COMM1210 Terms Part1

A process in which people generate meaning through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages.

The building blocks of communication

Something that represents something else and conveys meaning

Signs that represent a thing itself and always bear some resemblance to the object to which they refer.

Signs that reveal something beyond the thing itself

Denotative meaning: the concrete meaning of the message, and Connotative meaning: the meanings suggested by or associated with the message and the emotions triggered by it.

What a message conveys about the relationship between the parties.

The physical surroundings of a communication event

The people interacting during communication

Transmitting ideas and emotions via signs and symbols.

Taking ideas and converting them into messages

Receiving messages and interpreting its meaning

The means through which a message is transmitted

Any stimulus that can interfere with, or degrade, the quality of a message

The response to a message

The education, life events, and cultural background that a communicator possesses

Standards of what is right and wrong, good and bad, moral and immoral

The standards of right and wrong that one applies to messages that are sent and received

Theory explaining how individuals respond to and interpret communication behavior when it violates their expectations.

Sets of statements that explain a particular phenomenon.

The art of persuasion.

The people who taught persuasive speaking skills in the Greek city-states.

A public speaker

An era of tremendous intellectual, artistic, and scientific achievements in Europe spanning the 14th to 17th centuries.

The belief that science and reason were the pathways to human enlightenment and human nature and its potential were to be celebrated.

18th century belief in human rationality as the answer to human problems.

The belief that actual behavior is the only event worthy of study.

The mechanics of public speaking, including proper pronunciation, posture, and grammar

An accepted set of methods for developing new knowledge about a subject.

Contemporary term for the behaviorist approach.

Contemporary term for humanistic (rhetorical) study.

Belief system that represents a particular worldview.

The specific ways that scholars collect and analyze data, which they then use to prove or disprove their theories.

Relating to everyday, real-life situations, such as a classroom, cafe, or shopping mall.

Methods that convert data to numerical indicators, and then analyze these numbers using statistics to establish relationships among the concepts

Methods in which researchers study naturally occurring communication rather than assembling data and converting it to numbers

Relating to research in which researchers actively engage with participants.

Used by researchers to examine texts or public speeches as they occur in society with the aim of interpreting textual meaning.

An approach used not only to understand human behavior but ultimately to change society.

Similar to rhetorical analysis; used to analyze cultural products, such as media and public speeches

A broad intellectual and social movement of the late 20th century

The belief that through rational thinking, humans can advance and discover universal truth

An approach in which reality is subjective, and power is an important issue.

• 1. Instrumental
• 2. Regulatory
• 3. Informative
• 4. Heuristic
• 5. Interactional
• 6. Personal
• 7. Imaginative

Use of language to obtain what you need or desire

Use of language to control or regulate the behavior of others

Use of language to communicate information or report facts

Use of language to acquire knowledge and understanding

Use of language to establish and define social relationships

Use of language to express individuality and personality

Use of language to express individuality and personality

• Phonology
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics

The study of sounds that compose individual languages and how those sounds communicate meaning

The rules that govern word order (grammar)

The study of meaning (Denotative and Connotative)

The dictionary, or literal meaning of a word

The affective or interpretive meanings attached to a word

Field of study that emphasizes how language is used in specific situations to accomplish goals.

• Speech Act Theory
• Locutionary
• Illocutionary
• Perlocutionary

Branch of pragmatics that suggests that when people communicate, they do not just say things, they also do things with their words

Describes what is said, or the act of saying something.

Describes what one does with one's utterance; what the utterance accomplishes.

Describes the effect an utterance has.

A variation of a language distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation

Vocabulary

The influence of shared characteristics of a group that was born and reared in the same general period

A version of English that has its root in West Africa, Caribbean, and US slave language

The specialized terms that develops in many professions

Those who argue that any idea can be expressed in any language and that the structure and vocabulary of the language do not influence the speaker's perception of the world

Those who argue that language serves not only as a way for us to voice our ideas but is itself the shaper of ideas, the guide for the individual's mental activity.

Idea that the language people speak determines the way they see the world (a relativist perspective)

Explores the role of power in daily interactions

Comments that reject or invalidate a positive or negative self-image of our conversational partners.

Comments that validate positive self-image of others

• 1. Sensing
• 2. Understanding
• 3. Evaluating
• 4. Responding

The stage of listening most people refer to as hearing; when listeners pick up the sound waves directed towards them.

Interpreting the messages associated with sounds or what the sounds mean.

Assessing your reaction to a message

Showing others how you regard their message

All the nonverbal actions people perform

Nonverbal behavior that has symbolic meaning

Distinct organized means of expression that consist of symbols and rules for their use

• 1. Kinesics
• 2. Paralinguistics
• 3. Time & Space
• 4. Haptics
• 5. Appearance & Artifacts

Nonverbal communication sent by the body, including gestures, posture, movement, facial expressions and eye behavior

• 1. Gestures
• 2. Illustrators
• 3. Adaptors
• 4. Regulators
• 5. Immediacy
• 6. Relaxation

Nonverbal communication made with part of the body, including actions such as pointing, waving, or holding up a hand to direct people's attention

Signals that accompany speech to clarify or emphasize the verbal message

Gestures used to manage emotions

Gestures used to control conversation

How close or involved people appear to be with each other

The degree of tension displayed by one's body

All aspects of spoken language except the words themselves; includes rate, volume, pitch, and stress. (Voice qualities; vocalization)

Qualities such as speed, pitch, rhythm, vocal range, and articulation that make up the music of the human voice

Uttered sounds that do not have the structure of language

Chronemics, and Proximics

The study of the way people use time as message (monochronically and polychronically)

Engaging in one task or behavior at a time

Engaging in multiple activities simultaneously

• The study of how people use special cues, including interpersonal distance, territoriality, and other space relationships, to communicate.
• Intimate distance (0-18 inches); Personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet); Social distance (4-12 feet); Public distance (12-25 feet).

• The study of the communicative function of touch
• Professional touch; Social-polite touch; Friendship touch; Love-intimate touch; Demand touching

Artifacts: clothing and other accessories

• Communicating information
• Regulating interaction
• Expressing and managing intimacy
• Establishing social control
• Service-task function.

Using nonverbal behaviors to help clarify verbal messages and reveal attitudes and moods

Using nonverbal behaviors to help manage turn-taking during conversations

Using nonverbal behaviors to help convey attraction and closeness

Using nonverbal behavior to exercise influence over other people

Using nonverbal behavior to signal close involvement between people in impersonal relationships and contexts

Verbal and nonverbal messages that express the same thing

Verbal and nonverbal messages the send conflicting messages

Communication through symbols; people talking to each other

An inner dialogue used to test alternatives, rehearse action, and anticipate reactions before responding; self-talk

The process of mentally imagining that you are someone else who is viewing you

The mental self-image that results from taking the role of the other; the objective self; me

The spontaneous driving force that fosters all that is novel, unpredictable, and unorganized in the self.

The objective self; the image of self seen when one takes the role of the other

The composite mental image a person has of his or her self based on community expectations and responses

A method of adopting the stance of an ignorant yet interested visitor who carefully notes what people say and do in order to discover how they interpret the world.

The tendency for our expectations to evoke responses that confirm what we originally anticipated.

The invisible, variable volume of space surrounding an individual that defines that individual's preferred distance from others.

The hypothetical outer boundary of intimate space; a breach by an uninvited other occasions fight or flight?

A heightened state of awareness, orienting response, or mental alertness that stimulates a review of the relationship

• 1. Expectancy
• 2. Violation Valence
• 3. Communicator Reward Valence

What people predict will happen, rather than what they desire

The perceived positive or negative value assigned to a breach of expectation, regardless of who the violator is

The sum of positive and negative attributes brought to the encounter plus the potential to reward or punish in the future

A systematic analysis of how people adjust their approach when another's behavior doesn't mesh with what's needed, anticipated, or preferred.

A person's initial stance toward an interaction as determined by a blend of personal requirements, expectations, and desires (RED)

A strong human tendency to respond to another's action with similar behavior

Duty without exception; act only on that maxim which you can will to become a universal law.