Language cannot be manipulated when it suits
The argument about same-sex "marriage" still rumbles tediously on but the real stumbling block is the word itself.
According to the dictionary, "marriage" means a formal union between a man and a woman.
However, those in favour of same-sex "marriage" want to change the meaning of the word so that they feel that it includes them, whereas many people who agree with the dictionary's definition feel that such a change would exclude them.
It's hard to see why the former group do not just create a new term to describe the changed union. The attempt to change the meaning of "marriage" is part of an unfortunate modern phenomenon of manipulating the language.
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It's an unfortunate trend because words have to have a common meaning if we are going to be able to use them to communicate. The only result of the current foolishness is that different people will insist on using their own meaning of the word "marriage". This will not be an argument that the law can settle.
The meaning of words cannot be legislated for, otherwise you would have to make changing the meaning of a word illegal.
It might have been thought that those advocating changing marriage's meaning would have take a lesson from the word "gay" whose meaning was changed from "light-hearted and carefree" to "homosexual" (much to the irritation of those who admire classic literature!) only to discover that others promptly gave the word a different and pejorative meaning.
Russ Ball, Leicester.
Comments
by LikeItaLot
Friday, September 14 2012, 9:29PM
“whoops. word asterisked was the American for bold, brash, .”
by LikeItaLot
Friday, September 14 2012, 9:28PM
“What about the natural evolution of language? A single word can have different meanings in different countries. In the United States, Australia and Britain the same word can mean different things. Boot, ***** and jive for example.”
by agewait
Friday, September 14 2012, 7:58PM
“"Many" does not mean "all"
"Many": A large number of…not a majority…
"Many"…"don't dictate to all"”
by roundthehorne
Friday, September 14 2012, 12:03PM
“Dictionaries record word usage, they don't dictate it. To many people 'marriage' already means a formal union between two people who love each other. How does using it to describe same-sex couple "exclude" anyone?”