Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki[D.d.G]  Twisted words lead to a twisted understanding of the meaning. How can we truly know what dead people are trying to say when we can't ask their opinions? |
I'm actually not too worried about that. Words (in living languages, at least) carry their own very traceable heritage: what each one means, what meanings it had at some previous time, and in specific places. Cultural context can usually be established with the aid of research. A friend of mine, a scholar involved in Restoration poetry, only half-jokingly pointed out to me once that we probably know exactly what was meant and what was implied in every published line by Edmund Spenser and Alexander Pope than we do that of any highly successful modern author.
Of course, that's different from the political theater, where meaning is deliberately buried in what is written, or actually says the opposite of what one does.