Explanation
Self-talk is speech addressed to oneself, aloud or internally, that organises perception, planning, affect, or self-examination. It is not conversation between two independently responding persons, yet it may differentiate dialogic roles: one questions, objects, encourages, or rehearses the voice of a possible other. In development, overt task-guiding speech may gradually become internalised; in everyday life the boundary among inner speech, muttering, and public self-address remains mobile. Literary monologues may represent self-talk but are shaped for an audience. The conceptual movement follows social language as it turns inward and acts back upon the speaker as an instrument of action.
Movement of thought
1. A person faces a task, decision, or feeling that does not yet possess stable verbal organisation. 2. Words are addressed to the self, differentiating possible roles such as questioner, critic, planner, or encourager. 3. Formulation organises attention, retains intermediate steps, and alters affect or the next action. 4. A counter-test asks whether self-address actually occurs or the event is unaddressed thinking aloud or public literary representation. 5. Self-talk returns as feedback: one’s own words are heard or inwardly received and shape the following step.
Scientific use case
Psychology, psycholinguistics, and developmental research study private speech, inner speech, and self-regulation. Conversation and literary studies analyse address, shifting roles, and represented monologue.
Example
Before a difficult examination, a physician quietly tells herself, “Order the findings first, then decide; do not let the first hypothesis drive you.”
Counterexample
Reading a text aloud while alone does not necessarily address its propositions to the self. A stage monologue may primarily inform an audience although the character appears to speak alone.
Distinction
Distinguish self-talk from inner speech as a broader cognitive-linguistic phenomenon, egocentric speech in developmental theory, thinking aloud, and literary monologue. Self-talk requires some form of self-address.
Effect on thought and perception
Self-talk can support planning, memory, and emotion regulation. It may also intensify rumination or internalise social voices of criticism as apparently personal certainty.
Resonance
One’s voice barely leaves the person and yet returns as an audible answer. Within the small distance between speaking and hearing, a new scope for action can arise.
Etymology
Technical core term; individual etymological review pending
Provenance
Unresolved relation network → second core-concept review → Metzler/HWRh cross-check → ATLAS 239
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Self-talk“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-CORE-239-056. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-CORE-239-056The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Historical background
Sapir in 1921 treats talking to oneself as a modification of ordinary communication in which speaker and hearer coincide. He distinguishes it from a further abbreviated, unarticulated form of inner speech. The physiological hypotheses that follow are period-specific and are not adopted here as current neuroscience. The passage supports a historical distinction between audible self-talk and a silent language process.
How conceptual history changes the analysis
The coincidence of participant roles does not erase the differences between overt and inner speech.
References for the historical section
- Edward Sapir, Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech (1921) · Chapter I, talking to oneself and thinking aloud as the least abbreviated speech process
Original English text read in the Gutenberg transcription. No first-coinage claim, full-book verification or automatic endorsement of the author’s 1921 language classifications and generalisations. Examples require modern descriptive checking before reuse as current language data.