COM 263: L7 Verbal Communication
Slang
an informal, often short-lived kind of language used in place of standard words
Humor
A complicated social phenomenon that is largely based on the relationship between language and meaning
Inversion
A form of word play that produces slang words like sick, wicked, and bad that refer to the opposite of their typical meaning
Triangle of meaning
A model of communication that indicates the relationship among a thought, symbol, and referent and highlights the indirect relationship between the symbol and referent
Cultural bias
A skewed way of viewing or talking about a group that is typically negative
Communication Accommodation Theory
A theory that explores why and how people modify their communication to fit situational, social, cultural, and related contexts
Control
A word that has negative connotations, but our use of it here can be positive, neutral, or negative
Symbol
Arbitrary representations of thoughts, ideas, emotions, objects, or actions used to encode and decode meaning
Words (symbols)
Are arbitrary and attain meaning only when people give them meaning
Feeling
Communicating emotions
Asynchronous communication
Communication that is not immediate and occurs over longer periods of time, such as letters or email messages
Synchronous communication
Communication that takes place in real time, such as a conversation with a friend
Thought
Conclusion about it judgment of experiences and observations
Codes
Culture agreed on and ever-changing systems of symbols that help is organize, understand, and generate meaning
Monosemic words
Have only one use in language, which makes their denotation more straightforward
Accents
Distinct styles of pronunciation.
True
The members of a speech community conform to the prescribed rules of their specific language or dialect to establish their social identity.
Verbal communication
Is about language, both written and spoken
What are the five functions of language?
Language is expressive, language is powerful, language is fun, language is dynamic, and language is relational
polysemic words
Like "cowboy" has many connotations, and philosophers of language have explored how some connotations extend beyond one or two experimental or emotional meanings of a word to constitute cultural myths
Convergence
Meaning a person makes his or her communication more like another person's
Divergence
Meaning a person uses communication to emphasize the differences between his or her conversational partner and his or herself
Denotation
Refers to the definitions that are accepted by the language group as a whole, or the dictionary definition of a word
Grammar
Refers to the rules that govern how words are used to make sentences and sentences
Observation
Report of sensory experiences or memories
Language
Productive in the sense that there are an infinite number of utterances we can make by connecting existing words in new ways
Code switching
Refers to changes in accent, dialect, or language
Nonverbal communication
Refers to communication that occurs through means other than words, such as body language, such as body language, gestures, and silence
Connotation
Refers to definitions that are based on emotion or experience-based associations people have with a word
Commissives
Speaker committed to a certain course of action eg 'bet', 'guarantee', 'promise', 'swear'
Need
Stating wants or requesting help or support
Confrontational language
Such as swearing, can be seen as powerful in Western countries, even though it violates some language taboos, but would be seen as immature and weak in Japan
political correctness
Takes awareness to the extreme but doesn't do much to address cultural bias aside from make people feel like they are walking on eggshells
Thought
The concept or idea that a person references
Level of formality
The first difference between spoken and written communication is that we generally use spoken communication informally while we use written communication formally
Displacement
The property of language where it refers to our ability to talk about events that removed in space or time from a speaker and situation
Permanence of communication
The third difference between spoken and written communication is that written communication is generally achieved and recorded for later retrieval, while spoken communication is generally not recorded
Symbol
The word that represents the thought, and the referent is the object or idea to which the symbol refers; something that stands in for or represents something
Directives
Utterances that try to get another person to do something
Dialect
Versions of languages that have distinct words, grammar, and pronunciation
neologism
a new word, expression, or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
the idea that different languages create different ways of thinking
Paralanguage
vocalic behaviors that communicate meaning along with verbal behavior