Chapter 6. Communicating Verbally Theory

DISCUSSION STARTER 1: How is the language that you use different when talking with professors, versus your best friend or romantic partner? Which type of language makes you feel more comfortable or close? What does this tell you about the relationship between language and intimacy?

I. Characteristics of Verbal Communication

1. Language is symbolic: symbols are items used to represent other things; symbols can be verbal and nonverbal.

2. Charles Kay Ogden, Ivar Armstrong Richards: Semantic Triangle (Michael’s Sound Bite 6-1): There’s a relationship between the word, the object it denotes and a thought that combines the two. The relationship between the word and the referent is arbitrary. Connecting the two firmly creates static evaluation.

3. Language follows rules: John Searle: constitutive rules define meaning; regulative rules define usage of words in conversation.

4. Language is flexible: people come up with their rules, their idioms, use jargon (professional or group terms) and dialects.

DISCUSSION STARTER 2: Think about personal idioms you have for your friends, family, and romantic partners. With whom do you have the most idioms? The least? What does this say about the relationship between idioms and intimacy?

5. Language is cultural: Edward T. Hall, Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf: language reflects reality; reality is reflected in the language (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis); people adapt language to the needs of the listener; high-context cultures assume you know all the rules, therefore people drop hints or subtle suggestions; in low-context cultures no such assumptions are made.

DISCUSSION STARTER 3: What language do you consider your native tongue? In what ways does this language connect you culturally to those who share it? How does it distance you from those who don’t speak it?

6. Language evolves: new words appear, meanings change; rules of usage change.

II. Functions of Verbal Communication

1. We use language to share meaning: communicate certain information and find common ground, understanding; Ferdinand De Saussure: Meanings can be denotative (literal, vocabulary); or connotative (additional, emotional, based on the situation, depending on the relationship).

DISCUSSION STARTER 4: Recall an encounter in which someone communicated connotative meanings— that is, hinted or implied information beyond the literal meaning of the words.

How did you figure out what the person really meant? Did your knowledge of her or him help or hinder you in making sense of the message?

2. We use language to share thoughts: our language defines the boundaries of our thinking (linguistic determinism); the concept of linguistic relativity means that people from different countries perceive and think about the world differently (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis);

DISCUSSION STARTER 5: Think about the vocabulary you inherited from your culture for thinking and talking about relationships. What terms exist for describing serious romantic involvements? Casual relationships that are sexual? Relationships that are purely platonic? How do these various terms shape your thinking about these relationships?

3. We use language to name things: create linguistic symbols for objects.

4. Acting: John Searle: words perform five types of action: (a) representative (assertive); (b) directive; (c) commissive; (d) expressive; (e) declarative.

5. Each speech act (Michael’s Sound Bite 6-2) has: (a) specific content; (b) specific context; (c) specific intent.

6. Each speech act has three levels (Michael’s Sound Bite 6-3): (a) locutionary act – the facts, the form and shape (pronunciation, intonation, the act of saying); (b) illocutionary act (the intention you have), (c) perlocutionary act (the statement of your intention toward the other person).

7. Jeffrey Sacks, Emmanuel Schegloff: We use language to converse: conversations are (a) interactive, (b) locally managed, (c) universal; (d) scripted.

8. We use language to manage relationships.