The Shape of Word Learning

One of the curious aspects of learning words is the way we segment them from other words at first, only later to unify them and separate them again. Let’s say that a child first hears the terms “sociology” or “economics”. To him, these words have no meaning until they are explained and he sees them a few times. Eventually they gain meaning, and he has a definition of them, which he can spit out: “Economics is X and Y and Z”

As this child gets older, and perhaps he chooses to study Economics, the term starts to expand beyond his limited definition. Where he saw it at first as primarily about money, he now sees it spreading its tentacles into psychology, sociology and politics. The word starts to lose its individuality.

I visualize this process like the shape of an hourglass. At first the meaning of the word is diffuse across subjects. Then, over time it becomes pinched and narrow, as we believe we have a clear and distinct definition for it. However, if we proceed further ,the meaning of the word widens once again. We learn that no word stands in isolation.