Professor X assigns a paper in which students are to demonstrate "conceptual understanding by applying concepts to the real world." Professor X is surprised when many of the papers are extended examples of personal thought instead of being analyses of observations of society. The difference between what Professor X's words meant to the students and what the words meant to her/him reflects the fact that language is:

a. arbitrary.

b. ambiguous.

c. abstract.

d. inherent.

e. objective.