Posted: Aug 27, 2017 5:40 pm
A very important point:
Appeals to the etymological meaning of a word are not semantically decisive!
"What I am referring to as the etymological fallacy is the assumption that the original form or meaning of a word is, necessarily and by virtue of that very fact, its correct form or meaning. This assumption is widely held. How often do we meet the argument that because such and such a word comes from Greek, Latin, Arabic, or whatever language it might be in the particular instance, the correct meaning of the word must be what it was in the language of origin! The argument is fallacious, because the tacit assumption of an originally true or appropriate correspondence between form and meaning, upon which the argument rests, cannot be substantiated."
(Lyons, John. Language and Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. p. 55)
Appeals to the etymological meaning of a word are not semantically decisive!
"What I am referring to as the etymological fallacy is the assumption that the original form or meaning of a word is, necessarily and by virtue of that very fact, its correct form or meaning. This assumption is widely held. How often do we meet the argument that because such and such a word comes from Greek, Latin, Arabic, or whatever language it might be in the particular instance, the correct meaning of the word must be what it was in the language of origin! The argument is fallacious, because the tacit assumption of an originally true or appropriate correspondence between form and meaning, upon which the argument rests, cannot be substantiated."
(Lyons, John. Language and Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. p. 55)