Member-only story
Lockdown can feel like suppression. Get your mojo back.
Language and mindfulness together
Lockdown.
Being. Locked. Down.
Co-occurence in language is something I think about everyday — this is known as usage-based linguistics; where values are more likely to unveil themselves through language use that may not necessarily be conscious lexicon choices. I understand language (all kinds of language, which will also be body language, tone, context) use to be part of humanity’s most primary and revealing tools of its mindset. So the more you use a series of particular the words, in the background I might be trying to figure out what your values are.
So, co-occurence is also kind of what fuels my very vague addiction to Twitter. I would love to see a study or paper into the kind of semantic fields and frequent lexicon appearing with the citizen v. media conversation about the lockdown.
At a very basic measure from my own bubble, and perhaps yours, the language we use for lockdown is completely existential. “Current circumstances”, “crisis”, “allowed”, “permission”, “isolation”, “isolating”, “not possible” , “hopefully”, “unexpected deaths”, “can’t do that anymore” — we’re living in an era where an imposed set of physical/spatial limitations are being reflected in how we talk about our…
