this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2024
85 points (92.9% liked)

No Stupid Questions

36154 readers
623 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

This community is bizarre and probably the most genuine one I've stumbled upon. How do I consistently get more comments then updoots here?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 70 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] yukichigai@lemmy.sdf.org 31 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Edit: I just have to bitch about a stupid website called GIFer that uses mp4 not gif... Stupid.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] essell@lemmy.world 27 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Slovene@feddit.nl 6 points 3 weeks ago

☹️😐🙂😐☹️😐🙂

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 24 points 3 weeks ago
[–] NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The the the the the, the the the the the the the the; the the the the the the.

[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

[–] kinttach@lemm.ee 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 3 weeks ago

Police police police police. Police police police police police police.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago

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.

You've certainly shown the diversity of the word.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Soapbox1858@lemm.ee 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] slingstone@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

I am Groot.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

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.

Edit:

There is no governing body over word meanings

I'm speaking here in terms of global English. There are some languages that have governing bodies, or at least bodies that claim to be governing bodies, like French with the Académie Française. But this is not at all the norm.

[–] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Or, to put it another way, (unprofessional academic linguist here), a word has meanings by what you mean by it, and what the listener understands it to mean.

In a sense, it can mean anything you want it to. In another sense, it can mean anything the listener/reader interprets it as. Most useful though is when you mean the same meaning that the listener understands.

And for "accepted/official meaning", that's just a community all agreeing on a meaning. Optionally with a recognised group (e.g. dictionary writer) affirming certain meanings as accepted in the community.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] LostXOR@fedia.io 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 3 points 3 weeks ago

[audience looks around] 'What just happened?' 'There must be some context we're missing.'

[–] lousyd@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yes, literally.

[–] trapezohedron@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] 667@lemmy.radio 6 points 3 weeks ago
[–] SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

sounds skibidi

[–] Skydancer@pawb.social 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You seem to be looking for the word fuck.

[–] urda@lebowski.social 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] Brodysseus@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Came here looking for this

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 7 points 3 weeks ago

Theoretically, yes. In practice, no. Suppose bla becomes a everything word. If anyone asks what bla means, you say it means bla. The other person won't understand, you persist on bla bla bla meaning bla means bla, by which bla can mean anything and you realize that it just doesn't work, because if it "means anything", in reality it means nothing.

[–] dan1101@lemm.ee 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

ACK! ACK ACK ACK ACK. ACK ACK.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 3 points 3 weeks ago

He comes in peace!

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

In theory, yes. In practice, no.

The association between meaning and word is arbitrary, but socially dictated. You'd need to have other people accepting that that word conveys that meaning in at least some context.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 5 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

That's what the word "aught" means. Literally "anything at all."

Dragon's Dogma really loves using it for just about any meaning, too, which is why I had to look it up lol

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

That's "jawn" in Philly. It can stand in for literally any object. "These jawns are expensive" "Make a left at the jawn" "Jawn said he ain't coming" "This jawn is packed"

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

every time I see a transplant refer to an animate object as jawn they get mocked raucously by the phillyborn

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago

I aught aught that aught I?

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

May I mambo dogface to the banana patch?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Gremour@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

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!

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 5 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Let me introduce you to Goptjaam, probably the closest "language" that fits what you mean: https://youtu.be/ze5i_e_ryTk

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

The simple answer to your question is no. Language is as much about distinction and exclusion as it is about description. The word "circle" stands for the description and properties of the circle, but would be incoherent if it did not also exclude straight lines.

You can often find examples where some things are considered premium or desirable not for the properties is has, but for what it lacks. Just think of all the products marketed to not have something like BPA, fat, sugar, Carbs, gluten, asbestos, lead, and even cruelty.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought we did this with buffalo

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Buffalo, buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo bufalo buffalo? Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] dnick@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago
[–] M137@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago
[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 3 points 3 weeks ago
[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Bad_Engineering@fedia.io 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Correct me if I'm old, but isn't this kinda what gen Z is doing with skibidi?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TheRealShadeSlimmy@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›