Covert Persuasion With Presuppositions – Factive Verbs and Adjectives
Have You Begun To Realize How Powerful These Are?
This article on linguistic presuppositions, those powerful and covert language patterns that you can easily use to conversationally persuade others, is on the “Factive Verbs and Adverbs” pattern.
These are called factive verbs and adverbs simply because the way these verbs are used presuppose the factive existence of their objects. Before we dive into that, a little grammar. A well-formed sentence in English must contain a verb. Verbs are either transitive, meaning they require an object, or a thing, or they are intransitive, meaning they don’t require an object, or a thing.
Many verbs can be both, that is they can be used with or without a noun. Like the sentence “I’m eating,” is fine by without a noun. But you can also say “I’m eating a sandwich.”
Factive verbs that require a noun, presuppose the existence of that noun in a very powerful way. These are verbs like know, realize, understand, regret, and believe.
I believe in goodness, for example presupposes something called “goodness,” exists. I regret not waking up early this morning, presupposes that I slept late.
To use these to persuade, let’s look at some examples.
Idea = exercise is the best way to lose weight.
I regret not realizing that exercise is the best way to lose weight because I sent so much money on fad diets.
When you understand that exercise is the best way to lose weight, you’ll be happy to know that you can sleep better at night as well.
Many people have known for a long time that exercise is the best way to lose weight, so why don’t you give it a try?
Isn’t it odd that most people still haven’t discovered that exercise really is the best way to lose weight?
Idea = dollar cost averaging is the best way to make money in the stock market
Once I realized that dollar cost averaging was the best way to make money in the stock market I was able to sit back and relax as I watched my account grow all by itself, since everything was completely automated.
After I understood the power of dollar cost averaging to make money consistently in the stock market, I actually saved money by canceling my subscription to all those market advice newsletters.
It is very hard to defend against these patterns, as the mind is usually busy focusing on the positive outcomes of the situation, and the story of how the speaker got there, rather than the “thing” that they realized. The little “thing” that they realized, or understood, seems to be incidental to the “story” when in reality it is the very idea that the speaker or writer is persuading the listener or reader to believe.
This is a great, verbal sleigh of hand, but be careful. This is so powerful that you can easily use it to get people to believe dangerous things that aren’t true. For example, notice how this very pattern was used by then President Bush in the State of the Union Address:
British Intelligence has learned that Saddam Hussein has begun seeking weapons of mass destruction.
(Third party authority) + (Factive verb (learned)) + (change of state verb (begun) + (idea)
The idea, that Saddam Hussein was seeking weapons of mass destruction, slipped right on through.
When you begin to realize that these patterns are powerful for not only persuading others to believe more empowering life enhancing thoughts, but that they will also help you to recognize the attempted deceptions and manipulations of others, you can start to imagine and discover for yourself all the wonderful things you can do with them to vastly improve your life and all of your social relationships.
