Abstract
This paper argues that a linguistic or any other type of sign should not be viewed as a static unit in a synchronic system, but rather as a dynamic entity that appears in real communicative events. As discrete entries in a dictionary, words are given definitions as their meanings, but these definitions may lead to interpretations that have not been sanctioned by a language community and yet are totally reasonable and understandable. In this way, “old” words can be used to stand for “new” segments of our life experience through which some meanings are born and others modified. It is through our inferential use of this living sign that we keep adapting to an ever expanding world.
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