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Lesson 5

Symbolic Communication and Language

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Chapter Outline

Language and Verbal Communication Nonverbal Communication Sapir-Whorf Social Structure and Communications Normative Distance for Interaction

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Communication and Symbols Communication is the how people transmit

information about their ideas, feelings, and intentions. – We communicate through spoken and written words,

through voice qualities, physical closeness, gestures and posture.

Symbols are arbitrary forms used to refer to ideas, feelings, intentions, or any other object.– Symbols represent our experiences in ways that

others can perceive through sounds, gestures, pictures, even fragrances.

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Language and Verbal Communication

Spoken language is a socially acquired system of sound patterns with meanings agreed on by the members of a group.

Words are the symbols around which languages are constructed.

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Advantages of Language

1. Frees us from the constraints of the here and now.

2. Allows us to communicate with others about experiences we do not share directly.

3. Enables us to transmit, preserve, and create culture.

Language is so important that many have argued that it shapes not only our communication but our perceptions of how we see things as well.

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Importance of Language

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which is the idea that language structures thought, and that ways of looking at the world are embedded in language, supports this premise.

Ex: snow, jam, Family Guy

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The Importance of Language

Language facilitates culture Is American English the same and British

English, dude? Where would you find Eggplant in the grocery

store? Cheese + hamburger = cheeseburger Lettuce + hamburger ≠ lettuceburger

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“Get me a drink of lemonade.”

1. Get me a glass of lemonade.

2. Can you get me some lemonade?

3. Would you get me some lemonade?

4. Would you get me something to drink?

5. Would you mind if I asked you to get me some lemonade?

6. I’m thirsty.

7. How is that lemonade we bought?

8. Did you buy some lemonade at the store?

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The Perspective-Taking Model

Depicts the process of communication as both (1) creating and (2) reflecting a shared context between speaker and listener.

Communication involves the exchange of messages using symbols whose meaning grows out of the interaction itself.– Shared context requires reciprocal role

taking.

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Intersubjectivity

Successful communication depends on inter-subjectivity.

Each participant needs information about the other’s status, view of the situation, and plans or intentions.

Being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes– Strangers rely on social conventions

and rules of interpersonal communication.– The interpersonal context influences the production

and the interpretation.

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Linguistic Intergroup Bias Members of a group share a linguistic

intergroup bias. We favor those who speak like us There are subtle, systematic differences in

the language we use to describe events as:

1. a function of our group membership and

2. the group to which the actor or target belongs.

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Sociolinguistic Competence Language performance must be appropriate to

the social and cultural context.– Otherwise mutual understanding won’t occur.

– “My mother eats raw termites”, expresses an idea that is incongruous with American culture.

Speakers are expected to use language that is:

1. Appropriate to the status of the individuals they are discussing and

2. Appropriate to their relationship of intimacy.

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Types of Nonverbal Communication

Paralanguage – All the vocal aspects of speech other than

words. Body language

– The silent movement of body parts.

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Types of Nonverbal Communication

Interpersonal spacing cues– Positioning ourselves at varying distances and

angles from others. Personal effects

– What a person wears that communicates information about that person.

In addition to the approximate 250,000 different facial expressions that humans can make, nonverbal communication uses many other bodily and gestural cues.

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Types of Nonverbal Communication

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President Bush’s 2005 Inauguration

President Bush did not know that:

In Mediterranean cultures, this gesture implies that a man has an unfaithful wife.

In parts of Africa it is used to impose a curse on another person.

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The Complexity of Communication

These two kids are combining languages, interpersonal spacing, and body language to accomplish the sharing of a secret.

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Combining Nonverbal and Verbal Communication

Multiple cues convey added information, reduce ambiguity, and increase the accuracy of communication.

Multiple cues also resolve inconsistencies, so the messages can be evaluated separately and weighed (i.e. facial cues first, then paralanguage and verbal cues).

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Social Structure and Communications

The ways we communicate with others reflect and influence our relationships. – The impact of gender depends on the

interpersonal, group, or organizational context.

– Speech that adheres to vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar rules is preferred.

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Communicating Status and Intimacy

Status is concerned with the exercise of power and control.

Intimacy is concerned with the expression of affiliation and affection that creates social solidarity.

Verbal and nonverbal communication express and maintain particular levels of intimacy and relative status in relationships.

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Theory of Speech Accommodation Individuals who wish to express liking alter their own

1. pronunciation2. speech rate3. vocal intensity4. pause lengths 5. utterance lengths

All to match those of their partner.

Individuals who wish to communicate disapproval modify these vocal behaviors in ways that make them diverge from their partner’s.

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Normative Distances for Americans

Public distance (12–25 feet) is prescribed for interaction in formal encounters, lectures, trials, and other public events.

Social distance (4 –12 feet) is prescribed for many casual social and business transactions.

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Normative Distances for Americans

Personal distance (1 1⁄ 2– 4 feet) is prescribed for interaction among friends and relatives.

Intimate distance (0 –18 inches) is prescribed for giving comfort, making love, and aggressing physically.

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Strangers at a Bus Stop

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Initiating Conversations

Conversations must be initiated with an attention-getting device.

A summons-answer sequence initiates the mutual obligation to speak and to listen that produces conversational turn taking.

Fine. How are you?Good. Listen, I’m calling about …

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Regulating Turn Taking

A pervasive rule of conversation is to avoid bumping into someone verbally.

To regulate turn taking, people use many verbal and nonverbal cues, separately and together, with varying degrees of success.

• For Example: The speaker signals his/her readiness to give over the speaking role by pausing, dropping voice volume, and terminating hand gestures.

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Feedback and Coordination

Through feedback, conversationalists coordinate what they are saying to each other from moment to moment.

Back channel feedback are small vocal and visual comments a listener makes while a speaker is talking, without taking over the speaking turn.