Ulterior Motives

That graphic is so annoying it makes it difficult to read the article!

How dull and how static the world would be if each word had only one meaning, and there was only one word for each concept. Why not just speak in binary code, or use numbers to convey ideas?

It reminds me of the joke about the new prisoner in the jail-house, and after supper when all the convicts were back in their cels, the new guy heard someone call out "Seven!" and then all the other prisoners laughed companionably. The new guy was puzzled; now and then, another voice would call out another number: "Twelve!", or "Three!", etc., and then his fellow convicts would all laugh. The new prisoner asked his cel-mate, "What's that about? I don't get it." His cel-mate said, "Well, the rest of us have been here so long, we all know all the same jokes, so to save time we just numbered them. When one of us feels like it, he calls out the number of a joke, and we all remember how that joke goes, and laugh." The new prisoner decided to give it a try; he called out, "...Four!" but there was just silence. The new guy looked at his cel-mate in puzzlement, and his cel-mate responded, "Well, some people just can't tell a joke very well."

Seems to me that those who decry ambiguity in words would feel more comfortable being part of the Borg single-mind hive-community. Have you felt any tendencies toward declaring, "You will be absorbed; resistance is futile." ?

In contexts where clarity is especially important, language is used in a more standard way. Consider how soldiers and law enforcers communicate over radio. But everyday life does not impose the same sort of urgency and lots of different contexts can arise.