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The the the the induction of jamais vu: word alienation and semantic satiation

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Re: The the the the induction of jamais vu: word alienation and semantic satiation

#13

Post by Yoric »

Is this what happens with words losing their entire meaning with propaganda?

Not going to quote a specific word, but I live in a country that has gone into propaganda overdrive during the last few weeks and people who should know better (quite possibly including myself) are starting to use words to mean anything and their opposite.

Re: The the the the induction of jamais vu: word alienation and semantic satiation

#15

Post by pixl97 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #9

There’s two phenomena that come to mind: 1) when I say the same word over and over and within a minute the word sounds and feels weird and wrong. 2) everyone overuses and exaggerates a word so much that it loses its power and meaning. Are these the same thing?

I don't think so.

I've had number 1 occur to me just a few times in life. One where I was waiting for our printing class to be unlocked in school and when looking at PRINT SHOP on the door, suddenly PRINT became unreal to me. Like "what the fuck is this word". It is an odd and very jarring experience.

2 is more like saying "You're a nazi" when someone doesn't clean up spilled milk devaluing the impact of the term.

Re: The the the the induction of jamais vu: word alienation and semantic satiation

#16

Post by JohnMakin »

Yoric wrote: post #13

Is this what happens with words losing their entire meaning with propaganda? Not going to quote a specific word, but I live in a country that has gone into propaganda overdrive during the last few weeks and people who should know better (quite possibly including myself) are starting to use words to mean anything and their opposite.

how woke of you /s

Re: The the the the induction of jamais vu: word alienation and semantic satiation

#17

Post by comradesmith »

otras wrote: post #14

An easy way to do this is to remember this oddly grammatically correct sentence: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Though is it satiation if the meaning is different for different instances?

I don’t think that’s the same at all. Nobody could ever actually understand that sentence without breaking it down.

Semantic satiation can come up when you’re having a conversation and use the same word often enough (not necessarily back to back) that it feels like that word is wrong, or doesn’t mean anything. You start to pay attention to the sound of the word instead of the meaning.

Re: The the the the induction of jamais vu: word alienation and semantic satiation

#19

Post by chimpanzee »

Yoric wrote: post #13

Is this what happens with words losing their entire meaning with propaganda? Not going to quote a specific word, but I live in a country that has gone into propaganda overdrive during the last few weeks and people who should know better (quite possibly including myself) are starting to use words to mean anything and their opposite.

No, this is about how a repeated word can lose familiarity and meaning entirely. In particular, the audible and visible forms become unfamiliar, as though it is no longer a legitimate word at all and instead sounds and appears like pure nonsense or of another unknown language.
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