MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Seriousness When reading, do you subvocalize?

Gwen Morse · 04-07-2011, 05:54 PM

I don't usually sub-vocalize as defined in the poll. For people curious about what that's like, for me the closest analogy is reading a stock market ticker...words "flow across" my mental landscape

. I speed-read all the time so I don't have enough "time" to hear words.

I do occasionally hum to myself in a reading tone when reading (another kind of sub-vocalization). I do that with very dry technical books. It tends to annoy people around me. In those cases, I hear my own mental voice reading the books aloud. The audible noise I make is sort of "Mmm mmm MUH...hmm...MMMmmmnnnn...." Yes, it does annoy the heck out of people around me.

Very rarely, an author will write beautifully enough that I hear voices for each of the characters. For me, that's a sign of a superlative work. I have to stop my eyes at each paragraph break/dialogue change to let the inner narrators catch up. It makes for some strange situations when each speaker is not clearly telegraphed.

04-07-2011, 05:54 PM	#34
Gwen Morse Addict Posts: 254 Karma: 59872 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: New York, USA Device: Kindle 3 (wifi) + nokia n900 tablet phone	I don't usually sub-vocalize as defined in the poll. For people curious about what that's like, for me the closest analogy is reading a stock market ticker...words "flow across" my mental landscape . I speed-read all the time so I don't have enough "time" to hear words. I do occasionally hum to myself in a reading tone when reading (another kind of sub-vocalization). I do that with very dry technical books. It tends to annoy people around me. In those cases, I hear my own mental voice reading the books aloud. The audible noise I make is sort of "Mmm mmm MUH...hmm...MMMmmmnnnn...." Yes, it does annoy the heck out of people around me. Very rarely, an author will write beautifully enough that I hear voices for each of the characters. For me, that's a sign of a superlative work. I have to stop my eyes at each paragraph break/dialogue change to let the inner narrators catch up. It makes for some strange situations when each speaker is not clearly telegraphed.