You think in the mind of this unfortunate stunted dwarf, with his very limited axe-language, the few simple words of tools and weapons he remembers have become conflated with meanings and properties.
An axe might mean good, sharp, useful, reliable, or simply to kill with an axe. A seax is a short stabbing blade, which might mean... some other intimate, penetrative thrusting action.
It would take a dedicated team of linguists and anthropologists many decades of deep, intensive study to unravel the fascinating tapestry of subtlety and socio-cultural nuances behind the axe-language of the gloomy incel dwarf.
You wonder if the manipulation of meaning is a form of magic.
There is the icon, a depiction of the thing to represent the thing itself: a picture of an axe to depict an axe.
There is the index, hypernyms and holonyms. Types of things, parts of things or things near to them, that associate with referents, such as using smoke or embers to suggest fire, or a throne-seat to mean the king that sits upon it.
And most complex of all is the symbol, where one object means something completely different.
A white rabbit, or a frog; a wolf or eagle; or even a hedgehog, for instance.
>>5270053The symbol cannot be understood without comprehending something about the history, society, culture and customs of those attempting to decode its meaning. To try to understand another is also to understand oneself.
You wonder as to the power of this language of signs and symbols. Could it be used as battle-magic? Can mere signs and symbols be used to make war?
