Words Work Wonders

Visual messaging is powerful. It’s the quickest way to get a reaction. Pictures might seize our attention, but what can words conjure that images simply can’t?

Pictures are predetermined. We’re their recipients. But words connect with us in a uniquely personal way. When we hear, or read, sentences, we continually decipher a stream of information, attributing meaning, and attaching mental associations from our own perspective and bank of experiences. We don’t just scan letters - we model images and run simulations as we go. When we read, we make virtual worlds.

Cognitive scientist Professor Benjamin Bergen, in his book Louder Than Words, examines the role of grammar in dictating and modulating this process. We model each word in sequence as we read, so our simulation is led, and layered, by grammatical structure and cues. Words tell us what to visualise in the simulation, where to position those visualised elements, and how to interact with them. Words set commands, implant detail, and encourage sensory engagement. In all of these respects, grammar, says Professor Bergen, achieves “something that no other natural communication system we know of does.”*

The simplest of sentences generate vivid images in our minds. For example, if we read: A runner in a yellow vest raced up a hill, we visualise a runner in a coloured vest, articulate their motion, and add a landform - in that order. We mentally mould the scene in third-person perspective as a completed event, shaping the character, making the colour, and building the hill, to our own design. We’ve been given linguistic cues, but the details are ours. We have created a unique runner and hill.

If we’re told, instead: You’re running up a hill, we find ourselves in the present continuous tense. We’ve been given less visual information - no specific colour - but we engage from a first-person viewpoint, using our memories, and even our physical senses, to fill in the details and activate the simulation. We visualise a challenge: the summit above us. We might feel the ground beneath our feet. Our heart rate may quicken, and our muscles may twitch as we feel a sense of the effort needed to reach the top. We’re mentally controlling the process, just as we would the physical action. Words have triggered an immersive experience.

Positive commands trigger fast, active simulations, while negation slows us down. Let’s go for a walk! has an energising cognitive effect. There’s a clear call to action. We’re already visualising walking, and a place where we might go. Stop! brings us swiftly to a halt, but Don’t go! makes us pause, then focus on the verb. We need to know what we’re not supposed to do. Then, there it is: go! We visualise going, and caught in a counter-simulation, must then correct ourselves. There’s a roguish power in don’t. It intensifies visualisation of a forbidden action. Don’t look! compels us to take a peek. Don’t touch! invites a sneaky feel. Don’t does the opposite of what we’d expect.

Words have the power to make or break. Everything we tell ourselves, or say to others, shapes simulations: self-impressions and social projections. We are our own creators: good, or bad. If we’re caught in negation, we can change the mood. Replace Don’t worry! with Be assured. Is there really no point, or is anything worth a try? Why have nothing to lose, when we have everything to gain?

Words lead us down a logical path. We expect what we read to make sense. We anticipate meaning as we go, so might miss a mistake if we’re skimming text - but when suitably hooked, and nicely reeled in, we’ll be thrown off course by a glitch in the flow. Flowery language may sweep us off our feet, but sound grammar and spelling provide the foundation. Correctness instils confidence, and shows we respect our readers. Every word is a building block. We want our text to be technically strong - stable ground for an effortless read, and a smooth and steady simulation.

Words are covert persuaders. We barely notice their influence. They coax and hail us throughout our day - from notepads, devices and social feeds; from business transactions and retail displays; from ambient chatter and radio song; from family, colleagues, strangers and friends; from podcasts and broadcasts, and books before bed… and even in our dreams. When we write, or talk, and interact, we’re continually causing change.

Visual images can be visceral, but words seed thought from thought. They ignite our will to create, blurring the line between story and reader, product and purchaser, brand and user. We’re all participants in the process, whether we’re buying or selling; speaking or listening; reading words, or writing them. Every one of us is searching for common ground and a good fit. With words, we can model possibilities as new realities, and bring the best of them to life.

* Louder Than Words, Benjamin K. Bergen (Basic Books, 2012) ‘What Grammar Tells Us’, p.118.