More Words

Has anyone ever noticed how if you look at one particular word a great deal, it stops looking like a word that exists?

 

oh yes...lots of times... i remember once writing the word 'my' it just didnt look right and the more i studied it the more i thought 'what the fuck is that'... such a simple word...how stupid!!!!

 

Lol....or isnt that what you meant?

 

yeh i do it too. i think it is because words are of course obscure and language involves quick processes of intant recognition. the more you consider it, the less you will be detecting the rather instantaneous element of word recognition and the more you will be contemplating the actual nature of the word - its sound and letters.

it sort of starts to seem like.. a completely differnet language? because 'other languages' (ones you dont speak or understand) have none of this word-meaning link that we connect without even thinkning (depending on the extent and use of one's vocabulary).

 

Yes, that is what I meant. Thanks for the explanation, StonerBill. =)

 

WOW!
I didn't think anyone else did this...the only other time I mentioned it, the other person looked at me in a very very strange way and made me feel very very silly...

(when you look at a word too long, it's like it loses its character and just turns into something bizarre--why does it look like that? It doesn't make any sense now...that's how it happens with me, anyways.)

 

haha.... welcome to the ranks of the occasionaly confused Rubytuesday... comforting to know theres more of out there huh?...

 

Yes, indeed!

 

I did that the other day with the word "great". The more times I wrote it down, the stranger it looked. Try saying "chipmunk" outloud a couple times, after a while it sounds really strange (or maybe that's just me).

 

No, no! I did that too, and I did the same thing with the "Europe".

 

the same applies to if you say the same word over and over, it becomes just a sound guided by the workings of your body.... which it is essentially...

 

this happens to me a lot with the word "bark"

 

aye, the observation is more quickly realised when using onomatopoeias.

 

lol this has happend 2 me b4 too and in an english exam. i was lookin at my work and i was just thinkin "how the fuck do these curved lines mean shit at all?" especially the little basic words like My...i mean look at it...2 letters. lol

 

Language and words are mad weird i agree. One time me and my friends chanted the word water until it lost meaning then we wwere all like whaaaaat!!