Quote Originally Posted by Voidhawk View Post
Completely incorrect. The set of possible meanings for any particular group of characters/sounds/gestures is most likely infinite, and is certainly constantly in flux. For example sarcasm and insults have such a huge influence on the evolution of language, that many words today have the exact opposite meaning to how they were used a few hundred years ago, simply because people started using them as a derogatory term. Dictionaries are Descriptive books of common uses of language, not Proscriptive guides to all possible uses.

This comic has a short and interesting discussion on the subject, putting down several philosophers ideas in a way suitable for lay people.

Anyway, this thread is a completely bonkers place to be having complicated philosophical discussions on the subject of language. Going back to the race-intro trailer, my questions are:
1) Why is there an object that looks like the Eye of Night from Battlefleet Gothic on the planet?
Spoiler: Eye of Night
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and, 2) Why is the Necron Lord talking about defeating the Old Ones? The Necrons killed them all off before they back-stabbed the C'Tan, it was the Eldar that were still a danger after the War In Heaven. Or is this just his senility, rather than that of the writers?
1) No clue.
2) As far as we know there are no old ones left. I don't think it was 100% proved either way that the old ones are extinct. I think somewhere in one of the Eldar pages on the wiki there was a quote on the possibility that old ones still exist. Might have been orks.