Semantic Drift: "meaninglessness," "pointlessness"

[Jonathan Lighter]

No, it isn't a quibble.

  War in general is sufficiently destructive to be labeled as "folly" and "unwisdom" (there are probably other terms that fit as well).  But since all wars are initiated for some purpose (whatever it may be), war in general can hardly be described as "pointless" or "meaningless."

  My suggestion is just that "pointless(ness)" and "senseless(ness)" are semantically odd (though not utterly bizarre) *first* choices to describe war in the abstract.  Is even a war of conquest "pointless," i.e., undertaken for no particular reason ? Is it meaningless ? I'd say not. It may be evil, disastrous, etc., but hardly pointless or meaningless. Somebody was trying to achieve something identifiable.

  This may be a topic where lexicography and semantics shade into ethics and philosophy, and the semantic drift may be relatively minor, but such drifting can ultimately lead to grosser changes in meaning.  Minor (as well as major) drift is one reason why students need glosses to Shakespeare.

  JL


  David Sutcliffe <david.sutcliffe at UPF.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: David Sutcliffe
Subject: Re: Semantic Drift: "meaninglessness," "pointlessness"
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Maybe it's not a quibble to point out that there is a semantic overlap here in the case of absurd v. pointless.

If war creates unnecessay suffering and ultimately we all lose more than we gain, or if a given war represents the gain of a few and the loss of many, then on that level war can be said to be pointless or "senseless" - that is senseless or pointless from the higher or universal point of view.

David

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