Vocabulary and Nuances and the Education Thereof

I'll attempt not to talk past you, responding directly.



I don't think the impact is as much as you've made it out to be, especially in regards to regular conversations with other human beings.

(and I attempted to explain why above, even though it may appear as though I talked past you)

It may not be; thus, the thread for discussion which starts out, "... I can't help but wonder"

But to have fodder for more, consider the following similar words. Some are quite common, some don't reach above the 6th grade reading level, others are esoteric and uncommon. I believe there is a time and place to use each (some more than others). If this is true, even to the smallest degree - that each has a slightly different intonation in meaning (and thereby increasing the potential for communicative accuracy) then my point's shown. Here we go, I'm am amateur so don't laugh too hard

Let's take a word you've just used: "Regular" in the context of something that reoccurs. I've pulled out synonym and related words courtesy Merriam Websters. Each of these, within this context, has some overlap in meaning with our word.[INDENT]regular
constant
frequent
habitual
periodic
repeated
steady
chronic
confirmed
inveterate
expected
usual
[/INDENT]Some of these could be used outright and we'd still have a close match. Others are further out. But your sentence could have virtually any of these words inserted and, with adjustments, change the meaning only slightly; now - and here's the critical point - if such could be done and communicate a slightly-different meaning, then it follows that one would need to understand such words (i.e., have that vocabulary) in order to communicate subtle differences in meaning. This, of course, assumes that we equate the ability to communicate in subtleties as important in order to be accurate.

I hope this makes sense. I'm running out of ways to articulate this thought.

Thanks again for engaging

I understand your thought, my friend. I'm just discussing what you've probed discussion for.

Thanks for engaging also,

Zeth

Accept my apologies for my loquaciousness - it's one of those issues I feel strongly about, yet know little.

No need to apologize for anything. I'm just enjoying reading your posts as usual and trying to respond to them half intelligibly.

By the way, I'm giving this topic a lot more thought, and I'll post later if I come to any new insights (or if anyone else does!). I'll be watching this thread closely as I'm very interested in topics such as these!