Topic: communication

Communication (from Latin: communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is "an apparent
answer to the painful divisions between self and other, private and public, and inner thought and outer world."
As this definition indicates, communication is difficult to define in a consistent manner, because in common use
it refers to a very wide range of different behaviours involved in the propagation of information. John Peters
argues the difficulty of defining communication emerges from the fact that communication is both a universal
phenomenon (because everyone communicates) and a specific discipline of institutional academic study.One
definitional strategy involves limiting what can be included in the category of communication (for example,
requiring a "conscious intent" to persuade). By this logic, one possible definition of communication is the act of
developing meaning among entities or groups through the use of sufficiently mutually understood signs,
symbols, and semiotic conventions.

In Claude Shannon's and Warren Weaver's influential model, human communication was imagined to function
like a telephone or telegraph. Accordingly, they conceptualized communication as involving discrete steps:

The formation of communicative motivation or reason.

Message composition (further internal or technical elaboration on what exactly to express).

Message encoding (for example, into digital data, written text, speech, pictures, gestures and so on).

Transmission of the encoded message as a sequence of signals using a specific channel or medium.

Noise sources such as natural forces and in some cases human activity (both intentional and accidental) begin
influencing the quality of signals propagating from the sender to one or more receivers.

Reception of signals and reassembling of the encoded message from a sequence of received signals.

Decoding of the reassembled encoded message.

Interpretation and making sense of the presumed original message.These elements are now understood to be
substantially overlapping and recursive activities rather than steps in a sequence. For example, communicative
actions can commence before a communicator formulates a conscious attempt to do so, as in the case of
phatics; likewise, communicators modify their intentions and formulations of a message in response to real-
time feedback (e.g., a change in facial expression). Practices of decoding and interpretation are culturally
enacted, not just by individuals (genre conventions, for instance, trigger anticipatory expectations for how a
message is to be received), and receivers of any message operationalize their own frames of reference in
interpretation.The scientific study of communication can be divided into:

Information theory which studies the quantification, storage, and communication of information in general;

Communication studies which concerns human communication;

Biosemiotics which examines communication in and between living organisms in general.

Biocommunication which exemplifies sign-mediated interactions in and between organisms of all domains of
life, including viruses.Communication can be realized visually (through images and written language), through
auditory, tactile/haptic (e.g. Braille or other physical means), olfactory, electromagnetic, or biochemical means
(or any combination thereof). Human communication is unique for its extensive use of abstract language.

Types

Non-verbal communication

Nonverbal communication explains the processes that convey a type of information in a form of non-linguistic
representations. Examples of nonverbal communication include haptic communication, chronemic
communication, gestures, body language, facial expressions, eye contact etc. Nonverbal communication also
relates to the intent of a message. Examples of intent are voluntary, intentional movements like shaking a hand
or winking, as well as involuntary, such as sweating. Speech also contains nonverbal elements known as
paralanguage, e.g. rhythm, intonation, tempo, and stress. It affects communication most at the subconscious
level and establishes trust. Likewise, written texts include nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, the
spatial arrangement of words and the use of emoticons to convey emotion.

Nonverbal communication demonstrates one of Paul Watzlawick's laws: you cannot not communicate. Once
proximity has formed awareness, living creatures begin interpreting any signals received. Some of the functions
of nonverbal communication in humans are to complement and illustrate, to reinforce and emphasize, to
replace and substitute, to control and regulate, and to contradict the denotative message.
Nonverbal cues are heavily relied on to express communication and to interpret others' communication and
can replace or substitute verbal messages.

There are several reasons as to why non-verbal communication plays a vital role in communication:

"Non-verbal communication is omnipresent." They are included in every single communication act. To have
total communication, all non-verbal channels such as the body, face, voice, appearance, touch, distance,
timing, and other environmental forces must be engaged during face-to-face interaction. Written
communication can also have non-verbal attributes. E-mails, web chats, and the social media have options to
change text font colours, stationery, add emoticons, capitalization, and pictures in order to capture non-verbal
cues into a verbal medium."Non-verbal behaviours are multifunctional." Many different non-verbal channels
are engaged at the same time in communication acts and allow the chance for simultaneous messages to be
sent and received.

"Non-verbal behaviours may form a universal language system." Smiling, crying, pointing, caressing, and glaring
are non-verbal behaviours that are used and understood by people regardless of nationality. Such non-verbal
signals allow the most basic form of communication when verbal communication is not effective due to
language barriers.

When verbal messages contradict non-verbal messages, observation of non-verbal behaviour is relied on to
judge another's attitudes and feelings, rather than assuming the truth of the verbal message alone.

Verbal communication

Verbal communication is the spoken or written conveyance of a message. Human language can be defined as a
system of symbols (also known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are manipulated.
The word "language" also refers to common properties of languages. Language learning normally occurs most
intensively during human childhood. Most of the large number of human languages use patterns of sound or
gesture for symbols which enable communication with others around them. Languages tend to share certain
properties, although there are exceptions. Constructed languages such as Esperanto, programming languages,
and various mathematical formalisms are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared by human
languages.

As previously mentioned, language can be characterized as symbolic. Charles Ogden and I.A Richards
developed The Triangle of Meaning model to explain the symbol (the relationship between a word), the
referent (the thing it describes), and the meaning (the thought associated with the word and the thing).

Communicators' diverse efforts to produce and interpret meaning in language are functionally constrained by
that language's prototypical phonology (sounds that typically appear in a language), morphology (what counts
as a word), syntax (word-order), semantics (conventional meaning of words), and pragmatics (which meanings
are conventional to which contexts).

The meanings that are attached to words can be literal, or otherwise known as denotative; relating to the topic
being discussed, or, the meanings take context and relationships into account, otherwise known as
connotative; relating to the feelings, history, and power dynamics of the communicators.Contrary to popular
belief, signed languages of the world (e.g., American Sign Language) are considered to be verbal
communication because their sign vocabulary, grammar, and other linguistic structures abide by all the
necessary classifications as spoken languages. There are however, nonverbal elements to signed languages,
such as the speed, intensity, and size of signs that are made. A signer might sign "yes" in response to a
question, or they might sign a sarcastic-large slow yes to convey a different nonverbal meaning. The sign yes is
the verbal message while the other movements add nonverbal meaning to the message.

Written communication and its historical development

Over time the forms of and ideas about communication have evolved through the continuing progression of
technology. Advances include communications psychology and media psychology, an emerging field of study.

The progression of written communication can be divided into three "information communication revolutions":

Written communication first emerged through the use of pictographs. The pictograms were made in stone,
hence written communication was not yet mobile. Pictograms began to develop standardized and simplified
forms.

The next step occurred when writing began to appear on paper, papyrus, clay, wax, and other media with
commonly shared writing systems, leading to adaptable alphabets. Communication became mobile.

The final stage is characterized by the transfer of information through controlled waves of electromagnetic
radiation (i.e., radio, microwave, infrared) and other electronic signals.Communication is thus a process by
which meaning is assigned and conveyed in an attempt to create shared understanding. Gregory Bateson called
it "the replication of tautologies in the universe. This process, which requires a vast repertoire of skills in
interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, gestures, and evaluating
enables collaboration and cooperation.