This community is bizarre and probably the most genuine one I’ve stumbled upon. How do I consistently get more comments then updoots here?
Professional academic linguist here. (Yes, that’s a thing.)
Words have the meanings that communities apply to them. There is no governing body over word meanings. There can be a tension (e.g. two groups using the same term in different ways), but that doesn’t really mean that the word means both. Words mean different things to different groups. It has to be this way, for epistemic and pragmatic reasons.
In that sense, meanings are not consciously assigned. So the answer to your original question could be “no”.
But in another sense, all meanings are possible for any given meaningful sequence around the world. Which means, in principle, given infinite communities of practice, a word could have infinite meanings. A stretch, of course.
“Dude”
Sweeeet
ACK! ACK ACK ACK ACK. ACK ACK.
He comes in peace!
Ook.
I am groot.
You sure as squantch can!
There’s a sci-fi movie from USSR, “Kin-dza-dza”. The natives of another planet in another galaxy were telepathes, but used language consisting of only a few words. “Koo” was for almost any word, “kiu” for swearing, “ketse” for matches (most valuable asset) and a few more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza!
Smurf yeah we can.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
Marklar
Edit: I just have to bitch about a stupid website called GIFer that uses mp4 not gif… Stupid.
Aladeen
☹️😐🙂😐☹️😐🙂
sounds skibidi
The the the the the, the the the the the the the the; the the the the the the.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
I saw a mechanic throw down a wrench and shout “the fuck-fucking fucker’s fucking fucked AGAIN” and we all knew the deadline needed a push.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Police police police police. Police police police police police police.
You’ve certainly shown the diversity of the word.
Not really. A word with every meaning is meaningless itself, since it doesn’t allow you to narrow down the word’s intended meaning from the set of all possible meanings.
Gary, Gary… Gary?
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