Reference:
Review Excerpts 'The code model and the inferential model are not incompatible; they can be
combined in various ways.... Both the code model and the inferential model can
contribute to the study of verbal communication. However, it is usually assumed
that one of the two models must provide the right overall framework for the study
of communication in general.... Against these reductionist views, we maintain that
communication can be achieved in ways which are as different from one another
as walking is from plane flight. In particular, communication can be achieved by
coding and decoding messages, and it can be achieved by providing evidence
for an intended inference. The code model and the inferential model are each
adequate to a different mode of communication; hence upgrading either to the
status of a general theory of communication is a mistake....We will propose what
we hope is an improved inferential model. However, we do not regard this model
as the basis for a general theory of communication' (3).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | basis | code |
communication |
evidence |
framework |
inference |
mode |
status |
study |
theory |
verbal |
'It is true that a language is a code which pairs phonetic and semantic
representations of sentences and the thoughts actually communicated by
utterances. This gap is filled not by more coding, but by inference. Moreover,
there is an alternative to the code model of communication. Communication has
been described as a process of inferential recognition of the communicator's
intentions. We will try to show how this description can be improved and made
explanatory' (9).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | code | communication |
description |
inference |
language |
recognition |
'It is not legitimate to ignore the differences between the semantic
representations of sentences and the thoughts that utterances are used to
convey.... The semantic representation of a sentence deals with a sort of
common core of meaning shared by every utterance of it.... The grammar can say
nothing about how the hearer, using non-linguistic information, determines on a
particular occasion what the time of utterance actually is, who the speaker is,
which Bill or Betsy the speaker has in mind, etc., and hence which thought is
actually being expressed. These aspects of interpretation involve an interaction
between linguistic structure and non-linguistic information, only the former being
dealt with by the grammar' (9-10).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | grammar | hearer |
interaction |
interpretation |
meaning |
mind |
representation |
sentence |
speaker |
structure |
thought |
utterance |
'To substantiate the code model of verbal communication, it would have to
be shown that every case of reference assignment can be dealt with by rules
which automatically integrate properties of the context with semantic properties of
the utterance. It would also have to be shown that disambiguation, the recovery of
propositional attitudes, figurative interpretations and implicit import can be
handled along similar lines' (12).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | case | code |
communication |
context |
disambiguation |
implicit |
reference |
utterance |
verbal |
'We see the mutual-knowledge hypothesis as untenable. We conclude,
therefore, that the code theory must be wrong, and that we had better worry about
possible alternatives' (21).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | code | hypothesis |
theory |
Sperber and Wilson summarize a basic inference model of communication
to be that a speaker means something by an utterance when she intends (1) that
her utterance will produce a certain response in the audience, (2) that the
audience will recognize her intention, and (3) that the audience's recognition of
her intention will function as at least part of the reason for the response
(21).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | audience | communication |
function |
inference |
intention |
reason |
recognition |
speaker |
utterance |
'Purely inferential communication exists' (26).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
'We maintain, then, that there are at least two different modes of
communication: the coding-decoding mode and the inferential mode'
(27).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
mode |
'The communication process gives rise to shared information' (38).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
'Our notion of what is manifest to an individual is clearly weaker than the
notion of what is actually known or assumed. A fact can be manifest without being
known' (40).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | notion | 'Because "manifest" is weaker than "known" or "assumed", a notion of
mutual manifestness can be developed which does not suffer from the same
psychological implausibility as "mutual knowledge" or mutual assumptions"'
(41).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | knowledge | notion |
'We assume, then, that communication is governed by a less-than-perfect
heuristic. On this approach, failures in communication are to be expected: what is
mysterious and requires explanation is not failure but success' (45).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
explanation |
heuristic |
'There is a single property -- relevance -- which makes information worth
processing for a human being' (47).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | relevance |
'Our claim is that all human beings automatically aim at the most efficient
information processing possible' (49).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | claim | 'We will call such behaviour -- behaviour which makes manifest an intention
to make something manifest -- ostensive behaviour or simply ostension. Showing
someone something is a case of ostension' (49).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | case | intention |
ostension |
'The main thesis of this book is that an act of ostension carries a guarantee
of relevance, and that this fact -- which we will call the principle of relevance --
makes manifest the intention behind the ostension. We believe that it is this
principle of relevance that is needed to make the inferential model of
communication explanatory' (50).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | act | communication |
intention |
ostension |
relevance |
thesis |
'Ostensive-inferential communication consists in making manifest to an
audience one's intention to make manifest a basic layer of information. It can
therefore be described in terms of an informative and a communicative intention'
(54).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | audience | communication |
intention |
'Treating linguistic communication as the model of communication in general
has led to theoretical distortions and misperceptions of the data' (55).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
data |
'The distortions and misperceptions introduced by the explicit
communication model are also found in the study of verbal communication itself.
Some essential aspects of implicit verbal communication are overlooked. ...
What is implicitly conveyed by an utterance is generally much vaguer than what is
explicitly expressed, and that when the implicit import of an utterance is explicitly
spelled out, it tends to be distorted by the elimination of this often intentional
vagueness. The distortion is even greater in the case of metaphor and other
figures of speech, whose poetic effects are generally destroyed by being
explicitly spelled out' (56).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | case | communication |
implicit |
metaphor |
study |
utterance |
vagueness |
verbal |
'No one has any clear idea how inference might operate over
non-propositional objects: say, over images, impressions or emotions.... We see
it as a major challenge for any account of human communication to give a
precise description and explanation of its vaguer effects. Distinguishing meaning
from communication, accepting that something can be communicated without
being strictly speaking meant by the communicator or the communicator's
behaviour, is a first essential step' (57).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
description |
explanation |
idea |
inference |
meaning |
'We want to suggest that the communicator's informative intention is better
described as an intention to modify directly not the thoughts but the cognitive
environment of the audience. The actual cognitive effects of a modification of the
cognitive environment are only partly predictable' (58).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | audience | intention |
'When the communicator's informative intention involves making a particular
assumption strongly manifest, then that assumption is strongly communicated.
When the communicator's intention is to marginally increase the manifestness of
a wide range of assumptions, then each of them is weakly communicated. There
is, of course, a continuum of cases in between. In the case of strong
communication, the communicator can have fairly precise expectations about
some of the thoughts that the audience will actually entertain. With weaker forms
of communication, the communicator cam merely expect to stir the thoughts of
the audience in a certain direction. Often, in human interaction, weak
communication is found sufficient or even preferable to the stronger forms'
(59-60).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | assumption |
audience |
case |
communication |
intention |
interaction |
range |
'One of the advantages of verbal communication is that it gives rise to the
strongest possible form of communication; it enables the hearer to pin down to
speaker's intentions about the explicit content of her utterance to a single strongly
manifest candidate, with no alternative worth considering at all' (60).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
content |
form |
hearer |
utterance |
verbal |
'To communicate by ostension is to produce a certain stimulus with the aim
of fulfilling an informative intention, and intending moreover ... to make it mutually
manifest to audience and communicator that the communicator has this
informative intention' (60-1).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | audience | intention |
ostension |
'Mere informing alters the cognitive environment of the audience.
Communication alters the mutual cognitive environment of the audience and
communicator. Mutual manifestness may be of little cognitive importance, but it is
of crucial social importance' (61).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | audience | communication |
'We began this chapter by asking how human beings communicate with one
another, Our answer is that they use two quite different modes of communication:
coded communication and ostensive-inferential communication. This is how
language is used in verbal communication' (63).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
language |
verbal |
Last Modified:
July-12-96 12:24:3
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