“Jeff, have you seen my keys?” Deb asks, looking Jeff straight into his eyes.
“No, where did you see them last?”
Here we have a simple question and answer. The readers can imply emotion in the text, but without knowing what has come before and after, they will not know the emotion of the characters. Well, except for some frustration on Deb for not being able to find her keys. Varying the pitch of spoken words facilitates hearers comprehending what is taking place. The tone in Jeff’s and Deb’s voices can make an enormous difference. I have taken the above examples and changed them slightly to show you what I mean.
Because I am using written words instead of spoken words, I am forced to add words to infer how emotions can be different in a simple question and answer.
“Jeff, have you seen my keys?” Deb asks, looking Jeff straight into his eyes.
“No, I didn’t hide them from you this time.”
“Jeff, have you seen my keys?” Deb asks, looking Jeff straight into his eyes.
“No, I’m not the keeper of your keys. You should be more responsible in keeping track of your keys.”
“Jeff, have you seen my keys?” Deb asks, looking Jeff straight into his eyes.
“No.” Jeff puts another spoon of Frosted Flakes in his mouth.
We speak words with inflections in our voice, telling those that listen to the real meaning to our words. The audible words can either corroborate or oppose the verbal words. Bottom-line, the responsibility of both individuals to not only ask, but to answer questions posed to us without a lot of hidden meanings.
In everyday conversation, we may need to fully understand what is meant by the interaction. In this post, my goal has been to help you, the reader, to be more mindful of what writers call subtext in all our conversations.
