Much of this discussion can be rendered irrelevant once one realizes that words represent concepts, they are not concepts themselves, even in linguistic discussions. In order for a speaker and a listener to communicate effectively it is required that they share the same conceptual referents. Dictionaries provide a means of discerning the possible referents for any given word. Wars have been started and dinner parties ruined by misunderstandings. One man's nigger (as cheapskate) is other man's racial slur (as unworthy person, usually, but not always, black, negro, colored, etc.) to use a particularly odious, by politically correct standards, example.
Lexicography is forced to use descriptive definitions if its products are to have any value. There is no point in stating what a word ought to mean to persons who are already using it to mean something else. This defies common sense, semantics, logic and inhibits productive intellectual endeavor.
Should there remain any question about the difference between words and concepts, a study of sign languages, iconography and hieroglyphics should set things straight. (See also, pictograph, ideograph, symbol)
Next time, class, we'll take up syntax, declensions, mood and conjugations. NO! Leave your condoms at home!
