Language and communication-1

Communicative competence

Communicative competence is ability about language. It is capacity in interaction, courage,

composure, presence of mind and stage confidence. This knowledge includes grammar, meaning
and socialization of language. In other words it is ability of judgement about structure and situation
in language. This theory is introduced by Dell Hymes in1960.It argues on following points;

a)The ability to use a language well involves knowing how to use language appropriately in any given
context.

b)The ability to speak and understand language is not based solely on grammatical knowledge.

For example; Colourless green ideas sleep furiously

The sentence has grammar but it has no semantic content.

c) What counts as appropriate language varies according to context.

d)Learning what counts as appropriate language occurs through a process of socialization into
particular ways of using language through participation in particular community.

Hymes says in order to communicate effectively, speakers had to know not only what was
grammatically correct but what was communicatively appropriate in any given context.

Communicative competence emphasizes on following important points;

1)Appropriateness; A language user’s knowledge – competence is more than just grammar , based
; that knowledge of language requires knowledge of appropriate social conventions governing
what and who something can be said, to whom and in what context. Appropriateness involves
both linguistic and cultural knowledge. In other words it is speakers judgement about situation
and context. Finally, it refers to a linguistics verity or form which is considered suitable in a given
social situation.

2)Possibility; It means something that is uttered must be possible in a particular cultural system. It
is concerned about openness and potentiality of language and generalization of it for cultural
system. If some utterances are not possible in particular language then it is ultimately concerned
with ungrammaticality or semantic content.

3) Feasibility; It says about to what degree a particular language can be made. It concerned with
memory limitation, perceptual device, effects of properties and linguistic factors such as nesting
and embedding.

The goal of theory of competence can be said to show the ways in which the systematically
possible , feasible, and the appropriate are linked to produce and interpret actually occurring
cultural behaviour.
 Language and communication-1
Towards theory of performance
The theory of performance is concerned with output of utterance. It makes two factors;
acceptability and grammaticality. How a sentence will be acceptable and grammatically
correct.

Acceptability; It refers to utterances that are perfectly natural and immediately

comprehensible without paper and pencil analysis. The more acceptable sentences are
those that are more likely to be produced, more easily understood, less clumsy and in some
sense more natural. The unacceptable sentences one would tend to avoid and replace by
more acceptable variants, wherever possible, in actual discourse.

1(a) I called up the man who wrote the book that you told me about.

b) Quite of the few of the students who you met who come from new Delhi are friend
of mine.

c) John, bill, tom, and several of their friends visited us last night.

2) (a)I called the man who wrote the book that you told me about up
b) The man who the boy who the students recognized pointed out is a friend of
mine.
The sentences of (1) are high in acceptability and low in grammaticality.
In (2) all the sentences are low in acceptability but high in grammaticality.

Grammaticality; the rule of particular language is its grammar. Grammaticality is concerned

with rule of particular language. A sentence is grammatical if the sentence is generated by
rules of that language and a sentence is ungrammatical if it is not generated by the rule of
that language.

Grammaticality is not based on systematic arrangement of the words in the structure of

sentence. Rather it is based on meaning that a structure of sentence denotes. The meaning
that the structure of a sentence denotes is based on subcategorization feature and
reflectional feature of part of speech. For example:

1) They perform their leisure with diligence.

2) Misery loves company.
3) The boy may frighten sincerity.
4) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
5) Johan became bill to leave

Here, we can see that all these sentences seem to be grammatical and the word order
of the structure of sentences is correct but all these sentences are not directly
 generated by the rules of English grammar. Further all these sentences are not giving
complete sense. The sentences are lake of selectional feature. Think about the
following sentences;

5) They perform their duty with diligence

6) John loves company
7) Sincerity may frighten the boy
Here, all the sentences are well formed and have selectional features.
Grammaticality can be a degree. For example:

1) Thank you for listening me.

2) Thanking you listening me.

Here both sentences are grammatical but sentence 2 is more grammatical than that of 1.