Miscommunication: Phonology and Message
Inhalt
1. Introduction 1
2. Phonetics and phonology – the transmission of a message 2
2.1. A communication model 2
2.2. Phonological elements of communication 3
2.3. Prosodic elements of communication 4
3. Miscommunication – Problems in the auditory channel 6
3.1. Hearing and Listening 6
3.2. Channel- based and interactional- related miscommunication 8
3.3. Sender and receiver related miscommunication 8
3.3.1 Prosodic problems 9
3.3.2 Phonological problems 10
4. Analysis of miscommunication 11
4.1. A phonological problem 11
4.2. Hearing and Listening 12
4.3. Prosody and homophones 14
5. Conclusion 15
6. Bibliography
1. Introduction
Sometimes it is not easy to transmit the intended meaning to a person during a communication process. Miscommunication is a phenomenon that people experience almost every day. It is even used for marketing or present in comedy shows. Miscommunication can arise through various incidences, for example in an intercultural communication, where people have different conventions, or when a word is ambiguous and the context unclear. Sometimes people also do not listen because they think the aspect is not relevant to them.
One of the most frequent types of miscommunication are those based on slips of the tongue or slips of the ear. When people do not understand words, sentences or whole passages, the brain tries to fill the gap with known structures. Consequently, misunderstandings arise. In the following we want to concentrate on miscommunication that emerges through the transmission of the message in the auditory channel. There are various aspects that can lead to miscommunication through mistakes in the transmission of a message. These aspects, like the difference of hearing and listening, the exchange of letters or problems with the intonation etc., are going to be dealt with in this paper. First of all we are going to present how a message is transmitted in communication and which phonological aspects play a
1. Introduction 1
2. Phonetics and phonology – the transmission of a message 2
2.1. A communication model 2
2.2. Phonological elements of communication 3
2.3. Prosodic elements of communication 4
3. Miscommunication – Problems in the auditory channel 6
3.1. Hearing and Listening 6
3.2. Channel- based and interactional- related miscommunication 8
3.3. Sender and receiver related miscommunication 8
3.3.1 Prosodic problems 9
3.3.2 Phonological problems 10
4. Analysis of miscommunication 11
4.1. A phonological problem 11
4.2. Hearing and Listening 12
4.3. Prosody and homophones 14
5. Conclusion 15
6. Bibliography
1. Introduction
Sometimes it is not easy to transmit the intended meaning to a person during a communication process. Miscommunication is a phenomenon that people experience almost every day. It is even used for marketing or present in comedy shows. Miscommunication can arise through various incidences, for example in an intercultural communication, where people have different conventions, or when a word is ambiguous and the context unclear. Sometimes people also do not listen because they think the aspect is not relevant to them.
One of the most frequent types of miscommunication are those based on slips of the tongue or slips of the ear. When people do not understand words, sentences or whole passages, the brain tries to fill the gap with known structures. Consequently, misunderstandings arise. In the following we want to concentrate on miscommunication that emerges through the transmission of the message in the auditory channel. There are various aspects that can lead to miscommunication through mistakes in the transmission of a message. These aspects, like the difference of hearing and listening, the exchange of letters or problems with the intonation etc., are going to be dealt with in this paper. First of all we are going to present how a message is transmitted in communication and which phonological aspects play a
Bibliography: Bußmann, Hadumod (2002): Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. Stuttgart: Kröner Verlag. Chandler, Daniel (o.A.): The Transmission Model of Communication. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/trans.html. Abgefragt am 25.10.2006. Clark, John/Yallop, Colin (1996): An introduction to phonetics and phonology. Oxford/Cambridge: Blackwell. Cutler, Anne/Dahan, Delphine/Donselaar van, Wilma (1997): Prosody in the comprehension of spoken language: A literature review. Language and Speech, 40, 141-201. Fromkin, Victoria (1980): Errors in linguistic performance. Slips of the tongue, Ear, Pen and Hand. New York/London: Academic Press. Grasegger, Hans (2004): Phonetik und Phonologie. Idstein: Schulz-Kirchner Verlag. Myres/Myres (1992): The dynamics of human communication. New York: Mc Graw Hill. Truax, Barry (2000): Acoustic communication. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation. A communication model : www.worldtrans.org . Abgerufen am 25.10.2006. www.radiopannen.de. Abgerufen am 19.03.2007.