Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Communication Skills
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What is language?
VERBAL LANGUAGE (PART 1)
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Language has rules Language is abstract
1. Phonological rules
Govern how words sound when pronounced Words stand for ideas and things.
2. Syntactic rules The word is not the thing.
Govern the structure of the language, the way in which words are arranged
3. Semantic rules Hayakawa introduced the
Deal with the meaning of specific words
“ladder of abstraction” which illustrate
4. Pragmatic rules
Govern how people use language in every day interaction that words fall somewhere between a
continuum from concrete to abstract.
Hayakawa’s Ladder of Abstraction
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2. Jargon
• Language particular to a specific
profession, work group, or culture.
• It is not meant to be understood by
outsiders
Examples:
• Medical: EDD, ECT, MRI, contusion,
edama, cardiac.
• Aviation: 77R get off the runway!, ILS,
taxiway
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Equivocal language 6. Relative word
• Relative word gain their meaning by
comparison
Examples:
• big
• small
• expensive
• cheap
• Soon
cheap or expensive ?
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2. Be Concrete 2. Be Concrete
Use words/statements that are specific rather than abstract or Indexing: Identify the uniqueness of objects, events, and people
vague (opposite of stereotyping)
Dating: Specify when you made an observation (opposite of frozen Avoid generalisations.
evaluation)
Necessary as things change over time. e.g. “All Hondas get good gas mileage – I know, I own one.”
e.g. “John is a quiet and withdrawn person.” “I have a Honda that uses very little gas.
How does your Honda do on gas mileage?”
“John seemed quiet when I dated him two years ago, but I
haven’t seen him since.”
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References
Adler, R. B. and Rodman, G., 2012. Understanding human
communication. 11th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
Pearson, J.C., Nelson, P. E., Titsworth and S. Harter, L., 2013. Human
communication. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill.
Verderber, K. S., Verderber, R. F. and Sellnow, D. D., 2010. Communicate!
13th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
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