Exam 3: D: Communication and Culture

The communication competency of expressing feeling emphasizes that emotions are deeply personal and that there are no real standards of appropriateness or effectiveness for how we express feelings.

The use of politically correct language is unanimously accepted in the discipline of communication as a positive thing because it removes bias from language and helps people communicate more clearly.

Competent communicators adjust their language to each person, group, or context they encounter.

Medical jargon like "phlebotomy" is an example of high language.

Jargon is an informal form of language that is known to most people in a particular culture at a particular time.

The cognitive language you use about someone or something else affects your experiences with them.

When Joe's professor says he will have to give a presentation in class, Joe feels his heart start to race and his palms begin to sweat. Joe probably reacts this way because his denotative meaning for the word "presentation" is unpleasant.

On the abstraction ladder discussed in the text, the word "fork" would be more abstract than the word "utensil."

Pragmatics refers to the meanings words have for people.

When Kent, who lives in Illinois, visited his cousins in Los Angeles, he got a confused look when he asked them if they had any "pop." After a few seconds, his aunt said, "Oh, you want a soda!" Geography can account for linguistic differences like this.

When someone says a disagreement is related to semantics, he or she is suggesting that the root of the problem is disagreement about the meaning the words have to the people involved.

On their first date, Rebecca asked Andy what he did for a living. Andy responded vaguely, "Oh, I work in retail." Rebecca had to ask Andy "What types of stores?" and "What types of positions have you held?" in order to get him to provide any specific details. We would categorize Andy's initial highly abstract response as equivocation.

Although grammar is important in written communication, the transactional nature of oral communication means that using correct grammar is not required to communicate effectively.

When Tom's manager sat down to tell him he was fired from his job at the car wash, he said, "Tom, I'm going to have to let you go." This less offensive turn of phrase would be considered a euphemism.

Grammar includes rules about how words should be pronounced as well as how they should be placed in sentences.

Although lower abstractions ensure clarity, we sometimes use high abstractions to accomplish specific communication goals.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that men and women have different speech repertoires as a result of biological differences between the sexes.

"I feel like maybe this movie is too violent for us to see as a family." This statement includes a disclaimer.

Vocal elements like pauses and changes in volume or pitch are all part of verbal communication.

Competent communication through technological media like e-mail requires communicators to use clearer language than is usually required in face-to-face communication to make up for the nonverbal cues that are missing.