One type of evidence for the idea that lexical meaning depends on relations is the phenomenon known as lexical blocking, which can be exemplified by the meanings of finger and thumb, shown in the box diagram in figure 6.6. Finger can mean 'any digit of the hand', as in I have ten fingers. liut that 'any digit' tneaningis blocked when one refers to a single finger, So, if someone says I broke my finger, you would probably feel misled if you discovered that the. finger in question was their thumb. In that case, you would 'have expected them to say brake my thwnb. The existence of thumb as .a possible contrast tern for finger blocks the interpretation of singularfingee to mean 'thumb.' Thus we see that the semantic relations between finger and thtehfr affect how they are interpreted.