"love at first sight"....

[Olly]

Originally Posted by Helm

I'm greek, and I know my ancient greek very well, and there are no 17 words for Love. There are words for feelings, and for shades of them, like lust, awe, respect, liking but to say that 3 words expressing 3 degrees of lust are just another 3 words for love is silly. Check your info before making such strong claims.

Helm, I'll check my books on Ancient Greek, which I understood to be different from modern day Greek, but if you're right, then I apologize.

However, my argument still stands. Even if there is only one word for love, I can supply you the word for love in a dozen languages. Easily more than that if I really dig deep.

The point is that if so many people felt strongly enough that this EMOTION existed that they created a word to express that emotion, that proves that the CONCEPT of this emotion exists.

The fact that we are having this discussion at all proves that the Concept of love exists.

And to answer your initial question, yes, just because my ancestors had many different words for a thing, that doesn't absolutely mean that thing was as valid as you'd like to think. Linguistics are governed by the rule of necessity, not by that of validity. The greeks were in a position to socialise a lot on the agora while the slaves laboured for them, so it's only natural that language would have evolved so as to include slight deviations from strong social terms such as love, so as people would communicate their thoughts better. They also had so many words for different ideals, and shades of them, that doesn't make any of them inherently more or less right.

Your argument is unfounded.

That's kind of a ridiculous statment you just made, Helm. No offense, but from what you've said, my argument is validated.

This whole argument is to ask whether love exists. Love can only exist as an emotion and concept. It is not a physical presence. It's conceptual in nature. It's expressive of a feeling.

The fact that words were needed to express the feeling is validation that a feeling existed that necessitated the creation of a word.

Language did not happen by accident. Words aren't just "found". Meaning isn't assigned randomly. People expressly assign meaning to particular words and phrases, allowing communication.

Like I said, I'll check on that translation, and if you're right, there are a lot of professors here at VA Tech that will be surprised.

And if you're offended that I chose Greek for my analogy, well, I could just as easily choose Hebrew or Latin if you like.