Interpersonal Communication - Chapter 5 PDF

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All notes for chapter 5. These notes were really useful, I got great grades on pretty much everything and finished the class with an A....

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Fall 2017: Interpersonal Communications Chapter 5: Language The Nature of Language: • Language is symbolic—words are arbitrary symbols, that have no meaning in themselves • Language and worldview: • Linguistic relativism—worldview of a culture is shaped and reflected by the language its members speak • Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the best-known declaration of linguistic relativity Affiliation: • Building solidarity with others through speech • Convergence- process of adapting one’s speech style to match others • Divergence- speaking in a way that emphasizes difference Preciousness and Vagueness: • Ambiguous language- words and phrases that have more than one accepted definition • Abstraction- generalizing about similarities between several objects, people, ideas, or events • Abstraction ladder- the higher level of abstraction, the more vague the statement becomes o Hard to understand the message o Leads to stereotyping o Thinking in generalities, self-fulfilling prophecies o Serious misunderstandings • Avoid abstractions by using behavioral descriptions • Euphemisms- innocuous terms substituted for blunt ones • Be as kind as possible without sacrificing integrity of the message • Relative language- gains meaning by comparison o Fails to link relative word to a more measurable term o Avoid by using numbers • Static evaluation- assumes people or things are consistent and unchanging o Some capability of change to avoid Language of Responsibility: • Evaluative (emotive) language- reveals how the speaker feels about something • “But” Statement- cancels the thought that precedes it; face-saving • “You” Statement- expresses judgement

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“I” Language- assertive, more accurate, less provocative; describes other person’s behavior, describes your feelings and consequences of behavior for you “We” Language- implies that the issue is the concern and responsibility of both the speaker and receiver...