Feb
26
Wordplay
Filed Under Personal Topics
Ever wonder how many of the average woman’s 7,000 words per day are heard by the average man? Thankfully, perhaps, we have no way to measure how many words are heard, only how many are spoken. The average man speaks 2,000 words per day.
I recall a workshop I assisted at years ago. It was called the Advanced Action Workshop. In it Roger, the workshop leader, was exploring what really needed to be said, exploring the work of Fernando Flores in the process. The workshop was full of very powerful people, movers and shakers, who were used to speaking and being heard and who produced a lot of action in the world around them. My job in this workshop was to keep a written record of everything Roger said. This job kept me awake even in the presence of the philosophical exploration of words. The twenty or so participants in the workshop slept through most of the course. They literally couldn’t keep their eyes open. The material covered, all about linguistics and language, was so deeply dense and personal that it proved to be a sleep aid. In this particular course, action my arse, the participants napped during the course and came alive and awake for the breaks.
For months after the course I spoke very little. With my attention focused on language, I realized that few words really need to be spoken. Often, what passes for communication is an excess of words. Linguists indicate that less than five percent of any communication is the content symbolized by the words.
I remember my mother saying, “Mums the word.”
What needs to be said and what doesn’t? Anything you have to say about that?
In the Action workshop, the precursor to the Advanced Action workshop, we learned that all human verbal communication could be boiled down to four types and that knowing what type you where saying sweetened communication much like boiling maple sap turns it into naturally sweet maple syrup. The four types of communication are Request, Promise, Assertion, and Declaration. Determining how all language fits into these categories and how request, promise, assertion and declaration relate is sufficient to produce effective human communication, and action. Exploring these phrases regarding your own internal, infernal, dialogue will lead to greater peace, exploring these phrases as you speak to others will lead to prosperity.
If you would like (request) me (declaration) to flesh out each type of phrase (assertion) and even give you some practice with each (promise), please let me know (request).
Answer: 150 blahs, and six other words in the box.
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2 Responses to “Wordplay”
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Great article. You have opened the door to helping me look at the doorway of language, a Pandora’s box, so to speak.
How would I use Action language to help me motivate myself and others?
Have you ever asked yourself the question ” how much of the bullshit of my life is endured by others?”
Language is “toilet paper to a shitty arse hole” .. and you know it Jerry .. don’t encourage the miscreants!!
Bring them along … gently…
regards from your future!!! (if you are honest you will understand)
ps : did I get your attention yet?? (2 question marks.. that “means” something!!)
in the greater scheme of things , an “enlightened one would “descend enough” to respond…
You fucker ….. where are you …
note: I”m currently and deliberately under the “influence of the demon in the wine…(YUMMM) … but …. I still have the ability to question you oh , 6 inches to the right (or left) enlightnend one , which begs the question … who reads these you or the “observer” … Never the less …
I await your response .. make it worthy of you…