Guarded

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   Have you ever thought about how our speech is guarded?  From keeping an innocent statement from being spoken like an insult or making sure we don't utter to many "uhs" in the same sentence...  It seems like a full time job just watching our mouths.

   You're probably familiar with what's going on and from time to time.

   You might even be fully aware.

   But it's easy to forget about something that works without needing repair.

   The job of guarding out speech falls to both the conscious and the unconscious.  There's low level aspects to it that the unconscious manages and higher level ones that the conscious manages.  Those aren't fixed roles though and you might find yourself racking your brain for a word while a perfectly worded phrase appears out of nowhere.

   For the most part, the unconscious is always keeping an eye on things and making sure that memories arrive when we need them (language itself and points we may be trying to make) while avoiding getting tongue tied.

   As we speak, the words and sentences flow in our mind and the unconscious keeps pace while slightly ahead of us watching them pass by.

   Anything that needs work or is potentially suspect gets flagged using awareness.  By the time we're aware of an issue, any necessary correction(s) or just the right correction may ready to speak.

   The process is so transparent and taken for granted it escapes most people's attention.

   No surprise but it also works in reverse (backwards).

   When we listen to others speaking it often doesn't matter if someone uses the wrong word.  We usually say we "understood what they were talking about" but there's more to it than that.  The unconscious is at work again monitoring what we're listening to as we hear it.

   When a possible wrong word is found (determined by context or phonetic closeness to another) the correct word can be inserted or overlayed so we perceive it in place.  Sometimes this can occur without us noticing.  Has someone ever apologized and corrected themselves with the word they meant to use and you had no idea it wasn't?

   That might give you reason to wonder about how our conscious might support the unconscious during dreaming.