January 9, 2014

January 9, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

The reader is now reading something that was written with the letter type called “Dotum.” As you can see, it makes the words appear wider apart and I really like that. In my hand writings I often made attempts to achieve this effect, but not with a whole lot of success. I noticed that my words became more legible if I spaced them wider apart, but my habit of writing them close together again always came back to me. Now I realize that writing my words so close together represents speech in which I am talking fast. Writing words further apart expresses my calm speech. I enjoy expressing my calm speech, but I must know more about my disturbed speech to be able to have more calm speech. 

In Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) the words follow closer after another, but in Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) they are further apart. The gaps between the words in SVB signify a sense of peacefulness, beauty and joy. They have their own function and they add meaning, which is revealed in a natural and relaxing manner. SVB is effortless and simple, but NVB requires effort and is complicated. The space between the words in SVB indicates that not all meaning is verbal. It gives room for thoughts which would not occur when words are crammed together.The denseness of words in NVB suggests that meaning can’t exist without words. Of course, meaning depends on words, but the proximity of too many words often confuses rather than clarifies. A person, who tries to say too much at once by talking too fast, is easier to be recognized as someone who is emotional in speech than in writing, but the effect of such a person’s writing is very similar. We say “we can’t get a word in edgeways” when we don’t have the opportunity to say something because someone is talking so much or so quickly. If texts become too wordy, we also can’t think anymore and we stop reading.