Language

Language is Symbolic

• Arbitrary connection between words and ideas/things they represent.

TREE

LOVE

Language is Rule-Governed• Semantic Rules - assigned word meanings

• Semantic Misunderstandings

• Equivocal language has more than one commonly accepted definition.

• Relative words gain meaning by comparison.

• Static Evaluation assumes people are consistent and unchanging.

• Abstract language is vague in nature.

Label and Reword

• “Give me a small piece of cake.”

• “There’s a new book in the library; you should check it out.”

• “Josh is a troublemaker.”

• “Natasha needs to get real.”

Language is Rule-Governed

• Syntactic rules - word arrangement

• "It was cool to feel that cool air in the morning.”

• Pragmatic rules - appropriate uses and interpretation

• "Let's get together sometime."

The Impact of Language

• Naming and Identity

• Names shape the way:

• others think of us.

• we view ourselves

• we act

The Impact of Language

• Affiliation

• Converge - adpting one’s speech style to match others

• Diverge - emphasizes one’s difference from others

• When do we converge and diverge?

The Impact of Language

• Power(less) Language (pg. 165)

• powerful speech is culturally based

• too powerful may intimidate

• powerless (i.e. polite forms) can be effective

The Impact of Language

•Language Responsibility

• “it, but, I, you, we…er”

It, But, You…• "It" statements avoid responsibility

• "It's a boring class" vs "I'm bored in the class"

• "But" statements cancel the thought that precedes it

• "You're a really great person, but..."

• "You" language expresses judgment

• Positive judgement - "You look great today!"

• Critical judgement - "You look tore up!"

I, We…• "I" language takes responsibility without making

judgement.

• Describe the other person's behavior, your feelings, and the consequences of the behavior.

• Note: "I" statements work best in moderation.

• We" language implies shared concern/responsibility.

• "We have a problem."

• Note: "We" can be presumptuous.

Transform “You” into “I”

• “You’re not telling me the truth!”

• “You think only of yourself.”

• “Quit fooling around!”

• pg. 172

Gender and Language

• Is there a difference between the way men and women speak?

• Content

• Reasons for Communicating

• Conversational Style

Content

•Similarities

• Common topics: work, movies, television

• reserved discussions of sex/sexuality, personal appearance for members of same-sex

Content cont.Female Friends

• personal/domestic subjects

• relationship problems

• family

• health/reproductive matters/weight

• food

• clothing

• men and other women

Male Friends

• current events

• music

• sports

• business

• other men

Who’s Gossiping What? Close friends and family?

Sports figures and media personalities?

Reasons for Communicating•Both use language to build and maintain relationships.

•Accomplished differently:

Woman

• to involve feelings, relationships, and personal problems.

Men

• to make conversation fun (more joking and teasing)

Conversational Style

Women are more talkative than men.

• Men’s speech more likely to be direct, succinct, task oriented

• Women’s speech more likely indirect, elaborate, relational oriented

MYTH!

Nongender Variables• Women and men communicate more similar than different.

• E.g. no significant difference between use of profanity, qualifiers, or tag questions

• Other factors influence language use:

• social philosophy

• problem-solving orientation (cooperative or competitive)

• occupation

• gender role

Culture and Language• Low-context cultures

• uses language to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas as directly as possible

• High-context cultures

• uses language to maintain social harmony

• discover meaning from the context, nonverbal behaviors, history of relationship, etc

Across cultures

• elaborate - succinct

• formality - informality

Language and Worldview

• Linguistic Relativism - worldview of a culture is shaped and reflected by the language its members speak.

• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - Language defines our experience

• Navajo - no possessives (his/her/our/your)

• Penan - 1 word for “he”“she”“it”, but 6 words for “we”

Language and Worldview• How close is the relationship between language and

perception?

Moderate View

• Language is not required to think about or perceive the world in a particular way.

• Language is a tool to communicate, rather than a mirror of perception.

Journal SuggestionsChoose one. (Typed. 2-3 pages. Due 10/19)

1.Analyze a misunderstanding in terms of semantic or pragmatic rules.

2.How does the impact of language operate in your life?

• (i.e language responsibility)

3.Analyze how gender or cultural differences (or both) affected the quality of interaction.