What Are Words Exactly, and How Do They Operate? Why Does Reading Work?

‘It shouldn’t woik, I tells ya!’

Photo by Noah Black on Unsplash

Consider this opinion of the prolific writer Stephen King:

Look — here’s a table covered with a red cloth. On it is a cage the size of a small fish aquarium. In the cage is a white rabbit with a pink nose and pink-rimmed eyes. In its front paws is a carrot-stub…