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Verbal Communication
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Lauren Amaro
Arizona State University
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The importance of verbal communication
What is verbal communication?
Influences on verbal communication
The individual, verbal communication, and
society
Ethics and verbal communication
Improving your verbal communication skills
Become aware of the power of language
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A diversion
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Verbal Communication relatively
recent development
Cro-Magnon people were the first
to speak
◦ 90,000 to 35,000 years ago
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Language likely emerged about
30,000 years ago
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Writing
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Printing
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Mass Media
1. Arbitrary
2. Conventional
3. Culturally transmitted
Principle of arbitrary selection
◦ Words are selected in random ways
◦ Words have histories, but often their origins are
capricious
◦ Words are not the things
they represent
◦ Once a word is used,
its relationship to what
it represents seems
to be fixed
It is a teddy bear!
Water
Fountain
Bubbler
He died
He passed away
“Choo-Choo” Train
Natural?
Learned?
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A consequence of arbitrariness
A stable relationship between a symbol and
its referent is a convention
A rule that people in a language community
agree to follow
Verbal symbols are often conventionalized by
being placed in dictionaries
Conventions are the rules of our particular
language community that stabilize the
meaning triangle
Meaning
C2
C1
Perception of the
symbol will arouse
the same meaning
as does the referent
itself
A specific pattern of internal
experiences is the expected
way of perceiving that aspect
of reality
Symbol
C3
Symbol will stand for
and be the label of
the referent
Referent
Thought/Reference
Symbol
What I learned
Referent
I.A. Richards/C.K. Ogden
(1923)
Story
School
Telling what I learned at school
Connotative
◦ Personal
Denotative
◦ Public
◦ Dictionary
A long-list of symbol-referent
conventions used to communicate about
the physical, social, and abstract world.
Antonyms
Vocabulary
Words about
this or that
Synonyms
Phonetics is the study of all the sounds that
the human voice is capable of creating
whereas phonology is the study of a subset of
those sounds that constitute language and
meaning. Pronunciation is the conventional
or standard way to say words in a language.
heed head hid had
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Rules for constructing conventional patterns
verb
adverb
Fish swim effortlessly.
noun
I ain’t never done nothing like that there.
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The architecture of
language
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More words are used to express a thought
than are necessary
These findings posed a great number of problems.
These findings posed many problems.
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Passed from one generation to the next
Language is not inherited
Language is learned
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Some people are better artists than others
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Some people are better dancers than others
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Some people have a better command of
language than others
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Swell
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Groovy
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Rad
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The Bomb
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We utter an indefinite number of messages
made up of a few vocal sounds.
Mathematical possibilities of combination
Different cultures use different sounds but
complexity is a key to all languages
Know what I Mean!
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Verbal communication
◦ The foundation through which meaning is created
◦ Crucial to the development of identity and
relationship
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The written or oral words or sounds that we
exchange
Language functions in several ways:
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Instrumental – get what you need/want
Regulatory – control behavior of others
Informational – report facts
Heuristic – acquire knowledge
Interactional – builds/defines relationships
Personal language – expresses self
Imaginatively – expresses creativity
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Language is composed of:
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Phonology – sounds
Lexicon - words
Syntax – rules of word order
Semantics – study of meaning of words
 Denotative meanings - literal
 Connotative meanings – figurative/associative
◦ Pragmatics – rules of use
 Speech act theory – we create actions with language
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Men and women are more similar than
different
Perceptions of gender differences are hard to
combat
Differences may result from power, status,
and expectation discrepancies
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Language use varies by age
Cohort effect may create unique verbal
communication patterns across generations
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Verbal differences developed when people
were separated by a boundary (geographical
or social)
We speak similarly to those we live near
Globalization affects how often we can speak
with each other, but dialects remain strong
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Ethnicity can influence
◦ Accent, word choice, and syntax
◦ General verbal style
 Example: Ebonics as separate language or
“substandard English”?
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Experiencing similar education or
professional interaction makes language
patterns more similar for individuals
◦ Jargon is one manifestation of this convergence
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Language influences perception, but how?
◦ Nominalist – any idea can be expressed
◦ Relativist – language shapes ideas
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People in power determine what language is
spoken
◦ Those who speak appropriately can increase their
power
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Co-cultural theory
Societal hierarchies privilege certain groups
Privileged groups set the norms
Language maintains privilege
Acceptable language is different in private
relationships
◦ Dominant language slows less dominant groups’
language progression
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The words we use structure power
◦ “Fireman”
◦ “Chairman”
◦ Mr. and Mrs. (one by sex, the other by marital
status)
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We associate certain accents with status and
power
◦ Focusing on these perceptions can elevate one
group and denigrate others
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People in power assign language labels for
other groups
Power of labels can change over time
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Unethical use of verbal communication to
◦ Attack others based on a social category
◦ Threaten an entire group
◦ Incite violence against members of these groups
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Strive to do as little harm as possible
◦ Disconfirming – comments that reject or invalidate
a positive self-image of another person
◦ Confirming – validation of a positive self-image
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“I” statements help positively communicate
negative feelings/experiences
3 part message that describes
1. The other person’s behavior
2. Your feelings about that behavior
3. The consequences that behavior has for
you
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Words can hurt
You have the power to improve your verbal
communication
Start by being aware of what your words can
do
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