Speech and Language Use in Dreams

by Deirdre Barrett
Paper presented on panel The significance of language in dreams
At the 26th International IASD Conference
Fri June 26- Tues June 30, 2009
Chicago, IL

Words are rare in most peoples dreams--even spoken ones, much less
written. Two research articles, Don Symonss The Stuff That Dreams Arent
Made of and Ernest Hartmanns We Do Not Dream of the Three Rs, report
that well under one percent of all dreams contain a written word and a minority
of people recall ever having dreamed such.
Freud described dreamed language (he meant mostly spoken) as
infantile. Kraepelin--founder of modern psychiatric diagnosis-- called it
pathological, the largest study to date. Frank Heynick (1993) found that
dream speech (at least as recalled) is lexically, morphologcally, and
syntactically well-formed and although at times illogical in content, also to be
linguistically creative.
My Present Data on 62 Verbatim Dream Language Examples
(51dreams) 82% Typicalshort, correct sentences:
Last night, I had a dream that my friend handed me a porcupine, and told
me, "Don't let him get away. He wants to run." . . . I definitely remember
that distinct phrase.

I was running from people who were chasing me and I turned around and
said to them "You know this is a dream, right?"
In my dream last night I received a text message that read, in perfect
grammar, "Don't worry about _____; he's an asshole anyway." I was I
speaking the text message out loud in my dream, and I was also seeing the
visual text as well, so multiple forms of language were going on
simultaneously. . . who uses correct grammar in text messages ever?
(3dreams) 5% Grammar correct, word non-existent
I was hearing someone talking. I realized it was Adam West's voice! [TV
Batman]. The voice was saying "Lola was the guloff [God only knows what a
"guloff" is] and Jeannie was his wife." It sounded so real that when I realized
it was happening I sat up and looked at the TV because I thought that maybe
I had left it on. As soon as I sat up the voice was gone, and the TV was off.
(5dreams) 8% Grammar correct, word choice incorrector, generously,
metaphoric.
The dark figure said unpleasantly to me, You are a pebble that thinks its a
comet.
(3) 5% Sentence fragment, acceptable informal or Chomsky deep
grammar.
I looked up toward the Sun and realized that it did not hurt my eyes to look at
it. I felt my body being pulled to the warmth. I appeared to have the ability to
fly, or levitate. Though I had this ability, I was still being pulled towards the
Sun. A voice spoke to me, coming from the Sun. It said, "My son..." At this
time I began to feel a burning sensation about me, like I was on fire or
becoming my own sun . . .
Not counted:
19 dreams: Generalizations with perfect grammar that dont offer
verbatim quotes:
The CDC was speaking in Spanish. I dont speak Spanish well, but I thought

that the CDC's Spanish was correct even though I couldn't understand all of
it. I definitely heard exact words out loud.
The interesting part about the dream was that a person started reciting
poetry to me, poems that I hadn't heard in years (ones you study in
elementary school like Robert Frost). Im pretty sure the poems were wordfor-word accurate even though I couldnt recite them awake.
43 or 69% remarked in dreams as usuallucid, vivid, but narrator ones are
passive
Comparison with Language Disorders
Broca's aphasia
Patients with lesions in Broca's area who exhibit agrammatical speech
production also show inability to use syntactic information to determine the
meaning of sentences. Patients with Broca's aphasia are individuals who know
"what they want to say, they just cannot get it out." They are typically able to
understand what is being said to them, but unable to fluently speak.
Yes... ah... Monday... er... Dad and Peter (his own name), and Dad.... er...
hospital... and ah... Wednesday... Wednesday, nine o'clock... and oh...
Thursday... ten o'clock, ah doctors... two... an' doctors... and er... teeth... yah.
While word comprehension is generally preserved, meaning interpretation
dependent on syntax and phrase structure is substantially impaired. This can be
demonstrated by using phrases with unusual structures. A typical Broca's
aphasic patient will misinterpret "the dog is bitten by the man" by switching the
subject and object.
Wernickes aphasia. Speech is preserved, but language content is incorrect.
This may vary from the insertion of a few incorrect or nonexistent words to a
profuse outpouring of jargon. Grammar, syntax, rate, intonation and stress are
normal. Substitutions of one word for another (paraphasias, e.g. telephone for
television) are common. Comprehension and repetition are poor.
Example:
I called my mother on the television and did not understand the door. It was too
breakfast, but they came from far to near. My mother is not too old for me to be
young.
Clearly these dream examples look much like Werneckis aphasia and imply

some lowered function or lessened connection of that area.

References
Heynick, F. (1993). Language and its disturbances in dreams: the pioneering
work of Freud and Kraepelin updated. New York: Wiley.
Kraepelin, E. (1906). ber Sprachstrungen im Traume. on language
disturbances in dreamsLeipzig: Engelmann.