1.

INTRODUCTION
Course presentation. Overlaps: - Linguistics, Applied Linguistics - Pragmatics (the study of meaning in use) - Discourse Analysis - Conversation Analysis - Sociolinguistics - Academic discourse practices (reflection on our own writing) - Philosophy of language

What is communication? Is there communication beyond language? COMMUNICATION Definition, Features, Forms Latin etymology: com = together munis = things

The etymology of the term suggests the very essence of the process: two people (sender and receiver) put together send each other bits of information under the form of a message, using a communication channel. The component elements above make up the system of communication, whose effectiveness is made possible due to the feedback. i.e. the way the information goes back from receiver to sender, while the sender has the possibility to check the reception of the message by the receiver. Successful communication requires: - understanding - at least 2 parties: addresser addressee sender receiver speaker hearer (oral communication) writer reader (written communication)

Communication by means of language = language used in meaningful contexts, making use of correct grammar in a meaningful way to establish a natural communicative use of language. Communication among humans is more complex, as it is also expressed by means of thoughts, feelings, intentions that get formulated explicitly in words or implicitly in gestures, intonation etc. The two participants in the process of communication change roles permanently. The information flow functions both ways simultaneously, both participants using several channels to transmit the messages.

The message goes from sender to receiver, who, after perceiving the message, possibly sends back an answer. The human communication system uses one or several common codes. The sender encodes his message and expects the receiver to decode it. The receiver, in responding, gives the initial sender a feedback according to which, the latter adjusts his following messages so as to make himself understood and reach his purpose.

FORMS OF COMMUNICATION The verbal communication uses the words of a language as code, which is the most elaborate sign system used by the members of a society. The words (lexis) together with the operation rules of a language (grammar) make up the verbal communication. In verbal communication we talk about: - linguistic competence = a persons ability to express his/her thoughts, intentions etc. in words and to decode messages - communicative competence = a persons ability to communicate efficiently by using his linguistic competence (e.g. a scientist with no communicative competence cannot deliver his theory properly to the audience although he has linguistic competence) The message in the verbal communication can be: oral: dialogue constructed with the receiver in mind written: - text = a stretch of language that holds together, has unity of meaning and structure - written dialogue reciprocal: face-to-face conversation interaction non-reciprocal: no interaction = communication is only one-way (e.g. a novel by a dead author) Usually speech is more reciprocal than writing, but not necessarily: e.g. compare: a monarchs speech vs. a letter to a friend.

Task 1: Which discourses are reciprocal and which are rather non-reciprocal? 1. a TV news broadcast 2. a church service 3. a letter 4. testimony in court 5. Hamlet 6. a chat with your neighbour 7. a lecture 8. an inaugural address by a Head of State The message at grammatical / structural level can be constructed in different ways:

Look at the following sentences? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Mike repaired the TV-set. It was Mike who repaired the TV-set. What Mike did was repair the TV-set. The person who repaired the TV-set was Mike. The TV-set was repaired by Mike. Repairing the TV-set is what Mike did.

Is the information the same? What is different? Although the information in the above sentences is the same, the message in each sentence has different communicative functions. Thats why different interpretations on the topic are required. This also takes into account the type of information: Information structure (Halliday): given information = what the receiver knows new information = what he doesnt know

The sender orders his message according to the hypothesis about what the receiver knows (his given information). e.g. 1. It is the CHILD who has broken the window. 2. It is the WINDOW that the child has broken. 3. The one who has broken the window is the CHILD. 4. What the child has broken is the WINDOW. 5. The CHILD has broken the window. Given: X has broken the window New: X = the child Given: the child has broken X New: X = the window Given: X has broken the window New: X = the child Given: the child has broken X New: X = the window Given: X has broken the window New: X = the child

Task 2: Analyze the information structure in the example above (about Mike repairing the TV-set). Conclusion: The information structure this 2-part structure of clauses reveals the way the sender has organized the information in his/her own mind to be received as he wishes to, for the purpose of effective communication. Note the senders wish to stress a certain part of the message, thus affecting structural changes (grammar word-order).

Task 3: Comment in terms of given vs. new information: Archer, Jeffrey was born in 1940, and was educated at Wellington School and Oxford University. In 1969 he became a Member of Parliament when he won the by-election. At 29, he was the youngest member of the House of Commons. He resigned from Parliament in 1974 because he had debts of over 427,000 pounds following the collapse of a Canadian company in which he had invested. In the same year he wrote his first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, which was based on his business experience. He has been writing ever since, and all six of his novels have been best sellers. They have been translated into over 15 languages. His most successful novel, Kane and Abel, has sold more than 4 million copies world-wide, and has been made into television series. After the success of his books, he decided to return to politics. From September 1985 to October 1986 he was Deputy Chairman of Conservative Party. He married his wife in 1966, and they live with their 2 children in Cambridge and London.

C.T.

2. Language in Communication
I Language Registers and Context a) Language Registers Definition: The name given to a variety of language distinguished according to its use is called register. Halliday: The concept of register is the concept of a variety of language, corresponding to a variety of situations, i.e. a concept of the kind of variation in language that goes with variation in the context of situation. A register is a semantic concept. Hallidays definition: a register is a configuration of meanings that are typically associated with a particular situational configuration. Since it is a configuration of meanings, a register must also include the expressions, the lexico-grammatical and phonological features, that typically accompany or REALISE these meanings. In this way we find that a particular register also has indexical features (= indices in the form of particular words, particular grammatical signals, or even sometimes phonological signals that have the function of indicating to the participants that this is the register in question)

E.g. Once upon a time - indexical feature that serves to signal the fact that we are now embarking on a traditional tale As language differs in different situations, it uses different registers in each particular situation. e.g. a sports commentary a church service a school lesson

There are variations in the kinds of register, from something that is closed and limited to something that is relatively free and open-ended. That is, there are certain registers in which the total number of possible meanings is fixed and finite and may be quite small; whereas in others, the range of the discourse is much less constrained. Closed registers e.g. those who were in the armed services during the Second World War were allowed to send only a limited number of messages by cable. So there was no need for the message itself to be transmitted; the only thing that was transmitted was a number. A particular message might be transmitted as 31, 67 meaning Happy birthday and please send DDT. This kind of register is an extreme case, also referred to as restricted language (Firth). It is a kind of register in which there is no scope for individuality, or for creativity. The range of possible meanings is fixed. Even if most registers are no so restricted, some of them even familiar ones - are quite closed: e.g. the International Language of the Air (learned by pilots and navigators o international air routes) - many languages of games (bidding system in bridge) More open registers e.g. - the language of minor documents (tickets) - official forms (headlines, recipes, technical instructions, legal documents) - the language of the classroom (when children pass from primary to secondary - the register of communication between doctor and patient There are styles of meaning associated with these registers, which simply have to be learnt. Medical students coming from overseas to English-speaking countries generally learn the technical language easily; but when it comes to having to communicate with the patients, they often have a great deal of difficulty, because this kind of register is not being taught in textsbooks.

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The most open-ended kind of register: the registers of informal narrative and spontaneous conversation used in everyday interaction, when we are trying to persuade people or entertain them or teach them etc. Yet even these are never totally open-ended. Even the most informal spontaneous conversation has its strategies and styles of meaning. We are never selecting with complete freedom from all the resources of our linguistic system. If we were, there would be no communication; we understand each other only because we are able to make predictions, subconscious guesses, about what the other person is going to say.

Hallidays distinction between Registers and dialects

They are two sorts of variety of language.

A dialect, or a dialectal variety, can be defined as a variety of language according to the user. That is, a dialect is what you speak habitually, depending in principle on who you are; and that means where you come from, either geographically in the case of regional dialects, or socially in the case of social dialects. In the urban areas the dialect pattern is predominantly a social one, so that dialect variation reflects the social order, in the particular sense of the social structure.

A register we can define as a variety according to use. In other words, the register is what you are speaking at the time, depending on what you are doing and the nature of the activity in which the language is functioning.

Conclusions: Whereas, in principle at least, any individual might go through life speaking only one dialect, it is not possible to go through life using only one register. Hence dialects are saying the same thing in different ways, whereas registers are saying different things. So dialects tend to differ not in the meanings they express but in the realizations of these meanings at other levels in their grammar, in their vocabulary, in their phonology, in their phonetics. On the other hand, it is precisely in meaning that the registers are differentiated from each other. Of course they must also differ in grammar and vocabulary (as they express the meaning), but this is simply a consequence of the difference in semantic potential.

There are also differences between sentences bearing the same meaning: Compare: e.g. 1. apologies for absence were received 2. was sorry he couldnt make it

The 2 examples belong to different situations and are expressed in different contexts. Which? The choice of items from the wrong register, and the mixing of items from different registers, are among the most frequent mistakes made by non-native speakers of a language. Crucial criteria for register identification are to be found in: - its grammar - its lexis (especially) Some lexical items are enough by themselves to identify a certain register: e.g. probe newspapers (esp. headlines) tablespoon recipes, prescriptions dentures dentistry or scientific, technical terms (e.g. morphology can be from: - biology, or - linguistics)

Task 1: Which inscription would be more suitable to be found on a toothpaste packet? 1. just right for cleaning false teeth 2. ideal for cleansing artificial dentures

Conclusions: - The language register is a matter of social integration as well (how people use language in what context)

b) Context Since communication is manifested in the presence of context, the literature offers various context types, out of which we shall indicate the following ones: 1. The linguistic context or co-text as it is also called represents the determinacy of an utterance in relation with another. Look at the following example: e.g. A: Has John bought sugar? B: The box is full.

The second utterance is determined by the first and acquires meaning only in relation to it. Even if Bs reply is not an explicit answer to As question, A will infer that Bs answer means Yes because B looked into the sugar box. Probably B also knows that John was supposed to buy sugar. 2. The grammatical context is represented by the internal relations of language items with each other at the level of form. That is we dont need to hear every sound distinctly as the complex of sounds or words gathered together in a stretch of language will enable some reasonable prediction on what a sound or a word is. The probability of words is illustrated in this example: e.g. I never met her before my life. Mishearing the missing words above will not affect our understanding of the message. This is because our grammatical competence easily allows for the recovery of the auxiliary verb have in constructing the present perfect tense of the verb meet, as well as the preposition in in the latter blank. 3. The physical context refers to the place, the setting where the act of communication takes place. Consider the following question asked by an addresser sitting next to his/ her addressee in the last row in a large course room: e.g. Can you see well? The addressee will perfectly well understand that the question does not refer to his/ her having ophthalmic problems, but to the environmental possibility of see the blackboard from that place. At an ophthalmologists, the question would have been part of a medical examination. 4. The social context refers to the relationship between the persons involved in the act of communication. It is common sense that messages can be similar in content and meaning but may differ very much in form according to who the interactants are to one another. For instance, a dialogue about school assignments will be expressed in fairly different manners if the participants in the dialogue are sister and brother or teacher and student. That is why, for somebody only listening to such a conversation, it is quite useful to know something about the relationship of the interlocutors to grasp the meaning of the message. 5. The cognitive context has a twofold connotation. On the one hand it indicates the background knowledge of the participants in the act of communication, i.e. the knowledge each of them relies on at the moment of communication. On the other hand, there is the participants shared knowledge, referring to their common knowledge when entering a conversation. It is obvious that people sharing a higher amount of knowledge have better chance of communicating effectively. 6. The context of situation represents the situation which serves as a suitable environment for a given piece of language. More precisely, a communication act is determined also by the situation in which it takes place.

Tasks: 1. Discuss the advantages of context in the following circumstances: - reading a badly transmitted fax - having a talk in a noisy place - a poor phone connection 2. Consider the following dialogue to comment on the different context types: (from J.R. Firth in Widdowson, 1974, p. 100) A: Do you think he will? B: I dont know. He might. A: I suppose he ought to, but perhaps he feels he cant. C: Well, his brothers have. They perhaps think he neednt. A: Perhaps eventually he may. B: I think he should, and I very much hope he will.

II. Correctness and Appropriacy Correctness = a matter of effective communication = the process through which the hearer (reader) understands precisely the speakers (writers) intention. So, both sender and receiver should be able to handle language correctly, observe the conventions so that language should be a means of social intercourse. So, incorrectness = a matter of failure in communication of meaning, resulting from ignorance or misuse of the conventions. Conclusion: what is correct is not always appropriate (fitting in a certain context) and viceversa. Because: Constructing correct sentences = making a selection of lexical items recorded in a dictionary combined with syntactic structures recorded in a grammar. But the ability to develop correct sentences is unsatisfactory in communication, as there is also need for a selection of (correct) sentences for the purpose of effective communication. E.g. The rain destroyed the crops. - correct sentence, but in context: A: Could you tell me where the station is, please? B: The rain destroyed the crops. Bs sentence is correct but it doesnt serve for communication; B doesnt know English well, so he is not able to communicate, because the answer is inappropriate.

Or: e.g. A: What did the rain do? B: The crops were destroyed by the rain. better answer, proves understanding, but inappropriate because B gave a passive voice answer to an active voice question.

Appropriacy = a matter of selecting a sentence which will combine with the sentence used for asking a question. Newmark (1991): being appropriate is something different from being structurally correct A student who has been taught only to be structurally competent in a foreign language cannot communicate appropriately, so he does not know that the proper way to get his cigarette lit by a stranger when he has no matches is to say one of the utterances: Do you have a light? or Got a match? and not one of the equally well-formed questions: Do you have a fire? or Do you have illumination? or Are you a matchs owner? Conclusions: 1. correctness appropriacy, but both are needed for effective communication; 2. we should: - gain the ability of composing correct sentences (usage) - acquire an understanding of which sentences, or parts of sentences are appropriate in a particular context (use)

III. Usage (a) and use (b) (a) involves the knowledge of the language system of English The rain destroyed the crops - The cat sat on the mat. - Poor John ran away. These are instances of correct English usage. e.g. (b) This knowledge of a language system should be used to achieve some kind of communicative purpose, i.e. to produce language use. Chomsky called them: (a) competence = the knowledge of abstract linguistic rules, which has to be put into effect as behaviour, it has to be revealed through (b) performance. Newmark (1991): There are rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless.

Hymes talks about communicative competence In normal circumstances we need both usage and use (competence and performance).

IV. Aspects of meaning: signification and value Look at the examples: E.g. I. - The rain. - The rain did. Although the words alone have meaning, the sentences are meaningless. But: E.g. II. A: What destroyed the crops? B: The rain. Or: B: The rain did.

Bs answers have meaning in relation to the sentence produced by A. So, there are 2 kinds of meaning: 1) Sentences have meaning as instances of usage: they express propositions by combining words into structures in accordance with grammatical rules = SIGNIFICATION 2) The meaning that sentences and parts of sentences assume when they are put to use for communication purposes = VALUE

Conclusions: - the e.g. I above have no signification as sentences, but they take on value when they occur in the kind of context that was perceived for them earlier (e.g. II.) - words and sentences meaningfully and grammatically combined and placed in a proper context make communication possible. Key terms in conclusion to II., III. And IV.: The two components of effective communication: (a) Structural: correctness usage competence signification (structural competence) (b) Communicational: appropriacy use performance value (communicative competence)