An Kinaiya han

Komunikasyon/The nature of
communication
• The perspective we take in this book is "communication first."
• We take the fact of human communication as the primary driving force and
explanation for patterns of linguistic structure in any language.
• Communication involves sharing thoughts and ideas within a specific socio-
cultural setting.
• Some people will say that only certain languages are capable of expressing
certain ideas
 • In essence they are saying that thoughts and ideas come from languages,
and people are limited to the thoughts and ideas their languages allow
them to express

• A communicative approach acknowledges the obvious fact that thoughts and ideas
come from people, not languages.

• Languages are simply habit patterns people use to form and share their thoughts and
ideas.
A communicative approach affirms that any language can express any thought
that speakers care to express.

There are no inherently “superior” languages. Every language is perfectly capable of

expressing all the ideas needed by speakers, including abstract and technical concept
2.1 An Kalibutan han Diskurso/The world
of discourse
One metaphor that we will use to describe how people communicate is that
of communication as a play.

Many important research studies have used some form of this metaphor to describe and
explain how people communicate.
• Scenes and cognitive models are the metaphor of a DISCOURSE STAGE.
 The metaphor of the "discourse stage"

The discourse stage is a mental picture of what someone wants to

communicate.

It is important to understand the difference between the discourse stage (ideas to

be communicated) and the language structures used to represent those ideas.
The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussuer (1911) described this fact in terms of a FORM
FUNCTION COMPOSITE.
An porma-kahuogan nga Tuha/ The
form-function composite
A form-function composite consists of two main parts. The SIGNIFIED
CONCEPT, and the SIGNIFIER
It is not contains
Signified necessarily a picture participants, props, situations, and activities that
concept the speaker would like to
of any "real" world communicate.

Signifier is the language unit, a word, a part of a word, a grammatical pattern, a verb form,
etc. that the speaker uses to "paint" the picture for the addressee.
Notice that the ideas to be communicated do not inherently involve language. If a child eats
cake, there is no noun, verb, tense, aspect, etc. until someone comes along and represents
this idea in language.
 The difference between form and
function:
ACTOR (the báta) You may say "the child ate the cake,"
"ginkaon han báta an torta", "El niño
UNDERGOER (the torta) and
comió la torta"
ACTION (káon).

What is the difference in perspective between "ginkaon han báta an torta" and
"kumaon an báta hin torta?
 2.3 Mga Klase Komunikasyon/ Types
of Communication
GRAMMAR is all about communication. We are using the word " Grammar" (with
a capital "G") to mean internal habit patterns that people subconsciously use to
communicate with one another.
Every language has its own specific patterns of communication.

In English for example, -s at the end of a noun is used to express PLURALITY. So,
we say boy - boys mat- mats; dish- dishes.

In Waray, we do not use a word ending for this purpose. Instead we use the separate
word "mga", as in bata - mga bata; banig - mga banig; pinggan - mga pinggan,
 Different kinds of communication in Waray

In Waray, as in most languages, there is a big difference between ORAL (or spoken)
LANGUAGE and WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

For example, if you are in a jeepney or multicab, and you want the driver to stop, you
can simply say "Para!"
If you want him to take your fare you can say "pasahe" or, “bayad”
There is no need to say "the driver will stop the jeep" or "the driver will take my fare."
In written language include punctuation, spacing, paragraphing, and various
kinds of emphasis such as bolding and italic type.
 Susumaton/Stories
One job that people often perform using language is telling stories. Stories are used for
entertainment, for teaching, and for illustrating points made within any other type of
communication.

Narrative discourse is structured in terms of time. Real or fictional events are described
in time sequence
 An Amô ngan Urán 4
May tiyempo nga usa nga tawo ngan hin amô nagdidinebate kun hain nagtikang an uran.
Inin, nasiring an tawo nga tikang didi ha langit it’ uran.
Nasiring man an amô, "Didi gud, tikang gud ha tuna kay hit’ akon paglingkod, adi ako
kahupit, diri adi ha ulo. Adi anay hit’ akon putik it’ kahupit, diri adi ha igbaw."
"Sige," siring han tawo, "hulton ta nga umuran basi aton makit-an kun hain gud ini
nagtitikang."
Nagpustahay hira kun an amô an mapirdi, kakaunon hiya.
Katapos han ira pustahay, umuran. Ngan nakakita hira kun diin tikang an uran.
Naihaw gud man an amô.
Han ginkikinaon han an tawo an amô, sumiring ini "Kairo, kakarag han rason, han amô
ginkaragan la."
The events in this little story are organized according to time. The first
idea"sets the stage" for the narrative.

There are many differences between written stories and those that are told orally.

For example, written stories tend to include lots of setting, background, and evaluating
information
Oral stories, on the other hand, tend to consist mostly of events linked by ordinary
conjunctions like ngan, in(in), and repetition of words or phrases
In the following written example, the events in time sequence are underlined, and the
other information (events or situations that are not part of the event sequence) are not
underlined
Written narrative, on the other hand tends to be more complex, with
more scene setting and other background information interweaved among
the events.

Oral narrative tends to be more like a chain with links connected end-to-
end.