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Understanding Symbolism in Verbal Communication

Explore how symbols shape our perceptions, the ambiguity and abstractness of symbols, principles of verbal communication, and how symbols define, evaluate, and organize our perceptions. Enhance communication by respecting others' perspectives, owning feelings and thoughts, and striving for clarity. Dive into linguistic relativity, artificial languages, and historical aspects like Navajo Code Talkers.

MikeCarlo
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Understanding Symbolism in Verbal Communication

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  1. Chapter 5 The Verbal Dimension of Communication

  2. Symbols and Meaning • Our perceptions are shaped by symbols • The Semantic Triangle

  3. Symbols Are Arbitrary • Not intrinsically connected to what they represent • Language and meaning change over time • New words or phrases are coined in response to change

  4. Symbols Are Ambiguous • Meanings aren’t clear-cut or fixed

  5. Symbols Are Abstract • Not concrete or tangible • Vary in abstractness

  6. Principles of Verbal Communication • Communication is rule guided • Regulative rules • specify when, how, where, and with whom to talk about certain things • Constitutive rules • tell us how to count certain kinds of communication • What counts as showing respect? • What counts as demonstrating affection?

  7. Principles (cont’d) • Interpretation creates meaning • Punctuation affects meaning The Demand-Withdraw Pattern

  8. Symbols Define • Experiences, relationships, people, feelings, and thoughts • Totalizing • using a single label to represent the totality of a person • “He’s a Republican.” • “She’s old.”

  9. Symbols Evaluate • Not neutral, laden with values • Loaded language • Words that strongly slant perceptions and thus meanings • A menu lists “Tender lobster accented with drawn butter” instead of “Crustacean murdered by being boiled alive and then drenched in saturated fat”

  10. Symbols Organize Perceptions • We classify and evaluate experiences using cognitive schemata • We think about abstract concepts such as work ethic, democracy, morality etc.

  11. Hypothetical Thought • Symbols allow us to plan, dream, remember, fantasize, set goals, etc. • past, present, and future

  12. Symbols AllowSelf-reflection • We use symbols to reflect on ourselves • I • acts on in response to inner needs and desires regardless of social norms • me • socially conscious part of the self • monitors the I’s impulses

  13. Enhancing Verbal Communication • Engage in dual perspective • recognizing another person’s point of view and taking that into account as you communicate

  14. Enhancing Verbal Communication(cont’d) • Own your feelings and thoughts

  15. Enhancing Verbal Communication(cont’d) • Respect what others say about their feelings and ideas • Strive for accuracy and clarity • levels of abstraction • qualify language • indexing

  16. Websites • What is hate speech? • Banished words for 2008 • Lake Superior State University presents its 2008 list • New Words Sampler from the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Ed. • Dictionary.com

  17. More Websites • The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis • The Language Construction Kit • Create artificial languages • Netlingo.com Internet Dictionary • Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet • Prepared by the Navy & Marine Corps WWII Commemorative Committee

  18. Video The Roommates PLAY VIDEO

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