It is a very common word, but I have always found it ambiguous. The power implied in the word is not clear. Even dictionaries accord two quite different meanings to it.
The first one is "accept" as in "I respect our differences" or "You have another opinion and I respect that".
The second meaning is much stronger. It means "esteem", "admire" or "hold in high regard", as in "I respect great composers like Mozart" or "People should have more respect for scientists who work hard to find new cures for diseases".
Those two words, even though spelt and pronounced the same way, are clearly distinct from each others for me. Hence the ambiguity in conveying the right message, or understanding what others mean.
When I hear things like "People have no respect for anything these days" or "You should show him more respect". Which one of them does the speaker have in mind ? It may seem obvious from the tone or context, but usually it is not. Even when you think it is obvious, you might be up for a surprise once you start asking questions to the other person about what they intended to say. Maybe it is because not everybody realises that this word has tow meanings, and many confuse both so that they don't even know what they mean once they carefully think about it.
I am the kind of person who I listen carefully about the words that others use.. I may also take a few seconds to think about what word I am going to use, or how I am going to turn my sentence to avoid ambiguities (sometimes people wonder why I wait before talking back to them, and that gets worse when I have to speak several languages the same day and cannot recall the words I want to use in the language being used at that moment).
I wish we could change languages to develop more accurate vocabulary so as to prevent such ambiguities. There should be general words with a broad meaning and more specific words with a well-defined meaning. Words with several meaning not easily distinguishable from the context (like "respect") should be avoided.
English is already the best language in the world for the richness of its vocabulary. It has plenty of nuances not found in other European languages. But it still falls short of my expectations.
The first one is "accept" as in "I respect our differences" or "You have another opinion and I respect that".
The second meaning is much stronger. It means "esteem", "admire" or "hold in high regard", as in "I respect great composers like Mozart" or "People should have more respect for scientists who work hard to find new cures for diseases".
Those two words, even though spelt and pronounced the same way, are clearly distinct from each others for me. Hence the ambiguity in conveying the right message, or understanding what others mean.
When I hear things like "People have no respect for anything these days" or "You should show him more respect". Which one of them does the speaker have in mind ? It may seem obvious from the tone or context, but usually it is not. Even when you think it is obvious, you might be up for a surprise once you start asking questions to the other person about what they intended to say. Maybe it is because not everybody realises that this word has tow meanings, and many confuse both so that they don't even know what they mean once they carefully think about it.
I am the kind of person who I listen carefully about the words that others use.. I may also take a few seconds to think about what word I am going to use, or how I am going to turn my sentence to avoid ambiguities (sometimes people wonder why I wait before talking back to them, and that gets worse when I have to speak several languages the same day and cannot recall the words I want to use in the language being used at that moment).
I wish we could change languages to develop more accurate vocabulary so as to prevent such ambiguities. There should be general words with a broad meaning and more specific words with a well-defined meaning. Words with several meaning not easily distinguishable from the context (like "respect") should be avoided.
English is already the best language in the world for the richness of its vocabulary. It has plenty of nuances not found in other European languages. But it still falls short of my expectations.