Author: B. F. Skinner Foundation

Although autoclitics are set up by the verbal community because they are useful to the listener, we must not forget that the speaker is himself a listener and that he…

In the absence of any other verbal behavior whatsoever autoclitics cannot occur. We do not simply say almost or perhaps or some or the. It is only when [primary] verbal…

We sometimes add autoclitics to the verbal behavior of another speaker: we emphasize what he has said by saying True!, we qualify it by saying Maybe, and we deny it…

In a logical or linguistic analysis of the response All swans are white, it may be admissible to say that all refers to, or modifies, swans. In a scientific account…

An autoclitic affects the listener by indicating either a property of the speaker’s behavior or the circumstances responsible for that property. (329)

Another kind of autoclitic affects the reaction of the listener by indicating the kind or degree of extension of a tact. When we respond to a novel stimulus with a…

The kinship of is with Yes is apparent in the common coupling Yes, it is. Its function as a descriptive autoclitic is shown by comparing such examples as I think…

... considering three examples: (a) Jones is ill, (b) Jones is not well, (c) “Jones is well” is false. Although all three of these responses may be emitted with respect…

The response no, as an example of a qualifying autoclitic, has the force of a mand. It may be roughly translated Don’t act upon this response as an unextended tact.…

A two-year-old girl had been taught not to touch objects by parents who, instead of saying No!, merely shook their heads. The child acquired the behavior of approaching a forbidden…

By a sort of magical extension, we also emit the mand [No!] when it is too late and the object has been shattered. The response is naturally extended to verbal…

The effect of no is clear when it is emitted as a mand specifying the cessation of nonverbal behavior on the part of the listener. We observe that someone is…

Russell thinks that the reason [for negation] is always verbal. Someone asks Is it raining? and we reply No, it is not raining . . . But the stimulus which…

The traditional solution, which seems to apply [to negation], is that there must be some reason for saying It IS raining whenever we say It is NOT raining. (p. 322)

In a logical or linguistic analysis, we may perhaps say that the referent of no rain is the absence of rain, but this is clearly impossible in a causal description.…

Once verbal behavior has occurred and become one of the objects of the physical world, it can be described like any other object. We have no reason to distinguish the…

Negative autoclitics qualify or cancel the response which they accompany but imply that the response is strong for some reason—for example, that it has been made by someone else. (p.…

Another group of autoclitics describe the state of strength of a response. I guess, I estimate, I believe, I imagine, and I surmise all indicate that the response which follows…

One type of descriptive autoclitic informs the listener of the kind of verbal operant it accompanies. If the speaker is reading a newspaper and remarks I see it is going…

The term “autoclitic” is intended to suggest behavior which is based upon or depends upon other verbal behavior. (p. 315)

Because controlling relations are so important, well-developed verbal environments encourage the speaker to emit collateral responses describing them. (p. 315)

When we ask “Did you see it, or did someone tell you?”, we are asking for more information about controlling relations. We are essentially asking, “Was your response a tact…

The ultimate explanation of any kind of verbal behavior depends upon the action which the listener takes with respect to it. (p. 314)

Although it is possible that such “knowing” may be nonverbal, the contingencies which generate a response to one’s own verbal responses are unlikely in the absence of social reinforcement. It…

The contingencies necessary for self-descriptive behavior are arranged by the community when it has reason to ask “What did you say?,” “Did you say that?,” “Why did you say that?,”…

The speaker may acquire verbal behavior descriptive of his own behavior. Although the community can establish such a repertoire only by basing its reinforcing contingencies upon observable behavior, the speaker…

Part of the behavior of an organism becomes in turn one of the variables controlling another part. (pp. 312-313)

The verbal operants we have examined may be said to be the raw material out of which sustained verbal behavior is manufactured. But who is the manufacturer? We cannot satisfactorily…

The verbal operant is a lively unit, in contrast with the sign or symbol of the logician or the word or sentence of the linguist, but it does not fully…

If an audience can be shown to strengthen a particular subdivision of a verbal repertoire, we do not need to say that a speaker chooses words appropriate to his audience.…

If metaphorical extension can be shown to take place because a particular stimulus property has acquired control of a response, we do not need to say that a speaker has…

If we can show that a response is stronger when we deprive the individual of food, then we do not need to say that a speaker uses the response to…

... if we can show that the occurrence of a response is due to the presence of a stimulus of specified properties, then it is not necessary to say that…

As a causal agent responsible for the structure and character of verbal behavior, the speaker is threatened by the causal relations identified in the course of a scientific analysis. Whenever…

Converting the speaker into an interested bystander is certainly the direction in which an analysis of behavior will first move. (p. 311)

When the auxiliary source of strength is clear, we may say that the response is “revealing” in the Freudian sense. Thus, after a narrow escape from a serious accident, a…

Two responses are likely to be strong at the same time if they are both functions of the same variable. Many blends are mixtures of two or more tacts under…

When two operants are of approximately the same strength at the same time, their responses seem to blend or fuse into a single new, and often apparently distorted, form. (p.…

Many conundrums are not asked in order to get an answer, but simply to set the stage for the wit of the answer supplied by the asker. (p. 289)

The witty person can be aggressive or otherwise offensive by inducing the listener to laugh it off. (p. 288)

The reinforcing effect of a clever style is hard to analyze; we usually simply report our delight and prove it by returning to the same writer for more of the…

By anticipating objections (“prolepsis”) or answering imaginary objections (“anthypophora”), the speaker reduces the tendency of the listener to emit responses which might provoke disagreement or misunderstanding. (p. 280)

We learn to speak to be understood. (p. 280)

I understand, like the more casual I see, describes the strength of a verbal response with respect to the sources of that strength. (p. 279)

We understand anything which we ourselves say with respect to the same state of affairs. We do not understand what we do not say. (p. 278)

We say that we do not “get it” or do not “see what the writer is driving at” or why he says what he says. What we mean is that…

In a trivial sense “to understand” is “to be able to say the same thing.” This is the sense in which we say that we can or cannot hear over…

When, for example, the listener blushes at the mention of a social error, he can be said to have understood what was said to the extent that his reaction was…

The listener can be said to understand a speaker if he simply behaves in an appropriate fashion. (p. 277)

Creating a match between the behavior of listener and speaker is often useful for ulterior purposes... A venerable example is the fable or parable, where a story is told in…