3: VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION.

-Barriers to communication.
They can be simple distracting noises or even complex psychological factors. They may
cause a simple comm. gap or a total failure of comm.

-Verbal Communication.
It happens through verbal, vocal communication or written words. There are two types of
verbal communication:
*Oral Comm: Spoken words, conversations and messages/info that are shared or
exchanged @ speech or word of mouth.
*Written Comm: Written words or written signs used in any medium.

-Semiotics.
“The science of communication studied through the interpretation of signs and symbols as
they operate in various fields.”
Griffin, Ledbetter & Sparks say that semiotics = the study of social production of meaning
from sign systems: the analysis of anything that can stand for something else.
U.Eco says that semiotics are “…the discipline studying everything which can be used in
order to lie, because if something cannot be used to tell a lie, because if it cannot be used
to tell the truth it cannot be used to tell at all”

-Ferdinand de Saussure.
Saussure’s concept of the sign (= signified/signifier, como si fueran las dos caras de una
moneda) forms the core of the field.
He offered a two-part model of the sign. He said the sign was composed of:
- signifier (significante)= the form which the sign takes.
- signified (significado) = the concept it represents.

Sign = signifier+signified. This relationship between signifier and signified = signification.

(La foto que hay en moodle de concept/sound es la interpretación actual, no la que dio
Saussure. Saussure dijo que el sonido era “sound pattern”. El signo sería “la moneda”, el
resultado de la asociación entre el significado y el significante)
A linguistic sign is not a link between a thing and a name, but between a concept and a
sound pattern. Sound pattern = the hearer’s psychological impression of a sound, as given
to him by the evidence of his senses. The sound pattern (signifier) is associated with
something of a more abstract kind: the concept (signified).

The arbitrariness principle can be applied not only to the sign, but to the whole sign-
system. When we want to express our reality, we divide it into arbitrary categories.
Languages categorize reality in different ways. The arbitrariness of the sign is a radical
concept because it proposes the autonomy of language in relation to reality.

Language does not reflect reality, it constructs it.

The relationship between signifier and signified is conventional, it depends on social &
cultural conventions.

-Charles Sanders Peirce.

He formulated his formulated his own semiotic model and of the taxonomies of signs.
Peirce offered a triadic model.

REPRESENTAMEN: The form which the sign takes (it’s not necessarily
material)

OBJECT: To which/ INTERPRETANT: It’s not an

who the sign refers. interpreter, it’s the sense made of the
sign

A sign, in the form of a representament, is something which stands to somebody for

something (the object) in some respect or capacity. It’s adressed to somebody, and this
person creates in his/her mind the interpretant (the idea he/she has of the object). This
intepretant has to stand for something, for the object.

Somebody (the source) uses a representament and this message is received by someone
who makes a representation (=interpretant) of the object that both are referring to.

The interaction representament + interpretant = semiosis.

Ex: A red light in an intersection (= representament), the vehicles stopping (= object) and
the idea that the red light is a sign for cars to stop (= interpretant)

Differences + similarities between Pierce and Saussure.

-Pierce talks about a referent or an object, which is not included int Saussure’s model.
-The representament = signifier ; the interpretant = signified.
-The interpretant has a quality unlike the signified, it is a sign in the mind of the interpreter.
—————————————————————————————————————-
Pierce included non-verbal signs in his semiotics theory. He classified signs by the type
based on their relationships to what they represent:
-Symbolical signs: They don’t resemble the object they refer to. The association must be
learned @ culture convention. Example: a dove symbolizes peace.
-Iconic signs: They have some kind of resemblance to the object they represent. They are
similar because they have similar qualities. Example: cartoon art.
-Indexical signs: They are connected with the things they represent by cause and effect.
Example: smoke as a sign of fire.

Roland Barthes.
Semiotics = interpreting verbal & non-verbal signs. Barthes was mainly interested in the
non-verbal side. He studied society @ visual signs. According to him, ideological signs
support the “status-quo” @ transforming history to nature. We create things so we can
pretend that our current conditions are how the things should go (natural).
Advertisements also reaffirm the status quo/the dominance of those who hold the power
(capitalism)
Nowadays, semiotics expert use Barthes’s model based on mass media. His theory on
connotative meaning is influenced by Saussure ideas.
For Barthes, sign = correlation between signifier & signified.
sign: combination of signified & signifier.
signifier: physical form of the sign as we perceive it @ our senses.
signified: the meaning associated to the sign.

Example: Coins. The coin is the signifier, because the combination between the image of
the king on one side and the value of the coin on the other = monetary sign. The signifier
and the signified can’t be separated.

Saussure said that the relation signifier-signified = arbitrary*1. Barthes wasn’t sure about
this, because non-verbal signifiers are connected to their signifieds. For him, this
relationship was “quasi-arbitrary”

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION.
Mehrabian’s rule: Words (7%), tone of voice (38%), body language (55%).
Non-verbal communication is everything that is not included in verbal language and that is
subject of social encoding/decoding.
It’s a new field of study, but it’s the result of genetics transmitted through generations. It’s
also a result of learning and cultural acquisition.

Functions of non-verbal comm.

1. It helps us manage and control the immediate situation/interaction.
2. It complements/replaces verbal comm.

1Que depende solamente de la voluntad o el capricho de una persona y no obedece a principios

dictados por la razón, la lógica o las leyes.
 Categories of non-verbal comm.

1-Ekman & Freisen. NO ENTRA EN EL EXAMEN.

Emblems-Illustrators-Affect displays-Regulators-

*Emblems: Conventional non-verbal elements that can be translated into a word or

sentence. They are conscious and cultural. They usually replace verbal communication
and everybody can understand them.

*Illustrators: They emphasize communication, they are movements or gestures connected

to speech (they illustrate what’s being said) They are similar to emblems and an emblem
can be used as an illustrator. Illustrators are socially learned.

*Affect displays: They serve to show affection. The face is where affect displays reflect.

*Regulators: They maintain the back-and-forth nature of communication (speaking and

listening) They are related to the conversation flow or its pace (they tell the speaker to
continue, repeat, elaborate…) They are not as intentional as illustrators and emblems.

*Adaptors: They are the first movements we learn (as a part of our adaptative efforts) and
we use them to satisfy self or bodily needs, to perform bodily actions, to manage
emotions… There are three different types: self-adaptors, alter-adaptors and object-
adaptors.
-Self-adaptors: We use them to control tense situations, or situations where we feel
conflict or discomfort. We are usually not aware of the fact that we are performing
them
-Alter-adaptors: We perform them on another’s person body (touching someone’s
shoulder when they are upset)
-Object-adaptors: We perform this kind of movements when we perform
instrumental tasks but we also used them to control emotional tension (clicking a
pen when you are nervous)

2. Categories of nonverbal comm. according to Mark Knapp. NO ENTRA EN EL

EXAMEN
-Body movements
-Physical characteristics: Personal appearance (height, weight, skin colours)
-Paralanguage: non-semantic aspects of language.
-Proxemics: Symbolic and communicative role in a culture of spatial arrangements and
variations in distance.
-Tactile conduct: Touch.
-Artifacts: Objects with an expressive value that we add to communication (e.g: make-up)
-Environmental factors: They affect the development of communication.

3. Body Language.
Body language is connected to social codes. Every move we make, every gesture can
have a different meaning depending on the context. Our physical appearance is also body
language, it’s a way of expressing ourselves and others can judge us (but we sometimes
adapt this image so we get positive answers)
4. Physiognomy.
Your behavior depends on your physical appearance. This theory was used until the 19th
century, and it was even used to diagnose diseases. Philosophy said that the face showed
the spiritual content of human beings.
There were three methods used by physiognomists: examine animals and study which
characteristics that are also present in human beings (zoological school), examine
different races (ethnographic schools) & examine the dominant character and its
correlation to physical appearance (passionate, coward & violent).

Physiognomy is linked to communication in various ways: the stereotypes that

physiognomy uses are generally accepted. These have an influence on how we perceive
someone & react to them. The physiognomic effect exists and we accept it even if it
doesn’t have a real base.

5. Postural expression.
Three factors influence postural expression: individual (every person is different: maybe
they practice sport or not, they have elasticity or not…), social (we take into consideration
what’s right/wrong) & cultural.

6. Different types of communication.

-Interpersonal communication.
The source becomes a receiver and the receiver becomes a source because of a dynamic
communication process, where the feedback is shared between source and receiver.

-Group communication.
More than two members are involved in the communication process: everyone becomes a
source as well as a receiver @ sharing information and giving feedback to others.

-Public communication.
There’s a single source, and this source’s information is received by a large group of
people = audience. The feedback is not frequent/important.

-Mass communication.
The main difference with public communication is that there’s a technological medium.
Mass communication has a large dispersed audience (in public comm. everyone is in the
same place) so a tool is needed for the communication process to take place.

*Interpersonal communication with technological mediation.

It has things in common with interpersonal communication and mass communication. It’s
not very easy to define this concept.
 Interpersonal Group Public Mass Interpersonal
w/ tech.
mediation.

Co-presence Same time and There’s co- The speaker is There’s no co- It bridges the
space: they can presence. less accesible. presence. gap in space
touch each and time.
other. (But there’s no
co-presence)

Specific We create our There’s no There's no We create our

orientation to message It’s possible, but specific specific message
the receiver depending on not always. orientation to orientation to depending on
who we are the receiver. the receiver. who we are
talking to. talking to.

Multiplicity of Verbal & non- There’s There's Non-verbal There can be, it
codes verbal comm. multiplicity of multiplicity of comm. is depends.
codes. codes. minimized.

Dialogical form Bidirectional Bidirectional Monological/ Monological/ It allows up-to-

(importance of comm. & comm. & unidirectional. unidirectional. the-minute
the feedback) immediate immediate answers:
response. response. (No) (No) interactivity.