Lesson 5
Symbolic Communication and
Language
1
Chapter Outline





Language and Verbal Communication
Nonverbal Communication
Sapir-Whorf
Social Structure and Communications
Normative Distance for Interaction
2
Communication and Symbols

Communication is the how people transmit
information about their ideas, feelings, and
intentions.
– We communicate through spoken and written words,
through voice qualities, physical closeness, gestures and
posture.

Symbols are arbitrary forms used to refer to
ideas, feelings, intentions, or any other object.
– Symbols represent our experiences in ways that
others can perceive through sounds, gestures, pictures,
even fragrances.
3
Language and Verbal Communication

Spoken language is a socially acquired system
of sound patterns with meanings agreed on by
the members of a group.

Words are the symbols around which
languages are constructed.
4
Advantages of Language
1.
2.
3.

Frees us from the constraints of the here and
now.
Allows us to communicate with others about
experiences we do not share directly.
Enables us to transmit, preserve, and create
culture.
Language is so important that many have
argued that it shapes not only our
communication but our perceptions of how we
see things as well.
5
Importance of Language

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which is the
idea that language structures thought, and
that ways of looking at the world are
embedded in language, supports this
premise.
 Ex: snow, jam, Family Guy
6
The Importance of Language





Language facilitates culture
Is American English the same and British
English, dude?
Where would you find Eggplant in the grocery
store?
Cheese + hamburger = cheeseburger
Lettuce + hamburger ≠ lettuceburger
7
“Get me a drink of lemonade.”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Get me a glass of lemonade.
Can you get me some lemonade?
Would you get me some lemonade?
Would you get me something to drink?
Would you mind if I asked you to get me some
lemonade?
I’m thirsty.
How is that lemonade we bought?
Did you buy some lemonade at the store?
8
The Perspective-Taking Model

Depicts the process of communication as both
(1) creating and (2) reflecting a shared context
between speaker and listener.
 Communication involves the exchange of
messages using symbols whose meaning
grows out of the interaction itself.
– Shared context requires reciprocal role
taking.
9
Intersubjectivity



Successful communication depends on intersubjectivity.
Each participant needs information about the other’s
status, view of the situation, and plans or intentions.
Being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes
– Strangers rely on social conventions
and rules of interpersonal communication.
– The interpersonal context influences the production
and the interpretation.
10
Linguistic Intergroup Bias

Members of a group share a linguistic
intergroup bias.
 We favor those who speak like us
 There are subtle, systematic differences in the
language we use to describe events as:
1. a function of our group membership and
2. the group to which the actor or target
belongs.
11
Sociolinguistic Competence

Language performance must be appropriate to
the social and cultural context.
–
–

Otherwise mutual understanding won’t occur.
“My mother eats raw termites”, expresses an idea that
is incongruous with American culture.
Speakers are expected to use language that is:
1. Appropriate to the status of the individuals they
are discussing and
2. Appropriate to their relationship of intimacy.
12
Types of Nonverbal Communication

Paralanguage
– All the vocal aspects of speech other than
words.
 Body language
– The silent movement of body parts.
13
Types of Nonverbal Communication

Interpersonal spacing cues
– Positioning ourselves at varying distances and
angles from others.

Personal effects
– What a person wears that communicates
information about that person.

In addition to the approximate 250,000
different facial expressions that humans can
make, nonverbal communication uses many
other bodily and gestural cues.
14
Types of Nonverbal Communication
15
President Bush’s 2005 Inauguration



President Bush did not
know that:
In Mediterranean
cultures, this gesture
implies that a man has
an unfaithful wife.
In parts of Africa it is
used to impose a curse
on another person.
16
The Complexity of Communication

These two kids are
combining
languages,
interpersonal
spacing, and body
language to
accomplish the
sharing of a secret.
17
Combining Nonverbal and
Verbal Communication

Multiple cues convey added information,
reduce ambiguity, and increase the accuracy
of communication.
Multiple cues also resolve inconsistencies, so
the messages can be evaluated separately
and weighed (i.e. facial cues first, then
paralanguage and verbal cues).
18
Social Structure and
Communications

The ways we communicate with others
reflect and influence our relationships.
– The impact of gender depends on the
interpersonal, group, or organizational context.
– Speech that adheres to vocabulary,
pronunciation, and grammar rules is preferred.
19
Communicating Status and Intimacy

Status is concerned with the exercise of
power and control.
 Intimacy is concerned with the expression of
affiliation and affection that creates social
solidarity.
 Verbal and nonverbal communication express
and maintain particular levels of intimacy and
relative status in relationships.
20
Theory of Speech Accommodation

Individuals who wish to express liking alter their own
1. pronunciation
2. speech rate
3. vocal intensity
4. pause lengths
5. utterance lengths

All to match those of their partner.

Individuals who wish to communicate disapproval
modify these vocal behaviors in ways that make them
diverge from their partner’s.
21
Normative Distances for Americans

Public distance (12–25 feet) is prescribed
for interaction in formal encounters, lectures,
trials, and other public events.

Social distance (4 –12 feet) is prescribed for
many casual social and business
transactions.
22
Normative Distances for Americans
Personal distance (1 1⁄ 2– 4 feet) is
prescribed for interaction among friends and
relatives.
 Intimate distance (0 –18 inches) is
prescribed for giving comfort, making love,
and aggressing physically.

23
Strangers at a Bus Stop
24
Initiating Conversations

Conversations must be initiated with an
attention-getting device.
 A summons-answer sequence initiates the
mutual obligation to speak and to listen that
produces conversational turn taking.
25
Regulating Turn Taking

A pervasive rule of conversation is to avoid
bumping into someone verbally.
 To regulate turn taking, people use many
verbal and nonverbal cues, separately and
together, with varying degrees of success.
• For Example: The speaker signals his/her
readiness to give over the speaking role by
pausing, dropping voice volume, and terminating
hand gestures.
26
Feedback and Coordination

Through feedback, conversationalists
coordinate what they are saying to each other
from moment to moment.

Back channel feedback are small vocal and
visual comments a listener makes while a
speaker is talking, without taking over the
speaking turn.
27