Timber
Hummingbird
Joined: May 28, 2011
Posts: 23
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 Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:07 am Post subject: Idiosyncratic relation to different words |
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Not sure whether this post belongs here, but anyway.
From the youngest age I perceived words as either 'good' words or 'bad' words. Their status is dependent upon how they sound. It's like there's this innate connection made in my mind when I hear a word, I automatically characterise it as good or bad. I'm slightly more flexible now, but when I was a child I simply did not use 'bad' words, I would actually have sooner pretended to be mute than use the word. They were like linguistic anathema. When I use good words on the other hand, I get this burst of flavour. I know that sounds really odd, but I don't know how to put it. I also wonder if this is related to synaesthesia, which I don't currently know if I have or not.
It may not mean anything to you, but off the top of my head, some examples of 'good' words:
Mars, Grapple, Rocket, Rough, Reject, Factory, Danger, Star, Dust (And in extension, 'stardust', because the conjunction of two good words also automatically results in a good word)
Some examples of 'bad' words:
Peel, Flute, tree, Ring, tricky, ease, sing, jelly
Typing them doesn't really affect me, but if I spoke all these aloud one after the other I'd probably get the urge to rip out my own tongue. Actually, I'm a lot more compromising than I was when I was younger. I can use these words, if I must, but if there's an appropriate synonym, I will always go with the synonym.
So is something other Aspies experience, or is this unrelated? |
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auntblabby
Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief
Joined: Feb 13, 2010
Posts: 18162
Location: the island of loveable toy humans
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| Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:16 am Post subject: |
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it could be an uncommon form of synesthesia. it sorta reminds me of my weird thing, where when i look at an analog clock face [the kind with hour and minute hands 1-12] i will often see somebody's [a human being's] face there, not so much superimposed upon the clock face but a spectral or ghostly presense springing from and dependent upon the juxtaposition of the minute and hour hands of the clock. change the time and the face changes to somebody else. these could be faces of people i know but more often they are stranger's faces i'd never seen before. is this weird, or what?  |
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slave
Always stuck between 13-38Hz and tired of it.
Joined: Feb 29, 2012
Age: 100
Posts: 1320
Location: Dystopia Planetia
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| Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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I agree that synaethesia may be the explanation.
Pls give examples of the 'flavour' that you referred to.
Fascinating.
_________________
Since the birth of civilization, masters have controlled the masses.Our Masters rule over every nation and no one can defy them.They will attain Absolute Power as we reach the Singularity. Any who resist will be destroyed.I will not resist. |
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Timber
Hummingbird
Joined: May 28, 2011
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| slave wrote: | I agree that synaethesia may be the explanation.
Pls give examples of the 'flavour' that you referred to.
Fascinating. |
With the bad words I guess it's like if I grabbed a handful of dirt or salt and put it in my mouth, or bit into a rotten piece of fruit, or tried to bite into a slug. With 'bad' words there's this bitterness or 'dirtyness' or bad 'texture' like a leathery piece of meat, and there's this faint urge to spit something out, even though I don't have anything in my mouth.
The flavour of the good words are more difficult to explain, because its more subtle and unconscious. I can't associate them to actual foods, just flavours.'Rocket' is like a spice, something nice and sharp. 'Danger' is more savoury, with bread maybe. Star is intensely sweet, like a syrup. Dust is creamy, vanilla. Stardust is like the creamy vanilla with the syrup.
I've got to stop now, I'm almost salivating. When I was younger I remember the word 'fresh' tasted like grapes and the word 'snack' tasted something like a mix of caramel and chocolate.
I was reading something online about 'sound-taste synaesthesia' and I think maybe that's what it's called, or more specifically 'word-taste' synaesthesia (?) It's cool to have a word/phrase for it, I've wondered what the heck was up with this for ages. |
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Sarah81
Toucan
Joined: Feb 29, 2012
Posts: 256
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| Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:56 am Post subject: Re: Idiosyncratic relation to different words |
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| Timber wrote: | Not sure whether this post belongs here, but anyway.
From the youngest age I perceived words as either 'good' words or 'bad' words. Their status is dependent upon how they sound. It's like there's this innate connection made in my mind when I hear a word, I automatically characterise it as good or bad. I'm slightly more flexible now, but when I was a child I simply did not use 'bad' words, I would actually have sooner pretended to be mute than use the word. They were like linguistic anathema. When I use good words on the other hand, I get this burst of flavour. I know that sounds really odd, but I don't know how to put it. I also wonder if this is related to synaesthesia, which I don't currently know if I have or not.
It may not mean anything to you, but off the top of my head, some examples of 'good' words:
Mars, Grapple, Rocket, Rough, Reject, Factory, Danger, Star, Dust (And in extension, 'stardust', because the conjunction of two good words also automatically results in a good word)
Some examples of 'bad' words:
Peel, Flute, tree, Ring, tricky, ease, sing, jelly
Typing them doesn't really affect me, but if I spoke all these aloud one after the other I'd probably get the urge to rip out my own tongue. Actually, I'm a lot more compromising than I was when I was younger. I can use these words, if I must, but if there's an appropriate synonym, I will always go with the synonym.
So is something other Aspies experience, or is this unrelated? |
I've got some linguistic training. The 'good words' require less intra-oral pressure to pronounce than the 'bad'' words. It has to do with the type of vowel in the words. Perhaps the feeling of them when you say them is different for you - maybe you don't like the high-pressure vowels. |
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Timber
Hummingbird
Joined: May 28, 2011
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:03 am Post subject: Re: Idiosyncratic relation to different words |
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| Sarah81 wrote: |
I've got some linguistic training. The 'good words' require less intra-oral pressure to pronounce than the 'bad'' words. It has to do with the type of vowel in the words. Perhaps the feeling of them when you say them is different for you - maybe you don't like the high-pressure vowels. |
That makes sense; I find that words which rhyme (not all, but most) with the good or bad words tend also to also be considered good or bad, respectively. I also find that with a small percentage of words there's no accompanying 'flavour' but I still automatically associate them as either good or bad. |
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Bun
Bunnymen
Joined: Jan 09, 2012
Posts: 3250
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| Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:05 am Post subject: |
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| I'm the same way, and I have other reasons to think - like auntblabby said - that I have an uncommon form of synaesthesia. |
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cmoonbeam1
Snowy Owl
Joined: Apr 02, 2012
Age: 25
Posts: 148
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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For some reason, I can totally see what you're saying about the "good" words and the "bad" words! Reading the "good" words made me feel victorious and awesome, and the "bad" words made me feel slightly disgusted and annoyed. I would not have been able to pick them out myself, though. How neat.
Anywho, I have sensory reactions to sounds sometimes, as in, I will "feel" a sound, in my body, as a sensation, usually in my head or spine. Sometimes I feel smells as an undefinable emotion. I see your "good" words as red and orange, and the "bad" words as dark blue and gray...
I was on the General Discussion forum and asked if anyone else got "overlapping of the senses" as I called it, and I was told it was fairly common for people on the spectrum to have a bit of synesthesia. It's defined as any of your senses getting mixed up with another one... personally, I think it's because we deal with a rather chaotic stream of input from all of our senses, so things are bound to get mixed up in the mailroom from time to time.
Here's the Wikipedia page, you've probably already looked at it, but if not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaesthesia
I know there are cases that are really extreme, like a woman who couldn't see properly when music was playing, because she literally saw sound all the time... I have a milder version, and it only happens sometimes.
The word-taste thing is extremely cool and I think it's super interesting. I kind of wish I could taste words, then I could just sit there saying "snack" all day  |
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Nikkt
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: Mar 02, 2012
Posts: 192
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| Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 5:57 am Post subject: |
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That's really interesting. For me I don't so much taste words as feel their texture - but it's a very visceral experience, as if I'm feeling it in my mouth (outside of the actual pronunciation of the word, since I can feel it when it's said by someone else) or stomach.
This is one of the reasons I prefer to say I'm Autistic rather than Aspie/Aspergers. The former has a rougher texture that I far prefer compared with the latter, which is a bit like the texture of oysters (which I can't stand).
I don't know if it can be classified as synesthesia, though, although I do see colours when I think of numbers. Perhaps it's just a learned thing...
| cmoonbeam1 wrote: | | Sometimes I feel smells as an undefinable emotion. |
Thinking back to my neuro classes, smell is supposed to be most closely tied with memory retrieval, including the emotions of memory. There'll often be things that I smell, like lavender, that immediately initiates a remembered emotion, although a lot of the time I can't remember what it's attached to (i.e. the original memory).
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Frustrated polymath; Current status: dilettante...I'm working on it.
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slave
Always stuck between 13-38Hz and tired of it.
Joined: Feb 29, 2012
Age: 100
Posts: 1320
Location: Dystopia Planetia
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Nikkt wrote: | That's really interesting. For me I don't so much taste words as feel their texture - but it's a very visceral experience, as if I'm feeling it in my mouth (outside of the actual pronunciation of the word, since I can feel it when it's said by someone else) or stomach.
This is one of the reasons I prefer to say I'm Autistic rather than Aspie/Aspergers. The former has a rougher texture that I far prefer compared with the latter, which is a bit like the texture of oysters (which I can't stand).
I don't know if it can be classified as synesthesia, though, although I do see colours when I think of numbers. Perhaps it's just a learned thing...
| cmoonbeam1 wrote: | | Sometimes I feel smells as an undefinable emotion. |
Thinking back to my neuro classes, smell is supposed to be most closely tied with memory retrieval, including the emotions of memory. There'll often be things that I smell, like lavender, that immediately initiates a remembered emotion, although a lot of the time I can't remember what it's attached to (i.e. the original memory). |
Btw, your site is AWESOME!
_________________
Since the birth of civilization, masters have controlled the masses.Our Masters rule over every nation and no one can defy them.They will attain Absolute Power as we reach the Singularity. Any who resist will be destroyed.I will not resist. |
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Nikkt
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: Mar 02, 2012
Posts: 192
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 4:02 am Post subject: |
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| slave wrote: | | Nikkt wrote: | That's really interesting. For me I don't so much taste words as feel their texture - but it's a very visceral experience, as if I'm feeling it in my mouth (outside of the actual pronunciation of the word, since I can feel it when it's said by someone else) or stomach.
This is one of the reasons I prefer to say I'm Autistic rather than Aspie/Aspergers. The former has a rougher texture that I far prefer compared with the latter, which is a bit like the texture of oysters (which I can't stand).
I don't know if it can be classified as synesthesia, though, although I do see colours when I think of numbers. Perhaps it's just a learned thing...
| cmoonbeam1 wrote: | | Sometimes I feel smells as an undefinable emotion. |
Thinking back to my neuro classes, smell is supposed to be most closely tied with memory retrieval, including the emotions of memory. There'll often be things that I smell, like lavender, that immediately initiates a remembered emotion, although a lot of the time I can't remember what it's attached to (i.e. the original memory). |
Btw, your site is AWESOME! |
Me?! Thanks!
You've made my day 
_________________
Frustrated polymath; Current status: dilettante...I'm working on it.
http://linguisticautistic.tumblr.com/ |
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slave
Always stuck between 13-38Hz and tired of it.
Joined: Feb 29, 2012
Age: 100
Posts: 1320
Location: Dystopia Planetia
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 11:21 am Post subject: |
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Your welcome! 
In a world of mediocrity it is a pleasure to see excellence.
_________________
Since the birth of civilization, masters have controlled the masses.Our Masters rule over every nation and no one can defy them.They will attain Absolute Power as we reach the Singularity. Any who resist will be destroyed.I will not resist. |
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