Dr. Sola Olorunyomi @ IdeasBridge

Communication and the Interface between Language and Ideas
•Conflict and Development

•Are we, in Our Thoughts and Perceptions, Prisoners of the Language We Speak?

Language and the Problem of its Arbitrariness
•It is impossible today to give an account of the origin of the human faculty of language. What we can say is that we are the only species that possess this faculty, or so we hope.
•There is no doubt that in every language some words are onomatopoeic: e.g. ‘yawn’.

What is Language? Suggestions…
•Easy way out: Language is for communication + other functions.

•But, too broad description because dogs equally communicate – when they bark or wag their tails.

•Restricted language!...Edward Sapir. …Reminds: even the clouds in the sky can be said to communicate the imminence of rain.

•Therefore, ‘communication’ needs a more precise description to cover the broad complexity of human language.

Some Research Outcomes:
•Controlled in our thoughts by the language we speak.

•People with different mother tongues will have different responses to issues.

•Difficulty of source to Target Language translation.

•No one-to-one relationship between a fact and the language of expression.

•The case of two patients describing a similar ailment.

What is Language?
(Complex whole including the following):

*Systems of sounds:
A)Study of actual sounds = Phonetics.
B)Different from way sounds are used in language = Phonology or Phonemics.
C)Sounds as received and interpreted in the hearer’s ear = Auditory Phonetics.
D)Actual sound waves and their characteristics = Acoustic Phonetics.
E)Way sounds are produced in the speakers’ body = Articulatory Phonetics.

***•Systems of grammatical patterning•Systems of word meaning – Semantics
•Systems of reference to non-linguistic events

Forms of ‘Writing’:
••- Pictogram
•- Ideogram
(Approximations)
••- Syllabary
•- Alphabetic Writing
•+
•- Interpretive Community

***Features (Psychodynamics) of Orality
•Additive rather than subordinative
•••Redundant or ‘copious’
•••Agonistically toned

Communication Contexts
***Set of circumstances or a situation:
•Intrapersonal communication – process of understanding and sharing meaning with the self

•Interpersonal – coordinating meaning between at least two people in a situation that allows mutual opp. for both speaking and listening – Dyadic, Triadic & Small Group

•Public Communication such as in Town Meeting

•Mass Communication – between source and a large audience.
(Communication in Quantity Differs from Communication in Quality)

Assumptions in Communication:
•Communication begins with the self
•The self-conflictual
•How you view yourself
•How you view the other person
•How you believe the other person views you
•How the other person views himself or herself
•How the other person views you
•How the other person believes you view him or her

Models of Communication Event
***Source—Message—Channel—Receiver—Feedback

•Action Model: Inoculation Model – Linear

•Transmission Model: Based on the principles of stimulus– response psychology.

Stimuli from S to R to modify behavior Occurs when information is passed.
•Interaction Model: Formally coded symbolic communication event + Shared significance in a culture or interpretive community + Process of creating, maintaining and altering social order + Feedback

•Transaction – communication – simultaneous S and R

•Constructivist – A theory of communication, which posits that receivers create their own reality in their minds.

Diversity can lead to conflict on three grounds:
•Competition for resources (limited resource + unjust distribution)

•Psychological needs – Arrogant disposition to assert superiority/unfeeling/higher clout/ego trip

•Values – Values shape our personality / difficult to change

•(Sex/sexual orientation/Cultural practice/Ethnic origin/Religious affiliation/Ideological stancePolitical leaning/Place of habitation etc.)

Closing:
• The old is dying, and the new cannot yet be born; and in the interregnum, there arises a number of morbid symptoms.

(Antonio Gramsci)

Thank you.