Vessels of Meaning
What is more important, the words of a sentence or the overall meaning of the sentence? For instance, what does the below passage mean?
dear John I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men i yearn for you I have no other feelings whatsoever when we’re apart I can be forever happy will you let me be yours Gloria1
Here it is with the proper punctuation:
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no other feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy; will you let me be yours?
Gloria
Oh, I am sorry, here it is now with the proper punctuation:
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn. For you I have no other feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart I can be forever happy.
Will you let me be?
Yours,
Gloria
Words are not the primary vessels of meaning; it is the sentence itself, although the sentence relies on the words for its meaning.
- Taken from untitled assignment of unknown origin [↩]
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And still, the meaning of the sentence relies on the whole of the paragraph. It might be better to say that while meaning only arises out of the whole (paragraph), the first set of clues we get of its meaning lay in the meanings of the words in the sentence, the second set of clues in the structure of the sentence, and the final set of clues lies in the relation of the sentences to each other. Of course, this completely leaves out the cultural and situational aspect that the text was created in and written to/for.