Bringing Things into Languaging or Not: The Role of Internal Dialogue

This essay deals with how to “bring things into languaging” (`enlanguaging´). The theoretical background is a humanistic perspective, Merleau-Ponty´s phenomenology and extended dialogism. It will be argued that the phenomenon of `internal dialogue´, i.e., internal interaction within individual minds, are at play in such processes. This paper will consider different activities such as perception, thinking, speaking, planning for speaking, understanding, reading, interaction, and decision-making. It also pays attention to circumstances when public talk is evaded or inhibited.