Can One Not “Not
Communicate?
Proseminar in Communication—COM 422
John R. Baldwin—Illinois State University
Pragmatics of Communication
Background
(Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson, 1967)
 Gregory Bateson and the study of schizophrenic
children
 Hmmm…The problem may not be in the child…it
must be in the ____________.
– Communication double-binds
– Discrepancy in messages (especially verbal and
nonverbal)
 What’s going on in this video?
– Lindenstrasse (German Soap Opera)
– Erich, Helga, Marion (22:00)
WB&J’s 5 Axioms
 One cannot not communicate
 All communication has content +
relationship
 The nature of relationship depends upon
how partners punctuate sequences
 Humans communicate digitally and
analogically
 All interchanges are symmetrical or
complementary
Some thought questions
 How do the axioms relate to family or
relational “systems” (something we may
talk about later in the course?)
 For WB&J, what defines
– Communication?
– Message?
– Interaction?
Compare and Contrast
Relationship/ Analog
Content / Digital
“Defines relationship, “imposes
behavior”
“Describes things” (report)
One Cannot Not
Communicate
 What do the authors mean?
 When would this axiom apply for WB&J?
 How do other axioms relate to this one, if at
all? (some may relate more than others!)
Applying the axioms
 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!
More on communication…
Language in a System:
Communication
Sending
Receiving
Meaning
All of
These
Interpreting
Pragmatic
Conceptual
ALL COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS HAVE
 A MODE OF TRANSMISSION
– SIGNS
– SIGNALS
ALL COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS HAVE
 PRAGMATIC FUNCTION
TRUE LANGUAGE-BASED
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS HAVE
 CONCEPTUAL FUNCTION
 INTERCHANGEABILITY
 CULTURAL TRANSMISSION
 ARBITRARINESS
 DISCRETENESS
 DISPLACEMENT
 PRODUCTIVITY
Language productivity (continued)
 EMERGENT
 EVOLVES
 BUT ALWAYS RULE GUIDED (set by
language and culture)
–
–
–
–
Phonetic
Semantic
Syntactic
Pragmatic
A thought question:
A first look at a class exercise