Ch5

Language consists o BLANK The key to understanding symbols is to realize that they are arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract ways of representing things.

Symbols

A.    Symbols are _____ because they are not intrinsically connected to what they represent.

Arbitrary

1.     Because symbols are arbitrary, we can create private meanings that only certain people know.

2.     Because symbols are arbitrary, language and meaning BLANK over time.

a.     Business and professions have led to new words.

b.     Technology has been a source of new words.

Change

A.    Symbols are ______ because their meanings aren’t clear or fixed in an absolute way; the meanings of words vary.

1.     Even though words don’t mean exactly the same to everyone, we have agreed upon _____ of words within a culture.

2.     We also have _____ definitions of words.

3.     The ambiguity of symbols explains why misunderstandings often occur. To minimize the problem

Abstract

Definition

Personalized

A.    Symbols are _____ because they are not concrete or tangible; symbols stand for ideas, people, events, objects, etc., but they are not the things they represent.

1.     As symbols become increasingly abstract, the potential for _____ increases.

2.     _______ cause confusion in public speaking situations.

Abstract

Confusion

Overgenerlizations

I.      Principles of Verbal Communication

A.    Interpretation creates _____.

1.     Because symbols are arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract, their meanings aren’t _____ or _____.

2.     We interpret the meaning of symbols.

Meaning

Self evident or absolute

A.    Communication is _______.

1.     Communication rules are shared understandings of what communication means and what kinds of communication are and are not appropriate in various situations.

2.     For the most part, rules aren’t explicitly taught.

a.     ___________ rules specify when, how, where, and with whom to talk about certain things, and they define when, where, and with whom it’s appropriate or inappropriate to communicate in particular ways.

b.     ______ rules tell us how to count certain kinds of communication. Paying attention counts as showing respect and hugging counts as affection, for example.

c.     ______ partners negotiate private rules to guide how they communicate and what certain things mean.

Rule guided

Regulative

Constitutive

Intimate

A.    _____ affects meaning in communication.

1.     Punctuation is the _____ mark of the beginnings and endings of particular interactions.

2.     When we don’t agree on punctuation, ______ arise.

3.     Effective _______ realize that people don’t always agree on punctuation.

Punctuation

Mental

Problems

Communicators

I.      Symbolic Abilities

A.    Because we use symbols, we live in a world of _____ and ____.

B.    Symbols ____; we use symbols to define experiences, people, relationships, feelings, and thoughts.

1.     We don’t always accurately define.

a.     ______ is the use of a single label to define someone.

b.     Totalizing fails to recognize other aspects of a person.

2.     Symbols influence how we ___ and ____ about experiences and people; how we think about relationships directly affects what happens in them.

Ideas and meanings

Define

Totalizing

Think and feel

A.    Symbols _____.

1.     Symbols are not ____; they are laden with values.

2.     We tend to describe people we like in terms that accent their good qualities and downplay their bad; the opposite is generally true for those we _____.

3.     In recent years, we have become more sensitive to different ways of naming _____ groups.

4.     ______ language consists of words that strongly slant perceptions and thus meanings.

Evaluate

Neutral

Dislike

Ethnic

Loaded

A.    Symbols organize ______.

1.     How we _______ experiences affects what they mean to us.

2.     Because symbols organize thought, they allow us to think about ______ concepts.

3.     Our ______ to abstract can also distort thinking (generalizing and stereotyping).

Perceptions

Organize

Abstract

Capacity

A.    Symbols allow __________.

1.     When we symbolize, we name ____ so that we can hold them in our minds and reflect on them.

2.     Close _______ rely on ideas of history and future.

Hypothetical thought

Ideas

Relationships

A.    Symbols allow _______.

1.     Just as we use symbols to reflect on things apart from us, we use symbols to reflect on _____.

2.     Self-reflection allows us to think about who we want to be and set goals for ourselves.

3.     Self-reflection allows us to _____ what we do.

4.     Self-reflection allows us to manage our _____, or the identity we present to others.

Self-reflection

Ourselves

Control

Image

I.      Digital Media and Verbal Communication

A.    _______________ applies to online communication in a variety of ways.

1.     We have _____ new words to describe experiences and modes of communication that are unique to social media.

2.     The features of symbols (such as the ambiguity of language) are applicable to _______: For example, the meaning of words in tweets, texts, or emails may be more ambiguous than the meaning of words in face-to-face conversations.

3.     ______ also apply to digital communication. Regulative rules have evolved to govern when, where, and with whom it is appropriate to communicate online and digitally. Constitutive rules govern a timely reply to posts, tweets, and texts, as well as what counts as supportive in commenting on postings on social networking sites.

Verbal communication

Coined

Digital Communcation

Rules

I.      Guidelines for Effective Verbal Communication

A.    The single most important guideline for effective verbal communication is to engage in the _________

1.     The dual perspective involves recognizing another person’s _________ and taking that point of view into account when you communicate.

2.     One should not _______ his or her own perspective; the dual perspective implies both our own and another’s point of view.

Dual perspective

Point of view

Abandon

A.    Own our feelings and thoughts.

1.     Avoid ______ that obscures our responsibility for how we feel and what we think.

2.     Realize that our ____ and _____ result from how we interpret others’ communication, not from their communication itself.

Language

Feelings and thoughts

1.     Effective communicators take responsibility for themselves by using language that owns their thoughts and feelings.

2.     Use _______ rather than you-language.

a.     I-statements own responsibility; you-statements project responsibility to others.

b.     I-statements offer more description than you-statements.

c.     There are benefits to using I-language.

i.      I-language is less likely to make others ______.

ii.    I-language opens the doors for ______.

iii.   I-language is more ______.

I language

Defensive

Dialogue

Honest

A.    Respect what others say about their feelings and ideas.

1.     We should not speak for _____.

2.     Just as we should not speak for others, we should not assume that we understand how they ____ or ____ (avoid mind reading).

3.     Don’t assume we understand people from other _____ or _____ communities.

4.     Respecting what others say about what they feel and think is a _______ of effective communication.

others

Feel or think

Cultures or social

Cornerstone

A.    Strive for accuracy and clarity.

1.     Be aware of levels of _______, as such awareness makes misunderstanding less likely.

2.     Abstract language is particularly likely to lead to _________ when people talk about how they want one another to change.

3.     ______ language to increase the clarity of communication.

a.     We should qualify ______ so we don’t mislead ourselves or others.

b.     We should also qualify language when describing and evaluating people.

i.    ______ evaluation consists of assessments that suggest that something is unchanging or frozen in time.      

ii.   _____ static evaluation in favor of indexing, a technique that allows us to note that our statements reflect only specific times and circumstances.

 

Abstraction

Misunderstandings

Quality

Generalizations

Static

Avoid