Callista wrote:
It seems to me like Kamex understands the emotional connotation of a word; but that he understands it intellectually instead of intuitively like most people (NTs) do.
Anyway, that's the way it is with me. I have to be careful to speak accurately in connotative as well as denotative meaning; thankfully I have a big vocabulary and can usually pick the word with the right connotation. It's actually quite fun and challenging to get JUST the right word.
The people with the disorder I was alluding to can also intellectually decipher the connotation of a word, but to them it's just another fact like the measurements of a room. Because they do not truly feel the emotional nuance they attempt to convey, their emotional state is considered
shallow (yes, that is the psychiatric term for it:
shallow affect). Psychologists have measured this emotional word processing deficit by measuring how fast they respond to emotional words compared to neutral ones (normals respond to emotional words faster); they respond equally as fast to both types of words. They are also found not to be distracted by periphery stimuli in word-naming tests. The disorder I am referring to is psychopathy. (I do not know if similar tests have been performed on people on the autistic spectrum.)
Callista wrote:
It does annoy me when people use a word just for its connotative meaning, though. For example, many realtors say they sell "homes". They are trying to attach an emotional meaning to their product that it may or may not eventually have to the buyer. This is inaccurate: They are selling "houses", and no more.
To me, a home is any place intended for a person to live in. Real estate agents sell homes because they sell places intended for people to live in. A house is a specific type of residence; apartments, condominiums, duplexes, lofts, and other types of residence can be homes as well. Of course, I suppose not all houses are homes if they are in such a state of disrepair that they can no longer safely or comfortably have someone live inside. Home, of course, also has that second emotional connotation of
that place place where ,b]I[/b] live; a new house may not "feel like home" for a while. I would say this emotional connotation is not the only accurate usage of
home, however.
I seem to have a natural ability to use emotion-generating words in my speech and writing. It can make conversation a little more interesting, but this can lead to a tendency to use exaggerated words and scenarios to keep myself amused while talking. I don't know how many other aspies are like this.
06 Nov 2006, 5:12 pm
