Posted by Helen on: 09.11.2007 /
This week’s TIME magazine has an article by Steven Pinker, Words don’t mean what they mean
Here’s an excerpt from it
Why don’t people just say what they mean? The reason is that conversational partners are not modems downloading information into each other’s brains. People are very, very touchy about their relationships. Whenever you speak to someone, you are presuming the two of you have a certain degree of familiarity–which your words might alter. So every sentence has to do two things at once: convey a message and continue to negotiate that relationship.
Comment by: benjamin ady
1 09/11/07 8:57 AM | Comment Link |indeed. I didn’t read the whole article. But I do find it helpful to myself when I’m able to remain aware that my words have both a content message and a relationship message.
but from your headline, I thougth you were going to talk about antagonyms, like “cleave”, which mean the opposite of themselves: cleave to your spouse, or cleave a piece of meat. =)
Comment by: Steve S.
2 09/12/07 4:26 AM | Comment Link |A bag of MnM’s is worth at least 10 “I love you’s” to my wife…
The medium/delivery is at least as important as the message; there are some things that require a specific medium for the message to be complete.
I think many things cannot be communicated accurately in mathematical prose statements, but rather require the language of the poet, the mystic, the infatuated…
…they require narrative, lyric, confession, to communicate the truth.
Comment by: Helen
3 09/12/07 8:35 AM | Comment Link |Benjamin, that would be a different topic but definitely an interesting one :)
Steve, so MnM’s are your spouse’s ‘love language’ then? (Did you ever read any of the ‘Love Languages’ books by Gary Chapman?)
…or MnMs?