A Pragmatic Guide To Communication & Change.pdf - NLP Info Centre

A person's preferred representational system may influence many aspects of his life,
including his choice of careers. It may even be that the language patterns associated with
the preferred system are a significant part of the job itself. The following is an example of
this generalization.
If you have ever listened to two lawyers arguing a case, you may have noticed some
specific linguistic patterns. One very common means of expression is the deletion of
themselves (deleted referential index) from the conversations and replacing the "spaces"
with
can be! I tell you, I'm just tired of having all this responsibility shoved in my
face...
There are two easy ways to determine whether or not a word is a nominalization. One
way is to say the phrase: "An ongoing -" in your head, filling in the blank with the
suspected noun. If the phrase makes sense, then it is a nominalization. Using the first
underlined word in the above excerrt, the phrase "An ongoing relationship" makes sense.
The word "relationship" is a nominalization. If we use the word "desk," as in the phrase
"An ongoing desk, "the phrase doesn't make sense. The noun "desk" is not a nominalization.
The second way to determine if a noun is a nominalization involves visualizing a
wheelbarrow. It is easy to imagine placing a noun like "desk," "person," or "apple" into
this imaginary wheelbarrow. These are all concrete nouns. Nominalizations, however,
don't "fit" in our imaginary wheelbarrow. This is because they are distorted forms of
verbs called abstract nouns. From the example above, they are the words "relationship,"
"obligations," "pain," and "responsibility."
When responding to a nominalization, it is important to assist the speaker in
reconnecting with his experience so that he recognizes the role he plays in the process
involved. By changing the noun back into a verb with its actively participating elements,
you assist the speaker in understanding his roll as an active participant. This enables him
to more easily perceive his full range of choices and the control he can exercise.
In dealing with the "nominalized" client from above, the following responses could
effectively be utilized:
Speaker: "It's just that this darned relationship isn't working out."
Response: "flow is the way you are relating not working out for you?" (Here, the
nominalization is changed back into a process word, or verb, and is used to ask
for the missing information - see "unspecified verbs.")
Speaker: "...1 can't do anything without it being there to remind me of my
obligations...."
Response: "'f'o whom are you obligated to (to what?"
Speaker: "...you know what a pain they can be."
Response: "How do you experience that pain?" (Here, in order to answer the question, the
speaker must change the nominalization back into the process-verb. Again, if his
answer does not give you sufficient information, simply ask for the deleted material
as demonstrated in the section an unspecified verbs.)
Speaker: "I'm just tired of having responsibility shoved in my face." Response:
"What do you mean 'responsibility?' "
Denominalizing the Medical Model