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Language
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Language is Symbolic
• Arbitrary connection between words and ideas/things they represent.
TREE
LOVE
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Language is Rule-Governed• Semantic Rules - assigned word meanings
• Semantic Misunderstandings
• Equivocal language has more than one commonly accepted definition.
• Relative words gain meaning by comparison.
• Static Evaluation assumes people are consistent and unchanging.
• Abstract language is vague in nature.
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Label and Reword
• “Give me a small piece of cake.”
• “There’s a new book in the library; you should check it out.”
• “Josh is a troublemaker.”
• “Natasha needs to get real.”
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Language is Rule-Governed
• Syntactic rules - word arrangement
• "It was cool to feel that cool air in the morning.”
• Pragmatic rules - appropriate uses and interpretation
• "Let's get together sometime."
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The Impact of Language
• Naming and Identity
• Names shape the way:
• others think of us.
• we view ourselves
• we act
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The Impact of Language
• Affiliation
• Converge - adpting one’s speech style to match others
• Diverge - emphasizes one’s difference from others
• When do we converge and diverge?
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The Impact of Language
• Power(less) Language (pg. 165)
• powerful speech is culturally based
• too powerful may intimidate
• powerless (i.e. polite forms) can be effective
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The Impact of Language
•Language Responsibility
• “it, but, I, you, we…er”
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It, But, You…• "It" statements avoid responsibility
• "It's a boring class" vs "I'm bored in the class"
• "But" statements cancel the thought that precedes it
• "You're a really great person, but..."
• "You" language expresses judgment
• Positive judgement - "You look great today!"
• Critical judgement - "You look tore up!"
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I, We…• "I" language takes responsibility without making
judgement.
• Describe the other person's behavior, your feelings, and the consequences of the behavior.
• Note: "I" statements work best in moderation.
• We" language implies shared concern/responsibility.
• "We have a problem."
• Note: "We" can be presumptuous.
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Transform “You” into “I”
• “You’re not telling me the truth!”
• “You think only of yourself.”
• “Quit fooling around!”
• pg. 172
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Gender and Language
• Is there a difference between the way men and women speak?
• Content
• Reasons for Communicating
• Conversational Style
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Content
•Similarities
• Common topics: work, movies, television
• reserved discussions of sex/sexuality, personal appearance for members of same-sex
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Content cont.Female Friends
• personal/domestic subjects
• relationship problems
• family
• health/reproductive matters/weight
• food
• clothing
• men and other women
Male Friends
• current events
• music
• sports
• business
• other men
Who’s Gossiping What? Close friends and family?
Sports figures and media personalities?
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Reasons for Communicating•Both use language to build and maintain relationships.
•Accomplished differently:
Woman
• to involve feelings, relationships, and personal problems.
Men
• to make conversation fun (more joking and teasing)
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Conversational Style
Women are more talkative than men.
• Men’s speech more likely to be direct, succinct, task oriented
• Women’s speech more likely indirect, elaborate, relational oriented
MYTH!
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Nongender Variables• Women and men communicate more similar than different.
• E.g. no significant difference between use of profanity, qualifiers, or tag questions
• Other factors influence language use:
• social philosophy
• problem-solving orientation (cooperative or competitive)
• occupation
• gender role
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Culture and Language• Low-context cultures
• uses language to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas as directly as possible
• High-context cultures
• uses language to maintain social harmony
• discover meaning from the context, nonverbal behaviors, history of relationship, etc
Across cultures
• elaborate - succinct
• formality - informality
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Language and Worldview
• Linguistic Relativism - worldview of a culture is shaped and reflected by the language its members speak.
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - Language defines our experience
• Navajo - no possessives (his/her/our/your)
• Penan - 1 word for “he”“she”“it”, but 6 words for “we”
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Language and Worldview• How close is the relationship between language and
perception?
Moderate View
• Language is not required to think about or perceive the world in a particular way.
• Language is a tool to communicate, rather than a mirror of perception.
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Journal SuggestionsChoose one. (Typed. 2-3 pages. Due 10/19)
1.Analyze a misunderstanding in terms of semantic or pragmatic rules.
2.How does the impact of language operate in your life?
• (i.e language responsibility)
3.Analyze how gender or cultural differences (or both) affected the quality of interaction.