Words I like...

I mean that the reification of language as divorced from its 'meaning', no matter how contested that idea might be, is a sort of fetishism. And I don't agree that words are always 'things', at all – I think words are only 'things' in one sense: the material fact of the marks on the page, as pure sign. A 'word' needs to be a compound of sign and signified to work as a signifier. So in what sense is a verbal utterance without an abstract referent a 'word' at all? Of course this is all complicated. It's a sign of how thrilling my Friday nights are that I'm discussing semibloodyotics, frankly. You're a lapsed linguist, BMMF? Interesting.

Phew, Barthes before bedtime, heavyweight stuff ;-)