Language use is one of the pinnacles of human history but is also one of the major perils.
Some disciplines, such as psychology and therapy, have gone around and around in circles just replacing one set of abstract terms for another and seen that as progress.
So how should we think about all this?
Here is my simple way, either as a mantra or an equation, depending upon how sciency you are…
When you hear or observe someone using language, talking, writing, or thinking…
Your mantra or equation is…
Social Relationships are being used here to exchange Resources
How are they doing it?
Are they languaging to get something specific…
or are they languaging to help the relationship itself (and have fun)
That is all… Try using this on all language, no matter how strange or weird it seems at first…
(This is also all there is to Discourse Analysis except for the details they have researched)
More about the perils of language
Chapter 7 of Guerin, B. (2020). Turning psychology into social contextual analysis. London: Routledge.
or
holisticelephants 