Language as a tool of communication.doc

LanguageasaToolofCommunication20120100211 曾媛 20120100228 甘晓华 Communication via language Communication competence Other form of communication Animal communication communication via languageA. Linguistic indeterminacyKey word: the use of language misunderstandinga. message in or behind languagewhen you want to say somethingfirst step: producing an ideathoughtsecond step: transcribing into linguistic representationthird step: figure out how to convey it when you meet with incoming informationfirst step: sound recognition identifying meaningful sound unitssecond step: working out phrasal or sentential or structuregetting the messagemeaning givemessage sender receiver communication feedbackso the problems appear :Q1: How to control language?Q2: How to control others mind to understand us?the procedure above can be explained to be encoding and decoding. So the problems appear. Q1: What if the language itself is not accurate enough ?Q2: Misunderstanding do occur for different people have different understanding.Eg. Why are the legal document so detailed？u Firstly, to avoid confusion since the misunderstandings do existu Secondly, .to avoid inaccuracy.So, we can conclude that :When you say something, you are conveying a large amount of knowledge including: Linguistic knowledge Knowledge of world Practical realitiesConclusion:1. While we enjoy the benefits, or convenience that language brings to us in communication, we are evidently troubled by the indeterminacy of linguistic meaning, that is, the impossibility of determining, absolutely, what a given string of words actually means.2. We have to utilize other existing knowledge in our head, not just the knowledge, will facilitate the exchange of meaning.B. Alongside languageKey word: expression written language animals languageEg. A video of babies growth When the babys mom talked to him but have no expression the baby cried. When the baby was contacting to hisher mom through TV the baby was happy. But when the TV turned upside down, the baby changed to be nervous When the TV show a video of someone who talked to the baby brightly, the baby was happy. But neither the bright words with sorrowful expression nor the sorrowful words with bright expression can make the baby happy.The conclusion is that babies are really very sensitive to the expression and sound, which show that:One s expression is important when talkingFacial expression matches emotion in our speech.Eyes contactgestureposturevoicesintonationrhythm are important in communication.Conclusion: Despite language, we use many other channels of information to communicate with each other. Such channels of information include information, stress and body language. Like facial expressions, postures or gestures, etc. Which enable us to indicate the subtleties in meaning, attitude etc, which may not be present in the words, themselves. Thats also the true when we are writing rather than speaking. other form of communicationa. Communication through writing communication exist not only in the words we say but also the word we write. So, different writing habits can lead to different understanding. For example: where the words we put can cause different meaning.b. animals communicationResearch project:l Communication between human and animalsAnimals help us reconnect with our natural ability to communicate telepathically with all species.Through more communication, animals can be more close to us. l Communication among different kinds of animalAnimals have their own special languages including body language.Different animals have different to communicate with their companions like bee dance，chimpanizees hugging and so on. The first form of animal communication is by showing visual acts. The last form is through chemical or hormone transmission. Animals have various ways to exchange informationThe way they exchange information: vocal, visual, chemical, electrical, hapticThe purpose of exchanging information: warning, courtship, source of food.c comparison between animals communication and human communication.differenceHuman AnimalsLanguage originMust be taughtBorn to haveReason of communicatingNo limitation. Whenever they wantDriven by stimulusMeaning of they “words”Many meanings in a sentence sometimes.Straightly convey informationThe question is, why human language is different from animals language?1 duality of patterningin human language:Speech is the ordinary medium of language.A sound unit is with meaning instead of only a vowel2 displacement and open endness.In human language, we can say anything including what we have never heard or said before.Above all, the complete meaning of language is : one conveys complex thoughts using arbitrary symbolsgrammatical utterances or their graphic expression in a significant syntax.Ps: different meanings of language depends on if you regards language as human character.reflection questions：Nowadays, many people use such symbols when chatting online, will you be able to account for this phenomenon from the linguistic perspective? One of the answers is that language through typing has its shortcoming different receivers can absorb different meanings through a sentence. So these symbols can somehow solve this problem. To sum up:1. Language is an important medium for communication, but is not the only thing that communication relies on2. Words contain meaning, b