I was reading Bindology and tried this:
>> type? first ['x]
== lit-word!
>> type? 'x
== word!
I expected type? 'x to return lit-word! too. Appreciate any insights.
A LIT-WORD! if seen in a "live" context by the evaluator resolves to the word itself. It can be used to suppress evaluation simply with a single token when you want to pass a WORD! value to a function. (Of course, in your own dialects when you are playing the role of "evaluator", it's a Tinker-Toy and you can make it mean whatever you want.)
Had you wanted to get an actual LIT-WORD! you would have to somehow suppress the evaluator from turning it into a WORD!. You noticed that can be achieved by picking it out of an unevaluated block, such as with first ['x]. But the more "correct" way is to use quote 'x:
>> type? quote 'x
== lit-word!
Beware an odd bug known as "lit-word decay":
>> x-lit: quote 'x
>> type? x-lit
== word!
That has been corrected in Red and is pending correction in Rebol. Until then you have to use a GET-WORD! to extract a lit-word value from the variable holding it:
>> x-lit: quote 'x
>> type? :x-lit
== lit-word!
(You may have already encountered this practice as the way of fetching the value of a word vs. "running" it through the evaluator...as when you want to deal with a function's value vs. invoking it. It should not be necessary on values holding lit-word!. Accident of history, it would seem.)