Unit 3: The communication process.

The functions of
language. Language in use. The negotiation of meaning.

Index
1. The communication process
1.1. Definition of communication
1.2. Types of communication
1.3. Language and communication
1.4. Elements of the communicative process

2. The functions of language

2.1. Jakobson’s model
2.2. M.A.K. Halliday; functions and macrofunctions
2.3. Recent approaches: CEFR’s functional competence

3. Language in use
3.1. Notion of context
3.2. Speech act theory
3.3. Conversation Analysis
3.4. The cooperative principle

4. Negotiation of meaning
4.1. Concept of meaning
4.2. Negotiation of meaning
4.3. Communication strategies
4.4. Socio-cultural factors

5. Relation to teaching practice

6. Conclusion

7. Bibliography
Introduction
Our lives would be unimaginable without the gift of communication without the
possibility of expressing our views and feelings. In order to do so, language is the
most perfect tool, despite its many shortcomings that lead to confusion: synonyms,
homonyms, denotation and connotation, register, dialects, etc. Despite that, without
language we would not be humans.

However, in the contemporary society, not all forms of human communication are by
means of language, and many meanings can be conveyed by non-verbal language
or by icons or symbols. Therefore, the communication process does not refer
exclusively to language, but also to all the factors involved in the process.

Therefore, in this unit a survey of communication and its components is proposed,

especially in relation to language and its use in communication. Then, the second
section deals with the function of language and will analyse briefly the major
proposals in the history of linguistics. Thirdly, we will offer different approaches to the
concept of language in use. After this, we will focus on meaning negotiation and its
relevant factors. Eventually, you can find the relation of the topic with the teaching
practise and the conclusion.
 1. The communication process

1.1. Definition of communication

Halliday (1973) defined communication as “the exchange and negotiation of
information between at least two individuals through the use of verbal and non-verbal
symbols, oral and written, and production and comprehension processes”.

In this way, with the mutual cooperation of both addresser and addressee (for
example, by following interactional rules such as those established by Grice’s
Cooperative Principle) authentic communication can be achieved, since there is a
reduction of uncertainty on behalf of the participants.

1.2. Types of communication

In accordance with the semiotics theory, establishes a differentiation to analyse the
process of communication according to the exchange of information flow:

One-way communication: it occurs when the receiver does not respond to

the sender. For instance: watching television.
Two-way communication: it takes place when the receiver is in turn sender of
verbal and non-verbal messages. For example: email conversation.

Secondly, according to the system of signs, the semiotics theory states that
communication may be verbal, when language is used, and non-verbal, when
gestures, facial expressions, mimics or physical contact is used.

1.3. Language and communication

According to linguists and psychologists, language carries out two major functions:

1. It is the fundamental means for thought, within the mind.

2. It is an essential tool for communication.

Additionally, Saussure’s definition of the linguistic sign pointed out two

characteristics as exclusive for human natural language: linearity and arbitrariness.
In later years, another feature was added: double articulation, in the sense of
having a phonematic and morphologic structure in its minimal unit.

However, as the communicative process does not refer only to language, Breen and
Candlin (1980) state that it possesses the following features:
a) It is a form of social interaction.
b) It involves a high degree of unpredictability and creativity.
c) It takes place in socio-cultural contexts, which restricts the appropriateness of
language use and provide clues as to the interpretation of utterances.
d) It is carried out under limiting psychological conditions (fatigue, distractions…)
e) It always has a purpose.
f) It involves authentic language.
g) What determines the successfulness of the conversation is the actual outcome.

1.4. Elements of the communicative process

Although the field of communication has changed considerably over the years, the
models that define the elements of the communicative process have not. Hereunder,
you can find a brew explanation of two of the most outstanding models:

1. Shannon’s Model of the Communication Process

This was considered the first general model of communication and part of its success
was due to the introduction of reasons why communication sometimes fails.

What is more, this model is applicable to all kinds of communication. It describes that
an information source elaborates a MESSAGE, which a TRANSMITTER codifies into
a SIGNAL. Then, the RECEIVER decodes the signal, retrieves the original message
and conveys it to the destination point.

2. Roman Jakobson’s Approach

Jakobson’s Model (1960/1995) is the most widely established model. It introduces
the poetic function of the language, as an orientation of the message towards itself.

According to the author, in every communicative act, an ADDRESSER sends a

MESSAGE to the ADRESSEE. Also, the meaning intended has to be coded by the
addresser according to the rules of a linguistic system (CODE), so that it conforms a
message. Evidently, there is no communication if addresser and addressee do not
share the same code. The message is always emitted within a CONTEXT. Finally,
there is a CONTACT, enabling both of them to enter and stay in communication.

Despite the broad acceptance of this model, it was criticised because its weak
pragmatic dimension. Also, some experts argued that the essential role of inference
in interpretation was ignored, as well as the relevance of context for interpretation.
Another important aspect concerts the distinction between signifier and signification,
which remains outside the model outlined by Jacobson.
 2. The functions of language
In the 20th century there have been many conceptualizations of the functions of
language. Nevertheless, the most relevant ones are the following:

2.1. Jakobson’s model

Jakobson extended Bühler’s model and defined the functions of language below:

a) The referential function is oriented to the context. Through this function,

language transmits objective knowledge referred to the extralinguistic reality: It
is ten o’clock.
b) The expressive function is oriented to the speaker. It allows for his/her
emotional state or attitude about the content of what is said.
c) The conative function is directed towards the hearer. Its goal is to provoke a
certain reaction in the hearer: get him to say something.
d) The contact function is directed to the channel, and refers to those
messages addressed to check the correct functioning of the it.
e) The aesthetic function is oriented to the message itself. Through the poetic
language the speaker produces an aesthetic effect on the hearer.
f) The metalinguistic function is addressed to the code. It is used to speak
about the meaning of words. For instance, the one used in dictionaries.

2.2. Halliday: functions and macrofunctions

Halliday’s functional grammar model establishes three language macrofunctions:

1. The ideational. It represents our experience of phenomena in the word

framed by different circumstances which are set in time by means of tense
and logical meanings.
2. The interpersonal. It is shaped by modality and mood, probability, obligation
and inclination. Similarly, it aims at establishing and maintaining ongoing
exchange of information through declaratives, questions and commands.
3. The textual. It deals with the information as text in the context.

From this categorization, Halliday proposes seven basic functions on language use:
 Instrumental, to express desire and needs.  Imaginative, for suppositions and
 Regulatory, for orders and suggestions. hypotheses.
 Interactional, for greetings, thanking, etc.  Informative, for affirmative and

 Personal, for feelings and attitudes. negative sentences.

 Heuristic, for asking questions

 2.3. Recent approaches: CEFR’s functional competence
The Common European Framework of Reference for Language establishes that a
language speaker must master the functional competence to carry out efficient
communication in an L2. This involves mastering the processes and skills involved in
a conversation, from opening exchanges to the final conclusion according to its
purpose.

3. Language in use
The concept of language in use is central to the Communicative Language Teaching,
and it refers to the study of language in conversation (language being functional),
and not as a written code composed of grammar rules and lexical items. However,
the study this phenomenon can be approached from a variety of points of view:

3.1. Notion of context

For Malinowski, the meaning of a sentence is not the sum of the meanings of the
lexical elements which integrate it. By contrary, the context must be understood as a
group of abstract categories related to the relevant features of the interaction, such
as, the economic and social statues of the participant, type of discourse, etc.

Halliday argued that context can be analysed in terms of three factors:

1. The field, which refers to what is happening.

2. The tenor, that refers to the relationships the participants have.
3. The mode, which refers to what part of the language is dealing with this
particular situation: the channel, etc.

Hymes enriched this study by enunciating his speaking analysis model:

S – Settings and scene: Settings refers to time, place and physical circumstances.
Scene are the psychological or cultural definitions of the event.

P – Participants: who is involved.

E – Ends: In terms of goals and outcomes.

A – Act: Particular types of utterances, such as requests, commands, etc.

K – Key: The tone or manner in which acts are done, for example, serious or playful.
I – Instrumentalities: The particular language varieties used and the mode of
communication (spoken/written)

N – Norms: They are the rules of speaking, who can say what, when and how.

G – Genres: They include the categories or types of language used (interview,

sermon, etc.)

3.2. Speech act theory

Another way to study language in context is through the speech act theory. Indeed,
according to Austin, every utterance can be understood as consisting of three parts:

1. The locutory act, which is the recognizable grammar utterance (its form and
meaning).
2. The illocutionary act, which refers to the communicative purpose of an
utterance, such as starting, promising or commanding.
3. And the perlocutionary act, which includes the consequences the locutory
acts have on the hearers’, as for example, persuading or annoying.

Nevertheless, the most accepted classification regarding speech acts is the one
elaborated by Searle (1977), which groups them as follows:

 Representatives, employed to from in the addressee a specific idea.

 Directives, an attempt by the speaker to get the hearer to do something.
 Commissives, in which someone commits to the performance of a future
action.
 Expressives, which are related to the expression of feelings or emotions.
 Declaratives, through which the speaker brings out a change in the world.

3.3. Conversational Analysis

Besides that, Levinson analyses the structure of conversation and its minimal
components. According to the author, the basic concepts are:

a) Turn taking

In a conversation, one participant talks and stops. Then, another one starts, talks and
stops, in an A-B-A-B-A-B distribution. However, there are frequent cases of overlap
and gaps between one person starts speaking and another one starting.

b) Adjacency pairs
Prototypical adjacent pairs are question-answer or offer-acceptance. Thus, adjacent
pairs occur when a particular first part in a conversation requires a particular second.
Moreover, they are considered the fundamental unit of conversational organization.

c) Overall organization

There are certain sequences that organize the totality of the exchanges within some
specific kind of conversation. For example, in a telephone call, these organizational
sections are: opening section, sequential location and closing section.

3.4. The cooperative principle

Besides that, according to Grice, to achieve effective conversational communication,
humans apply the cooperative principle. This means that we assume, without
realising, that we, and the people we are talking to, will be conversationally
cooperative in an attempt to reach mutual goals. This principle is divided into four
maxims of conversation:

 Maxim of quantity: say neither more or less than the discourse requires.
 Maxim of relevance: be relevant.
 Maxim of manner: be brief and orderly; avoid ambiguity and obscurity.
 Maxim of quality: Do not lie or make unsupported claims.

4. Negotiation of meaning

4.1. Concept of meaning

The meaning of a word, phrase or text is what is uttered and said, what turns into
language in the process of communication. Regarding the concept of meaning, four
main standpoints may be distinguished:

1. Meaning as a relation/function.
2. Meaning is what is meant in communication.
3. From the behaviourists point of view, meaning is something outside language.
4. The theory of meaning use and the theory of action related to them.

4.2. Negotiation of meaning

Meaning negotiation stems from the difference between sentence meaning and
utterance meaning, that is, how the meaning of grammatical expressions is
determined by the context (moving from semantic meaning to pragmatic meaning.
The fact is that negotiation of meaning is a basic principle of any situation of
language acquisition, together with interaction and information sharing. Thus,
meaning negotiation is the way by which learners try to achieve a communicative
objective by the most economical means.

Krashen’s Comprehensive input hypothesis is relevant for meaning negotiation. It

defends that the best conditions in language learning are present when the
information given is a bit over the current knowledge of the learner. Therefore, a
language learner is always facing with a meaning negotiation process, whether in
interaction with the teacher, a native speaker, etc.

Another important factor when dealing with meaning negotiation among language
learners is interlanguage, which is the learner’s current version of the language they
are learning. So, it is evident that the greater the difference in the linguistic
knowledge among speakers, the most resources and strategies must be made in
order to achieve effective communication by means of negotiating strategies.

In that context, learners must use a set of strategies in order to get their meaning
across, since they lack the necessary resources to do it fluently. It is at this point that
communication strategies come into play.

4.3. Communication strategies

Communication strategies are the strategies employed when people encounter a
communication problem during conversation. Some of them are the following:

1. Compensatory strategies (paraphrasing)

 Approximation: by using an item in L2 which has a relatively close meaning
to the one needed (fish for sardine)
 Literal translation: by translating literally from L1 (I am called Ingrid).
 Mime: using gestures
 Language switch: in which the learner uses a word from L1.

2. Avoidance
 Topic avoidance: the learner tries to avoid some topics that are unknown.
 Message abandonment: the learner begins an utterance but stops when
the meaning cannot be expressed in L2.

3. Time-gaining strategies
 Fillers: well, you know…
  Self and other-repetition

4. Self-monitoring strategies: by using some expressions such as “Er…”, “I

mean…” or “what I want to say is…”
5. Interactional strategies
 Appeal for help: through expressions like “What do you call it?” or “I
don’t know how to say this”.
 Indicators for misunderstanding requests:
 Repetition (Pardon, can you repeat please?)
 Clarification (What do you mean by…?)
 Confirmation (Did you say…?)
 Responses (Rephrasing, expansion, reduction, etc.)
 Comprehension check

4.4. Socio-cultural factors

Different cultural backgrounds may cause that two receivers decode two different
massages from the same signal, causing misinterpretation, especially in the case of
foreign languages. These misunderstandings can be caused by different factors:

First, intra-lingual dialect difference may sometimes disrupt communication between

speakers, and negotiation of meaning must take place. Second, the register, defined
as a certain type of language which is acceptable in a community. Finally, denotation
and connotation, potentially causing confusing or embarrassing situations.

5. Relation to teaching practise

We are not going to teach this in class but this is important because we are teaching
communication and these are communication dynamics.

6. Conclusion

7. References