On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 10:38 AM, Guillermo J. Rozas <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Perhaps your point still stands, but please use a different analogy >> than punctuation. It is not just decoration. > > Yes, but the meaning of each individual word doesn't change, does it?
Context can definitely change the meaning of a word. Consider: "See the elephants (who have cars) with big trunks." "See the elephants (who have cars with big trunks)." Trunks changed. First it meant pachyderm anatomy in the main part sentence, and there was an irrelevant aside about cars. Second it meant vehicular storage space as part of the aside, and didn't describe elephants in the main part of the sentence. Anything that can change the structure of a sentence can change the meaning of a word. Capitalization can do this too. It is less common, but still possible: "The sign outside the shoe shine shop read "do not bring polish in, please"." Here, the sign says you can't bring in competing products. "The sign outside the shoe shine shop read "do not bring Polish in, please"." Here, the sign excludes customers based on nationality. (I do not want to get back to the "cultural disagreements" part of the conversation; this is just the easiest example to construct.) -- Carl Eastlund _______________________________________________ r6rs-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.r6rs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/r6rs-discuss
