Relativity in Semantics

Words have meaning which varies according to the speaker and context. Certain words such as dead and alive have absolute meaning, but others are relative. Words with relative meaning can be interpreted in many ways.

The phrase a big whale can exemplify relative meaning. Compared to humans, all whales can be classified as big, but the difference between an adult whale and a baby whale is significant, and sperm whales are far smaller than blue whales. Baby sperm whales are usually a little over one metre at birth. Compared to human babies, this is big, but for whales, this is actually small. For humans, all  blue whales are big, but relative to adult blue whales, baby blue whales are not big.

The phrase a small breakfast is also relative. The typical French breakfast of a cup of coffee, a croissant or piece of toast and maybe fruit or yoghurt is small by American standards, but to the French it is typical. The heavier American breakfast of coffee, pancakes, sausage and eggs is big to the French but is common in the USA.

The words cheap and expensive are also relative. In Japan fruits tend to be expensive, so fruits in other countries may be very cheap. However, to people in those countries, the prices they pay are regular prices and not particularly cheap. Imported goods are often more expensive than local goods. They may be expensive because of factors such as transportation costs and tariffs, but in their country of origin they may actually be cheap.

For people used to spicy food, a food described by spicy by a person who isn't so used to spicy food may not be so spicy to the other. For example, Russians tend to eat relatively mild food compared to Indians. Even within India, though, there is variation. The food of southern India tends to be spicier than the food of northern India.

Many words have relative meaning. The meaning of the word varies depending on the situation in which it is used and the perception of the speaker. This must be taken into consideration when interpreting the value of the words used in communication.