Effective Communication: Elements, Functions, and Types
Communication and Verbal Language
Communication is a process that involves the transmission of information from one point of origin to a point of arrival. Humans, as social beings, have a more complex form of communication: communication through sign systems. Among these, the most powerful is spoken language.
Verbal language is the principal instrument of human communication and the foundation of coexistence. Language is one of the foundations of progress, the vehicle of transmission of knowledge, culture, science, and technology.
The Role of Media
The media are becoming the main instrument of socialization because they can multiply indefinitely and deliver messages anywhere.
Elements of Communication
In the communication process, two important aspects must be considered: the speaker’s intent and knowledge of external reality.
Key Elements
- Issuer: The element transmitting the information (person, institution, alarm).
- Receiver: The element that receives and interprets information (individual or collective).
- Message: The information being transmitted.
- Channel: The artificial or natural vehicle for transmitting the message (natural or artificial physical environment). Artificial channels retain information and overcome time and spatial barriers.
- Code: The set of signs and rules of combination that enable the development of the message.
- Context: The situation surrounding the act of communication, influencing its interpretation. Linguistic and extralinguistic circumstances must be considered.
Depending on the context, messages can lose meaning or have different meanings.
Types of Communication
- Bidirectional: Transmitter and receiver swap roles.
- Unidirectional: Information flows from sender to receiver, but not vice versa (e.g., the media).
Noise and Redundancy
Communication can be affected by noise, which refers to disturbances that hinder communication (e.g., illegibility, interference). The issuer neutralizes disturbances by introducing compensatory mechanisms like redundancy. This ensures the message’s receipt (e.g., raising one’s voice, using typographical resources).
Signs in Communication
Signs are detectable physical realities that represent another element or reality. Their function is to be instruments of communication and vehicles of thought.
Types of Signs
- Icon: Maintains a similarity with what it represents.
- Index: Has a relationship of contiguity with what it represents. It lacks communicative intent and needs a suitable interpreter.
- Symbol: Arbitrary, conventional, and unmotivated. Its form and meaning are established through social agreement. It has a great capacity for significance. Most linguistic signs belong to this group.
Verbal Communication
Verbal communication is established through verbal language and can use two channels:
Oral Communication
It is spontaneous and direct, with interaction between sender and receiver. It is dominated by emotional content over logical content and superimposes several codes: words, gestures, looks. It uses colloquial phrases, unfinished sentences, and sometimes lexical imprecision. Intonation and pausing help clarify the content.
Written Communication
It is thoughtful and precise and lacks extra-linguistic support. There is no interaction between sender and receiver, but it is more durable over time. It uses precise language, varied vocabulary, and adheres to the standard language. Sometimes a formal register is imposed.
The Linguistic Sign
The linguistic sign is the indissoluble union of a signifier (succession of articulated sounds that make up a word) and a signified (idea or concept perceived by our mind).
Features of the Linguistic Sign
- Arbitrariness: There is no similarity between the sequence of sounds and the concept conveyed.
- Conventionality and Immutability: The relationship between signified and signifier is a convention or agreement.
- Linearity: It develops in time and space, with its elements ordered.
- Double Articulation: It is divisible into smaller units (monemes and phonemes) that can be combined to form new sequences of words.
Communicative Functions
Requirements for Effective Communication
- The recipient must decrypt the message correctly, thanks to their knowledge of the code.
- The receiver must recognize the issuer’s intention.
Functions of Language
- Representative Function: Focuses on the context. The goal is to convey information about external reality. Objectivity is its characteristic feature, making it dominant in technical and scientific language.
- Expressive Function: Oriented toward the issuer. The message emphasizes the speaker’s feelings and attitude. It is common in the colloquial register. Subjectivity is reflected through linguistic markers like interjections and affective suffixes.
- Appellate Function: Oriented toward the receiver. The intention is to influence the receiver’s behavior, prompting them to respond to a question, perform an action, or change their attitude. It is characteristic of advertising and propaganda. Linguistic markers include the vocative and the imperative mood.
- Phatic Function: Acts on the channel. The purpose is to establish, extend, or close a communication channel between transmitter and receiver. It is typical of condolences, congratulations, dedications, and toasts.
- Metalinguistic Function: Centered on the code. Characteristic of messages where language itself is the reference.
- Poetic Function: Directed to the message. Appears in expressions where the message draws attention to itself. It uses various resources that act on the phonetic, morphosyntactic, and lexical levels, impacting how the statement is made.
The poetic function is common in literature, especially poetry.