[Jungian Cognitive Functions] The Language of each Function

[VagrantFarce]

I was reading Building Blocks of Personality Type today, and came across a section describing how each function tends to reveal itself through communication. I thought it would be helpful to make some rough notes and see if they stick.

Extroverted Sensing

• Favours the present tense
• Often accompanied by lots of physical movement - movement of the eyes, hands, feet, touching objects
• Quick, concrete, to-the-point - avoids metaphor or analogy
• Upbeat, engaging and lively

Introverted Sensing

• Concrete, but comparative - "remember when...?", "looks like...", "is similar to..."
• Factual & detailed
• Often pauses to reflect - seems to viscerally relive what is being relayed
• Stories are told to relay information, not gain attention

Extroverted Intuition

• Focuses on suggesting alternatives & possibilities
• Animated & excited, like Extroverted Sensing
• Ignores the small details, would rather leave them to others
• Can have difficulty stopping and focusing

Introverted Intuition

• Very general and abstract language, seemingly disconnected
• Carries a strong tone of conviction
• Often talk in terms of meaning or envisioning the future
• Can have difficulty offering concrete examples or explanations - may be hesitant to speak up as a result

Extroverted Thinking

• Need to talk out loud in order to "think" - might even talk to themselves
• Can sound more definite or decided than intended, as if non-negotiable
• "Others may feel accosted by a barrage of thoughts"
• Expects a give-and-take, enjoys hardened debate

Introverted Thinking

• Half-baked thoughts aren't usually shared
• Extremely precise and deliberate - often pauses to find the right word
• Can be distant & oblivious to the world around them
• Can go off on tangents when their thought process drifts

Extroverted Feeling

• Refers to "we" and "us", speaking on behalf of everyone
• Often politically correct, being careful not to offend
• Responds more to the emotional atmosphere than what was actually said
• Discussion may be treated more as a formality than an end in itself

Introverted Feeling

• The most difficult to spot
• Characterised by a lack of agenda - unimposing and agreeable
• Displays of high passion can take others by surprise, but not really out-of-character
• Typically, language comes from other functions

 

[Virtual ghost]

Introverted Intuition

•Very general and abstract language, seemingly disconnected
•Carries a strong tone of conviction
•Often talk in terms of meaning or envisioning the future
•Can have difficulty offering concrete examples or explanations - may be hesitant to speak up as a result

Extroverted Thinking

•Need to talk out loud in order to "think" - might even talk to themselves
•Can sound more definite or decided than intended, as if non-negotiable
•"Others may feel accosted by a barrage of thoughts"
•Expects a give-and-take, enjoys hardened debate

I can agree with this. This two can be total opposites of each other or make a really good duo.

(Sudden changes between those two can scare more sensitive people)

 

[OrangeAppled]

Why do they suddenly get lazy when it comes to Fi? Seriously?

 

[Forever]

This would make sense as ISFP's are probably one of the more quiet individuals having Fi/Ni in their stack. Although INTJ's are more talkative as they have dom Ni to roll on.

The Ni-Fe-Ti combinations makes a REALLY chatty type. It's arguable that ENFJ's are the most chatty.

Although it would seem Ne-Ti-Fe-Si would be incredibly chatty, perhaps more so.

 

[OrangeAppled]

Okay, just quickly taking some lines from the best Fi description out there (Van Der Hoop's), IMO:

- from the outside there is, as a rule, little to tell us that we are dealing with a person of feeling-type
- vulnerability...is one of the most characteristic peculiarities of this type.
- strange mixture of inner tenderness and passionate conviction
- certain as to the soundness of their ideals, but this is accompanied by a helpless feeling that it will never be possible to realize them in this world.
- conceal their sensitiveness behind a mask, which may be childish or simple, or again conventional, remote, or it may be friendly
- when these are affected, these people tend to withdraw into themselves, and if they do express anything, it will only be much later, after they have had time to work it all over within themselves.
- Even if they are not able to express it clearly in words, they are inwardly quite certain as to what accords with them and what does not.
- there is, nevertheless, something very individual about them, sometimes remarkably so, which will come to expression particularly in certain moments, in relation to certain people
- in a state of high emotional excitement, they stand up for a threatened ideal.
- very profound relationship of mutual understanding may suddenly come into being, all the wealth of their minds being unlocked to the confidant
- the person who appeared to be so impersonal, remote and somewhat insignificant may suddenly burst out with a personal point of view, expressed with such conviction and such force of feeling that it compels respect.
- resist with extreme obstinacy anything that does not accord with their sentiment
- emphatic expression is ill-suited to the external world
- they are nearly always misunderstood.... This contrast between a clear intention, directed towards harmony, and uncertain modes of expression, giving rise to misunderstandings, is found again and again in the lives of these people.
- ...gentle and dreamy, and somewhat reserved, but with occasional violent outbursts of emotion.
- In familiar surroundings they can be unrestrainedly gay; but more often they are likely to exhibit violent resentment if circumstances do not correspond to their feelings...
- They are apt to seek the fault in themselves, and may suffer much from a sense of guilt on this account. ...with the result that their whole being may be plunged into depths of unhappiness; but at other times a genuine emotional contact with someone will once more fill them with a quiet and enormous delight.
-a life of the spirit.... which may be expressed, for instance, in a secret piety, or in poetical forms, which are revealed only with great unwillingness.
- All the modes of expression for the deeper impulses of the spirit in religion and art find great support in such people.
- When they do give form to their inner feeling — in a poem, for example — they will carefully weigh every expression
- at the same time, they will often neglect generally accepted social forms, which for them have no significance; or they will employ conventional and simple forms as a mask, from behind which a more genuine and finer feeling

Okay, that is practically the whole profile, and while it does not all directly describe communication, there is much to be inferred.

From this, I see a type whose expression may reveal moodiness - switching from a melancholy disappointment with life to very animated and happy. Someone who switches between a benevolent indifference to passionate expression of conviction. Someone who may be self-deprecating and cynical about life (on the surface), but wear a simple, gentle, childlike mask at other times. Friendly but remote; hard to get to know, but when they open up it may be very intense. Someone mixed with certainty yet helplessness, which definitely could come across in expression. Another theme is the tendency to be misunderstood and not use "appropriate" expression. When the person truly expresses themself, they may use poetic and spiritual language.

No criticisim towards the OP, as I think most of it was very informative and I know they are not the author anyway.