ABSTRACT
A digital system such as language uniquely sustains propositional thought (Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson, 1967). For conceiving and then communicating a connection between, say, mass and energy or mice and men, a picture finally is not worth a thousand words. However, language expresses more than ideas. Effortlessly, automatically, receivers infer from speakers’ language styles their attitudes, moods, and affiliations. Some evidence indicates that language in the form of connected discourse is an especially potent determinant of receivers’ inferences about source (Triandis, Loh, & Levin, 1966).
