Word Repair Shop

Miscommunications are rampant

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Sometimes we discover a miscommunication. But often we don't, even when there is a breakdown. We're more likely to blame it on another's bad intentions or on our own weakness or not being good enough. 

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This does not even include the miscommunications we have with ourselves because we are using fuzzy, inexact (and often toxic) words and phrases to communicate with ourselves (otherwise known as thinking).

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Go to these rooms to learn more about fuzzy and toxic words. Another important room to visit is Problem with words.

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Different ways to designate a new distinction

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The speaker or writer who focuses on creating clearer understandings of words and concepts as used between themselves and others, whether one-to-one or many, has another problem. 

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If the distinction they want to communicate is a new one (as is the distinction I have created called Now), they can appropriate a current word in the language that has some related meaning. Then they provide the listener with an understanding of the new distinction and the way to use the borrowed word. This helps ensure a common, accurate understanding of the new distinction and the special use of the term they use to indicate that distinction.

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Another option that the creator of a new distinction has is to coin a new word or phrase, as I have with the new "words" HOGAB and quitaverance.

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The final option is to use a term that's already in general use but to limit and refine its meaning, intending to exclude any other meanings that others may also attach to that term. I've done this with several words, including the words selfish, responsible, expectation, and righteousness. This last method can run into problems. For example, I had thought I was being clear in my use of the word righteousness, but a reader objected strongly, claiming that righteousness meant, "a gift and quality given by God, and connotes virtue, goodness, and a life without fault or blemish." No overlap exists between his meaning of righteousness and the one I use, which is "to blame another or to blame yourself."