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From: Steve Hood
Date: 10/15/01
Time: 8:11:21 AM
Remote Name: 199.33.133.50
As normally fluent speakers, we cannot totally understand what all is involved in avoidance, word changes and paraphrases. But here is an excertise that might give you just a slight taste of what it is all about.
Take a certain sound, such as the "s" sound, and then see how much talking you can do without ever saying a word that starts with the letter "s." So for wxample, you could not say the sentence, "What are you folks doing next Saturday" because of the "s" in Saturday. You would need to find a way to indicate that you are talking about "the day after Friday." You could not conclude a discussion by saying "I'll see you later" because of the word "see." You would have to san "I'll catch you later." These are easy examples. Of course, for me this would be particularly difficult since my own first name is "Steve." Maybe you could try to avoid words beginning with a letter wuch as "T" -- for your own first name.
I challenge you to try this -- and you other normally fluent speakers who may be reading this post.
Good luck with your efforts.