i am just coming to an understanding of this but i had gained an impression that if enough people used a word in a certain way then it meant wat its users understood it to mean, even if it used differently by other groups of users. or is this an(other) instance of my belief that i know some english being decimated?

Yes, you're right. Linguists use the word theory differently from scientists, and I was trying to stop complaints about social sciences not really being science, etc. I'll go back and change it. (Also, nothing says that linguists have to be happy when words or their meanings change, they just don't try to explain it away as the result of kids messing with the language.)

Ceci n'est pas un seing.