Understanding Signs, Communication, and Language Functions
Understanding Signs, Communication, and Language
Signs are realities that we perceive through the senses (sight, hearing, smell). The signifier is a fact perceived by the senses that is associated in the mind with another reality. The signified is what the sign evokes.
Types of Signs
Signs are created by humans to communicate. Symptoms or signs refer to natural phenomena with no intention of communicating anything, but they still tell us something.
Linguistic Signs
Linguistic signs are a type of signal used in the formation of messages in a language. We speak and sounds are transmitted through the air, and the acoustic image we have of such sounds in our minds allows us to recognize each sound.
In meaning, we have the reality to which we apply the term, and the concept is the mental image we have in our minds that allows us to distinguish one thing from another.
Features of Linguistic Signs:
- Linguistic signs are part of a code.
- Linguistic signs are conventional.
- Linguistic signs are linear.
- Linguistic signs are arbitrary.
There is not always a perfect equivalent word between linguistic signs.
Sounds and Phonemes
Sounds are emissions of each of the speakers, while the mental image of these units are phonemes with constant properties.
Phonemes are constituted by a set of different features that allow a phoneme to differ from others.
Vowels and Consonants
Vowels are produced when the rising air from the lungs passes through the vocal cords, which vibrate, and the resulting sound does not encounter any barrier in its departure abroad.
For consonant phonemes, the air is not free but finds an obstacle in the oral cavity.
The Syllable
The syllable is constituted by a set of phonemes which are grouped around a vowel and is pronounced in one vocal pulse.
Suprasegmental Features
The suprasegmental features are the phonic facts that affect more than one phoneme or sound segment.
- The accent is the greatest intensity with which we utter one syllable of a word.
- The intonation is the melodic path that the voice describes when we are speaking.
- Pauses are silences that interrupt the sequence of speech. We distinguish two types: the final pause and the pause in between.
Poetic vs. Scientific Language
Poetic language, versus scientific language, often involves connotative use of the word.
In scientific texts, the words are used in their exact value, with denotative precision.
Meaning and Sense
Differences in the interpretation of a given utterance depend on the intent of the speaker.
- Meaning: encoded, literal, constant, linguistic.
- Sense: not encrypted, intentional, and pragmatic variable.
Communication Process
Communication is a process by which an issuer, through a channel in a particular situation or context, transmits a message to a receiver, constructed in accordance with the signs of a code.
Elements of Communication:
- The code consists of a set of signs and rules that build messages.
- The sender and receiver know the signs and rules of their code and, through this, ascertain that they are able to realize the encoding and decoding activities.
- Encoding is the activity that allows the issuer to compose messages to be transmitted from the signs and the rules of their code.
- Decoding is the activity carried out by the receiver, which is to decode the messages that come through their senses to fully understand their meaning.
- The channel is the hardware through which the message is passed.
- Context refers to the specific time-space circumstances under which you issue the message.
- Media context refers to the historical circumstances in which the text has occurred and that somehow are affected.
Language
Language or natural language is the most important procedure that humans use to communicate.
Functions of Language:
- Referential or representative function
- Emotional or expressive function
- Phatic or contact function
- Conative or appellative function
- Metalinguistic function
- Poetic function
Elements of the Communicative Act:
- Concerning
- Issuer
- Contact between sender and receiver
- Receiver
- Code
- Message
Language Functions Explained:
- Referential or Representative Role: Reports an objective fact, without expressing feelings or trying to provoke a reaction in the recipient.
- Expressive or Emotive Function: Is performed for the expression of feelings and experiences.
- Phatic or Contact: Aims to initiate, maintain, or break contact between sender and receiver.
- Conative or Appellative Function: Statements come on at otherwise influence in the receiver.
- Metalinguistic Function: Allows languages to relate to themselves.
- Poetic Function: Is to transmit decorate what to achieve aesthetic effects or to attract attention of the receiver.