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Suicide
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Elan
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Limerence.
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How do you separate a word from what it means? Do you mean you like these words purely for the sounds they make? Or do you like them because they mean something obscure, and feel a bit of ownership over them?
Words as things is weird – it's like people who obsess about books as objects, and hate folded down corners and broken spines, but care little about actually reading them.
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Words as things is weird – it's like people who obsess about books as objects, and hate folded down corners and broken spines, but care little about actually reading them.
it's like people who obsess over expensive imported crash damaged race frames from japan with a betting vehicle compliance stamp, but care little about actually riding them
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How do you separate a word from what it means? Do you mean you like these words purely for the sounds they make? Or do you like them because they mean something obscure, and feel a bit of ownership over them?
Words as things is weird – it's like people who obsess about books as objects, and hate folded down corners and broken spines, but care little about actually reading them.
'Words' are things/objects regardless of whether they're conceived of as meaning something (in which case they truly are words) or meaning nothing (in which case they are, arguably, not words--I know that it is possible to imagine and invent sound sequences that sound like words but don't have a meaning associated with them, but I don't think 'words' without meaning fall under the concept of a 'word'.
Do you mean this, that 'words' without a meaning associated with them are weird? Or that words if considered irrespective of a meaning that may be associated with them are weird/the people who do this are engaged in a weird activity?
It sounds as if you mean the latter. Naturally, it is often very important to 'know' words irrespective of their meaning--it's what children who acquire language for the first time do primarily for a long time before they begin to understand conceptual associations. I also think that liking words for their mere sound (or perhaps thinking that the respective sounds ought to be associated with different meanings) is perfectly sane, even as a grown-up, obviously only as long as you don't give up enjoying language and words for their meaning at the same time.
As for this thread, somewhat unsurprisingly, it'll be a mixture of enjoying both sounds and meanings, sometimes their exact combination, to different degrees, and for different reasons. I don't think that there is an either-or at all.
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Children's acquisition of words is contextual, and they 'know' words precisely because of them having a meaning - a semantic tag, if you will.
They are acquired as labels, or as demonstratives/requests, particularly in the early use of prepostions. Perception is initially built around attending to movement. Action is the motivator. It only takes a short time observing the use of the word 'up' by adults for a child to catch on. 'The thing is up', 'I want to go up', 'I am up', 'you are up' - all encapsulated in one syllable. Er, blah.
The whole 'knowing... irrespective of meaning' is more of an issue in pictorial language. Insidiously, children's exposure to brand logos causes a familiarity without a deeper conceptual association, at least until certain episodic scripts are attached to the logos.
I'd agree with plurabelle that the thread is ambiguous and without much merit if we're not given people's reasons for their lexical proclivities. I explained my fondness for 'aubergine', but then you'd expect that, as I'm a linguist, albeit a casual/lapsed/sad excuse for one these days.
"Do you want to come up to my bedroom and see my collection of words?" No thanks.
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Words I like...
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