Key Arguments

• Locke distinguishes between the unavoidable, 'naturally' arising imperfections of language and a separate class of 'wilful faults and neglects' for which speakers are responsible.
• These wilful abuses concern 'this way of communication' and directly affect how well words serve as signs of ideas.
• By these faults, men 'render these signs less clear and distinct in their signification than naturally they need to be', implying that, with care, language could function more clearly than it actually does.

Source Quotes

Woeful abuse of words. Besides the imperfection that is naturally in language, and the obscurity and confusion that is so hard to be avoided in the use of words, there are several wilful faults and neglects which men are guilty of in this way of communication, whereby they render these signs less clear and distinct in their signification than naturally they need to be. 2.

Of The Abuse Of Words 1. Woeful abuse of words. Besides the imperfection that is naturally in language, and the obscurity and confusion that is so hard to be avoided in the use of words, there are several wilful faults and neglects which men are guilty of in this way of communication, whereby they render these signs less clear and distinct in their signification than naturally they need to be.

Key Concepts

• Besides the imperfection that is naturally in language, and the obscurity and confusion that is so hard to be avoided in the use of words, there are several wilful faults and neglects which men are guilty of in this way of communication, whereby they render these signs less clear and distinct in their signification than naturally they need to be.
• Woeful abuse of words.

Context

Book III, Chapter X, §1, where Locke introduces the topic of the 'abuse of words' by contrasting natural limitations of language with voluntary misuses that further corrupt communication.