The edges of words

Abstract

Where does a word start and where does it end, what are its boundaries, its limits, where and what are its edges?One might most readily Ð at the outset Ð construe this question as relating to the meaning of words. From this viewpoint, the`edges' of words may refer to points at which the meaning of a term shades o or falls o' (those places at which we would write, utter, or use a word tentatively, with hesitation, unsure of the soundness or correctness with which we do so) or, especially, as concerning the connotations of words. And, indeed, even a brief consideration indicates that there are many points of connection between the notion of connotations and the`edges' of words Ð many apt conjoinings are possible. For instance, we may see connotation as relating to those aspects or qualities that`give the edge' to a particular word, giving the word priority or preference over another word which, although it may be quite close in meaning, yet subtly fails or falls short relative to the preferred word. Connotations may also be seen as at`the edge' of words because they are most likely to be in contact with, or near, other words and other ideas and notions; here connotations are those relations, attributes, and intimations which, through nearness in time, place, or other modes of association, come to adhere to a word. This sense of the connotative meaning of words as growing outward through associations is most acutely and one might say accumulatively connoted by Roland Barthes.