Linguistic frames
When we look at the world through a window we see a particular view.
Look through another window, even a small distance from the first and although the world outside the window remains the same, your unique view of it through that second frame may be subtly, or radically different from the view through the first frame.
More importantly for our purposes here, your thoughts and feelings about the two views and the internal representations resulting from the two experiences are likely to be equally different.
Similar results can be achieved linguistically using linguistic frames, and if you're familiar with the common expression 'it's not what you said, it's how you said it' then you are likely to appreciate just how useful linguistic frames can be in inter-personal communication.
Using linguistic frames we can adjust the meaning of one language structure by framing it inside a second language structure, and this is something you probably do every day without realising it.
In the following examples we'll examine ways to utilise linguistic frames to:-
- Disagree with another person's point of view and get them to agree with our point of view without them even being aware of it (agreement frame).
- Satisfy another person's request by giving them something other than what they asked for (purpose frame).
- Move a person from a stuck state by getting them to think in new ways and imagine doing the very thing don't want to do or think that they can't do (what if frame).