Moving from perception to meaning isn't as big a jump as it may seem. Our meaning for words or our connotations are very much shaped by our way of seeing the world. In most intro communication text the section on verbal communication is really a mishmash of concepts drawn from many areas but in most cases the basis for these concepts is symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism draws from the work of the sociologist George Herbert Mead and was articulated by Herbert Blummer. In your readings you may note that in communication we draw heavily from sociology and psychology.
Meaning is studied in many disciplines but perhaps the area most associated with the study of meaning is semantics. Semanticists can be found in philosophy, linguistics and other areas of study. The philosophy of language is another area of study that is concerned with meaning. Some of the most famous work with how we determine meaning is the work in transformational/generative grammar done by Noam Chomsky. While each of these areas is worth considerable study a more accessible look at how we determine meaning was developed by two communication scholars, Pearce and Cronen. Their concept of the Coordinated Mangement of Meaning pulls together parts of other approaches into a rules based formulation.
In communicating the speaker (source) needs to keep in mind that others don't always share our meaning for words. The meaning of words change over time and vary by context. Don't get stuck in an egocentric view of the world.
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Semantics - "you say tomato, i say tamahto". Professor P. asked if two people see the same thing, and their desciptions are different, are they both right. One of our fellow classmates suggest that there is only right and wrong from whomever sees the event. This takes me back to the addage of "half-full / half-empty" - which for all intense purposes, both parties are right even though the descriptions are contradictary. Of course, this is the most basic of the concept.
If we see a young black boy standing on the street corner, sagging, with a grill and gold chains, do we think he his waiting for a bus to go to work, or selling drugs? On the filp side, when we see a middle-aged white male standing on the same corner with nice clothes and a tie, do we feel safer when walking by? While the young black man may have a pocket full of hand-out bibles, and the old white guy has an uzi under his nice coat. In a perfect world, WYSISYG (what you see is what you get), but, as we all know, it's not a perfect world.
M.E. Doss
I had an argument with a friend and I told him what I made of the situation. He replied that's your perception - we then had to negoiate the waters of where does perception end and experience begin which then turned to breaking it down to intent - his intent was not to hurt my feelings, however, the fact I was mad was not merely due to my perception of things but based on the experience I had.((His fault, you see)) :) Since his intent wasn't to cause me the bad experience he felt he had no fault and that it was merely my perception which was to blame for the issue and not what I felt was his inconsiderate behavior. Him telling me it's 'my perception' was almost a good defense; little did he know I've been honing up on my communication skills so this was one he simply would not be able to win.
I not sure I understand, but if "Verbal Communication" is based on or linked to "Symobolic Interactionism", then the way I communication thing are strongly influenced by what those things mean to me. And yet I have to still be able to relate those meanings in a way that others will understand. There lies the challenge.
Verbal communication is something that should not be taken lightly. In different cultures we realize that different meaning can come from the way we pronounce certain words. So if we stand before a group of people we need to know whom we will be speaking and make sure that the words we use are acqurate and percise and understandable for the audience to get a better under standing about what the speaker is saying.
Lessie
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