Tweet
Here's an interesting article for the grammarians.
Shifts in Linguistic Surface Structures Lead to Different Paths of Association at the Level of Deep Structure.
Like many of the linguistic patterns defined by NLP, the concept of transderivational morphology comes from exploring the intuitions of native speakers. We have many unconscious intuitions about suffixes and prefixes as native speakers of our language. Native speakers of English, for example, will recognize "peaceful," "happiness" and "contentment" as well-formed words referring to a related group of positive emotional states. Part of the construction of the words includes well-known suffixes in English: "ful," "ness" and "ment." If the suffixes are switched around, however, the words will sound strange. "Peaceness," "happiment" and "contentful" seem like they could or should have meaning, but they are unusual.
Try playing around with words like Communist, Capitalist, Freudian, Christian, programmer, and practitioner. Switch around the endings and notice how it affects you: e.g., Communian, Capitaler, Freudist, Christer, programmist, and practitian.
From an NLP perspective, various affixes (prefixes and suffixes) could be considered to operate as types of 'verbal submodalities'. In fact, shifts in affixes are often highly correlated with shifts in the submodalities of the non-verbal portion of the inner representations associated with the word. For example, adding "ing" to a word, often results in the addition of the submodality of movement to whatever inner representation a person has for that word. Take words like "hand," "sled," "flower," "bite," or "sleep," for instance. Our initial representation of the experiential 'deep structure' to which these words refer is most likely an image or sense of some static object or event. Adding "ing" to produce "handing," "sledding," "flowering," "biting" or "sleeping," typically immediately brings in or increases a sense of movement with respect to the inner representation.
Try this out with some other words; such as "rock" --> "rocking"; "smile" --> "smiling"; "e-mail" --> "e-mailing"; etc. Notice how adding the suffix alters your internal representations.
It is also interesting to do this exercise with respect to words that we do not typically associate with the ending "ing." Think of some words like "phobia," "cancer," "victim," "problem," etc. Add the suffix "ing" and notice how your perception of the experiences or phenomena to which these words refer changes (i.e., "phobing," "cancering," "victiming," "probleming"). It is probably different than the way you normally think about it. It may even prompt you to smile or laugh, because it seems incongruous or unusual.
One of the main applications of 'transderivational morphology', in fact, is to shift our internal response to key words that constrain or limit us, by playing with the structure or morphology of the word. In the following exercise, for instance, words associated with problem states are "defused" by substituting alternative prefixes and suffixes.
Like many of the linguistic patterns defined by NLP, the concept of transderivational morphology comes from exploring the intuitions of native speakers. We have many unconscious intuitions about suffixes and prefixes as native speakers of our language. Native speakers of English, for example, will recognize "peaceful," "happiness" and "contentment" as well-formed words referring to a related group of positive emotional states. Part of the construction of the words includes well-known suffixes in English: "ful," "ness" and "ment." If the suffixes are switched around, however, the words will sound strange. "Peaceness," "happiment" and "contentful" seem like they could or should have meaning, but they are unusual.
Try playing around with words like Communist, Capitalist, Freudian, Christian, programmer, and practitioner. Switch around the endings and notice how it affects you: e.g., Communian, Capitaler, Freudist, Christer, programmist, and practitian.
From an NLP perspective, various affixes (prefixes and suffixes) could be considered to operate as types of 'verbal submodalities'. In fact, shifts in affixes are often highly correlated with shifts in the submodalities of the non-verbal portion of the inner representations associated with the word. For example, adding "ing" to a word, often results in the addition of the submodality of movement to whatever inner representation a person has for that word. Take words like "hand," "sled," "flower," "bite," or "sleep," for instance. Our initial representation of the experiential 'deep structure' to which these words refer is most likely an image or sense of some static object or event. Adding "ing" to produce "handing," "sledding," "flowering," "biting" or "sleeping," typically immediately brings in or increases a sense of movement with respect to the inner representation.
Try this out with some other words; such as "rock" --> "rocking"; "smile" --> "smiling"; "e-mail" --> "e-mailing"; etc. Notice how adding the suffix alters your internal representations.
It is also interesting to do this exercise with respect to words that we do not typically associate with the ending "ing." Think of some words like "phobia," "cancer," "victim," "problem," etc. Add the suffix "ing" and notice how your perception of the experiences or phenomena to which these words refer changes (i.e., "phobing," "cancering," "victiming," "probleming"). It is probably different than the way you normally think about it. It may even prompt you to smile or laugh, because it seems incongruous or unusual.
One of the main applications of 'transderivational morphology', in fact, is to shift our internal response to key words that constrain or limit us, by playing with the structure or morphology of the word. In the following exercise, for instance, words associated with problem states are "defused" by substituting alternative prefixes and suffixes.
F'ing speed camera got me going 63kmh in a 60 zone travelling down hill, $120 fine
Comment