May 10, 2016

May 10, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) by one person is often explained as Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) by another. Although nobody talks about it in this manner, within certain groups there is some agreement about what SVB is and what NVB is. Different verbal communities have their own versions of SVB and NVB and these response classes exist within each community. Within the Christian verbal community certain interactions are believed to be SVB or good, while others are believed to be NVB or bad. By calling it good or bad, we haven’t been able to improve our communication and our relationships.  However, our disagreement about what is SVB and NVB usually pertains to the fact that we belong to different verbal communities. Unless we have learned to speak a second language, we can only speak the language in which we have been raised, by which we were conditioned. In the case of the latter, we only know Chinese, but not English. Our Chinese language is not understood in an English-speaking verbal community. In the same way, those who engage in SVB are not understood by those who engage in NVB. Even though they speak the same language they cannot understand each other. The assumption that they speak the same language, because they belong to the same verbal community, is where the problem originates. The people within each culture, who dominate the discourse, who coerce others, would insist that they speak the same language as those who they oppress, but if we ask the oppressed and listen to what they say, we hear that they are quite aware of the fact that the oppressor speaks a different language than they do. At the same time the oppressor and the oppressed speak the same language.  Obviously, the oppressed English-speaker isn’t able to understand the Chinese oppressor. It would only be possible for the English-speaker to understand the Chinese oppressor if this Chinese oppressor used non-verbal ways to get his or her message across. This is what happens in NVB. NVB speakers are more threatening, but not more convincing or more intelligent.