The rhetorical device called “paraleipsis” consists of emitting a response together with an autoclitic which asserts that the response is not being emitted: I will not mention the obvious lack…
One form of editing which involves an obvious process of review and revision consists of emitting the response but qualifying it with an autoclitic which reduces the threat of punishment…
In general, symbolic behavior lacks the punishable properties of the unsymbolic counterpart but retains properties which are positively reinforcing. (p. 377)
There are many reasons ... why behavior drops below the level of scope or energy at which it affects the surrounding world, but much behavior is covert simply because it…
When passing a litter of pigs while walking with a friend, a sudden inquiry about the friend’s children is scarcely apropos. (p. 375)
Verbal behavior may be automatically self-punishing. The names of disliked persons and responses appropriate to embarrassing, dangerous, or gruesome episodes generate punishing consequences in the process of being emitted. (p.…
The deficient control in the impure tact—lying, exaggerating, wishful thinking, and so on—invokes punishment in most communities. (pp. 373-374)
Certain properties of responses are aversive to others and likely to bring punishment. Among these are too loud a voice, a rasping tone, undue sibilance, heavy alliteration, singsong, and such…
Verbal behavior may be objectionable to the listener simply as noise. Punishment for this reason usually drives the verbal behavior of children to the covert level. When the community has…
The emotional by-product of punishment need not occur if aversive effects prevent the emission of the response even in subvocal form. This is what Freudian psychologists call “successful” repression. (p.…
The speaker usually rejects a response because it has been punished . . . Rejecting a response reduces the conditioned aversive stimulation generated by it and is reinforced because it…
Much of the self-stimulation required in the autoclitic description and composition of verbal behavior seems to occur prior to even subaudible emission. In both written and vocal behavior changes are…
Subvocal behavior can, of course, be revoked before it has been emitted audibly . . . that is one of its advantages. The speaker tests his behavior on himself before…
Withholding audible speech may seem to be nothing more than not emitting it. Some restraining behavior may, however, be detectable, such as biting the tongue or lips or holding the…
A response which has been emitted in overt form may be recalled or revoked by an additional response. The conspicuous external record of written verbal behavior may affect the “speaker”…
VERBAL RESPONSES are described and manipulated by the speaker with appropriate autoclitics which augment and sharpen the effect upon the listener. They are also often examined for their effect upon…
Hypnotic procedures intensify verbal control to the exclusion of other forms of stimulation. The exceptional results obtained under hypnosis do not differ in kind from the normal behavior of the…
The often dramatic behavior of the listener under hypnosis is an extreme case of instruction. Techniques for inducing the hypnotic state are rich in mands, and hypnotic suggestions usually take…
The speaker can build confidence or belief by saying many things which are obviously true or quickly confirmed, or by resorting to rhetorical devices. The listener is instructed by repetition,…
In addition to the usual factors affecting the listener’s behavior (such as clarity of the verbal stimulus or the extent of conditioning of separate responses), successful instruction is subject to…
The notion of communication breaks down . . . when both the speaker and the listener are in possession of “the same facts,” or, more precisely, of “the same behavior.”…
It is the function of predication to facilitate the transfer of response from one term to another or from one object to another. (p. 361)
When I call your name, answer “Present” is a mand comparable to Say “Present”, except that the listener withholds the response until the condition in the When clause is satisfied.…
An amphora is a Greek vase with two handles has at least three effects upon the listener. As a result of having heard this response he may (1) say amphora…
We pick up the names of objects without autoclitic help when we observe someone manipulating objects while also naming them. Thus we may “learn the name of” a Jones-plug by…
The young child hearing someone called Jones many times does not therefore himself call him Jones, nor for this reason report that Jones was present, nor point to Jones in…
... Ali Baba might explain to a confederate To open the door, say “Open, Sesame!” or If you want to open the door, say “Open, Sesame!” This will be effective…
The verbal stimulus When I say “three”, go! may have no immediate effect classifiable as a response, but it changes the subsequent behavior of the listener with respect to the…
By piling up words which refer to periods of time and words describing things which occur in vast numbers, the verbal stimulus eternity (scarcely capable of ostensive definition) is given…
If X is someone who arouses a strong emotional reaction in us, then the remark X is going to telephone you shortly will alter our subsequent response to the sound…
By saying When you hear a bell, you will feel a shock, we construct a future response to a bell. The new stimulus here is nonverbal, as in the original…
When shock has become an effective conditioned stimulus, it may be paired with another verbal stimulus in a situation which is wholly verbal. By saying When I say “three”, you…
Parentheses have an almost pictorial character in separating one response from another, as do dashes used either as the equivalent of parentheses or as a sign of breaking off. (p.…
The colon has a sophisticated function equivalent to that of the autoclitic as follows. The apostrophe, both in the possessive’s or s’, is a relational autoclitic with no vocal parallel.…
Quotation marks are obviously associated with the autoclitic he said. The effect is carried vocally by intonation and timing. (p. 356)
The “punctuation” of written verbal behavior is perhaps the best example of compositional autoclitic behavior. It satisfies our criteria because it cannot occur until primary behavior is available to be…
Written verbal behavior can be two-dimensional or, rarely, three-dimensional. Tables, lists, charts, systems of indices, and so on, are all verbal devices in which autoclitic arrangements are carried out in…
In a rather speculative way we may reconstruct the process of composition by analyzing a segment of behavior into (1) its essential operants, (2) the intraverbals possibly arising from these…
In general we are reinforced for complete sentences and punished for broken or fragmentary expressions, and variables strengthening only a few responses tend to evoke complete sentences through multiple causation.…
Some sentences are standard responses to situations comparable to well-memorized verses or maxims or oaths. Others are nearly complete skeletal “frames” upon which an exceptional response or two may be…
Some simple sentences are generated simply by adding autoclitics to available verbal operants. (p. 345)
The ultimate explanation of autoclitic behavior lies in the effect it has upon the listener—including the speaker himself. In general the reactions of the listener at issue are those which…
The speaker not only emits verbal responses appropriate to a situation or to his own condition, he clarifies, arranges, and manipulates this behavior. His activity is autoclitic because it depends…
No one can emit a tact in response to all honest men or to all instances of saying honest. The statement [All honest men are happy] really concerns the defining…
Much rewriting consists of trying different starts, in the sense of responding to different aspects of the situation and adding different grammatical tags. (p. 338)
Something less than full-fledged relational autoclitic behavior is involved when partially conditioned autoclitic “frames” combine with responses appropriate to a specific situation. Having responded to many pairs of objects with…
In general, as verbal behavior develops in the individual speaker, larger and larger responses acquire functional unity, and we need not always speculate about autoclitic action when a response appears…
The manipulation of verbal behavior, particularly the grouping and ordering of responses, is also autoclitic. Responses cannot be grouped or ordered until they have occurred or at least are about…
Purely formal analyses of grammar and syntax (in which, for example, parts of speech are defined in terms of formal properties, including frequency or order of association with other parts…
An extension of the autoclitic formula permits us to deal with certain remaining verbal responses (for example, shall, of, but, and than) and certain fragments of responses which occur in…