Our Way With Words
Words have consequences. They are not just an intermediary between our thoughts and our actions. Sometimes they also have a performative and illocutionary function, which means they constitute an action in and of themselves. We advise through words, promise through words, marry through words and end it through words. Written words may have a lasting effect, but the spoken ones have immediate effects in our everyday social transactions. We humans interact with each other solely through language. Our cognitive and emotional states are conveyed to other people through words. So it’s through words that we’ll be weighed, understood or misunderstood. How the other person reacts will depend to a significant extent on the choice of our words by which we connect with them. Both being empathetic and gaining empathy are functions of words. One may be sincerely and in earnest empathizing with some person, but one needs appropriate words to express this emotion. Similarly, when we seek to be u...