Sentaku & Mama - Context Defining Meaning

One of the useful things about having a compulsive habit of browsing random Wikipedia articles is that it need not be done in English :) Recently while browsing the site in French I came across an article called Acquisition du langage (Language acquisition) that had the following to say:

[Le] premier mot a plus de signification pour l'enfant qu'il n'en a pour l'adulte, c'est pourquoi on le qualifie de mot-phrase car il ne renvoie pas seulement à un objet, mais à une action ou une situation.

Exemple : « Maman » peut signifier « elle arrive », « cet objet lui appartient » ou « c'est sa voix que j'entends ».

In translation:

[The] first word has more meaning for a child than it does for an adult, which is why it is qualified as a 'phrase-word,' as it does not only address an object but an action or a situation.

For example: 'Mommy' can mean 'she is coming,' 'this object belongs to her,' or 'I can hear her voice.'

This struck me as interesting because it resonated with something that I've experienced thus far, early on in my "Yellow Experiment." Nowadays, I'm watching an anime series called Card Captor Sakura... it's quite childish, but it's cute, and it gives me the advantage of working in a context I'm already familiar with. In one of the episodes early on, after two of the characters (Sakura and Kero) do a bunch of chores and Kero puts up some laundry to dry, a Clow Card (fantasy beast thing... long story) messes up the house, including the laundry. Upon noticing this, Kero cries out "wai no sentaku~!" ("my 'sentaku'!").

Now, sentaku could have meant several things. Washing, laundry... even clothing; spoken Japanese is very vague. Then I heard the same word again several episodes later in a context where the characters were talking about chores, so I could safely rule out that sentaku means either laundry or washing, but probably not 'clothing' (it may mean BOTH washing and laundry - Japanese words tend to have vaguer, wider definitions than their English counterparts).

What's interesting about this whole sentaku thing, and how it relates to the 'mommy' thing from the French wikipedia article, is that it really goes to show how (multiple) context(s) are needed for an acquirer of a language to fully comprehend a concept (word). If you've ever thought about the definition of a word, or flipped through a dictionary, you might have noticed that many words have unusually specific definitions - how is it that every native speaker of a language, even a very widespread one like English, is able to have a very specific connotation/definition attached to each and every single word?

It seems, based on my 'sentaku' deal and from the French wiki article, that it is context (more than one) that teaches us narrow, specific definitions of words. In the case of the baby, their entire vocabulary consists of only a few words - they haven't been exposed to their first language enough (yet) to be able to have specific definitions/connotations for each word. So 'mama/mommy' covers a wide range of meanings because with the baby's barely existent grasp of language, expressing themselves more concisely is impossible. Likewise with me and sentaku... it took (is taking) me several context to narrow down the word. Until context has narrowed it down for me as much as it has for a native Japanese speaker, the connotation behind 'sentaku' is more vague in my mind than it is in the mind of a Japanese person.

I'm not sure where exactly I intended to go with this... I just thought it was a cool observation. Btw, if you know what sentaku means concretely, please do not leave a comment telling me. Honestly, I don't care. Context will teach me whatever's left to be taught of this word/concept.