This is my review of: The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say about Us, James W. Pennebaker, Bloomsbury Press, New York, 2011, pps. 352.
Welcome back. With this month's EWA, we begin a new series that explores the research findings of James W. Pennebaker, a social psychologist at UT Austin who discovered the magic of short, forgettable words.
When you write any communication, you probably do so believing that content is its most important feature. However, author Pennebaker begs to differ; he asserts that the style of any communication can be more important than its content.
In his book, Pennebaker reflects on his decades of research in the field of computational linguistics, which uses computers and specialized software to count the number and kind of words used in any message. Over the years he has shown that an analysis of writing style can yield amazing insights about the person who wrote it.
How does Pennebaker define style?
By style, Pennebaker means the way any author of any communication (from a tweet to an entire nonfiction book, novel or play) uses the very shortest and most innocuous words, what Pennebaker calls ''function words.'' These include pronouns such as I, you, we and they; articles such as a, an, the; prepositions such as to, for, over; and other words he calls ''stealth words.''
By all appearances, function words seem to be the least significant words. Indeed, when you listen to anyone while they're speaking to you, function words are always the ones that ''fall out.'' They disappear without a trace.
Why do we need to pay close attention to function words?
According to Pennebaker, ''your brain is not wired to notice [function words], but if you pay close attention, you will start to see subtle patterns begin to emerge.''
You may remember the Biblical adage, ''The meek shall inherit the earth.'' Thanks to Pennebaker's groundbreaking research, the very meekest words have, if you will, inherited an important role in allowing us to de-code and read heretofore hidden information about the author of any communication.
What kind of hidden information can function word-analysis reveal?
''The analysis of function words [and how they're used in any given writing sample] can lead to new insights into personality, gender, deception, leadership, love, history, politics and groups,'' writes Pennebaker.
He asserts that hidden in patterns of functional-word use is a method that could identify each one of us as surely as if our fingerprints or iris-patterns had been used.
Making some amazing predictions
According to the book's dust jacket: ''Using innovative analytic techniques, Pennebaker x-rays everything from Craigslist advertisements to the Federalist Papers. Who would have predicted that the high school senior who uses too many verbs in her admission essay is likely to make lower grades in college? Or that a world leader's use of pronouns can reliably presage whether he will lead his country into war? ''
In commenting on the significance of his work and discussing his area of social research, Pennebaker writes, ''Ultimately, I'm interested in psychology and social behavior. Words, in my world, are a window into the inner workings of people, a fascinating and revealing way to think about language and its links to the world around us.''
Next Month
In next month's EWA (May), I will describe the research Pennebaker conducted at the beginning of his career that eventually led to him discovering the predictive nature of function-word patterns. His early research demonstrated the power of writing to help victims of severe emotional trauma heal when they write directly and repeatedly about their traumatic episode.
In June's EWA, I will cover how Pennebaker decided to ignore writing content and to focus exclusively on writing style, or the use of function words in writing. I'll describe some of Pennebaker's conclusions about how people express themselves and distinguish themselves through their use of function words.
In July's EWA, I will explore how men and women's use of function words varies. Yes, most men and women express themselves differently. It's not because men and women come from different planets; rather, it's because they rely on different patterns of functional word usage to express themselves.
