More Words

I was given a book recently by my brother-in-law. I intend on reading it very carefully because I'm not familiar with the subject matter. However, I'm out of practice. So I'm going through a book that I read for Hermeneutics class, back in 1991. It's called, "How to Read a Book". I'm reminded of the value of understanding the meaning of the words used. Adler calls it "coming to terms", but really it is the reader's investigation into the author's words and phrases to determine their meanings and how they are used to convey information. This would be done only for the important terms (to save time).

Given my interest in words, I was pleased to reread some very insightful stuff from Adler:

... a word can have many meanings, especially an important word. If the author uses a word in one meaning, and reader reads it in another, words have passed between them, but they have not come to terms. Where there is unresolved ambiguity in communication, there is no communication, or at best communication must be incomplete. p.96

Though Humpty Dumpty would not approve, we can see this as very sensical. If our goal is clear communication.

When an author writes something down, it is up to the reader to make sense of it. This is work. However, this work will be especially difficult if the author has not been careful with her words. This laxity would make the reader's work nearly impossible. But with the assumption of the good faith and effort of the author, the burden of understanding falls on the reader - to figure out the meanings of the words and use those meanings when reading.

If I ever become a writer - maybe I should take up blogging, less time consuming - I want to give my readers clues to what my important words and phrases mean.

Anyway, on with the book...