verbalist

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun One skilled in the use of words.
• noun One who favors words over ideas or substance.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun One who deals in words merely; one skilled in words; a literal adherent to or a minute critic of words; a literalist; a verbarian.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A literal adherent to, or a minute critic of, words; a literalist.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun One who possesses verbal or oratorical skill.
• noun One who favors words or the wording of something over its meaning or the idea behind it.