Topic 3. El procés de comunicació. Funcions del llenguatge. La llengua en ús.

La
negociació del significat

EL PROCÉS DE COMUNICACIÓ. FUNCIONS DEL LLENGUATGE. LA LLENGUA

EN ÚS. LA NEGOCIACIÓ DEL SIGNIFICAT

1. INTRODUCTION
In order to deal with the communication process, we should start by defining
what we understand by communication, and its relationship with the concept of
language.
Human communication processes are quite complex. We differentiate verbal
and non-verbal, oral and written, formal and informal.
Since ancient times the way of improving communication preoccupied human
beings as they had a need to express some basic structures of the world and human
life, such as feelings and attitudes. This development in the direction of the study of
meaning was labelled during the last century under the term of Semantics.

1.1. Characteristics of communication

Communication is understood as “the exchange and negotiation of information
between at least two individuals through the use of verbal and non-verbal, oral and
written, and production and comprehension processes”.
From this definition we can conclude that:
• It is a form of social interaction, and therefore it is normally acquired and
used in such as an interaction.
• It always has a purpose
• It involves a high degree of unpredictability and creativity, and therefore,
a successful and authentic communication should involve a reduction of
uncertainty on behalf of the participants.
• The communication process involves both verbal and non-verbal
language, such as gestures or body language.

1.2. Language and communication

The concept of language has been approached by many linguistics, but the
most outstanding definition comes from Halliday who defines it as an instrument of
social interaction with a clear communication process.
We should bear in mind the fact that there exists a distinction between human
language and other systems of communication, such as animal communication
systems. Among the characteristics of human language in opposition to other systems
we may mention:
 Topic 3. El procés de comunicació. Funcions del llenguatge. La llengua en ús. La
negociació del significat

• Auditory-vocal channel
• Interchangeability of messages (to say anything to any context)
• Productivity: there is an intimate number of possible messages to be
expressed.
• Displacement: possibility to talk about events remote in space or time.
• Duality: the sounds of a language have no intrinsic meaning, but
combine in different ways to form elements that do convey meaning.

1.3. Types of communication: verbal and non-verbal

Writing a letter, having a conversation watching a play are instances of verbal
communication by means of language. However, other means should be also taken
into account, such as gestures, facial expressions, body language, touch and so on,
given that non verbal symbols are also components of the communicative process.
When the act of communication is verbal, the code is the language. When we
refer to non-verbal communication, visual and tactile modes are concerned.
Visual: written language, morse, traffic signs
By sound: as in speech or birdsong
By touch: Braille, secret codes.

2. THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

One of the most productive schematic models of a communication system
emerged from the speculations of the linguist Jakobson. His model is not the only one,
but its clarity has made it become the best-known. It contains the following elements:
CONTEXT (topic or idea in common)
CODE (partially common to the sender and receiver)
SENDER ---------------------- MESSAGE --------------------------------- RECEIVER
(person who sends the message) (info to be sent) (of the message)
CHANNEL
(either physical – air, phone – or psychological)

EXAMPLE:
Message: The kids are nervous today
Sender: Teacher 1
Receiver: Teacher 2
Code: English language
Context: the students of the school, the school
Channel: the air
 Topic 3. El procés de comunicació. Funcions del llenguatge. La llengua en ús. La
negociació del significat

3. THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

Jakobson states that all acts of communication are based on 6 constituent
elements.
The concept of linguistic function is related to the way people use language.
Therefore, when we refer to the function of language, we are actually talking about the
properties of language.

EMOTIVE: (expressive) Information about the speaker’s mood. It refers to the sender.
I have a headache – I love you

CONATIVE: It intends to provoke some sort of response or behaviour.It makes

reference to the receiver.
Open the door – Don’t smoke

REFERENTIAL: related to the context. It is the most common and it gives information.
It is raining

PHATIC: To check that the communication still exists. It is related to the channel.
You know – listen to me

METALINGUAL: speaking about the language itself. It makes reference to the code.
How do you say X in English?

POETIC: It is related to the message. It plays with the vocabulary.

4. LANGUAGE IN USE
Rivers states that we may identify two levels of language use. The first level
refers to the manipulation of language elements, combining and varying them in order
to express our meaning comprehensibly according to the demands of the language
system (phonology, syntax, morphology). The second level deals with the expression
of personal meaning by selecting appropriate means with infinite possibilities of
expression. The selection depends on the type and degree of intensity of the message
to be conveyed, the situational context in which the utterance takes place, and the
relationship between speaker and listener.
What we have to take into account here is communicative competence. We
have to see language as a text and see how sentences are put into communicative use
 Topic 3. El procés de comunicació. Funcions del llenguatge. La llengua en ús. La
negociació del significat

in the performing of social actions. We have to understand that language is organised

into higher units than the word or the sentence.

5. THE NEGOTIATION OF MEANING

Problems of communication affect us all in many aspects of day-to-day living,
and can cause serious trouble. An excellent example of difficult communication is in the
doctor – patient relationship, where most patients find it difficult to get the right words to
describe their symptoms whereas for doctors, the problem is to formulate a diagnosis
in words which the patient will understand.
When communicating, speakers often experience considerable difficulty when
their resources in their foreign or native language are limited. This effort to overcome
communicative difficulties in order to secure a mutual understanding is known as the
negotiation of meaning. Strategies and tactics are involved in this process on the part
of the native speaker and the learner. They can help to expand resources as their main
contribution is to keep the channel open, facilitating the acquisition of new lexis and
grammatical rules.
Key concepts such as register and discourse are important under negotiation of
meaning. Register is defined as a certain type of language which is acceptable in a
community, for certain situations and for special purposes. Discourse refers to a unit or
piece of connected speech or writing that is longer than a conventional sentence.

6. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS OF THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE AS A

COMMUNICATIVE TOOL
• Interactive groupwork in the classroom is essential.
• Language should be taught from a communicative approach and therefore, it
should be fluency-focused.
• Students should be provided with as many opportunities of practice as possible.
• Students should be provided with strategies and techniques to overcome their
communicative problems.

7. CONCLUSION
When communicating many different factors intervene for our communication
being effective. If we do not choose our words carefully, and our anticipation of the
reaction of the receiver is ill founded, the message decoded may be quite different from
the message we intended to convey.
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negociació del significat

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Canale, M. “From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy”
(1983). In Richards, J.C and Schmidt, R.W (Eds): Language and Communication.
Longman: New York.
- Brown, G and Yule, G. Teaching the spoken language, Cambridge, CUP, 1983
- Halliday and Hassan. Language, context and text: Aspects of Language in a social-
semiotic perspective. Oxford, OUP, 1990