Re: Interpretation of RDF reification - different meaning of sentences and words

'to take a walk', this must be a slang euphamism. Of course one can make up
euphamisms as well, they just have to resemble what they stand for enough
for someone else to get it in the pregnant context.
But with regard ejaculate, erection and make love to, they mean ejaculate,
erection and make love to depending on context. Pity those whose language is
so impoverished not to know this, it is a failing of vocabulary on their
part, not because the meaning has changed.
Adam

On 23/03/06, Tanja Sieber <tanja.sieber@t-dos.de> wrote:
>
>
> Quite interesting examples:-)
> and what about sentences that are used in different languages with
> different
> meaning?
> e.g. in Belarussia 'to take a walk' can mean 'to kiss' etc.
> Tanja
>
> :: -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> :: Von: semantic-web-request@w3.org [mailto:semantic-web-request@w3.org]Im
> :: Auftrag von Frank Manola
> :: Gesendet: Donnerstag, 23. März 2006 17:57
> :: An: semantic-web@w3.org
> :: Betreff: Re: Interpretation of RDF reification
> ::
> ::
> ::
> :: Lars Marius Garshol wrote:
> :: >
> :: >
> :: > * Peter F. Patel-Schneider
> :: >>
> :: >> Perhaps a better analogy would be between current speakers of
> :: English and
> :: >> speakers of English about 100 years ago.  Certain English
> :: sentences had
> :: >> meaning 100 years ago and still retain that meaning, but have
> :: a stronger
> :: >> meaning now.  (Does anyone have any really good examples of such
> :: >> sentences,
> :: >> by the way?)
> :: >
> :: > A quite startling example is the phrase "make love to". When I first
> :: > encountered it in Jane Austen I did a triple-take, before
> :: realizing that
> :: > 200 years ago it must have meant "to court", and not what it means
> :: > today. Not sure whether this counts as a good example in all parts of
> :: > the globe.
> ::
> :: Similar examples are uses of the words "ejaculate" and "erection".  For
> :: example, in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Red Headed League", Dr.
> :: Watson at one point says ' "What on earth does this mean?" I
> ejaculated'
> :: (meaning "I exclaimed").  "Ejaculate" tends to have a more specific
> :: meaning these days.
> ::
> :: Similarly, I vaguely remember an example of a sentence from a girl's
> :: diary from the 19th century describing (as I recall) her attempt to
> :: build a rather elaborate hat, and her bemoaning the fact that "the
> whole
> :: erection collapsed".  These days if you saw that in a girl's diary
> she'd
> :: be talking about something else (or you might see such a sentence in a
> :: Viagra ad).
> ::
> :: --Frank
> ::
> ::
>
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