HUMAN COMMUNICATION

HUMAN COMMUNICATION

1. Non-human communication

   • CUES
     • Eg smoke indicates a fire
     • Most basic method
   • SIGNALS
     • Smth standing for smth else that can be used to intend meaning
     • Humans use this most often
   • SIGNS
     • Moulded by natural selection to create impression to other animals
     • Involuntary

2. Animals - signs?

   • Kanzi (chimp) responding to novel sentences
   • He can make a campfire, use tools
   • This sounds impressive, but even more so when we think of how much humans are capable of!

3. DEFINING FEATURES

   • 1. Displaced discussions
     • Eg talk about Mars even tho we haven't lived there before
   • 2. Recursion perspectives within perspectives
     • You can have a perspective about someone's perspective on smth
   • 3. Self-talk
     • Children do this, but apes don't
   • 4. Meta-communication
     • We can communicate about communication
   • 5. Limited words but infinite meanings
     • Recombine, reconstruct sentences w/ infinite meanings; we do this everyday!

4. EARLY THEORY: INFO TRANSMISSION

   • Info source -> Encoding -> Transmitter -> Channel -> Receiver -> Decoder -> Destination
   • Meaning is put into words
   • Linell (2009): "one cannot make sense of a piece of discourse outside of its relevant context"
   • Same phrase mean diff things at diff times
     • Propositional definitions can't tell us scope of meanings that words have in diff contexts!!
       • Diff between “I’m late” being said before lecture starts could be him apologising for being late, but saying it during lecture could be because he’s going too slowly and has to rush thru his slides, and saying it nearing end of lecture could mean he is late for smth happening after lecture

5. CONDUIT METAPHOR

   • Lakoff & Johnson (1981): We think we put our thoughts into words we say
   • But there is BARRIER TO COMMUNICATION
   • Success w/out effort assumption leads to misunderstanding, inefficiency, ineffectiveness
   • Unintended meaning
     • Message we send not always message received

6. SPEECH ART THEORY (AUSTIN, 1962)

   • Language: not just transmitting info but doing things
     • Speaking is doing (Clark, 2009)
     • Eg pronouncing a couple husband and wife doesn't mean anything unless it's in the right context
   • All speech acts entail 3 types of action
     • 1) Locutionary act (producing utterance)
     • 2) Illocutionary act (what speaker intends)
     • 3) Perlocutionary act (impact on listener)

7. DIALOGISM (Bahktin, 1986)

   • (1) Addressivity
     • All msgs addressed to specific audience
     • Interpretation not same as content analysis
     • We can derive context, actors, relationship between actors even just looking at an excerpt of a conversation
     • We can deduce that convo involves prosecutor/lawyer and witness
   • 2) THIRD PARTIES
     • Lawyer also addressing THIRD PARTY: THE JURY

8. CONVERSATION ANALYSIS

   • How ppl introduce topics, take turns, close, repair convos
   • THIRD TURN REPAIR
     • Mom: cut that up Rob (turn) Rob: Hm? (repair initiation) Mom: I said cut it (repair)
     • Minimum three turns for two people to reach a consensus on what they're talking about/referring to
     • Subject 1 makes statement about smth
       • Subject 2 makes response to that statement
         • Subject 1 clarifies whether subject 2 made right conclusion about his/her statement

9. Communication is interactive

   • Conduit metaphor leads to onedimensional communication
     • Conceals perlocutionary effects
   • McNamara (2015): organizations spend alot on sending out msgs (1st turn), very little on LISTENING (2nd/3rd turn)
   • CREATIVITY & INNOVATION
     • Creativity = integrating manufacturers & users
     • Sending out prototype, relaying feedback on it, acting upon feedback
   • not just sender but RECEIVER is just as important!!

10. FULLY FLEDGED HUMAN COMMUNICATION

    • Not single words
    • Not merely info transmission
    • Minimum of 3 turns
    • Addressivity
    • Always incomplete
    • Contextual
    • Good communication
      • Full of redundancy
      • Elaboration
      • Demonstration
      • Clarification
      • Conduit metaphor: when ppl assume 1st turn is enough for consensus between 2 ppl
      • Ppl have to be DIFFERENT for us to have things to talk about
      • The more different we are, the more likely we will have interesting things to say to each other
      • Difference cannot be too big otherwise it hinders meaningful convo
      • Kanzi can only rely on 1st and 2nd turns (obeying instructions)