Lack of Referential Index
I thought I might play around with something fun today.
A referential index is a noun or pronoun that refers to a specific group or category. It is possible to delete a referential index and have nobody actually receive an action. People do this all the time in real conversation.
“Frank told me he went to Walmart on Thursday to buy a new pair of workboots.”
Now come the deletions:
“He told me he went to the store sometime ago to buy this.”
There is no referential index and yet it still makes sense, but it is now a more subjective experience. The listener is left to themselves to fill in the blanks. It’s almost like those adlib stories we entertained ourselves with as kids.
So, now for the fun part. I’m going out to digg to pick a random story, something with specific referential indexes. Then I’ll delete them all and rewrite it, hoping it will still make sense.
I’ll take the first paragraph:
BP to dump more toxins in Lake Michigan
WHITING, Ind., July 14 (UPI) — An enormous BP oil refinery in Indiana is planning to pour significantly more ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan, it was reported.
OK, time to delete it all!
Some company to dump more stuff in a lake
An enormous company in some state is planning to do more of something in a lake, it was reported.
The scary part of this is that most of our news (what news?) and many people’s (who exactly?) conversations lack a referential index. What the hell do we talk about most of the time anyways?
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admin :: Jul.15.2007 :: advanced language patterns :: 8 Comments »
Its always been that way, what I really hate is how the media gets to decide whats important, not only how they write it but what they write about
LOL that sounds like a good idea. Can’t wait to hear what you come up with.
This was so fun to read! I think I remove all referential index in my speech.. not on purpose though! I often wonder if anyone understands anything that I say.
Gerri,
Don’t feel bad. So many people do this.
aidmn
Do Ethical News anchors ever Use Embedded Commands?
Hi Martin,
Most people use embedded commands in natural conversation without knowing they are doing it. The difference is the actual “marking off” of embedded commands consistently so that the listener’s unconscious mind recognizes the pattern and says, “Hey! I get it and I better listen.”
It might be an interesting project to record some news anchors, recognize any suggestive phrases, and then look for “marking off” such as change of tonality, certain hand gestures, tilt of the head, etc.
Good question.
i read once about all the tons of copper tailings dumep in the Lake off Chicago frightening stuff*
Fnord, fnord, fnord. I’m not familiar with “digg.” Is that an acronym or something?