Quote by C.S. Lewis
The vocabulary of endearment, complaint, and abuse, provides, I think, almost the only specimens of words that are purely emotional, words from which all imaginative or conceptual content has vanished, so that they have no function at all but to express or stimulate emotion, or both. And an examination of them soon convinces us that in them we see language at its least linguistic. We have come to the frontier between language and inarticulate vocal sounds. And at that frontier we find a two-way traffic going on.
Summary
This quote suggests that certain words used to express endearment, complaints, and abuse are purely emotional, devoid of any imaginative or conceptual meaning. These words exist solely to express or arouse emotion. Examining them reveals that they lack linguistic depth, almost bordering on inarticulate vocal sounds. This signifies a two-way exchange happening at the boundary between language and non-linguistic sounds.
By C.S. Lewis
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