Words with feelings

[pljames]

Even tho I love my native language (English) I understand when I see the words and know what they mean, but they are just words without feelings. Are they still just words when you give them feeling/life? Paul/Paul

[Tdol]

I think words can have a life of their own. In a sense they are still just words, but the imapct a single word can have can be life-changing- think of the effect of the word 'guilty' n a courtroom. However, their life is not just through things like that- they can resonate and affect us deeply. I recently watched a lecture by Professor Chomskyin which he said that human language reprsented a chalenge for evolutionary theory because it functions so differently from anything else in nature that it represents a challenge to explain it.

[pljames]

I recently watched a lecture by Professor Chomskyin which he said that human language reprsented a chalenge for evolutionary theory because it functions so differently from anything else in nature that it represents a challenge to explain it. TDOL

I love this sentence. A challenge to explain it. I love words and hate there synonyms. So I have adapted all synonyms as general meanings and definitions. I use part of the language, what I am able to understand to communicate. I love the language and wish to be more articulate in my meaning, but I keep it simple and basic. My prejudice and bias will not allow me to use words like epitome and synergy and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (whatever that means). Paul/pljames

[Curious Cat]

Paul,

I wonder what has made you raise this issue

Being a linguist and a translator I have decided it for myself long ago that words cannot be without feelings, except may be for technical terms
It's not so obvious in your native language because you do not think of your native language and its mechanisms and imagery and associations that much, but when you have to choose/select the words in the foreign language that is felt strongly !

I believe people did put some feeling in most of words of any language when they first builded them. Otherwise words would fail to serve their purpose of communicating feelings as they are, they would communicate only information and we wouldn't have poetry and songs and many other wonderful phenomena based on a combination of word and feeling...

Anyway an interesting issue to discuss!

CC