Comments on: Questioning Questions http://sashen.com/blog/68/questioning-questions/ Investigations on the Psycho-Spiritual Life Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:52:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: ric http://sashen.com/blog/68/questioning-questions/#comment-26886 ric Thu, 01 May 2008 10:48:30 +0000 http://sashen.com/blog/68/questioning-questions/#comment-26886 It must be a regional dialect. We don't do that here, eh? It must be a regional dialect. We don’t do that here, eh?

]]> By: sashen http://sashen.com/blog/68/questioning-questions/#comment-26806 sashen Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:10:17 +0000 http://sashen.com/blog/68/questioning-questions/#comment-26806 Interesting that you bring up acceptance... a few years ago on NPR, someone did a story about kids who speak as if everything were a question. And they interviewed a girl from my old high school. When asked why she spoke that way, she immediately STOPPED speaking that way and answered, "It makes whatever I'm saying less threatening to people in authority." I was stunned by her immediate clarity. Now, I don't believe most people are using this way of talking for that reason. By now, it just seems like a new dialect. Nonetheless, it does have an impact on the listener, the same way that a British accent affects Americans differently than, say, a Southern or New England accent. Interesting that you bring up acceptance… a few years ago on NPR, someone did a story about kids who speak as if everything were a question. And they interviewed a girl from my old high school. When asked why she spoke that way, she immediately STOPPED speaking that way and answered, “It makes whatever I’m saying less threatening to people in authority.”

I was stunned by her immediate clarity.

Now, I don’t believe most people are using this way of talking for that reason. By now, it just seems like a new dialect. Nonetheless, it does have an impact on the listener, the same way that a British accent affects Americans differently than, say, a Southern or New England accent.

]]> By: ric http://sashen.com/blog/68/questioning-questions/#comment-26801 ric Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:55:17 +0000 http://sashen.com/blog/68/questioning-questions/#comment-26801 "the most important part of the question is actually the assumption underneath it." In linguistics that's called a 'presupposition', a hidden assumption that must be true in order for an utterance to have meaning. NLP training includes detecting, responding to and creating presuppositional language. Too complicated for me, i just get sucked in. Did i stop beating my wife? “How can I attract more money into my life?” “How do I get rid of the blocks and resistance that are keeping me from having a successful relationship?” “How do I get over my fear of intimacy?” I see these questions more as a matter of unspecified abstraction, likely arising from the unwillingness to do the obvious. The NLP approach would be to elicit specific concrete examples. Attract money? Get a job! Rob somebody. May require unpleasant activity. “I’m 17?” strikes me as a real question that asks something on the order of "is this the answer you want?" The intent, though, may be other than seeking acceptance. “the most important part of the question is actually the assumption underneath it.”

In linguistics that’s called a ‘presupposition’, a hidden assumption that must be true in order for an utterance to have meaning. NLP training includes detecting, responding to and creating presuppositional language. Too complicated for me, i just get sucked in. Did i stop beating my wife?

“How can I attract more money into my life?” “How do I get rid of the blocks and resistance that are keeping me from having a successful relationship?” “How do I get over my fear of intimacy?”

I see these questions more as a matter of unspecified abstraction, likely arising from the unwillingness to do the obvious. The NLP approach would be to elicit specific concrete examples. Attract money? Get a job! Rob somebody. May require unpleasant activity.

“I’m 17?” strikes me as a real question that asks something on the order of “is this the answer you want?” The intent, though, may be other than seeking acceptance.

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