The Problem of Words and the Indeterminacy of Their Meanings

The Loss of Sanctity of Words

When the concrete experiences of life change, the meanings of words also change. Societies that are able to sense this change are able to maintain the continuity and sanctity of individual and collective intellectual frameworks by redefining words. And thus they remain protected from many intellectual and practical contradictions. On the other hand, societies that fail to sense this change, the continuity in their individual and collective intellectual frameworks starts getting disrupted and they become afflicted by countless contradictions at intellectual and practical levels.

The importance of precise determination of the meanings of words can be gauged from the fact that Confucius used to say that if I get control over the whole world, I will do only one thing – determine the meanings of words.

The first expression of the gap created between concrete experiences of life and words firstly appears in literature, because life and its diverse concrete experiences are the food, the soul of literature. Philosophy can be abstract, psychology can survive on assumptions but literature cannot live even for a day solely on hypotheses, disregarding concrete experiences. Leaving aside living, it cannot even emerge into existence. The civilizational importance of literature and the litterateur arise from this very function of literature.

The question underlying this discussion is – what kind of problems are created due to the indeterminacy of the meanings of words?

You must be well aware that every word is a medium to express some particular emotional, sensual, or rational state. With repeated usage, every word gradually becomes a sacred belief and through it, we are able to communicate our thoughts, emotions, and feelings to another individual and society. You must have felt that when during a conversation you are unable to find a suitable word to express what’s on your mind, you feel greatly perplexed and a sense of restlessness within. If that word keeps eluding you for a few moments, using a closely related alternative word, you express what’s inside you, but in doing so, you cannot feel the satisfaction that you could have felt by using the most appropriate word. If the conversation relates to the emotional realm of your being, this dissatisfaction increases further, because you feel that some part of your being has remained outside of this conversation and you are not speaking with your complete being. Sometimes you even get the fear that without that word, you will not be able create as much intimacy with the person in front of you as you desire. Just think, when not finding a single word can create such a major problem, what kind of problems can be created due to indeterminacy, improper conception, or improper usage of the meanings of words? Let’s ponder over this issue with the help of two concrete examples.

There was a time when in our society the word “shaheed” (martyr) used to be employed in its actual meanings. We had a complete sense of its sanctity ingrained in our minds. We knew who can be called a martyr and who cannot. Therefore, we would not so easily confer the status of martyrdom on any Tom, Dick or Harry who died. Deaths used to occur and we used to commiserate with and deeply care for the bereaved, but we would not call everyone a martyr. However, the situation has changed now. We have, more or less, given the status of martyr to every casualty. You must have noticed that even those who lose their lives for petty personal interests and illegitimate gains are also being declared martyrs nowadays. The most dreadful consequence of incorrect conception, ambiguity and misuse of the meanings of words is that it hurts the sanctity of the highest and most venerable ideas. The high and the low become equal. Wrong and right become synonymous. This attitude promotes the trend among people that if one can easily get access to such a high status while sitting at home, why bother with struggles and strife? If one can attain martyrdom by dying from getting shot street, then why yearn to lay down one’s life in a true jihad for the sake of God?

This situation is being taken advantage of by the ill-intentioned, mean-spirited, and ignorant people to cover up their deformity and to present their vile and meaningless actions as good and meaningful. Since these individuals gradually become the majority, these lowly notions become so common on their tongues that even those possessing genuine intellect, over time, fall prey to confusion and start losing recognition of genuine ideas.

As a consequence, after the occurrence of this concrete experience in society, it was necessary that a different term be used for these deaths. It was the duty of religious leaders and religious institutions – that have the deepest consciousness of the sanctity of this word – to vehemently inhibit the misuse of the word “shaheed”. But since that did not happen, martyrdom became easier to attain. It is the result of misunderstanding the meaning of the word ‘martyrdom’ that many youths in our society, who, having experienced various failures in their lives and fallen into despair, embark on ‘jihad’ under the influence of despair. If alternative words are not coined for the increasing number of such common deaths in our society, the words Shaheed (martyr) and Shahadat (martyrdom) will be continually (mis)used for such cases, leading to dreadful consequences.

The same is happening with the word “muhabbat” (love). We use this word for all our pleasant emotions, although it has a specific meaning, a particular sanctity, and a particular set of prerequisites. As people have been using this word for a while without understanding its prerequisites and ignoring those prerequisites, its sanctity is gradually diminishing. On the contrary, if this word was used in the right place and we were to coin and popularize alternative words for emotional relationships or those relationships that are less significant than love, then the sanctity of this word ‘love’ would have been preserved, and for our various emotional states, we would have had new well-defined words. A clear map of varying degrees of our diverse emotional states would have appeared before us. For example, for a relationship of a degree less than love, instead of saying “We love you”, we could also say “We like you” or “We feel good about you” and so on.

If you ponder, you will feel that in our ordinary life, we are eroding the established meanings of many words and are unable to coin words for many of our lower emotional states. Perhaps this is why the gap between the sacred and the profane in our lives is gradually but surely diminishing.