Points from the Videos about Language Behaviors
- The ability to differentiate, or see fine differences, is the mark of the expert, the teacher, the trainer, the coach.
- "We discriminate against people to the degree we fail to distinguish between them."
- It's possible for groups and individuals to take offense to something when no offense was intended.
- Words can be used to disguise and misrepresent intentions and realities.
- We need to be careful to not get wrapped up with categories, classifications, and labels. Sometimes we forget that categories, classifications, and labels are symbols for other symbols. They are arbitrary, man-made, and like other words, have no inherent meaning.
- If we are not exceedingly careful, we are susceptible to manipulation and persuasion by politicians, advertisers, public relations practitioners, and others. We should understand their techniques and approaches in order to learn how to detect and resist their appeals.
We ought to properly integrate what happens outside of our skin with the we way we internally process, interpret and think about those happenings within our nervous systems. Similarly, it makes sense that we strive to properly integrate, or structure, our verbal language to appropriately represent the non-verbal events and happenings which are NOT words.
The map IS NOT the territoryJust as a well-drawn map depicts, represents, illustrates, symbolizes, etc., an actual geographic area, so should our language properly reflect that which it refers to — that which is NOT language. However, we often confuse the words we use with those 'things' the words refer to. We confuse the word with the thing; we mistake the map as the territory.
We do well to remember:
- The structure of our language (the 'map') should be similar to the structure we find in the non-verbal world of not words (the 'territory').
- Language is an aspect of human behavior; language does not exist outside of the individual humans who use words, sentences, statements, questions, etc.
- When we forget, or ignore, these simple facts, we inevitably create problems, stress, and misunderstandings; with others, and with ourselves.
- The subject/predicate grammar form misrepresents what we know goes on in the non-verbal world:
Roses are red. 
We have learned to think of "red" as an attribute, or quality, in the rose itself. However, given our current understanding of how our nervous systems work, it's more appropriate to think of "red" as a product of our own individual eyes, brain and nervous system:
- We tend to think in terms of opposites, or two-valued differences: right/wrong ... black/white ... good/bad ... for/against ...
In the non-verbal world around us, however, we seldom encounter such clear-cut differences. Instead, we actually experience things, events, happenings, etc., along a spectrum, or a continuum, with lots of 'grey area' between the ends:
<-- more right ------------ more wrong -->
<-- more white ------------ more black -->
<-- more good -------------- more bad -->
<-- more for ------------- more against-->
- We often confuse statements which sound like facts, as facts. Rather than maintain a sense of tentativeness and uncertainty, we're quick to accept statements, comments, judgments, opinions, beliefs, etc., as facts or truth. This lack of discrimination, this disregarding of key differences, results in our acting and behaving as if we're responding to facts, when we're really responding based on assumptions, inferences, beliefs, etc.
Professor Irving J. Lee (1909-1955) of Northwestern University, proposed a high standard for considering something as a fact, vs. an inference:
Try a simple test to see how well you distinguish facts from inferences.Facts Inferences Can be made only after an observation, experiences, etc. Can be made anytime, including the present and future. Stays with what can be observed, does not speculate or presume. Goes beyond what is observed, speculates as to intent, motivation, meaning, etc. As close to certainty as humanly possible - would you bet your life on it? Expressed in degrees of probability, potentiality, etc. - Although we would immediately deny it, most of us react to word magic. We believe that if there's a name for something, or a word for something, then that something must be 'real'. Otherwise ... why would somebody have gone to the trouble to make up the word?
This unrecognized, perhaps unconscious, belief in "word magic" has facilitated the continuation of myths, superstitions, hexes, curses, jinxes, etc. We talk about something as if it exists, and describe it in great detail with other words, and draw pictures of it, and then begin to act as if it exists.
For example, you no doubt would say that unicorns are not real. And yet, you know what one looks like, you'd clearly recognize one if you saw one. In fact, would you even be surprised if you saw one in a zoo?
We also practice word magic when we respond to labels — especially those with political, religious, racial, ethnic or sexual implications — without regard for the context or intended meaning. Some people will immediately react with discomfort upon hearing, or reading, certain words: liberal, right-winger, pro-choice, nigger, spick, kike, Bible-thumper, faggot, dyke, mick, wop, bitch ...
We even respond physiologically to words. Have you ever eaten something unfamiliar, then had a negative reaction when you learned what it was?
Roses appear red to me.
- Language enables time-binding, allowing humans to build on the knowledge or prior generations.
- However, we need to be aware that languages are not perfect, but very imperfectly-developed human tools.
- The subject/predicate grammar form, in many cases, misrepresents what we know about the world around us.
- We tend to use either-or, two-valued terms describing polar opposites, instead of more appropriate relative terms.
- We often confuse inferences (assumptions, opinions, etc.) with facts, and create troubles when we act on inferences as if they were facts.
- Language allows us make up fantasies, yet talk about them as if they existed; we continue to pass along, and believe, superstitions, jinxes, myths, etc.
- We mistake the word as the thing, and react to the word as if it were the thing.
- We think of words themselves as having meaning, when it's the speaker who attempts to convey meaning, and the listener who interprets and derives meaning.
Read my column, "A word by any other name": Words have been in the news a lot lately. Of course, one could make the argument that what we call the news is nothing but words. We hear and read about the news in the words that are handed to us by others. Even when we view wordless videos of tsunami waves rushing through village streets and hear desperate screams for help, those sights and sounds have been presented to us in a verbal context. Then, having heard, read and seen the news, we think about the news and talk about the news and argue about the news using these same words. I confess that I don't see anything particularly interesting or significant about studying words. There's a lot of wisdom in the "rose by any other name would smell as sweet" thing. Whether you use this word or that word, changing the word doesn't change whatever it is that the word is referring to. [more]
Clips from "F**k: A Documentary" Clips from "The N Word: Divided We Stand"
The 3-hour, six-part "Talking Sense" video recordings by Irving J. Lee are available for purchase from the Institute of General Semantics.
