How much of what we experience cannot be expressed in words?

Question

The intangibles...are words inert?

Answer 1

Very little can be expressed, I must say. Words are restricted by their meanings and context while experience is unbound. To express experience in words is like writing names of sounds while listening to an orchestra. You can describe an event with words, but the experience of the event is a phenomenon that only a magnum opus can describe.

Answer 2

I suppose it is different for everyone based on how easily words come to them, but there are still some things, some deep feelings, that I think simply cannot be expressed in words alone. If I had to measure it, I'd say that it's a small fraction because some people don't experience things deeply at all, or at least they don't seem to. Maybe...maybe it can't really be measured. I think sometimes...you just know. See, now I've lost words to try and describe it :)

Answer 3

i would say a section of an experience cannot be described by words , you can never fully describe feelings or recall exactly what you were feeling at an exact moment. plus there may be part of you unwilling to disclose something, i don't tell some people some things because they may not think it as important as i do, and that look they get on their face saying, is that it? but sometimes (this happened to me after 4 years) things keep bottled up inside you and then there is just too much and it starts seeping out in a way that you don't want and directed at the wrong person.

Answer 4

That is a very interesting question you have posed. Here is a good example. I lost my hearing completely 5 years ago after a lifetime of hearing perfectly. I have learned to read non-verbals pretty well. I can tell you, even though I have difficulty lip reading a lot of detail in what people are saying, I am hardly ever off the mark in overall meaning. My point is, a lot of what people experience IS expressed, whether they use words or not.

Answer 5

I truly don't think any of what we experience can be put into words. Every experience we have is a grand combination of sensory input, thought process, and emotional involvement.
How can words alone express all that? You can being to describe, say, banging your toe (lame example, I know), but you can't express the way it felt, even using every metaphor and simile you can think of, how it made you feel (kinda stupid, clumsy, out of control), the way your skin felt, the way your nerves respond...LOL...by the time you have tried to explain one very inconsequential thing, your listener has simply shaken his head and said something like "yeah, so you banged your toe..."
Words are inadequate.

Answer 6

There is too much expression through words, for the words in themselves devalue the meaning of experience and thus keep us bond in a vicious circle that will not allow us to see outside the whole.

Answer 7

Sorry- Mr. Marbles that's not love, you need a dictionary and morals --Look that up under M.

Obviously, people say things all the time that is misunderstood by others. Being articulate is an art.

Words are inadequate, because they are just words and feelings are so much deeper.

Answer 8

Words are often recycled and cannot come close to actually having a fresh experience.

Answer 9

too much...words are either too hollow or grossly over used and have lost what little meaning they were able to convey...the emotions which we feel too strongly or the ones that really resonate in us can never be expressed by words...

Answer 10

Only that which is not felt in words.