Language Intelligence summary

It’s tempting to think that people who use ornate, florid phrases and pepper their sentences with recherché locutions are smarter than those who use short and simple words to communicate.

But that’s not necessarily true. In fact, short words usually get the point across much more effectively than long ones. Winston Churchill, orator extraordinaire, firmly held this belief. What’s more, the finest and most memorable sentences in our culture are far from complex. Just consider Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy or Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I have a dream” speech.

If you’ve ever had to deal with a grumpy toddler, you’ll know that one no is never enough. You’ve got to say it again and again and again, until the negation finally sinks in.

It’s exactly the same with adults. Just like children, we learn and remember through repetition.

You’ve probably seen this classic defense strategy in action. Someone’s losing an argument, and so, instead of pushing logically forward, he takes a different tack and starts making fun of his opponent. First, he sarcastically praises his opponent’s intelligence and then mockingly agrees with his opponent’s arguments.

Climate change deniers often use irony in this way to attack scientists.

There’s a dramatic principle known as Chekhov’s gun. If a play begins with a pistol on stage you can be certain that it'll be fired before the final act. It’s not a spoiler – in fact, it heightens the suspense.

The same rule holds just as true in speeches: foreshadowing serves to strengthen the main message.

Metaphors aren’t part of our everyday speech. We’re unlikely to use them when asking someone to pass the salt, for example. We tend only to use metaphors in elevated or emotional situations. When we tell someone she’s our sunshine, it’s not literal – but it’s more powerful than merely saying they’re nice.

To be sure, metaphors trump similes.

If a simple metaphor can create one vivid picture, an extended metaphor can generate a cascade of images.

Once again, the Bible provides a good example of this rhetorical technique.

The art of rhetoric, fine as it is, can also be used for evil.

Indeed, the dark side of rhetoric was already well known in classical Athens. The Sophists were a group who prided themselves on their ability to make weak arguments seem strong by using rhetorical techniques.