Mariana never took notes. She never recorded anything. Her memory was a locked room, and she had learned to burn the contents each night. Otherwise, she told herself, the weight of ten thousand confessions would crush her.
The Role of the Listener: Addressee Influences on Message Formulation The Listener
The man cried. Then he talked about his own father, who had never come to anything. Then about the whiskey. Then about the small, brutal hope that tomorrow he might choose differently. When his hour ended, he stood up, looked at Mariana with red eyes, and whispered, “Thank you for not fixing me.” Mariana never took notes
(later updated in 2012). It argues that sound change often originates with the listener's misinterpretation of speech signals rather than intentional changes by the speaker. Intelligibility and the Listener Otherwise, she told herself, the weight of ten
You cannot argue with someone who is actively trying to understand you. Listening is the ultimate "soft" weapon for neutralizing hostility.