Tema 1.
LA LENG LENGUA UA CO COMO MO CO COMU MUNI NICA CACI CIÓN ÓN:: LENG LENGUA UAJE JE OR ORAL AL Y LENGUA LENGUAJE JE ESCRIT ESCRITO. O. FACT FACTOR ORES ES QUE DEFINEN DEFINEN UNA SITUACI SITUACIÓN ÓN COMUNICATIVA: EMISOR, RECEPTO PTOR, FUNCIONALIDAD Y CONTEXTO.
1. INTRODUCTION Traditionally, Traditionally, theories of language have concentrated on the study of its different components in isolation, such as grammar, semantics, phonology, phonology, seeing language as a system that included all of them. However, when language is first acquired in childhood, is merely by means of communicating with the people around around.. In this sense, sense, new approa approache chess in the last last third of the 20 th C, paid attention to language as communication. e, as human beings, need to communicate, and as most of us live in a literary society, we normally use oral and written language to transmit or receive information. !s far as oral communication is concerned, most human beings spea" using oral language in order to e#change information and interact with other people, but the use of oral language entails the "nowledge of certain particular elements, norms, routines, formulae and strategies that are put into wor" when we are in conversations. $n the other hand, writing and reading require formal instruction, and children face a series of difficulties when learning these s"ills, because they have to comfort oral to written discourse, adapting rules, learning spelling, dividing speech chains into chun"s called words, etc. However, However, learning learning to write and read is probably probably the most fundamental fundamental step in education, education, because is the basis for future instruction and access to many fields of "nowledge. In this unit, we are a re going to review the main characteristics of oral and written language, and then we will analyse the factors that define a communicative situation, namely the sender and the receiver of the message, the functionality and the conte#t.
2. ORAL LANGUAGE AND AND COMMUNICATION !mong !mong all the communicat communication ion codes which are used by human human beings beings %music, %music, "inesics, "inesics, sign language&, language&, written and oral language is the most efficient for the transmission transmiss ion and reception of information, thoughts, feelings and opinions. opinions . In additio addition, n, these these linguisti linguisticc codes codes are e#clusively human and human and ma"e us distinct from animals. 'ut written and oral language are different processes( processes( whereas we learn to write through a formal instruction, spea"ing and listening come naturally along different stages of the child)s evolution. Therefore we can say that oral language comes comes first in our history as individuals. individuals. Therefore, speech and writing are not alternative processes, but rather we must consider them counterparts( all oral language should have a good representative system in a written form. *rom a psychological point of view , oral oral commun communicat ication ion is a two+way process in which both spea"er %encoder& and hearer %decoder& must be present in present in the same situational conte#t at a particular time and place %unless we tal" about special cases of oral communication such as phone conversations&. The functions of oral communication are, as we said before, to communicate or e#change our ideas or to intera interact ct with other other people. people. nli"e nli"e writte written n communi communicati cation, on, in oral interaction we can monitor the react rea ctio ions ns of th thee he heare arer r thro throug ugh h the the feed feedba bac" c" so that that we can can our our spee speech ch in the the cour course se of the the communicati communication, on, as well as use different linguistic and non+linguistic features %gesturing, features %gesturing, intonation...& to ma"e our messages messages clearer. However, However, as it ta"es place in a particular particular place and time, the interlocuto interlocutors rs have to ma"e their contributions at a high speed, without much time to thin" , thin" , unli"e writing. !long history, the study of spo"en language has not much tradition , unli"e written language, due to several reasons( - it was considered a secondary type of language as it was not reserved only to cultivate people. - unli"e written language, there was a lac" of permanent records of oral language during our past history. - it presents more mutability in the understanding and interpretation of what it is said than in written lg. Halliday was among the first linguists to study oral language , saying that it was not a formless and featureless featureless variety of written written language. language. -ince then, then, there has been an increasing interest interest to which it has contributed the inventions inventions of audio, video and computer devices. In oral communication, we we distinguish two different types( 1
repared speech The formal setting is organised as writing %synta#, le#is / discourse organisation& It is memorised or written down before %lectures, speech, oral poetry& -pontaneous speech -pea"er has not thought or memorised the message beforehand. It may present inaccuracies, hesitations, silences and mista"es !s spontaneous speech is the main form of oral communication, and directly reflects real communication processes with different demands and situations, and prepared speech does not allow for feedbac" and monitoring, the analysis and study of oral communication should concentrate on spontaneous speech, where the negotiation of meaning plays an important role for the communication purpose to be correctly achieved. 'ut because of its pervasive and everyday nature, its scientific study has proved particularly comple# . It has been difficult to obtain acoustically clear, natural samples of spontaneous conversation, especially of its more informal varieties. hen samples have been obtained, the variety of topics, participants, and social situations which characterise conversation have made it difficult to determine which aspects of the behaviour are systematic and rule+governed.
2.1. ELEMENTS AND NORMS TAT RULE ORAL DISCOURSE L!"#$!%&!' e(eme"&% -T1-- hen we tal" we have to bare in mind there is a regular distribution of accents along words and sentences. However, if we want to give special emphasis to a particular word or phrase, we change that regular pattern of stress and accent in order to ma"e more prominent what we want. HTH3 It is the relationship we ma"e between accents %chun"s of words& and silences. hythm can range from very monotonous one %in quic" or prepared speech& to rhythm with contrasts in order to give e#pressiveness and sense to our speech. auses are also important, because sometimes are made to divide grammatical units and other times are unpredictable and caused by hesitations. I4T$4!TI$4 is the falling and rising of voice during speech. !ny departure from what it is considered 5normal6 intonation shows special effects and e#presses emotions and attitudes. 4ormally, falling tones show conclusion and certainty, whereas rising tones may show inconclusion or doubt %I)ll do it 7 I)ll do it... &
Pa)a(!"#$!%&!' e(eme"&% e cannot consider oral verbal communication without remembering that the whole body ta"es part. In fact, many times, a person can e#press sympathy, hostility or incredulity by means of body and facial gestures. This 5body language6 is normally culturally related / is learnt the same way as verbal behaviour is learnt, although it allows for spontaneity and creativity( we use head, face, hands, arms, shoulders, fingers... $ther linguistic features that characterise conversational language are( -peed of speech is relatively rapid8 there are many assimilations / elisions of letters8 compressions of au#iliary sequences % gonna&8 it can be difficult to identify sentence boundaries in long loose passages8 informal discourse mar"ers are common % you know, I mean&8 great creativity in the vocabulary choice, ranging from une#pected coinage % Be unsad & to use of vague words %thingummy&.
2.2. RULES hen we use language, we do not only utter grammatically correct sentences, but we "now where, when and to whom we are addressing our utterances. This is the reason why a spea"er needs to "now not only the linguistic and grammatical rules of a language %Choms"y)s linguistic competence& or rules of usage, but also how to put into effect these rules in order to achieve effective communication, so that we also need to be familiar with rules of use. ules of usage In order to produce and understand messages in a particular language we need to be familiar with( H$4$9$: e need to "now the organisation, characteristics and patterns of sounds to communicate. 3$H$9$: e need to "now the word formation rules and types of combinations of bases / affi#es. -4T!; e need to "now how words are put together to form sentences and which are their relationships. 2
-13!4TIC- e need to "now how words can be combined to produce the meaning we want or to understand the meaning e#pressed by others, even if it is nonliteral, methaporical or anomalous. ules of use To be communicatively efficient, we need to show our linguistic competence in real speech through( !$I!T141-- or "nowledge of what type of language suits best in a given situation, ta"ing into account the conte#t with its participants and their social relationships, the setting, the topic, the purpose.. C$H114C1 or ability to organise our messages in a logical and comprehensible way to transmit meaning. C$H1-I$4 or capacity to organise and structure utterances to facilitate interpretation by means of endophoras and e#ophoras % references to linguistic / situational conte#ts&, repetitions, ellipsis...
2.*. ROUTINES AND A+ITUAL FORMULAE 3an)s ability to be creative with language is something obvious, but there are times when we choose how, when and why not to be creative, to repeat what has been said or heard many times, often in e#actly the same form. 9inguistic routines are fi#ed utterances which must be considered as single units to understand their meaning, and they are of a learned character % Hi! familiar or empty How do you do?&, the process through which we acquire ritual competence being perhaps the most important socialisation we ma"e of language. nderstanding routines / formulae require shared cultural "nowledge because they are generally metaphorical in nature and must be interpreted at a non+literal level. eople are often quite opposed to routines, formulae and rituals because they are meaningless and depersonalise our ideas, because literal semantic value is largely irrelevant. -ome typical routines and habitual formulae are used in funeral condolences, religious ceremonies, weddings, graduation ceremonies...
2.. STRATEGIES SPECIFIC OF ORAL COMMUNICATION articular attention has been paid to the mar"ers of conversational turns( how people "now their turn to spea" . In formal dialogue, there are often e#plicit mar"ers, showing that a spea"er is about to tal"8 in debate, the person in the chair more or less controls spea"ers) turns. In conversation, however, the cues are more subtle, involving variations in the melody, rhythm, and speed of speech, and in patterns of eye movement. hen people tal" in a group, they loo" at and away from their listeners in about equal proportions, but when approaching the end of what they have to say, they loo" at the listeners more steadily, and in particular maintain closer eye contact with those they e#pect to continue the conversation. ! listener who wishes to be the ne#t spea"er may indicate a desire to do so by showing an increase in bodily tension, such as by leaning forward or audibly drawing in breath. In addition, there are many e#plicit indications, verbal and non+verbal, that a spea"er is coming to an end % Last but not least...&, wishes to pass the conversational ball %What do you think?, staring to someone&, wishes to
*.-RITTEN LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION ritten communication is a type of communication, and as such, its main purpose is to e#press ideas and e#periences or e#change meanings between individuals with a particular system of codes, which is different to that used in oral communication. In written communication, the encoder of the message is the writer and the decoder and interpreter of the message is the reader , and many times, this interpretation does not coincide with the writer)s intended meaning. hen we write, we use #)a/!' %0m(% , which relate to the sounds we ma"e when we spea". 'ut writing is much more than the production of graphic symbols,
6)3% & 5)m %e"&e"'e%. T/e%e %e"&e"'e% &/e" /a4e & e )3e)e3 a"3 (!"7e3 &#e&/e) !" 'e)&a!" 6a0%, 5)m!"# a '/e)e"& 6/(e 'a((e3 &e8& . -ince classical times, there have been two contradictory approaches to speech and writing( firstly, the view that writing is the primary and speech the secondary medium, because writing is more culturally significant and lastingly valuable than speech8 and secondly, the view that speech is primary and writing secondary because speech is prior to writing both historically and in terms of a child)s acquisition of language. 'ut leaving aside this dichotomy, the first thing we must notice is that speech and writing are not alternative processes( speech comes first, but writing demands more s"ill and practice, and they have different formal patterns. 3ost important of all, however, is that written and spo"en language are counterparts( a writing system should be capable of representing all the possible wordings of a person)s thoughts. This implies that both systems could be regarded as the two sides of the same coin . *rom a psychological point of view, writing is a %(!&a)0 activity, the !"&e)('$&) !% "& )e%e"& , so we are required to write on our own, 6!&/$& &/e !"&e)a'&!" ) &/e /e( 5 &/e 5ee3a'7 usually provided in oral communication. That is why we have to compensate for the absence of some linguistic features which help to "eep communication going on in speech, such as prosody and paralinguisic devices such as gesturing, intonation, etc. $ur te#ts are interpreted by the reader alone, and 6e 'a""& m"!&) /!% ) /e) )ea'&!"% , unli"e the spea"er( we have to sustain the whole process of communication and to stay in contact with our reader through words alone, and this is why we must be very clear and e#plicit about our intentions when we write. However, not all the acvantages are on the side of the oral communication( in writing, we normally have time to thin" about what we are trying to e#press, so that we can revise it and re+write it, if need be, and the reader, to understand a te#t, can also read and re+read it as many times as wanted.
*.1. STRUCTURE AND FORMAL ELEMENTS OF -RITTEN COMMUNICATION There are some features characteristic of written language, but this should not be ta"en to imply that there )s a well+delimited dividing line between writing and speech. However, the e#tend to which each of them ma"es use of different resources is directly related to the nature of the two channels( speech is the language of immediate communication, and writing is a type of communication with a distance in between. This is the reason why written te#ts present the following formal elements( L!"#$!%&!' 5ea&$)e% 5 6)!&&e" (a"#$a#e ! good writing system must be fi#ed, fle#ible, and adaptable at a time, so that( - it must provide a codified e#pression for the elements e#pressed by oral language ( each idea > a written form - it must provide means for creating e#pressions for elements not codified yet( neologisms, borrowings... S0"&a'&!' 5ea&$)e% 5 6)!&&e" (a"#$a#e The syntactic elements which ma"e writing different from speech are( - mar"ers and rhetorical organisers for clauses relationships and clarity %written te#ts are more permanent& - use of heavily pre+modified 4s , -?$ ordering and use of passive constructions and subordinate phrases Le8!'a( 5ea&$)e% 5 6)!&&e" (a"#$a#e In order to compensate the absence of paralinguistic devices and feedbac"(
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more accuracy in the use of vocabulary, avoiding redundancy and ambiguity %due to its permanent nature& - use of anaphoras and cataphoras, repetitions, synonyms... to signal relationships between sentences - there is more le#ical density in writing than in speech %more le#ical items than grammatical ones& G)a/(#!'a( !m(!'a&!"% Te#ts can be presented in different ways, as our culture value many times more the form than the content. To compensate for the absence of feedbac" and paralinguistic devices, written te#ts need to be accurate in spelling, punctuation, capital letters to mar" sentence boundaries, indentation of paragraphs, different fonts to call attention %italics, bold...& and in poetry or te#ts to draw attention, e#ploitation of resources such as order and choice of words, variations in spelling %'iba la "urtura&. In any case, what is most characteristic of written communication is that 6e %ee !& %the organisation, length...&.
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*.2. TYPES OF -RITTEN TEXTS: NORMS GOVERNING TEM, ROUTINES AND FORMULAE In writing, communication also ta"es place following system and ritual constraints( this is the reason why when we loo" at a te#t we can distinguish and obtain information regarding different types of organisation, different purposes and different lengths. Traditionally, written te#ts were divided following the classification of genres. Then, linguists lin"ed their rhetorical mode to the syntactic structures, routines and formulae that characterised them, and established the following classification( P%&'a)3% ieces of writing normally directed to friends or family when travelling ,and sometimes used for congratulations and greetings. e
reason why writing, 2 nd > what you want from addressee, B rd > conclusion. In"o$mal ( Ast > introduction, 2 nd > reason, Brd > additional info, = th > conclusion. There are also di$ecti)e lette$s, to provo"e some reaction on the reader, using imperatives / remar"s. Consist of answering what you are as"ed, as briefly as possible, so no writing style F!((!"#9!" 5)m% is needed to do so. C$))!'$($m 4!&ae Consists of a clear summary to give the academic "nowledge and e#perience someone has on a certain matter, so it includes personal details, current occupation, academic qualification and professional e#perience. S$mma)!e% 'rief rsums of articles, boo"lets and boo"s that due to their special form of composition and writing they allow the reader to gather the main information about the original wor" without reading it. They are used to present clearly and with details the summary of present and past facts or Re)&% activities, and sometimes of predictable future facts from chec"ed data, sometimes containing the interpretation of the writer but normally with the intention of stating the reality of an enterprise or institution without deformative personal visions, and can be e*positi)e, inte$p$etati)e / demonst$ati)e The most universal of all the types of written te#ts, refer bac" to the story+telling Na))a&!4e &e8&% traditions of most cultures. In fact there seem to be some basic universal structure that governs this type of te#ts( + +$ientation %time, place and character identification to inform reader of the story world&, oal . -$oblem. esolution. Coda and sometimes a mo$ale at the end.
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*or this characteristic structure, some of the routines and formulae used are presentatives %there is...&, relatives, ad
$&&e)a"'e% ) %e$e"'e% 5 $&&e)a"'e% 6/!'/ m$%& e '"%!3e)e3 a% %!"#(e $"!&%, e'a$%e &/e!) mea"!"# 'a""& e 3e)!4e3 5 &/em $"(e%% '"%!3e)e3 a% a 6/(e . In written te#ts we find different types of routines and formulaic e#pressions, which vary depending on the type of te#t, as we have been previously seeing. nderstanding them usually requires sharing cultural "nowledge, because they are genarally metaphorical in nature and must be interpreted at a non+linguistic level %for instance, 6ea$ in a letter does not always carry affective meaning&. !ll those phrases and sentences that, to some e#tend, have a prescriptive character, can be considered as routines and formulaic e#pressions( to consider all the different e#isting routines would ta"e too long, but some e#amples are, in letters / postcards %7ou$s sincerely& in C.?)s, the organisation of info in different bloc"s, in narration %+nce upon a time& in descriptions %on the le"t, high abo)e,etc...
A(( !" a((, 6e 'a" %a0 &/a& &/e0 a)e %me&!me% 4e)0 $%e5$( $& 5&e" mea"!"#(e%% ; 3ee)%"a(!%e $) e8)e%%!"% ; !3ea%.
. TE COMMUNICATION PROCESS De5!"!&!" :enerally spea"ing, communication is the e8'/a"#e 5 mea"!"#% e&6ee" !"3!4!3$a(% &/)$#/ a 'mm" %0%&em 5 %0m(% , and this has been the concern of scholars since the :ree"s. Communication refers to the &)a"%m!%%!" 5 !"5)ma&!"
)e'e!4e), $%!"# a %!#"a((!"# %0%&em. !t the turn of the century, the 1nglish literary critic Ivor !rmstrong ichards offered one of the first definitions, saying that communication takes place when one mind so acts upon its environment that another mind is influenced, and in that other mind an experience occurs which is like the experience in the first mind, and is caused in part by that experience. 6
The study of human communication in all its modes is "nown as semiotics. There are several types of communication, and although in principle any of the five senses can be used as a medium of communication, in practice only three %&a'&!(e, 4!%$a( and a$)a(& are implemented in both acti)e3 e*p$essi)e and passi)e3$ecepti)e ways. Tactile communication involves touch %e.g. sha"ing hands, grasping the arm& and the manipulation of physical distance and body orientation in order to communicate indifference or disagreement, and is studied by pro#emics. ?isual communication involves the use of facial e#pressions %smiling, win"ing..., which communicate a wide range of emotions& and gestures and body postures of varying levels of formality %"neeling, bowing...&. ?isual non+verbal communication is studied by "inesics. $ften, visual and tactile effects interact closely with verbal communication, sometimes even conveying particular nuances of meaning not easy to communicate in speech %such as the drawing of inverted commas in the air to signal a special meaning&, and most of the times culturally related. The chief branch of communication studies involves the )a(9a$)a( m3e, in the form of speech, and its systematic visual refle# in the form of writing. These are the 4e)a( a%e'&% of communication, distinguished from the non+verbal %"inesics and pro#emics& aspects, often popularly referred to as body language. The term (a"#$a#e, a% 6e $"3e)%&a"3 !& , !% $%$a((0 )e%&)!'&e3 & %ee'/ a"3 6)!&!"# , because these mediums of transmission display a highly sophisticated internal structure and creativity. 4on+verbal communication, by contrast, involves relatively little creativity. In language, it is commonplace to find new words being created, and sentences varying in practically infinite comple#ity. In this respect, languages differ mar"edly from the very limited set of facial e#pressions, gestures, and body movements. !ccording to Harmer , the characteristics apply to every communicative situation is that a spea"er7writer wants to communicate, has a communicative purpose, and selects language, and a listener7reader wants to listen to something, is interested in a communicative purpose, and process a variety of language. 3odels In order to study the process of communication several models have been offered8 fragmentation and problems of interdisciplinary outloo" have generated a wide range of discussion concerning the ways in which communication occurs. 3ost communication theorists admit that their main tas" is to answer the question Who says what to whom with what effect? The most important models are( D0"am!' sed to describe cognitive, emotional and artistic aspects of the different modes %narrative, pictorial, dramatic...& of communication as they occur in sociocultural conte#ts in their various manners and to and from different sorts of people. *or those using this model, the stability and function of the channel are more variable and less mechanically related to the process than the linear models. L!"ea) roposed by -hannon and eaver , though very mathematical, its simplicity, clarity and surface generality proved very attractive. $riginally intended for electronic messages, it was then applied to all sorts of communication. In its conception it contained five elements arranged in linear order( in"o$mation sou$ce, t$ansmitte$, channel, $ecei)e$, destination. Then, the five elements were renamed so as to specify components for other types of communication, and the in"o$mation sou$ce was split into its components to provide a wider range of applicability( source, encoder, message, channel, decoder, receiver.
>e0 5a'&)% In theory, communication is said to have ta"en place if the information received is the same as that sent. In practice, we have to allow for all "inds of interfering factors, such as e"&)0 %noise distorsion& which can be counteracted by "e#a&!4e e"&)0 %receiver)s ability to clear blurred messages&, by )e3$"3a"'0 %used by the encoder&, or by 5ee3a'7 %the sender calculates and weights the effects on the receiver and acts accordingly&8 and then we have the '"&e8&, which covers the references to the linguistic aspects of the message or e"3/)a %anapho$a and catapho$a& and the e#ternal aspects of situation or e8/)a %such as the "ield , or total event and purpose of the communication, the mode , or function of the te#t in the event, including channel and genre, and the teno$ , which refers to the participants and their relationships&.
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?. FACTORS AND FUNCTIONS OF A COMMUNICATIVE SITUATION The most usual answer to the question 8why do we use language?9 is 5to communicate our ideas6. 'ut it would be wrong to thin" that communicating our ideas is the only purpose for which we use language. -everal other functions may be identified where the communication of ideas is marginal or irrelevant. e hardly find verbal messages that would fulfil only one function , although &/e 4e)a( %&)$'&$)e 5 a
me%%a#e 3ee"3% )!ma)!(0 " &/e )e3m!"a"& 5$"'&!"@ *ollowing Ja7%" , we agree that language must be investigated in all the variety of its functions, but an outline of these functions demands a concise survey of the constitutive factors in any act of verbal communication( the !DD1--1 sends a 31--!:1 to the !DD1--11 that to be operative requires a C$4T1;T referred to and to be grasped by the addressee %either verbal and situational, a C$D1, fully or partially common to the addresser and addressee, and a C$4T!CT, a physical channel and psychological connection enabling them to enter and stay in communication If the main purpose of our use of language is to communicate our ideas, concentrating on the conte#t to which these ideas refer to, then we are dealing with the )e5e)e"&!a( ) !3ea&!"a( 5$"'&!" . If there is a direct e#pression of the addresser)s attitude toward what is being communicated, tending to produce an impression of a certain emotion, that is the em&!4e ) e8)e%%!4e 5$"'&!" %also very common&, which differs from the referential one in the sound pattern, and it flavours to some e#tend all our utterances. If we orientate our message towards the addressee because we want a certain reaction, we are dealing with the '"a&!4e 5$"'&!" , syntactically and often phonetically deviate from other functions %vocatives and imperatives&. e tal" about the /a&!' 5$"'&!" when the language we use is for the purpose of establishing or maintaining social relationships, to chec" if the channel or contact wor"s, to attract or confirm the attention of the interlocutor or to discontinue communication, rather than to communicate ideas, and is normally displayed by ritualised formulas %ell..., How do you doE&. If we use the language to tal" about the language, such as when chec"ing if addressee is using the same code as the addresser %Do you follow meE Do you "now what I meanE&, we tal" of the me&a(!"#$a( 5$"'&!". If, on the contrary, the focus is on the phonetic properties of the message, althogh not being the sole function of the message, we say that we are using the e&!' 5$"'&!" of language. To end up, we will say that Halliday grouped all the functions into &/)ee !"&e))e(a&e3 me&a5$"'&!"%: !3ea&!"a(, to e#press ideas or e#periences, the !"&e)e)%"a( to indicate, establish or maintain social relationships, and the &e8&$a(, to create written or spo"en te#ts that fit in the particular situation in which they are used.
. FUNCTIONALITY AND CONTEXT: TE NEGOTIATION OF MEANING However, if communication were simply a matter of applying the adequate schema, we wouldn)t have to worry about the addressee)s response to the communication process. Therefore, we need procedures to integrate these abstract schemata into the concrete process of discourse itself.
A(( 'mm$"!'a&!" 3ee"3% " &/e a(!#"me"& a"3 a3B$%&me"& 5 ea'/ !"&e)('$&)% %'/ema&a, a"3 &/e )'e3$)e% 6e $%e a)e &/e !"&e)a'&!4e "e#&!a&!"# a'&!4!&!e% &/a& !"&e))e& &/e 3!)e'&!"% )4!3e3 a"3 e"a(e $% & a(&e) $) e8e'&a&!"% !" &/e (!#/& 5 "e6 e4!3e"'e a% &/e 3!%'$)%e )'ee3% , and this procedural ability which traduces the schematic "nowledge into communicative behaviour is called 'aa'!&0 %in"e$ence, p$actical $easoning, negotiation o" meaning, p$oblem sol)ing... &. This capacity apply to two different dimensions( one referred to the "ind of schema that is being realised, and the other to the "ind of communicative situation that has to be negotiated, that is, to the way in which the relationship between the schemata of the interlocutors is to be managed. e find that there are occasions in which we use procedures to clear up and ma"e more e#plicit and evident the 5)ame 5 )e5e)e"'e , or use )/e&)!'a( )$&!"e% to specify more accurately our !(('$&!"a)0 a'&% %the intended effects of our utterances& or that "elicity conditions are not satisfactory so that we must use those procedures. 8
$ther procedures, this time on the part of the addressee, are !"&e))e&a&!4e %as in %38I ha)e two tickets "o$ the theat$e9 B3 8I4)e got an e*am tomo$$ow9&. In some occasions, however, negotiation is too long, too difficult or even fails %as in interethnic interaction& because the schemata are very different, so that interlocutors may use other signalling system %e.g. pictorial&, or use <)e=95)m$(a&!" procedures %o what you say is... :ow let4s put it st$aight..
. CONCLUSION Communication is , therefore, the main purpose of a language, and the use and function that fulfils depends greatly on the characteristics of the information or the form of the message. In any case, for a communication process to be complete, it is necessary that both addresser and addressee negotiate the meaning of what is being transmitted, overcoming any possible obstacles difficulting that process.
. +I+LIOGRAPY a((!3a0, M. A. >. %n Int$oduction to 'unctional $amma$ Chapter F AFG Ta""e", D. Con)e$sational tyle Chapter G AFG= Ma'A)&/$), T. ;he +*"o$d Companion to the /nglish Language $ $#ford AFF2 e3#e, T. W$iting. $. $#ford. AFFB
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