As an English teacher I am fascinated by how authors use language to create effects for the reader. We spend a lot of time helping students to unravel how it is that we feel excited, sad, or intrigued when we read a certain passage.
And that got me thinking about how little time we spend time looking at our own language, and the techniques that we use to create our own feelings of excitement, depression or joy. We all talk to ourselves (I don't think it's a sign of madness....) but what sort of language do we use? Do we express ourselves in negatives or positives? Do we say, "I don't want to feel too stressed when I'm doing 'x'", or do we say, "I want to feel really calm when I'm doing 'x'"? They are both attempting to convey the same information.....but the effect they create for our brains is quite different.
It would be an interesting exercise to look at all our conversation, both with other people and ourselves, and apply the same analytical tools that we apply to texts. I'm going to do it myself....and I'd be really interested to hear of anyone else's analysis.....Do I use particular extended metaphors? Is my language peppered with peculiar words? Are my sentences short or long when I'm feeling relaxed? In short, what is going on when I speak??
Tom Stoppard once said that when asked questions about his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he feels like he's standing at customs watching an official ransack his luggage. He cheerfully declares responsibility for a play about two people, and suddenly the officer is finding all manner of exotic contraband like the nature of God and identity, and while he can't deny that they're there, he can't for the life of him remember putting them there.
So it is for us.....we can't remember how our language came to contain all it currently does....but once we are conscious and aware of it....then we have the opportunity to change it.
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