10. Advanced Language Patterns

Related Reading

Activities are based on Chapter 10, “Advanced Language Patterns,” in Healing with Language.

Framing and Reframing

Using language to set perceptual frames and to reframe perceptions so that they better serve your purpose is a valuable skill.

Sleight-of-Mouth Patterns

Some of the most useful language for reframing have been codified as “Sleight of Mouth” patterns because they are so successful.

The Metamodel

Bandler and Grinder called the first model of language patterns they developed the “Metamodel” because it was first. The Metamodel is designed to clarify communication by recognizing and correcting deletions, distortions, and unwarranted generalizations.
Sub-Discussion: Pay attention to TV advertising (other ads will work, but TV provides more examples) and notice violations of the metamodel. List the violations and indicate what you would ask to clarify the deletions, distortions, and unwarranted generalizations.

Example: Someone is going to have to do something about that. [Who exactly? What would he or she need to do? What specifically needs something to be done?]

The Milton Model

One of the three therapists Bandler and Grindler modeled most closely was hypnotherapist Milton H. Erickson, M.D. The language patterns he used to promote healthy change were codified into the Milton Model. The patterns are essentially hypnotic in that they occupy the conscious mind while addressing the unconscious or the other-than-conscious mind.
Sub-Discussion: Provide two or three examples of when and how you would use each of the following Milton Model language structures:

• Presuppositions
• Embedded questions
• Embedded commands
• Negative commands (include the Magic But)
• Tag questions
• Conversational postulates
• Metaphors
• Quotes

Use your replies to this discussion topic to make sure that you understand the various forms of ambiguities and to have a little fun along the way. The most commonly confused are syntactic and scope.

Syntactic: They were milking cows. [Does “They” refer to people doing the milking, or does “they” refer to the cows?] I shot an elephant in my pajamas (courtesy of Groucho Marx). [Who was in the pajamas?]

Scope: I enjoy reading interesting books and magazines. [Does “interesting” apply to both books and magazines, or just to books?] While downtown, I saw some men and women on motorcycles. [Were the men and the women all on motorcycles?]

1. What exactly is a perceptual frame? What do you need to know about the content of the frame? What do you need to know about its context? Give examples of how you can use that information to create an effective reframe.
2. Complete the exercise at the bottom of p. 151 in Healing with Language using two or three of your own limiting beliefs and two or three others you know have expressed. Listen and look for statements expressing a complex equivalence and a cause-effect relationship (see pp. 148 and 149 in Healing with Language). Select two or three of each that you think require reframing, and then use two or three of the sleight of mouth patterns to change someone’s perceptual frame. Report on your experience.
3. Looping is a way of stacking metaphors. When would that be useful, and how would you go about it?

4. Ambiguities are useful not only for the purposes of hypnosis and altered states, but also for increasing brain flexibility. They can also be a lot of fun, as most comedians are fond of proving.