The Elements of Voice First Style

Chapter 6. The Rules of Conversation

Language is far more than a mere collection of symbols that human beings use to exchange information about themselves and the world around them. Words exist for acting upon the world,¹ and they are always used within a context: they are used by people (or by machines), at a certain time, at a certain place, with a set of goals or intentions to create some effect or counteraction, and they are directed to a certain audience. More than that, they are spoken or written within a stream of other words, and they are delivered in a certain way.

We saw in Chapter 1 the example of the meaning of “That’s great!—that’s all we need!” and how it varied depending on whether it was said in response to a statement that announced good news (the reaction expressing happiness and enthusiasm) or in response to a statement that announced not so good news (expressing deflation and dismay). In the context of active, real-time conversations between humans (for instance, telephone conversations), the context is immediate and the full meaning of words and statements is being constructed by a complex set of influences. How the conversation was started, for instance, immediately creates a context and framing that can greatly influence the rest of the exchange: was it opened with a perfunctory “Hello” or was the “Hello” skipped, with the person instead opening with, “What’s going on here?” (signaling distress or anger) or “So, this is what I think…” (expressing intimacy ...