Discourse Analysis: The problems with communication.

When people are in the midst of communication, a complex process of cognition is used, and we are so adept at it that it comes automatically, though mistakes are made from time to time. When we talk, an idea needs to be translated into words, and then spoken. The listener needs to hear the words, translate these guttural utterances which are symbols of the idea, and decode them into the representation of the original idea. Thus the process has a sender of information, a receiver of the information, and hopefully the information will not be lost in translation. Furthermore, if this does not sound complicated enough, we then add into the understanding of the spoken word our fluctuating emotional state and the tone and temper of the speech. So you can see that when we speak, the probability of misunderstanding is quite high.   When you are trying to communicate, it is really important to pick the right words that have the right impact on the listener, and hope that the listener has the same meaning for the word/s that you have chosen, along with an interest in what the speaker is trying to say. So as a speaker you need to put your self in the place of the listener and orientate your chosen words around the listener. To a great deal I try to do this when writing up these blog postings. I know that some of you have a good vocabulary and other do not. Furthermore I am aware that even when someone has a good vocabulary the definition of a word is totally different to my definition. So when I talk about "guttural utterances" I am talking about "speech, talking, and communicatory grunts" but it could also mean a blocked air passage or a cough, by others.   We all wish to communication with the hope of being understood. But we have our emotions getting in the way, the listeners emotions impacts on what they want to hear, and the subject that we are talking about may be hard to put into words. But we still we want others to know the ideas that we have, and so we talk in metaphors, examples, parables, and stories, so we can give someone the same idea we have in context with the subject.   If we take a simple statement such as "the cat sat on the mat" and analyse it several ways. So firstly, if one person says it to another in an angry way, we can assume that the mat is new and expensive, thus the cat is not aloud to sit on it because it is so precious. Secondly, if a person says it in a loving way, we can assume that the cat is trained to sit there to receive a food or affection. So you can see that the words spoken are translated in context with the tone of voice and the environment. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHWXAJhmvyU To break things down further we can pick on one word, such as "date" as in a date between two people to get to know each other in a romantic way. We can pull out all the connotations that are built into the symbolic meaning of the word date. So let's list out all the meanings and images that is places into one word. Anticipation Romance Dinner Interview Hope Attraction Conversation Flirting Exchanging a phone number Fun Dress nicely Food If you can think of more images that the word sparks in you, please post it in a comment.   You can use a word that means one thing to you and it has a totally different meaning to some one ells. Take for example the word "gay" in years gone by it just meant happy, but now is has a totally different image set in the meaning. In other words you could say that each word has a whole schema set behind them, much more than what is printed in a book of synonyms.  Taking the word that we used above "date" one person may see it as a harmless event that has no real personal meaning, besides an act of fun with an ego boost, while the other person may place greater meaning on the event and hold it almost sacred in the start of a relationship. Thus the words we use within context are designed to illicit emotional responses to build or break another person. Even in the interpretation of verbal interactions can be misinterpreted because the receiver is in an emotional state.   The emotional state of a person can create a completely opposite meaning to a word or statement because of their own emotional view of what is going on. For instance, if a person is in an agitated state, almost aggressive, a smile with the statement "how are you doing?" may be sent to this person but is interpreted as sarcasm instead of concern. Being in an agitated state can alter ones view of the environment along with every interaction to the point that any form of communication can be seen by that person as a provocation for aggression. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KniUNdVZvH4 I have seen people and at times had to jump in to a conversation because I could see by the look on one of the faces, that what was being said was taken as an attack on the person, when in fact the other person was only talking about them self. Thus as I have posted in earlier postings, we create the world we see, even when it is totally misinterpreted, but to us we think we are seeing a fact. In this state even the words that we use with our self in self-talk is of a negative kind. Though the opposed is also true, when we are in a great mood, full of happiness, we do not see that we could be annoying others or misinterpret a sarcastic remark designed to hurt as having fun.