OnSemanticDiffusion
Table of Contents
Breaking down the expression #
Breaking an idea into its fundamental parts is an important step in my learning process. To understand ‘Semantic Diffusion’ we must first define its two halves.
Semantic, according to the online merriam-webster dictionary means:
relating to significance or meaning
and Diffusion, according to the same dictionary:
the state of being spread out or transmitted especially by contact : the action of
With that in mind let’s go to Martin Fowler definition:
…terms are vulnerable to losing their meaning, in a process of semantic diffusion
Therefore, paraphrasing Fowler, semantic diffusion is the process in which terms lose their meaning.
Thoughts on Semantic Diffusion #
Funny enough, the first time I read the word diffusion I thought its meaning was closer related to the word lost or lose, that in fact, it is not wrong. Yet, even though you can use diffusion to refer to something being lost, because diffusion is the state of being spread out, it makes it difficult to understand because not necessarily something being spread will lose its meaning. Mainly because it’s hard to measure how far the subject is going by just reading the word diffusion.
It is logical to see a poor choice of words as one the reason why this change of meaning happens, but, as Fowler states himself:
Using a less desirable term may reduce semantic diffusion, but I don’t think it avoids the problem completely.
and I do agree with that, it does not avoid completely the problem, but we probably disagree in how much important that is, for instance, let’s take a look at the term semantic diffusion:
As we saw a few lines above, Semantic Diffusion could be explained as how the meaning of an expression is spreaded out through groups of people. Yet, it fails communicating the meaning, because, it’s hard to have a clear understanding that the Diffusion is corrupting the Semantics itself.
I do really enjoy this article about semantic diffusion, but, after a few years of experience I feel something is missing there…
So let’s quote the author again:
Semantic diffusion is essentially a succession of Chinese whispers where a different group of people to the originators of a term start talking about it without being careful about following the original definition.
By reading this other definition of semantic diffusion I can tell what was bugging me, the piece of the puzzle that I was missing. Fowler is talking about how semantic diffusion may happen in a way that seems to also explain why it happens, but no, while it is important to understand the process driving the change we also need to analyse why or what is causing the process to happen.
In order to understand why it happens let’s take a closer look to the groups of people that play a role in that and also contextualize to our craft that is software development.
For now, I will stop here as I feel this needs more time to develop. I’ll either be adding the continuation in here or I’ll be making a part 2.