Layers of Communication / Implicature

Whatever we say or write is communicating a message with a certain
audience or social situation in mind (audinece or social bound
communication). Your audience might often be or is often culturally
different. So the question is: how to make meaning across cultures and
disciplines? In order to communicate a message or make meaning we need
a variety of resources. However, these resources are of differnet
layers which vary in sequence:

The first layer is linguistic: (literal or direct communication)
achieved by using a variety of linguistic resources: phonetic,
syntactic, semantic. In fact language learning and teaching has often
been based only on this layer. But language and communication is more
than that. Viewing language linguistically provides the most important
or the basic layer but it is ultimately a simplification.

The second layer is context (pragmatics or indirect communication) how
to communicate and understand a message through implication
(implicature). This is social or cultural bound easy to learn in the
natural environment but difficult to achieve when living or learning in
a different culture. In addition, there is the interfernce of foreign
context.

The third layer is related to gender, age, level of education...which
might even not be understood in L1 setting just take gender related
communication problems. Sometimes women and men need an interpreter.

The fourth layer is extra-linguistic such as non-verbal communication
(body language). Even silence or no reaction or the abscence of
information is communication. If you keep silent (silent communication)
and don't react (ignore) you impart a message which might even be more
effective. Again it depends on culture. For example Western society has
a predominantely verbal culture. We become uneasy and nervous once we
stop talking. The pattern of silent communication in oriental languages
might frighten the westerners. Some cultures like the French and the
Japanese are highly contexual and business partners from other
countries must be filled in before business can be properly discussed.
On the other hand North American and West European are cultures with
low context.

Business is becoming more and more global with the help of IT
(Information Technology) and globalisation, advertising cannot afford
to be restricted to certain cultures and social situations. After all
the film industry and TV have also helped communicating messages across
cultures. Perhaps non-verbal communication replaces a bit of linguistic
or pragmatic competence.

Regards
Jamshid

.

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