Effective Communication: Key Elements and Functions

Posted on Mar 21, 2025 in Language

Communication:
Definition: Exchange of information.

Key Factors or Elements Involved in Communication

  • Issuer: Transmits a message to the receiver.
  • Receiver: Receives the message or information.
  • Channel: The medium through which the message circulates.
  • Code: The system of signs used in communication.
  • Context: The situation where communication occurs.

Semiotics or Semiology: The Science of Signs

Studies classes of signs. There are three types of signs:

  • Signs: Establish a natural relation of effect and the sign that signifies. Example: Fever indicates illness; smoke indicates fire.
  • Icons: Establish an image or relationship between the sign and what it means. Example: A photograph.
  • Symbols: No direct relationship exists between the sign and what it signifies. Example: A scale represents justice.

Examples from Umberto Eco: “The Name of the Rose,” “Foucault’s Pendulum,” “The Absent Structure.”

Kinesics: The Study of Nonverbal Communication

A part of sociolinguistics that studies how space communicates.

Paraverbal Elements

Elements related to intonation and fillers.

Language Functions

Definition: The purposes for which we use language.

Types of Functions:

  • Expressive Function: Focuses on the sender. Characteristics include the use of the first person singular, evaluative terms (adjectives, adverbs), exclamatory sentences, diminutives, verbs expressing opinion, perception, and hyperbaton. Transmits emotions or opinions. Example: Expressing feelings.
  • Representative Function: Consists of transmitting information objectively using the indicative mood and declarative sentences. Avoids evaluative terms. Example: Stating facts.
  • Appellate (or Connotative) Function: Aims to influence the receiver. Characterized by the use of interrogative sentences or phrases. Example: “Did you hear me?”
  • Metalinguistic Function: Using language to talk about language itself, clarifying the code. Example: Defining a term.
  • Poetic (or Aesthetic) Function: Focuses on transmitting information in a beautiful way, using stylistic figures. Primarily found in literary texts.

Levels of Language

Three types related to varieties or diaphasic variations:

  • Diatopic Varieties: Related to location.
  • Diastratic (or Cultural) Varieties: Characterized by the use of varied and coherent syntactic structures, rich vocabulary, and correct pronunciation and spelling.
  • Medium: The language used in different communicative situations.

Vulgarisms

Characterized by vulgar expressions. Examples of phonetic vulgarisms:

  1. Loss or change of sounds. Example: “A motorcycle” instead of “a la motocicleta.”
  2. Reduction of diphthongs.
  3. Conversion of hiatuses into diphthongs.
  4. Metathesis.
  5. Confusion of consonants.