INSTITUTO FONTANA – LINGÜÍSTICA

UNIT 4 – COMUNICACIÓN

1- Cómo transmitir un mensaje. Código. Audiencia. Contexto. Cómo comunicarse óptimamente.

The Definition of Language
Language is a distinctly human activity that aids in the transmission of feelings and thoughts from one person to
another. It is how we express what we think or feel—through sounds and/or symbols (spoken or written words), signs,
posture, and gestures that convey a certain meaning.
Among people, language is the primary means of communication. It is through language communication, spoken or
written, that we are able to share our ideas, opinions, views, and emotions with another person.
The purpose of language is making sense of complex and abstract thought. Various languages are used by people
residing in different areas or belonging to different communities.
Over time, languages have been passed down verbally through generations and eventually reduced to some form of
written record. Language, as a tool, primarily occurs in auditory channels and is open to dynamic change.
The written form is an unchanging set of material by which others can learn to communicate in a given language
and has, therefore, become a vital aid to global human communication.
The Definition of Communication
Where language is a tool, communication is an experience.
Communication is described as, “an act of interchanging ideas, information, or messages from one person or place to
another, via words or signs which are understood to both parties.” It’s a crucial activity for any group of beings, because
it is the means by which members of the group cooperate together.
Communication is necessary for any group to function effectively. It is, at its core, a two-way activity, consisting of seven
major elements: sender, message, encoding, channel, receiver, decoding, and feedback.
A message is encoded then sent from one individual (sender) to another (receiver), through a channel. That message is
then decoded and given feedback, if communicated effectively.
Today, there are a variety of communication channels available: face-to-face, phone calls, emails, social media
platforms, brochures, advertisements, television, signs, fliers, reports and more.
Feedback is essential, for it is then that the process of communication comes full circle.
The process of communication affects all sensory channels, as it can occur in a variety of ways.
Communication can be classified as:
 Verbal
 Non-verbal
 Written
 Visual (charts, graphs, etc.)

Elements of the Communication Process

Encoding and Decoding
Encoding refers to the process of taking an idea or mental image, associating that image with words, and then speaking
those words in order to convey a message. So, if you wanted to explain to your aunt the directions to your new
apartment, you would picture in your mind the landscape, streets and buildings, and then you would select the best
words that describe the route so your aunt could find you.
Decoding is the reverse process of listening to words, thinking about them, and turning those words into mental images.
If your aunt were trying to find her way to your apartment, she would listen to your words, associate these words with
streets and landmarks that she knows, and then she would form a mental map of the way to get to you. Ramsey’s
“Using Language Well” (Chapter 10) provides additional insight into the encoding and decoding process.

Message
The message involves those verbal and nonverbal behaviours, enacted by communicators, which are interpreted with
meaning by others. The verbal portion of the message refers to the words that we speak, while the nonverbal portion
includes our tone of voice and other non-vocal components such as personal appearance, posture, gestures and body
movements, eye behaviour, the way we use space, and even the way that we smell. For instance, the person who gets
up to speak wearing a nice suit will be interpreted more positively than a person giving the exact same speech wearing
sweats and a graphic t-shirt. Or if a speaker tries to convince others to donate to a charity that builds wells in poor
African villages using a monotone voice, she will not be as effective as the speaker who gives the same speech but
speaks with a solemn tone of voice. If there is ever a conflict between the verbal and the non-verbal aspects of a
message, people will generally believe the nonverbal portion of the message. To test this, tighten your muscles, clench
your fists at your sides, pull your eye brows together, purse your lips, and tell someone in a harsh voice, “NO, I’m NOT
angry!” See if they believe your words or your nonverbal behaviour.

Channel
The channel is very simply the means through which the message travels. In face-to-face communication the channel
involves all of our senses, so the channel is what we see, hear, touch, smell and perhaps what we taste. When we’re
communicating with someone online, the channel is the computer; when texting the channel is the cell phone; and
when watching a movie on cable, the channel is the TV. The channel can have a profound impact on the way a message
is interpreted.
Communication Process Definition
The term communication process refers to the exchange of information (a message) between two or more people. For
communication to succeed, both parties must be able to exchange information and understand each other. If the flow
of information is blocked for some reason or the parties cannot make themselves understood, then communication
fails.

The Sender
The communication process begins with the sender, who is also called the communicator or source. The sender has
some kind of information — a command, request, question, or idea — that he or she wants to present to others. For
that message to be received, the sender must first encode the message in a form that can be understood, such as by the
use of a common language or industry jargon, and then transmit it.

The Receiver
The person to whom a message is directed is called the receiver or the interpreter. To comprehend the information
from the sender, the receiver must first be able to receive the sender's information and then decode or interpret it.

The Message
The message or content is the information that the sender wants to relay to the receiver. Additional subtext can be
conveyed through body language and tone of voice. Put all three elements together — sender, receiver, and message —
and you have the communication process at its most basic.

The Medium
Also called the channel, the medium is the means by which a message is transmitted. Text messages, for example, are
transmitted through the medium of cell phones.

Feedback
The communication process reaches its final point when the message has been successfully transmitted, received, and
understood. The receiver, in turn, responds to the sender, indicating comprehension. Feedback may be direct, such as a
written or verbal response, or it may take the form of an act or deed in response (indirect).

Other Factors
The communication process isn't always so simple or smooth, of course. These elements can affect how information is
transmitted, received, and interpreted:

Noise: This can be any sort of interference that affects the message being sent, received, or understood. It can be as
literal as static over a phone line or radio or as esoteric as misinterpreting a local custom.
Context: This is the setting and situation in which communication takes place. Like noise, context can have an impact on
the successful exchange of information. It may have a physical, social, or cultural aspect to it. In a private conversation
with a trusted friend, you would share more personal information or details about your weekend or vacation, for
example, than in a conversation with a work colleague or in a meeting
 2- La relación del lenguaje hablado con el lenguaje corporal.

UNDERSTANDING BODY LANGUAGE

Physical expressions are integral part of nonverbal communication. Physical expressions like
Waving, pointing, touching and slouching are all forms of nonverbal communication. Humans move
Their bodies when communicating because, as research has shown, it helps "ease the mental effort
When communication is difficult." (www.wikipedia:body language). Physical expressions reveal
Many things about the person using them. For example, gestures can emphasize a point or relay a
Message, posture can reveal boredom or great interest and touch can convey encouragement or
Caution. The technique of "reading" people is used frequently to understand a people as a whole.
For example, the idea of mirroring body language to put people at ease is commonly used in
Interviews. Mirroring the body language of someone else indicates that they are understood. It is
Important to note that while some indicators of emotion (e.g. smiling/laughing when happy,
frowning/crying when sad) are largely universal. In the 1990s Ekman expanded his list of basic
Emotions, including a range of positive and negative emotions not all of which are encoded in facial
Muscles. The newly included emotions are:
1. Amusement
2. Contempt
V. P. Singh
~ 166 ~
3. Contentment
4. Embarrassment
5. Excitement
6. Guilt
7. Pride in achievement
8. Relief
9. Satisfaction
10. Sensory pleasure
11. Sham
BODY LANGUAGE AFFECTS PERSONAL INTERACTIONS
Body language has a huge effect on all of your personal interactions. No matter where or with whom they occur. There
is simply no way to fully separate non-verbal communication from influencing an interaction. (Julie-Ann Amos-Body
Language Interactions: 2010:12). It takes a very skilled liar to match his or her body language to words that are not true.
The majority of people show some sort of conflict between verbal communication and non-verbal communication when
they are attempting to deceive someone else because body language is such an innate part of communication that you
have to make a concerted effort to use it in a way that goes against one’s natural tendencies. As receivers, we all take in
verbal communication and body language, comparing them to help to determine if the message sender is being truthful
or deceitful. Parents do this a great deal when interacting with their children because children typically are not very
good at hiding conflicts between their words and their body language. It is generally quite easy to spot when a child is
not being truthful, and it’s almost always due to the child’s non-verbal communication. Different situations of day to day
life style always effects language and body language. People use aggressive language in anger and accordingly their body
language gets changed. Similarly when a person is in good mood automatically smile comes over lips while talking and
movement of body becomes friendly. Hence, language and body language are correlated in such a way one affect
another.

LANGUAGE AND BODY LANGUAGE IS AFFECTED BY SOCIAL, ECONOMIC ETC STATUS

Social Status and living standard affects both verbal and nonverbal communication. Way of using language and body
language by a rural person differs from a person of urban area. Way of rising hands, walking and movement of body all
are affected by this factor. It has been observed by the writer that important reason behind such behaviour may be
inferior complex in rural person and superiority complex in an urban person. Economic status particularly in India is
taken as very important factor regarding use of language and body language. Language and body language of
economically sound people remains authoritative and orderative while language and body language of economically
unsound person give indication of request.
3- El poder de las palabras. Cómo una palabra afecta nuestras relaciones .

Words are everywhere. They connect us, they teach us, they hurt us. Our words have the power to change our
environment, for better or worse. In a world that relies so heavily on communication, what we say directly impacts our
relationships and achievements. There is a whole psychology behind what makes words so important in a professional
environment, and how can we use this to change our own narrative.
Words at the Start of Everything
From a very young age, we are taught to communicate. We use this to learn and grow, and later to shape our beliefs,
understand norms, and create our own story. Words open us up to new possibilities and opportunities.
Words aren’t simply a vessel of language; they have the power to create emotions and set the context. It’s not merely
what you want to say, but what message underpins your words. Take sending an email. Every time you take this simple
action, you are setting the tone for your relationship with the sender. You do this by choosing the degree of formality,
determining what information to include, and by selecting the words which frame your message.
The Psychology of Words
Our words can’t change what’s going on around us, but they have the ability to change the way we perceive it. This
means that we can control the narrative which we want our audience to receive. Words have the ability to bring people
together. People turn to words for motivation and to instil hope. Often, we reflect on words spoken by influential
figures.

The study of the relationship between “language, power” and social relations has clearly shifted from proving the
existence of this relationship, to probing and understanding its underpinnings and implications. Most linguists now
agree that the relationship between “language and power” is a mutual relationship.
Powerful institutions and individuals use language as both a means to construct their power and as a way to maintain it.
Language thus becomes necessary for the maintenance of power, and the power and effect of language in turn rely on
the power of individuals and institutions themselves.
Language is delineated as “a social practice” (Fowler 61), by which power relations are established and sustained. This
supports Fairclough’s (1989) view that power is not only built and sustained via coercive means (by force), but also via
indirect ways (the use of language).
Besides institutional power, or the power exercised by entities that are overtly recognized for holding a position of
authority (the police, for example), there also exist other types of power relations: between family members, between
educated and uneducated people, and so forth. Individuals and groups in this category of power relations use language
as their main tool for maintaining status and power.

4. Expresiones lingüísticas.

Language Is Expressive
Verbal communication helps us meet various needs through our ability to express ourselves. In terms of instrumental
needs, we use verbal communication to ask questions that provide us with specific information. We also use verbal
communication to describe things, people, and ideas. Verbal communication helps us inform, persuade, and entertain
others, which as we will learn later are the three general purposes of public speaking. It is also through our verbal
expressions that our personal relationships are formed. At its essence, language is expressive. Verbal expressions help
us communicate our observations, thoughts, feelings, and needs.
Expressing Thoughts
When we express thoughts, we draw conclusions based on what we have experienced. In the perception process, this is
similar to the interpretation step. We take various observations and evaluate and interpret them to assign them
meaning (a conclusion). Whereas our observations are based on sensory information (what we saw, what we read, what
we heard), thoughts are connected to our beliefs (what we think is true/false), attitudes (what we like and dislike), and
values (what we think is right/wrong or good/bad). Jury members are expected to express thoughts based on reported
observations to help reach a conclusion about someone’s guilt or innocence. A juror might express the following
thought: “The neighbor who saw the car leaving the night of the crime seemed credible. And the defendant seemed to
have a shady past—I think he’s trying to hide something.” Sometimes people intentionally or unintentionally express
thoughts as if they were feelings. For example, when people say, “I feel like you’re too strict with your attendance
policy,” they aren’t really expressing a feeling; they are expressing a judgment about the other person (a thought).

Expressing Feelings
When we express feelings, we communicate our emotions. Expressing feelings is a difficult part of verbal
communication, because there are many social norms about how, why, when, where, and to whom we express our
emotions. Norms for emotional expression also vary based on nationality and other cultural identities and
characteristics such as age and gender. In terms of age, young children are typically freer to express positive and
negative emotions in public. Gendered elements intersect with age as boys grow older and are socialized into a norm of
emotional restraint. Although individual men vary in the degree to which they are emotionally expressive, there is still a
prevailing social norm that encourages and even expects women to be more emotionally expressive than men.

5- Referencia e inferencia.

Reference and Inference (Within Pragmatics and Semantics)

The chain of communication is primarily based on two sides: the speaker and the listener. The first trigger to use
language is the message in the mind of the speaker that needs to be conveyed. The role of the listener, then, is to
perceive and analyze the message and get the intended meaning behind it.
One of the most noticeable concerns in the field of pragmatics is that of reference which sheds light on what speakers
mean when they use an expression that picks out some entity in the outside world, and inference, which hints at the
role of the listener in perceiving the message and building a connection between what is said by the speaker and the
meaning behind it.
1. Reference
According to (Crystal, 1992) "reference is the relationship between a linguistic expression and the entity in the external
world to which it refers; also called the referential meaning of the expression".
As for (Yule, 1996), "it is an act by which a speaker uses a word, or words, to enable a listener to identify someone or
something".
Archer defines reference as "the relations which hold between linguistic expressions (such as noun phrase) and what
they stand for in the world"
Archer's definition of reference hints at the semantic reference, since the pragmatic definition is based on the context
and the role of the speaker in conveying the intended message.
"Reference most descriptions refer to different referents (persons, objects, notions) on each occasion when they are
used. The function of picking out an object in the world which matches a linguistic description is called referring"
(Grundy, 2000)
Reference, then, is clearly tied to the speaker's goals (to identify something) and the speaker's beliefs (can the listener
be expected to know that particular something?) in the use of language. (Yule, 1996)
1.1 Referring expressions
The choice of one type of referring expression rather than another seems to be based, to a large extent, on what the
speaker assumes the listener already knows. The pronouns that function as deictic expressions (for example, 'Take this';
'Look at him!') may be sufficient for successful reference, but where identification seems more difficult, more elaborate
noun phrases may be used (for example, 'Remember the old foreign guy with the funny hat?'). (Yule, 1996)
Birner (2013) points out that referring expression is a linguistic expression that a speaker uses in order to enable a
listener to “pick out” something in the world. This definition raises questions. What does it mean to pick something out?
And what counts as the world? In the mentalist view, what is picked out is limited to entities in the discourse model,
rather than anything in the “actual” world of concrete objects.
A referring expression is a linguistic form that the speaker uses with the intention that it correspond to some discourse
entity and bring that discourse entity to mind for the listener.
2. Inference
While 'reference' is mainly related to the writer or speaker's goals and beliefs, 'inference' is the reader or listener's task
to connect or relate which entity the speaker intends with a specific referring expression. (Yule, 1996)
Therefore, for creating an adequate reference there must be a mutual knowledge (in the speaker and listener's minds)
and context about a particular referring expression so that the listener can identify the intended referent. (Archer, 2012)
(Yule, 1996)
Grundy (2000) describes inference as "a feature of the utterance or its correspondence to known facts this feature leads
the hearer to suspect that the literal meaning is not the (only) meaning that the speaker seeks to convey"
This suggests that communication is not merely a matter of a speaker encoding a thought in language and sending it as
spoken message through space, or as a written message on paper, to a receiver who decodes it. This is clearly
insufficient simply because the receiver must not only decode what is received but also draw an inference as to what is
conveyed beyond what is stated (meaning behind the meaning). (Grundy, 2000)
If we examine the utterance: 'I stepped outside, but it was cold.'
A person would basically infer that the speaker is referring to the fact that it was cold outside and not inside, and that it
was cold where the speaker was, not in any other place in the world. Another person may notice the word but and infer
that there was some contrast related to the coldness probably that it was unexpected, and perhaps also that it
interfered with the speaker’s plans; perhaps the speaker ended up going back inside. (Birner, 2013)
On the other hand, the clearness of most inferences covers their great complexity. As when a person says 'I'm a man'.
One might think that nothing is significant in that, except that the speaker was a woman. Here, the meaning she
intended to convey was more than the literal meaning of the words. This leads us to another point that is when a
speaker says something obviously true (a man says 'I'm a man') or obviously false (a woman says 'I'm a man'), in both
cases, the speaker assumes that the listener will infer something beyond the literal meaning. (Grundy,2000)
Therefore, for successful reference to occur, we must identify the role of inference. Because in pragmatics, there is no
direct relationship between entities and words, the listener's task is to infer correctly which entity the speaker intends
to identify by using a particular referring expression.
We conclude that inference is the listener's use of additional knowledge to make sense of what is not clear in an
utterance. (Yule, 1996)
3. Aspects of Reference and Inference
3.1 Referential and attributive uses
Not all referring expressions have recognizable physical referents, some of them simply refer to abstract concepts.
In the following example "He wants to marry a woman with lots of money." The expression "with lots of money" can
label an entity that is known to the speaker only in terms of its descriptive properties. In this case, the word 'a' can be
substituted by 'any'. This is sometimes called an attributive use, meaning 'whoever/whatever fits the description'. It
would be different from a referential use whereby the speaker actually has a person in mind.
The point of this distinction is that expressions themselves cannot be treated as having reference (as is often assumed in
semantic treatments), but are, or are not, 'invested' with referential function in a context by a speaker or writer.
Speakers often invite us to assume, via attributive uses, that we can identify what they're talking about, even when the
entity or individual described may not exist.
In short, attributive use is using an expression to identify someone or something without being committed to the
existence of an actual person or thing, e.g. 'the first person to walk on Mars' while referential use is using an expression
to identify someone or something when the person or thing is assumed to be known. (Yule, 1996)
3.2 Names and Referents
This kind of reference is based on the collective perception which exceeds the level of speaker and listener and works in
terms of convention and tradition between all members of society who share a common knowledge of a language and
culture. That is to say, there is a convention that certain referring expressions are used to identify certain entities on a
regular basis.
We may suppose that referring expressions can only label very specific entities. This assumption may lead us to think
that a name or proper noun like 'Shakespeare' can only be used to identify one specific person, and an expression
containing a common noun, such as 'the cheese sandwich', can only be used to identify a specific thing. This belief is
mistaken.
A truly pragmatic view of reference allows us to see how a person can be identified via the expression, 'the cheese sand -
wich', and a thing can be identified via the name, 'Shakespeare'.
3.3 The role of co-text
(Archer et al, 2012) description of pragmatics as a discipline which depends on 'the context' for utterances
interpretations can be illustrated in the following example:
Hearing a woman saying to her fellow bus passenger:
And just think, if he hadn't fallen out of bed, I'd never have found out about it!
It is almost impossible to interpret the above example without the aid of the co-text. The listener is able to identify the
meaning of each individual word, but still unable to infer what he refers to or what it refers to. (Thomas, 1995)
Thus, the role of co-text is significant to assign the intended reference correctly. Thus, the listener's knowledge of the
co-text helps in narrowing the possible interpretations of utterances. Notice the interpretations of phrase 'the cheese
sandwich' following examples:
a. The cheese sandwich is made with Italian bread.
b. The cheese sandwich is sitting near the window.
In the above examples, there are two interpretations of the same 'the cheese sandwich'. The different co-texts
determine the different interpretations of the intended reference. In a, it is clear that 'the cheese sandwich' stands for
food. On the other hand, 'the cheese sandwich' in b stands for a person. In addition, 'the cheese sandwich' in b is clearly
understood as a person by waiters in a restaurant, not only depending of the co-text but on the local context and local
knowledge as well, another example doctors and nurses refer to people in hospital by the name of their illness, which is
easily understood among them because of the local knowledge. Therefore, words, phrases or even sentences are used
to make a reference but it is the co-text and local knowledge that determine the correct meaning of a specific utterance.
(Yule, 1996)
3.4 Anaphoric reference
(Yule, 1996) states that anaphor "the word typically a pronoun, used to maintain reference to someone or something
already mentioned" (Crystal, 1992) describes anaphora as "a grammatical relationship in which a linguistic unit takes its
interpretation from some other part of the sentence, typically from something previously expressed"
Moreover, (Grundy, 2000) defines it as "a reference to a previous item, or 'antecedent', in a discourse"
Thus, we can state that anaphoric reference is used to avoid repetition and at the same time maintain the reference
when using more than one sentence. This is illustrated in the following example:
John and Ashley got married at the beginning of 1996, and they spent their honeymoon in Italy. After one year, they had
a beautiful child, and they named her Lisa. They moved from the city to the country to have a peaceful atmosphere for
rising her. Today, she is leaving them and moving back to the city so that she can enter the Law school.
In the above example, the pronouns ('they', 'them', 'she', 'her') are examples of 'anaphoric reference' in which we have
subsequent references to already introduced referents. John and Ashley is an example of antecedent which is "a noun
or noun phrase, generally appears earlier in the sentence or discourse than the item which refers to it" (Crystal, 1992) in
other words "the initial expression used to identify someone or something for which an anaphor is used later" (Yule,
1996) Thus, in the above example they is an anaphoric reference for the antecedent John and Ashley.
There is another technique in which the antecedent is preceded by the anaphoric reference, which is known as
'cataphora'. According to Yule (Yule, 1996), it is "the use of a word (typically a pronoun) to introduce someone or
something that is more identified later" as in the following example:
He slowly came into view. An old man was limping towards us.
Notice that the pronoun 'it', which is used initially, refers to 'an old man. Such utterance makes it difficult to interpret
until reaching the noun phrase in the following line. Distinguishing between anaphoric reference and cataphoric
reference is useful in interpretation. (Betty, 2013)
Another type of anaphoric reference can be illustrated in the following example:
a. Pile a potato and slice it.
b. Put the slices into a boiling water.
c. Cook for five minutes.
Such anaphoric reference, having to linguistic entity to refer to as in 'cook ͏ for five minutes' called 'ellipsis' or 'zero
anaphora' which is "the absence of an expression in a structural slot where one is assumed, as a way of maintaining
reference" (Yule,1996)
In such utterances, the listener is expected to infer the speaker's intended referent correctly based on mutual
knowledge and co-text. (Yule, 1996) "Successful reference means that an intention was recognized, via inference,
indicating a kind of shared knowledge and hence social connection" (Yule, 1996)
4. Reference in semantics and pragmatics.
Based on Yule's (1996) definition of semantics, that is "the study of the relationship between linguistic forms and
entities in the world" we can get that 'reference' in semantics is a direct relationship, a literal connection between
words and things, it does not consider the speaker's intended meaning nor the listener's interpretation of an utterance.
On the other hand, pragmatics "is the study of the relationship between linguistic forms and the users of those forms"
Yule (1996) so; it is no longer a direct relationship between linguistic forms and entities of the world. Within pragmatics,
language users (speaker and listener) take part in assigning the intended referent, e.g. within semantics the word
Shakespeare refers to a clear direct referent that is the famous English figure. While in pragmatics, it could refer to a
book written by Shakespeare, a poem, a play, or the person himself. We can assign the intended referent according to
the context, the speaker, and the listener.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN REFERENCE AND INFERENCE

*Reference is an act in which a speaker or writer, uses linguistic forms to enable a listener or reader to identify
something. Inference is connecting prior knowledge to text based information to create meaning beyond what is
directly stated.*Reference is the symbolic relationship that a linguistic expression has with the concrete object or
abstraction it represent. Inference is the conclusion you draw from what you have observed.*The choice of one type of
referring expression rather than another seems to be based, to a larger extent, on what the speaker assumes the
listener already knows. Inferring is to conclude/to guess and understand the situation after observation*
“It is important to recognize that not all referring expressions have identifiable physical referents. Indefinite nouns
phrase can be used to identify a physically present entity, but they can also be used to describe entities that are assume
to exist, but are unknown, or entities that, as far as we know, do not exist’’
In inference, we must have the object/situation so that we are able to draw conclusion and understanding.