Imagine a word poised at the edge of recall. You know its rhythm, its shape, the gap it leaves behind. It hovers — present in absence, absent in presence. Yet the word itself will not come.
This is not simple ignorance. You know that you once knew it. Its trace is palpable. The forgotten word is therefore not nothing; it is a phenomenon of potential, an intimation of construal that does not actualise.
What matters here is the way meaning endures without form. The forgotten word testifies that construal exists as system before instance — a theory of what could be said, even when the instance is missing. Its absence is charged with structure.
What this reveals:
Forgetting does not erase meaning. It foregrounds the relational cut between possibility and actualisation. Meaning persists as potential, whether or not the instance comes to hand. The forgotten word is construal’s shadow, reminding us that language is always more than what is spoken.
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