October 30, 2016

October 30, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

This is my fifth response to “The Power of the Word May Reside in the Power of Affect” (2007) by Jaak Panksepp. Panksepp agrees with Shanahan that “amygdaloid-based emotional learning” is “oversold” and explains that “Social-emotional systems” which are “all accompanied by a panoply of emotional sounds” are probably more important in language acquisition. How we talk induces these “amygdaloid-based” processes.

“It is among these limbic networks we are most likely to find the affective forces for human language development and ultimately the compelling power of music and poetry, love and empathy.” I agree with both authors and with other researchers who are quoted by Panksepp.

Naturally, the “affective forces for human language” MUST have a particular sound. Without a particular sound the “affective forces of human language” are rendered incapacitated. The stimulation of Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) or Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) always refers to the presence or absence of “affective forces of human language”.

When we consider the “lilting, sing-song, emotional-communicative dance between mothers and infants, where high-pitched melodic “motherese” prevails,” we are referring to SVB as the one and ONLY way of talking which is “well-designed for language acquisition.”

In NVB we may express “cognitive-propositional thought”, but we need the “musical affective prosody” of SVB to engage “the communicative efforts of infants.” Moreover, we also need “musical affective prosody” or SVB when we are older. We are more likely to be reinforced when we are young, but we also need positive reinforcement when we are old.