Something and nothing are semantic place holders for objects. Until you put actual objects in there, they don't mean a thing. — Corvus

That's like saying up and down doesn't mean what every person obviously knows it means, more or less. Sure, it's context dependent. Deep underwater or in space there concepts tend to lose meaning since they're grounded in concepts learned or that otherwise only have meaning in a specific context.

You wouldn't be speaking in any language if you didn't use words assuming each as their widely-used and generally-accepted value.

You could add to this: the assumption that other languages carry similar intension.

That's like saying up and down doesn't mean what every person obviously knows it means, more or less. — Outlander

If you said, "UP" to me, I wouldn't have a clue what you are meaning. I would have then asked you "What do you mean by "up"?, and if you said "Up is from down." I still wouldn't know what the hell you are talking about. You have not clarified any contents of these place holders in realistic manner. You may think you are talking about something, but it fails to convey any intelligible meaning to others.

You may think you are talking about something, but it fails to convey any intelligible meaning to others. — Corvus

Your telling me, if I tell my longtime girlfriend to meet at Central Park, to where I have rented a "Will You Marry Me" airplane skywriter to leave a message, and I call her telling her to "look up", she'll have no idea where to look? I don't feel this is a genuine sentiment or belief you hold. At least, I would hope not. :confused:

Your telling me, if I tell my longtime girlfriend to meet at Central Park, to where I have rented a "Will You Marry Me" airplane skywriter to leave a message, and I call her telling her to "look up", she'll have no idea where to look? I don't feel this is a genuine sentiment or belief you hold. At least, I would hope not. :confused: — Outlander

I was not saying that you cannot understand any words in all situations. That seems what you are trying to make out here. No, I was not saying that.

My point was that where words are obscure due to lack of contents or situational context, they need clarification to be understood.