The study focuses on words that are called “function words”. Some of these words include pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, and a small group of other words that would mean nothing if left alone. A few examples may be using words like the, a, be, anything, that, will, him, and and.
Researchers have found a way to give a Languange Style Matching score to the way people communicate and predict the future outcome of a relationship, or for that matter, where it stands at that point in time. For example, when a relationship’s LSM score is high, it most likely means that the relationship is going through a stable phase. On the counterpart, when relationships find themselves hanging from a light thread, the LSM score tends to go below average.
Have you ever found yourself mimicking other's style of language? Maybe this is the reason why you do it. Will and Linda from our Life section have an LSM score of 0.9, meaning that they hold a high level of compatibility. Now for example, if we take Will’s letters and mix it in with Mary Oliver’s poem “An Afternoon in the Stacks” we get a score of 0.66. Still a slight compatibility in language, but not as strong as the kind he had with Linda. To check out your own LSM scores go here. Share your results with us once you're done.
Here is a rather peculiar scene from “A Beautiful Mind” where words like the ones pronounced by the character played by Russell Crowe could have turned out wrong in an innumerable amount of contexts, only this time it didn’t. Can you tell why?
Picture via Ssilence
