h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A useful survey of approaches. I would make the following suggestions:

1) tidy up some basic spelling and typo mistakes. I know they say the editors will do it, but let's take some responsibility here. If accuracy and clarity of expression don't matter in an entry like this, where DO they matter?

2) lose the conclusion. Sorry, but it really is too feeble for words, so feeble that it is not actually a conclusion at all. Express an opinion based on your own weighing of the evidence, or just delete it. It has no value as it stands.

Sounds a bit harsh, but meant constructively. Apart from the above caveats, I read the bulk of the entry with pleasure.

Personally, I'm with the doubters. If I say "my zblang is particularly fnad today" I have produced a meaningless sentence. If I then define zblang and fnad in terms that are meaningful only to me, and I can give you no direct experience of zblangs or fnadness, then we are no further forwards.

I have to disagree. The function of language is to communicate thoughts and concepts, and not only those of the physical and sensory realm.

As such, language either succeeds or fails, but even failure does not reduce it to meaninglessness. It can be merely a case of bad translation, poor vocabulary, or filtered preconception.

If I were to say that 'a haecceity of the lepton is its refusal to participate in a strong interaction', I may totally fail to get across my meaning if you do not know the concept haecceity or what a lepton is. But, that does not make the sentence gibberish.

The same goes for listening to a person speaking a foreign language. Just because I don't know the language doesn't make it meaningless.

If a priest says to a rabbi 'God exists', it conveys a message that both understand, and thus constitutes a valid use of language. The fact that they may each have a different interpretation of the word 'God' may confuse the issue, but both felt that the sentence communicated truth.

Anyway, fnad (being a word that has meaning to you) is a fine word that - once defined - will make the meaning clear. You have merely to communicate its definition.