who can you 'love'?

[J. Clancy Clements]

Dear Funknetters,
This is an observation in response to John Myhill's inquiry about who can
say 'love'.  Just yesterday, after I'd read his posting, my wife and I were
talking about her thesis adviser, and she said, with much emotion, that she
loved him.  She added that he's like a father away from home.  "love" in
the familial sense constitutes, if you will, one of the prototypical
contexts in which love is felt.  I think this type of love can be felt for
anyone, but the declaration of it may be qualifed or compared to a love
felt for a family member because that is one of the prototypical contexts,
others being the love felt for a lover or for the divine (cf. Greek agape,
philios, eros).  So, maybe the notion of prototypes is useful in studying
the usage of 'love'.


Clancy Clements


J. Clancy Clements
Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Linguistics
Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese
Ballantine Hall 844 / IU
Bloomington, IN 47405
USA
Tel. (812) 855-6141
Fax: (812) 855-4526