Monday, March 14, 2016

How does a person's thoughts affect his/her use of language?

The question is a bit vague, but I think I know what you
mean.  Our thought processes involve emotions, mental images and the use of language
itself as many of our thoughts are in phrases, as if talking to ourselves or
others.


The emotion of thought sometimes affects how we
speak, as the language associated with such emotion tends to translate into the spoken
word in a less organized fashion.  That is, the emotion causes us to think less
"clearly", and so the language we end up choosing is usually less appropriate or less
fluent.  If you have ever heard the phrase "Don't speak without thinking", that is
because such language attached to emotion is usually clumsy or socially
awkward.


The menatl images we have, of a hamburger, of our
first house, of our parents or loved ones, all translate into the specific words we
use.  We associate our words with the thoughts, is another way to say
it.


When speaking in public or in a formal sense, we tend
to think through what we want to say ahead of time, word for word, and to speak more
slowly, carefully and thoughtfully.  We want to be clearly understood in these
situations, or we are performing, much as an actor thinks of his
lines.

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