Effective Communication: Elements, Genres, and Strategies
Effective Communication
Elements of Communication
Concise Process: Communication involves transmitting information from a point of origin to a point of reception.
Verbal Language: The primary instrument of human communication in all its forms, serving as the foundation of social interaction.
Sender-Receiver Relationship:
- Bi-directional: Sender and receiver exchange roles.
- Unidirectional: Information flows from sender to receiver, but not vice-versa.
Noise: Disturbances that hinder communication.
Redundancy: A method to counteract noise and ensure the reception of verbal and nonverbal messages.
Signs and Codes
Communication Sign: A physical object perceived by the senses, involved in cognitive and communicative processes, representing another object.
Types of Signs:
- Evidence-dependent: Relies on a natural referent.
- Icons: Similarity to what they signify.
- Symbols: No direct relationship with the referent.
Code: A set of signs and rules that govern communication.
Types of Communication (based on code):
- Verbal
- Nonverbal (e.g., gestures)
Language and Image
- Pictures (Analog): Represent reality and bear some resemblance to it (e.g., photos).
- Created Images: Manipulate the image and may create virtual realities.
Linguistic Sign
Union of Signifier and Signified:
- Signifier: Audible succession of articulated sounds.
- Signified: The mental idea associated with the signifier.
Semiotic Triangle: Sign-Signifier (form), Meaning (concept), Referent (reality).
Characteristics of Linguistic Signs:
- Arbitrariness: No inherent similarity between the sounds and what they represent.
- Conventionality: The relationship between signifier and signified is based on agreement.
- Linearity: Develops in time and space in an ordered sequence.
- Double Articulation: Elements are joined – monemes (minimal units of meaning) and phonemes (minimal units of sound).
Communicative Intention
When the receiver decodes the message, they recognize the sender’s intention. Effective communication occurs when the impact of the message on the receiver matches the sender’s purpose.
Narrative Genres
Epic
Accounts of real or imaginary struggles, often expressed in verse.
- Epic (Classical): Deeds of gods and mythological beings (e.g., The Iliad, The Odyssey).
- Cantar de Gesta (Medieval): Exploits of knights (e.g., The Nibelungenlied, El Cantar de Mio Cid).
- Epic (Modern): Exploits of a hero, often a conqueror, exalting a people.
Other Narrative Forms
- Novella: A mix between a short story and a novel.
- Short Story: A fictional narrative, originally intended for oral transmission.
Lyric Poetry
Expresses the poet’s own feelings, subjective in nature.
- Ode: Expresses admiration or exaltation for something or someone.
- Elegy: A poem of lament or sadness, mourning a loss.
- Eclogue: Pastoral dialogue or monologue, often about love, in an idealized setting.
Drama
Meant to be performed, featuring dialogue and action represented by actors.
- Tragedy: Imitation of a serious action, leading to the hero’s downfall (e.g., Oedipus Rex).
- Comedy: Imitation of the ridiculous, often satirizing social customs (e.g., Lysistrata).
Didactic Genre
- Essay: Presents and defends a personal perspective on a problem.
- Fable: Short story with animal or human characters, conveying a moral lesson.
- Epistle: A letter, often with a didactic or moral purpose.