Posts tagged language

klingon

Is passive income damaging your health?

Mar 21st

Posted by Judy in Influence

12 comments

Welcome! If you're interested in how people think, click to get The X-Ray Listener's Quick Guide To Metaphor and unlock a new perspective on the mind... for free.

Could the myth of “passive income” be damaging your health – or at least your psychological well-being – as Daniel Priestley, author of Become a Key Person of Influence,  proposed in a talk recently?

He argued that the notion of “passive income” was founded on the idea of making money by doing something one didn’t want to actually do, when in reality, money is more often made by doing what you’re truly passionate about.

It was interesting to hear this the day after experiencing TEDx Observer, a day of truly passionate speakers with “ideas worth sharing”. Speakers who were intent on changing the world for the better, each in a different, specific way: charity workers, bloggers, academics, entrepreneurs, artists, people with “causes”. Speakers who were not necessarily doing what they love so much as doing what they felt was important. More on this another day.

But Dan’s point was also interesting in the context of James Geary’s new book about the role of metaphor in thought, I is an Other.

Among many other interesting ideas, James draws attention to the More >

, , , , ,

Preposterous adjectives

Jan 21st

Posted by Judy in Clean Language

1 comment

Which part of language carries the most judgement? Adjectives, according to Simon Heffer, editor of the Daily Telegraph.

As a Clean Language enthusiast I’ve thought a lot about how to be as non-judgemental as possible in questioning, and as a news reporter and editor I was passionate about sticking to the facts as far as possible. And this was an an interesting reminder of a simple “how to”.

Heffer was speaking at the Great Style Debate this week. He was talking about how he did his own writing – and how he avoided the kind of howlers which would have his newsroom in stitches.

After writing his first draft, he said, he would “stick his head under the tap” and then read it again. At this point, he would take out as many adjectives as possible.

“Adjectives generally are a crutch… nouns do the job with economy, perfectly well. Strip adjectives out if you want to make sure it’s objective,” he said.

Heffer argued that there were two types of adjectives – factual ones like colours and sizes, and judgemental ones. And he deems some of the judgemental adjectives (such as “bubbly”) as completely preposterous – and therefore includes them on the Telegraph’s banned words list.

I agree with More >

, , , , , , ,

Elephants at IKEA

Jan 4th

Posted by Judy in Influence

6 comments

We went to IKEA yesterday. As well as a carful of storage solutions, the trip provided a great opportunity to examine how the Swedish furniture giant encourages people to spend.

I’m old enough to remember when Ikea first opened up in Britain, and completely changed the context in which we did our furniture shopping by using a new metaphor to change the context of the transaction.

Previously, people had bought new furniture to last a lifetime, usually in a “private consultation” with an expert sales assistant, after doing lots of research. It was a bit like the way new cars are sold nowadays.

Ikea changed the frame and made furniture shopping like going to the supermarket. People were piling trolleys high with colourful impulse purchases.

It’s a great example of how metaphor can be used to control the frame, the context, of an interaction.

A metaphor is a feature of language in which one kind of thing is compared to to another kind of thing.  At a simple level, you can often spot one by noticing the words “it’s like…”

However, it’s increasingly being realised that metaphor is not just a feature of language – it’s a feature of the way our minds work, often outside our conscious awareness. We’re More >

, , , , , , , ,

What is it about metaphor?

Dec 4th

Posted by Judy in Metaphor

No comments

In The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGilchrist explores the relationship between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. And it’s no accident that he’s used a powerful metaphor as the title of his book.

I’m still less than halfway through his book (after hearing McGilchrist speak at the NLP Conference last month) but already he’s helped me to make some important connections.

He really “gets it” about metaphor. Here’s part of what he says about the relationship between language, metaphor and thought.

“Language functions like money. It is only an intermediary. But like money is takes on some of the life of the things it represents.

“It begins in the world of experience and returns to the world of experience – and it does so via metaphor, which is a function of the right hemisphere, and is rooted in the body. To use a metaphor, language is the money of thought.

“Only the right hemisphere has the capacity to understand metaphor… Metaphoric thinking is fundamental to our understanding of the world, because it is the only way in which understanding can reach outside the system to signs of life itself. It is what links language to life.”

McGilchrist “gets” that metaphor is central to the More >

, , , , , , ,

Why it pays to use their words

Aug 3rd

Posted by Judy in Posts

5 comments

The new coalition government in the UK uses a different language to its predecessor. Of course, it’s still English – and it’s still packed with jargon! But according to a leaked memo, there have been subtle changes.

“Targets” have been replaced by “results”; “stakeholders” by “people”; “narrowing the gap” by “closing the gap”; “state” by “society” and so on.

According to an item on Radio 4 the memo was created to help outside agencies communicate more effectively with the government. How could it help? The implicit presupposition is that if you want to get your message across to someone, using their words rather than your own can be very valuable.

Research shows that this definitely does pay. Professor Richard Wiseman (in his brilliant book 59 Seconds) quotes a study from the University of Nijmegen in which a waitress increased her tips by 70 per cent simply by repeating the customer’s order back to them, rather than saying “okay” or “coming right up”.

How does this work? As commentator Dr Nicholas Ostler put it on the Today programme, “The way people talk is close to their soul.”

Using the other person’s words, parrot-phrasing rather than paraphrasing:

  • encourages the person to like you. Matching language sends a strong hint More >
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
12»