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2) Then there were Contradictory Reversals. These reversals 1) There were Long Sentences. Not very often, but sometimes were incongruent and contradicted what was said forwards. In I would find reversals of staggering length. There were perfectly time, I began to understand that it was the reversed statement that formed, long, flowing sentences that could be up to 15 or 20 was the correct, or true, statement. words long, sometimes with two or three sentences in the one 3) Expansive Reversals gave additional information and reversal. expanded upon the forwards speech. They would insert facts that 2) Then there were Single Words. I was very suspicious of were left out either wittingly or unwittingly from the forwards single words backwards. They could easily be explained by ran- dialogue. They also showed hidden motive and agenda behind dom occurrence. In time, though, I began to feel safe about docu- the things that were said in forwards speech. menting certain types of single words such as the expression of an 4) Internal Dialogue Reversals showed actual thoughts the emotion or an external command. person was having at the time of speaking. Sometimes these 3) Cause and Effect Reversals had a unique grammatical would show internal conversations that someone was having with structure that was very common to find backwards. They usually themselves. For example, if part of you wanted to go out for the consisted of two sentences that related to each other. They would evening but another part of you wanted to stay at home, the entire frequently make a statement, a fact, and then suggest a course of struggle might appear backwards as a dialogue with self. action; for example, "Book. Please read it," or "Pain. Let it go." 5) External Dialogue Reversals were specifically directed out 4) Sentence-Building Reversals were amazing and helped dis- to others in the form of requests, commands, questions and con- pel any lingering doubts I still had about all this. The forwards versations. Have you ever thought something else was going on and reversed would combine to form a complete sentence; for underneath the conversation? For example, boy meets girl and example, "I think they should eradicate all the crime in they talk about the weather, but we all know what they are really [Washington, DC]." Reversed, this is "the capital of America". talking about. Sometimes I would find an entirely different con- The words "Washington, DC" represent the actual forwards words versation backwards from what was happening forwards. where the reversal might occur. They would thus expand upon 6) Lead and Trail Reversals complementarity yet again by revers- would occur that said something ing to create another sentence alto- several seconds or even minutes Mirror-Image Reversals similarly gether, e.g., "Washington, DC, is the before or after the same thing was defied the imagination The capital of America." said forwards. Have you ever had 5) Mirror-Image Reversals simi- the feeling that you have said some- forwards and reversed would be a larly defied the imagination. The for- thing before? Or, you know that i i wards and reversed would be a mirror someone is just not ‘letting some- mirror image of each other. image of each other. For example, "I thing go"? You were probably quite love my husband very much", right. It was just all happening back- For example, "I love my husband reversed, is "I love my husband very wards. Or maybe you have been very much", reversed, is "I love my much." about to say something but someone " 6) Finally came Semi-Formed else said it first. Possibly you husband very much. Reversals. Nearly all reversals I was thought, "Gee. I was just about to documenting were well-defined. say that." You were probably expe- They were separated from the gibber- riencing the action of trail and lead reversals starting a conversa- ish and it was very obvious where they began and finished. tion before it started and continuing it after it has finished. However, some reversals disappeared into the gibberish. They 7) Eventually I found a category of speech reversals that initial- would always begin very clearly but the last word would simply ly had me puzzled. I called these Comparative Reversals. vanish. This was frustrating, especially when it said something Originally I had called them Non-Related Reversals because they like, "The plans are in the..."! seemed to have no relationship whatsoever with what was being As I formulated categories and structures, I noted that certain said forwards. They annoyed me because they were the only hole _ people tend to run the same types of reversal structures. For in my theory of speech complementarity. It wasn't until a couple example, someone may have a majority of long sentences or sen- of years later that I finally saw the relationship: it was emotional. tence-building reversals. Then came other significant findings. These reversals talked about events in someone's life or were detailed statements that had exactly the same emotion as that | ANALYSING SPEECH REVERSALS ON TAPE being expressed forwards. Someone might say forwards that I was comparing the transcripts I had compiled over the last they'd had a bad day at work, and then might say backwards that — year when I noted that many more reversals were being docu- they had a flat tyre last week or might even talk about Fred Jones mented in normal conversation compared to public media broad- whom they didn't like at the supermarket two years before. The casts. So I started to do a time count and reversal count on all my complementarity was not in the words—it was in the emotions. transcripts, using a stopwatch. I then prepared charts that com- I breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was my theory intact but _ pared the average rate of reversal occurrence in any given conver- this finding added an even greater dimension to complementarity. sational setting. This w; task that yielded tremendous results, hunt ane a Ata mu n The” ANALYSING SPEECH REVERSALS ON TAPE I was comparing the transcripts I had compiled over the last year when I noted that many more reversals were being docu- mented in normal conversation compared to public media broad- casts. So I started to do a time count and reversal count on all my transcripts, using a stopwatch. I then prepared charts that com- pared the average rate of reversal occurrence in any given conver- sational setting. This was a task that yielded tremendous results, but one which significantly added to my already overloaded research time. It takes an incredible amount of time to analyse tapes for speech reversals. At that early stage in 1987, one 30-minute tape would take me three or four days to analyse thoroughly. Consequently I would spend hundreds of hours at my desk with headphones on, listening to tapes, making notes. This process included the fol- lowing steps: STRUCTURES OF REVERSE SPEECH The next observation was one relating to grammar and linguis- tic structure. I noticed that many reversals had a standard struc- ture, usually between two and five consecutive words in a single sentence. However, there were those reversals that obviously deviated from this. I noted all these different forms and called them the Structures of Reverse Speech: NEXUS - 17 mirror image of each other. OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1997