Naming Things Creates the Chance for Misunderstanding

The next important semantic step is replacing physical product identification with product identification by name or description. It doesn't sound like such a big deal, but as long as the buyer is picking out the item he or she wants, there is no opportunity for the two traders to differ in meaning. However, once we begin identifying items by their names we have the opportunity for a disagreement in meaning. Someone buying firewood from another by just pointing at the wood is not going to have a semantic issue with the seller. However, if the seller sells a cord of hardwood, the buyer may have some issues if the buyer thinks that it is less than a cord, or that the wood is not hardwood (or even wood for that matter).

Why It Matters Whether We Call that Mitsubishi Expo a Car or a Truck

Does naming something change it? According to Lincoln's story in the accompanying sidebar, no, naming something doesn't change it. But for all of us some of the time, and some of us all of the time, naming something changes it. You might call a Mitsubishi Expo a car, or a station wagon, or an SUV. You probably wouldn't call it a truck. It wouldn't matter much to Lincoln what you called it. But it does matter to Mitsubishi, and by extension to you. Trucks, in the United States, are exempted from many of the emission and fuel economy restrictions that are placed on passenger cars. This may seem reasonable when you consider that commercial trucks (semitrailers and the like) represent a small proportion of the U.S. fleet and to require them to comply would be a hardship that would hurt the economy.

Abraham Lincoln once asked a visitor: "If you call the tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?"

• Visitor: "Five, I suppose."

• Lincoln: "Nope, four. Calling the tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

The definition of truck has been established to include pickup trucks, even if they were used entirely for personal transport. And by building a passenger car with a few extra characteristics, it could be classified as an SUV, which in turn put it in the "small truck" category, and more generally "truck." You change the name of something, and suddenly it has properties and behaviors it wouldn't have otherwise had.

Does an Imaginary Line Affect You?

One of the primary buying criteria for houses, among families with children, is the local school district. The difference between a highly desirable school and an undesirable school can be quite significant. As a result, if there are a limited number of houses (which of course there always are) in a desirable school district, the demand for the houses will drive their value up. The difference in value is often as much as $50,000 to $100,000, and it applies to the owners who have no children as much as to those who do.

A survey team visits a farm in the very south of Manitoba, and addresses the older woman who answers the door: "Ma'am, we've just completed a survey, and according to our calculations your farm is not in Manitoba as had been recorded, but is entirely within the boundaries of the United States."

• "Oh, thank goodness. I don't think I could have taken another one of those Canadian winters."

The school boundary is an arbitrary definition. It was made up at some point to define a convenient catchment area for the school. Once defined, it creates and ascribes its own meaning. The "Cherry Hills School District" is an arbitrarily defined term, but once established, a change could cost you a large sum of money.