I would never use that word in either context, neither one is coherent. I would say, Picard, where is Beverly Crusher! She must shackle me, before I am overcome!
Redminds of the German “umfahren” (run over) which is the exact opposit of “umfahren” (drive around). (First is pronounced with a tiny pause after the second letter; the other is not.)
Even better is “Haare wachsen lassen”. One meaning is letting your hair grow, the other is waxing your hair. Pronounced exactly the same
I’m pretty sure one of those has a hyphen
You are able to undo the locking. It’s almost like reading comprehension is shit nowadays.
Why can it not mean unable to be locked?
Because people don’t generally use it that way and language changes and evolves based largely on how it is used.
un-lockable implies it is unable to be locked.
unlock-able implies that it is able to be unlocked.
It’s a homonym.
could be both
maybe it’s a homonym
When you say that something is easily unlockable the second way sounds clunky, but both convey the same message that whatever it is, it is not secure
If you can’t unlock it, is it really a lock?
Locks should always be able to be reversed. Locking something is restricting access, not denying it entirely. You don’t weld a door shut and call it locked.
Poe didn’t write a tale about Fortunato being locked downstairs.
“Sealed”, “buried”, “entombed”, “immured” - all perfectly good terms for closing access to something with the intent of the closure being permanent.
Depends on emphasis. Said with normal stress on the first syllable is “able to be unlocked”.
But if you pronounce it with extra emphasis on both of the first two syllables with a bit of a pause between, I think most people would think “not able to be locked”. Very context dependent though
Are we just making up language rules as we go?
Yes, throughout history, in fact.
And to answer the meme’s question it can have either definition based on the context of usage.
Back in like 1st or 2nd grade the teacher introduced us to context clues for reading comprehension.
Literally yes, we are.
Cause language is a toolkit to communicate ideas, and a toolkit frozen in glass is a useless toolkit.
You need to swap out that hammer when it starts getting damaged, or put back a screwdriver when you find out you need it again, or add new tools when you find that the tools you have now aren’t fit to purpose.
And sure, there’s some loose screws at the bottom of the bag, but they don’t harm anything, and very occasionally they come in useful.
Yes.
The issue is the fact that the opposite action of locking is called unlocking and not something like delocking.
Nice shower thought.
