comm-and-you

Your Reference

A Study Tool

Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you can:

Describe the power of language—the system of symbols we use to think about and communicate experiences and feelings:

Words are symbols that have meanings agreed to by speakers of a language (p. 76).
A denotative meaning is the accepted definition of a word; its connotative meaning is the emotional or attitudinal response to it (p. 76).
Cognitive language is what you use to describe people, things, and situations in your mind (p. 77).
Correct grammar, the rules of a language, helps ensure clarity (p. 78).
Learning words and how to use them effectively is the process of communication acquisition (p. 79).

Identify the ways language works to help people communicate—the five functional communication competencies:

As an instrument of control (p. 79).
For informing, including four aspects: questioning, describing, reinforcing, and withholding (p. 80).
For expressing feelings to let people know how we value them (p. 80).
For imagining, communicating a creative idea (p. 81).
For ritualizing, managing conversations and relationships (p. 81).

Label communication problems with language and discuss how to address them:

The abstraction ladder ranks communication from specific, which ensures clarity, to general and vague (pp. 81–82).
Some communication situations may call for abstractions: evasion , avoiding specifics; equivocation , using unclear terms; or euphemism , using substitutions for possibly upsetting terms (p. 82).
Slang is a group’s informal language; jargon is a group’s technical language (p. 82).
Semantics refers to the meaning that words have; pragmatics refers to the ability to use them appropriately (p. 83).
We ignore individual differences when we place gender, ethnic, or other role labels on people (pp. 83–86).
Biased language has subtle meanings that influence perception (p. 86); using politically correct language is an attempt at neutrality (p. 86).
Profanity includes words or expressions that are considered insulting, rude, vulgar, or disrespectful whereas civility involves language that meets socially appropriate norms (pp. 86–87).

Describe how language reflects, builds on, and determines context:

We use different speech repertoires to find the most effective language for a given situation (p. 87).
We use language to create or reflect the context of a relationship (p. 88).
Some situations call for formal language, or high language; in more comfortable environments, low language, often including slang, is appropriate (p. 88).
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that our words influence our thinking (p. 89).
Linguistic determinism is the idea that language influences how we see the world; linguistic relativityholds that speakers of different languages have different views of the world (pp. 89–90).
Assuming gender differences in communication can be misleading, yet some differences in masculine and feminine language exist. The use of interruptions, intensifiers, qualifiers, hedges, disclaimers, and tag questions are linked with feminine versus masculine speech patterns (pp. 90–91).
The culture of the geographical area affects language (pp. 91–92).
Code switching and style switching, changing language use as well as tone and rhythm, are two types of accommodation, whereby we modify our language to adapt to another person’s communication style (p. 92).
Communication technology has made English the dominant world language and has created a global society. But the Internet also continues to create a language of its own (pp. 92–93).