Basic Definitions Flashcards
Communication (theoretical perspective)
The process of sending and receiving messages that serve to transmit information between persons or groups. When someone successfully transmits a message that is understood by someone else, communication has occured.
Communication involves:
- Sender (encodes a message)
- Receiver (decodes the message)
- context
Communication (Linguistic perspective)
A rule-based mental system of language codes for expressing thoughts, feelings and ideas.
Code
A system of rules for arranging arbitrary symbols in an orderly, predictable manner that allows anyone who also knows the code to interpret the meaning.
Systematic (re: language code)
The regularities exhibited by speakers of a language that make occurrences in the language predictable. (Orderly and organised, predictable for users).
Conventional (re: language code)
Shared by the many senders and receivers in a cultural group (or the sender and receiver in an exchange).
Convention (re: language code) def-
The notion that language must be based on shared, customary, or implicitly agreed-on patterns of behaviour.
Symbol
Something (ie the word ‘chair’) which stands for (represents) something else without bearing physical resemblance to it.
Arbitrary (in communication)
Symbols bear no resemblance to their referents
What are the symbols of language used to stand for all the things talked about (objects, events, ideas, relationships..)
Words
When gestural signs used in sign languages and figures used in pictorial languages resemble the referent, they are said to be….?
Iconic
Onomatopoeia
Words that mimic the sounds associated with the objects or events they represent (ie zip, splash, buzz, sizzle)
communicative competence
The ability of speakers to adjust their messages to effectively influence their listeners
Which 2 requirements must communicative competence satisfy?
a) The speakers behaviour must relate to the topic or situation
b) the speaker’s behaviour must have a practical effect on the listener’s behaviour
As effective communicators, our language behaviour must be accepted and understood by the listener/s and have the desired effect on their subsequent behaviour. True or false?
True. (changed behaviour may only mean that the listeners indicate that they have understood our meaning, not that they agree with it).
{What if they understand our meaning but don’t indicate that to us?}
The essence of communicative competence is truly effective communication, incl. the ability to modify the grammatical forms, underlying meanings, intentional force, and the delivery style best suited to the intended message. All of these components as well as….
…facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice, must be properly managed to achieve the speaker’s overall goal - to effect changes in the listener’s behaviour.
Agenda (re: communication)
The speaker’s overall goal, including the steps that proceed toward that goal.
Human communication can be broken down into which 2 broad levels?
- Verbal communication - use of words as symbols to exchange ideas. Considered linguistic because it usually involves use of language systems in arranging and ordering words.
- Nonverbal - Conveys ideas, thoughts or feelings through other behaviours
Verbal communication
The use of symbols (ie words), whether spoken, written or gestured by a speaker to express ideas
Nonverbal communication
Conveying attitudes or ideas through gesture, facial expression, proxemics, without the use of words (no spoken, written or gestured words)
Examples of nonverbal communication
*Facial expressions *Head movements (ie nodding) *Eye contact (averting, rolling) *Body language (crossed arms etc) *Gestures (beckoning etc) *Proxemics (up close, distant)
