
But it definitely involves employing common usage the vast majority of the time. It’s just that it goes sour if you cling to common usage.
My model is something like the model of communication in this paper:
Noah Goodman, A Rational Account of Pedagogical Reasoning
Both speaker and listener are trying to model what each other might be thinking, and words are said in this context. A large part of this involves background knowledge of what concepts are relevant given the situation. All of this is happening under the surface even in ordinary conversations which apparently involve no difficult concepts or non-common usage of words, which is a big part of why linguistics and automated language understanding are so hard. Trying to cut off these processes is a sisyphean dream.
Well, what do you think about my “communication” example? The words we have in common use just aren’t good enough to want to cling to their common use, because their common use actually involves a lot of possible uses.