Identify the most appropriate summary for the paragraph.
A fundamental property of language is that it is slippery and messy and more liquid than solid, a gelatinous mass that changes shape to fit. As Wittgenstein would remind us, "usage has no sharp boundary." Oftentimes, the only way to determine the meaning of a word is to examine how it is used. This insight is often described as the "meaning is use" doctrine. There are differences between the "meaning is use" doctrine and a dictionary-first theory of meaning. "The dictionary's careful fixing of words to definitions, like butterflies pinned under glass, can suggest that this is how language works. The definitions can seem to ensure and fix the meaning of words, just as the gold standard can back a country's currency." What Wittgenstein found in the circulation of ordinary language, however, was a free-floating currency of meaning. The value of each word arises out of the exchange. The lexicographer abstracts a meaning from that exchange, which is then set within the conventions of the dictionary definition.
Correct Answer :
Meaning is dynamic; definitions are static. The 'meaning in use' theory helps us understand that definitions of words are culled from their meaning in exchange and use and not vice versa.
Solution :
Correct Option: C
The main point of the paragraph is that language is fluid and its meaning is derived from usage and exchange.
Lexicographers abstract the meaning from that exchange and this meaning is then set within the meaning of the dictionary
definition. This point is covered only in option 3. Options 2 and 4, which suggest the converse of what is stated in the paragraph,
are easy eliminations. Option 1 captures only a part of the paragraph as it does not mention that the definitions of words are
extracted from their meaning in exchange.
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