>Of course words have objective meanings.  They would be useless
>if they didn't.

If no people existed, would the words still have meanings?  Of course
not.  The only meaning is inside the minds of people.  Therefore, it is
subjective.  Dictionaries just do their best to document the most common
meanings.

>  To say that meanings are objective is only to say
>that they are external to the intention of the speaker.  They
>*don't* mean just whatever the speaker wants them to mean.

Words can only mean what the speaker intends.  I'm sure the first person
who said "Hey man, you're cool" knew exactly what he meant.

>Definitions are not meanings.  They are descriptions of meanings,
>and there's more than one way to describe meaning.  Furthermore,
>there are regional variations in meanings, and meanings are also
>subject to change.  None of this keeps them from being objective.

Hang on.  You're saying that different people associate different meanings
to the same word, and you're saying that meaning changes quite often, yet
you say it is objective?

>The weather is objective, but it changes from hour to hour, and
>from location to location.

The weather is real, words do not exist and therefore can never be objective.

>Again, the simple proof of this is that people sometimes fail to
>say what they mean.

The only thing that proves is that people make mistakes.

>   If words meant only what people intend to
>mean by them, this would be logically impossible.  If what you
>want is to get paid, but instead you say "I want to get laid,"
>the word "laid" does not suddenly mean "paid."  It continues to
>mean what it meant before (one of its meanings).  You simply said
>something other than what you meant.

If the same person came to me week after week asking to get laid, I'd work
out after week one that he wanted money and not sex.  It doesn't take very
long for it to mean to me what it means to him.  I have a Thai friend who
frequently uses the wrongs words (on purpose), but I know exactly what she
means.  My step-father asks me if I've got my eyes in - what he wants to
know is if I am wearing my contact lenses.  Is that definition in a
dictionary?  Is it objective?  Cockneys knew very well that meaning was
subjective, and they invented Cockney Rhyming Slang so the cops wouldn't
know what they were talking about when they overheard them in
pubs.  Currant Bun does not mean Currant Bun in London.  I'd imagine that
the different Paleo tribes did the same thing, having your own language and
signals prevents other tribes from knowing your intentions.

Kat.