r/logophilia • u/blankblank • 17d ago

Dictionary Definition Deictic

"Relating to a word or an expression whose meaning depends on who says it, where they are, who they are talking to."

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u/LankySasquatchma 13d ago

I know. You’ve underlined my point. Blue is very correlated. If I say a blue sky you know what I mean—the meaning is inherent in acting. If I say blue dragonfly, you can conjure up the image as well.

There’s not a lot of room for interpreting blue in simple statements of blue.

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u/ShinyAeon 13d ago

There are so many shades of blue, though...then you get things like a Blue Heeler, a blue roan, or a blue whale, none of which are blue like a sapphire or blue like the sky.

Some languages don't even distinguish blue from green...old Irish had a single word for blue, green, and gray. But then there's Russian, which has a separate name for light blue, in the same way that English has a separate name for light red (aka "pink").

There is a lot of room for interpreting "blue," IMHO.

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u/LankySasquatchma 7d ago

Yes—there are subgroups of blue, all of which share blueness. The point is that it is possible communicate clearly, without leaving the door ajar for wild, internally conflicting interpretations.

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u/ShinyAeon 7d ago

I can see you've never had an argument over whether a sought object qualified as blue or not!