Today I want to talk about the meaning of words, how we define them and how they, almost as revenge, define us.
Men bugun so'zlarning ma'nolari haqida gapirmoqchiman. Ularni qanday belgilashimiz va ular bizdan qanday o'ch olishi, bizni qanday belgilashlari haqda.
The English language is a magnificent sponge. I love the English language. I'm glad that I speak it. But for all that, it has a lot of holes. In Greek, there's a word, "lachesism" which is the hunger for disaster. You know, when you see a thunderstorm on the horizon and you just find yourself rooting for the storm. In Mandarin, they have a word "yù yī" -- I'm not pronouncing that correctly -- which means the longing to feel intensely again the way you did when you were a kid. In Polish, they have a word "jouska" which is the kind of hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head. And finally, in German, of course in German, they have a word called "zielschmerz" which is the dread of getting what you want.
Ingliz tili sehrli shimgich (gubka) ga o'xshaydi. Men bu tilni sevaman, unda gapira olishimdan mamnunman. Lekin ingliz tilida ham bo'shliqlar bor. Grek tilida shunday bir so'z bor - "lacheism", bu falokatga tashnalikni anglatadi. Bu siz ufqda bo'ronni ko'rayotib, uni sabrsizlik bilan kutishingiz. Xitoy tilida "yuyi" degan so'z bor, men uni noto'g'ri talaffuz qilaman. Bu nimadir tomonidan qo'lga olingan bo'lishni xoxlashni anglatadi. Odatda bunaqasi bolalikda bo'ladi. Polyak tilidagi "juska" so'zi, bu ongimizda, boshimizda o'tkazadigan gipotetik suhbatga o'xshaydi. Va nihoyat, nemis tilida, "silshmerts" so'zi bor, bu o'z istaganimizga erishishdan qo'rqishni anglatadi.
(Laughter)
(Kulgu)
Finally fulfilling a lifelong dream. I'm German myself, so I know exactly what that feels like.
Butun hayotimiz orzusini amalga oshirish. O'zim aslida nemisman, shunday ekan bu tuyg'u menga yaxshi tanish.
Now, I'm not sure if I would use any of these words as I go about my day, but I'm really glad they exist. But the only reason they exist is because I made them up.
Bu so'zlar menga kerak bo'lishiga ishonchim komil emas. Kundalik hayotda. Lekin men ularning mavjudligidan hursandman. Biroq ular faqat men ularni o'ylab topganim uchun mavjud.
I am the author of "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows," which I've been writing for the last seven years. And the whole mission of the project is to find holes in the language of emotion and try to fill them so that we have a way of talking about all those human peccadilloes and quirks of the human condition that we all feel but may not think to talk about because we don't have the words to do it.
Men "Sirli qayg'u lug'ati"ning muallifiman. Uni so'ngi 7 yil davomida yozganman. Loyihaning maqsadi — tildagi emotsiyalarni tasvirlovchi bo'shliqlarni qidirish, ularni to'ldirish, til orqali biz xis qiladigan barcha nozikliklar va g'alati yoki murakkab hissiyotlarni ifoda eta olish uchun shu kabi so'zlarni o'ylab topishdir.
And about halfway through this project, I defined "sonder," the idea that we all think of ourselves as the main character and everyone else is just extras. But in reality, we're all the main character, and you yourself are an extra in someone else's story. And so as soon as I published that, I got a lot of response from people saying, "Thank you for giving voice to something I had felt all my life but there was no word for that." So it made them feel less alone. That's the power of words, to make us feel less alone.
Loyihaning o'rtalariga kelib, "sonder" so'ziga ta'rif berdim: uning g'oyasi shundaki, hammamiz o'zimiz haqimizda asosiy qahramon sifatida o'ylaymiz, qolganlar biz uchun statistlar. Lekin aslida hammamiz asosiy qahramonlarmiz, sizning o'zingiz esa kimningdir tarixida olomonsiz. Buni nashr qilgach, juda ko'p insonlardan fikrlarini, "Butun umr davomida his qilganlarimizni tushuntirib berganingiz uchun rahmat" kabi tashakkurnomalar oldim. Ular endi o'zini yolg'iz his qilmasdi. Mana so'zlarning kuchi nimada, ular yolg'izlik hissini yo'qotadi.
And it was not long after that that I started to notice sonder being used earnestly in conversations online, and not long after I actually noticed it, I caught it next to me in an actual conversation in person. There is no stranger feeling than making up a word and then seeing it take on a mind of its own. I don't have a word for that yet, but I will.
Nashrdan keyin tez orada, "sonder" so'zini onlayn-muloqotda jiddiy qo'llay boshlashganini guvohi bo'la boshladim. Yana biroz vaqt o'tib esa men bu so'zni jonli muloqotda eshitib qoldim. G'alati bir tuyg'u xis qilasiz, qachonki, siz o'ylab topgan so'z sizdan alohida yashashni boshlaganida. Menda buning uchun hozircha yangi so'z yo'q.
(Laughter)
(Kulgu)
I'm working on it.
Buning ustida ishlayman.
I started to think about what makes words real, because a lot of people ask me, the most common thing I got from people is, "Well, are these words made up? I don't really understand." And I didn't really know what to tell them because once sonder started to take off, who am I to say what words are real and what aren't. And so I sort of felt like Steve Jobs, who described his epiphany as when he realized that most of us, as we go through the day, we just try to avoid bouncing against the walls too much and just sort of get on with things. But once you realize that people -- that this world was built by people no smarter than you, then you can reach out and touch those walls and even put your hand through them and realize that you have the power to change it.
Men so'zlarni nima real qilishi haqida o'ylanib qoldim, bunday deb ko'pchilik so'rashiga sabab, ko'pincha: "Bu so'zlar o'ylab topilganmi? Negadir tushunmayapman". Va men rostdan ham qanday javob berishni, "sonder" qanday tilga kirganini bilmayman umuman so'zlarnining realligini baholashga haqlimanmi... Natijada men o'zimni xuddi miyasiga yangi fikr kelgan Stiv Jobsdek his qildim. Hayotda ko'pchiligimiz boshimizni tez-tez devorga urilishidan qochishga harakat qilamiz, va oldinga qarab intilamiz. Va qachonki dunyo bizdan aqlliroq bo'lmagan insonlar tomonidan yaratilganini tushunganingizda, qo'lingizni ko'tarib o'sha devorni ushlaysiz, hattoki devorning narigi tomoniga o'ta olishingiz, sizda dunyoni o'zgartira olish uchun kuch borligini tushunasiz.
And when people ask me, "Are these words real?" I had a variety of answers that I tried out. Some of them made sense. Some of them didn't. But one of them I tried out was, "Well, a word is real if you want it to be real." The way that this path is real because people wanted it to be there.
Va menga "Bu so'zlar haqiqiymi?" deb savol berishganida, men bularga javoblar qidirardim, va odatda javoblar ba'zan aqlli, ba'zan be'mani bo'lardi. Masalan: "So'z aynan siz u haqiqiy bo'lishini xoxlaganingizda haqiqiyga aylanadi". Xuddi shu yo'lakdek: insonlar uni shu yerda bo'lishini istagani uchun u mavjud.
(Laughter)
(Kulgu)
It happens on college campuses all the time. It's called a "desire path."
Talabalar shaharchasida bunday tekislik ko'p. Bu "orzu yo'lakchasi".
(Laughter)
(Kulgu)
But then I decided, what people are really asking when they're asking if a word is real, they're really asking, "Well, how many brains will this give me access to?" Because I think that's a lot of how we look at language. A word is essentially a key that gets us into certain people's heads. And if it gets us into one brain, it's not really worth it, not really worth knowing. Two brains, eh, it depends on who it is. A million brains, OK, now we're talking. And so a real word is one that gets you access to as many brains as you can. That's what makes it worth knowing.
Keyin men shunday o'yladim: aslida so'zlarning haqiqiyligi borasida so'rayotib, ular bu so'zlarni qanchalik darajada ishlata olishlari haqida bilishni xohlashadi. Chunki, o'ylashimcha, biz tilni aynan shunday ishlatamiz. So'z - bu kalitga o'xshaydi, u bizga insonlarning fikrlarini ochadi. Agar so'zni faqat bitta inson tushunsa, u unchalik ahamiyatli, qimmatli emas. Ikkita inson — ularning kim ekanliklariga bog'liq. Million — yaxshi, bu boshqa gap. Natijada so'zlarning haqiqiyligi, uning qancha insonga tanish ekanligiga bog'liq. Qanchalik ko'p bo'lsa, shuncha yaxshi, demak bu so'z shunga arziydi.
Incidentally, the realest word of all by this measure is this.
Shu fikr bo'yicha biz aytishimiz mumkinki, eng haqiqiy so'z bu
[O.K.]
[O.K.]
That's it. The realest word we have. That is the closest thing we have to a master key. That's the most commonly understood word in the world, no matter where you are. The problem with that is, no one seems to know what those two letters stand for.
U mavjud so'zlar ichida eng haqiqiysidir. U xuddi barcha eshiklarga kalitdek. Dunyoning har bir burchagida har bir inson tushuna oladigan so'z. Muammo shundaki, bu ikkita harfning asl ma'nosini hech kim bilmaydi.
(Laughter)
(Kulgu)
Which is kind of weird, right? I mean, it could be a misspelling of "all correct," I guess, or "old kinderhook." No one really seems to know, but the fact that it doesn't matter says something about how we add meaning to words. The meaning is not in the words themselves. We're the ones that pour ourselves into it.
Bu g'alati, shunday emasmi? Bu «all correct» ning noto'g'ri yozilgan shakli bo'lishi mumkin, yoki "Old Kinderhook". Hech kim bilmaydi, lekin bu muhim emas, aslida o'zimiz uni turli ma'nolar bilan boyitamiz. Ma'no so'zning o'zida mujassam emas. Biz unga ma'no taqdim etamiz.
And I think, when we're all searching for meaning in our lives, and searching for the meaning of life, I think words have something to do with that. And I think if you're looking for the meaning of something, the dictionary is a decent place to start. It brings a sense of order to a very chaotic universe. Our view of things is so limited that we have to come up with patterns and shorthands and try to figure out a way to interpret it and be able to get on with our day. We need words to contain us, to define ourselves.
O'ylaymanki, so'zlar bizga hayotimiz mazmunini topishda qaysidir darajada yordam bera oladi. Agar siz nimanidir ma'nosini qidirayotgan bo'lsangiz, lug'at siz uchun ajoyib yordamchi. U bizga mazmun taqdim etadi va bu murakkab dunyoda tartib o'rnatadi. Bizning narsalarga bo'lgan nazarimiz shunchalar chegaralangan, shartli ma'nolarga o'rganganmiz. Ba'zi sirlarni ochishga, keyin esa ularni hayotimizda qo'llashga intilamiz. So'zlar bizga ko'proq ular bizni to'ldirib turishi uchun ham kerak.
I think a lot of us feel boxed in by how we use these words. We forget that words are made up. It's not just my words. All words are made up, but not all of them mean something. We're all just sort of trapped in our own lexicons that don't necessarily correlate with people who aren't already like us, and so I think I feel us drifting apart a little more every year, the more seriously we take words.
Menimcha ko'pchiligimiz o'zimizni ma'lum bir ramka ichida his qilamiz. So'zlar o'ylab topilgani haqida unutib qo'yamiz. Nafaqat mening so'zlarim, barcha so'zlar. Lekin ularning hammasi ham ma'no anglatmaydi. Hammamiz ham o'z leksikonimiz tuzog'ida joylashganmiz. Va u boshqa insonlarniki bilan bir xil bo'lishi shart emas. Biz so'zlarni qanchalik jiddiy qabul qilsak, bu kabi farqlar yanada kattayaveradi.
Because remember, words are not real. They don't have meaning. We do.
Shuning uchun ham unutmangki: so'zlar haqiqiy emas. Ma'nolarni ular emas, biz saqlaymiz.
And I'd like to leave you with a reading from one of my favorite philosophers, Bill Watterson, who created "Calvin and Hobbes." He said, "Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it is still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble."
Yakunda, sevimli faylasuflarimdan biri Bill Uoterson, "Kelvin va Xobbs" komiksi muallifining so'zlarini keltirmoqchiman. U shunday degan: "Sizning qadriyatlaringizni aks ettirib, ruhingizni shod etadigan hayot qurish, juda mushkul yutuq. O'z hayot yo'lingizni o'ylab topish oson ish emas, lekin iloji bor. Va o'ylaymanki, alabatta harakatlaringiz uchun taqdirlanasiz".
Thank you.
Rahmat.
(Applause)
(Qarsaklar)