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Communication

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Media

   Communication is not only the process of sharing information.
   Communication processes are in most cases sign-mediated interactions
   which are governed by three levels of semiotic rules, syntactic,
   pragmatic and semantic. Therefore communication is a kind of social
   interaction where at least two interacting agents share a common set of
   signs and a common set of semiotic rules. In a simplistic form
   information is sent from a sender or encoder to a receiver or decoder.
   In a more complex form feedback links a sender to a receiver. This
   requires a symbolic activity, sometimes via a language. Communication
   development is the development of processes enabling one to understand
   what others say (or sign or write) and speak (or sign or write,
   translate sounds and symbols into meaning, and learn the syntax of the
   language. Communication is based on the idea of respect, promises, and
   the want for social improvement. Specialised fields focus on various
   aspects of communication, and include the following:
     * Non-verbal communication, the act of imparting or interchanging
       thoughts, opinions, or information without the using words;
     * Symbolic communication, the exchange of messages that change a
       priori expectation of events
     * Animal communication, the discipline of animal behaviour that
       focuses on the reception and use of signals
     * Mass communication
     * Development communication
     * Communication studies
     * Interpersonal Communication
     * Organizational communication
     * Sociolinguistics
     * Conversation analysis
     * Cognitive linguistics
     * Linguistics
     * Pragmatics
     * Semiotics
     * Discourse analysis

   Communication as a named and unified discipline has a history of
   contestation that goes back to the Socratic dialogues, in many ways
   making it the first and most contestatory of all early sciences and
   philosophies. Seeking to define "communication" as a static word or
   unified discipline may not be as important as understanding
   communication as a family of resemblances with a plurality of
   definitions as Ludwig Wittgenstein had put forth. Some definitions are
   broad, recognizing that animals can communicate with each other as well
   as human beings, and some are more narrow, only including human beings
   within the parameters of human symbolic interaction.

   Nonetheless, communication is usually described along three major
   dimensions:
    1. Content
    2. Form
    3. Destination

   With the presence of " communication noise" these three components of
   communication often become skewed and inaccurate. Between parties,
   communication content include acts that declare knowledge and
   experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These acts
   may take many forms, including gestures ( nonverbal communication, sign
   language and body language), writing, and speech. The form depends on
   the symbol systems used. Together, communication content and form make
   messages that are sent towards a destination. The target can be
   oneself, another person (in interpersonal communication), or another
   entity (such as a corporation or group).

   A particular instance of communication is called a speech act. A speech
   act typically follows a variation of logical means of delivery. The
   most common of these, and perhaps the best, is the dialogue. The
   dialogue is a form of communication where both the parties are involved
   in sending information. There are many other forms of communication but
   the reason the dialogue is good is because the dialogue lends itself to
   clearer communication due to feedback. (Feedback being encoded
   information, either verbal or nonverbal, sent back to the original
   sender (now the receiver) and then decoded.)

   There are many theories of communication, and a commonly held
   assumption is that communication must be directed towards another
   person or entity. This essentially ignores intrapersonal communication
   (note intra-, not inter-) via diaries or self-talk.

   There are many different areas of communication.A few are: nonverbal
   communication, verbal communication, and symbolic communication.
   Nonverbal communication deals with facial expressions and body motions.
   93% of “emotional meaning” we take from other people is found in the
   person’s facial expressions and tone of voice, the other 7% is taken
   from what the person actually says (More Than Talk). Verbal
   communication is when we communicate our message verbally to whoever is
   receiving the message. Symbolic communications are the things that we
   have given meaning to and that represent a certain idea we have in
   place, for example, the American flag is a symbols that represent
   freedom for the Americans themselves, or imperialism and evil for some
   other countries.

   Interpersonal conversation can occur in dyads and groups of various
   sizes, and the size of the group impacts the nature of the talk.
   Small-group communication takes place in settings of between three and
   12 individuals, and differs from large group interaction in companies
   or communities. This form of communication formed by a dyad and larger
   is sometimes referred to as the psychological model of communication
   where in a message is sent by a sender through channel to a receiver.
   At the largest level, mass communication describes messages sent to
   huge numbers of individuals through mass media, although there is
   debate if this is an interpersonal conversation.

   Communication is also the name for the academic discipline which
   studies communication.

Language

   A language is a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, such
   as intonations or pitch, gestures or written symbols which communicate
   thoughts or feelings. If a language is about communicating with
   signals, voice, sounds, gestures, or written symbols, can animal
   communications be considered as a language. Animals do not have a
   written form of a language, but use a language to communicate with each
   other. In that sense, an animal communication can be considered as a
   separated language.

   Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of
   symbols (sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars ( rules) by which
   the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer
   to common properties of languages.

   Language learning is normal in human childhood. Most human languages
   use patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication
   with others around them. There are thousands of human languages, and
   these seem to share certain properties, even though many shared
   properties have exceptions.

   There is no defined line between a language and a dialect, but Max
   Weinreich is credited as saying that a language is a dialect with an
   army and a navy.

   Humans and computer programs have also constructed other languages,
   including constructed languages such as Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua,
   Klingon, programming languages, and various mathematical formalisms.
   These languages are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared
   by human languages.

Telecommunication

   Telecommunication is the transmission of signals over a distance for
   the purpose of communication. Today this process almost always involves
   the sending of electromagnetic waves by electronic transmitters but in
   earlier years it may have involved the use of smoke signals, drums or
   semaphores. Today, telecommunication is widespread and devices that
   assist the process such as the television, radio and telephone are
   common in many parts of the world. There is also a vast array of
   networks that connect these devices, including computer networks,
   public telephone networks, radio networks and television networks.
   Computer communication across the Internet, such as e-mail and instant
   messaging, is just one of many examples of telecommunication.

Metacommunication

   The process of communicating about communication, for example, to
   discuss a past conversation and to determine the meanings behind
   certain words, phrases, etc. Metacommunication can be used as a tool
   for sense making, or for better understanding events, placts, people,
   relationships, etc.

Animal communication

   Animal communication is any behaviour on the part of one animal that
   has an effect on the current or future behaviour of another animal. of
   animal communication, called zoosemiotics (distinguishable from
   anthroposemiotics, the study of human communication) has played an
   important part in the development of ethology, sociobiology, and the
   study of animal cognition.This is quite evident as humans are able to
   communicate with animals especially dolphins and other animals used in
   circuses however these animals have to learn a special means of
   communication.

   Animal communication, and indeed the understanding of the animal world
   in general, is a rapidly growing field, and even in the 21st century so
   far, many prior understandings related to diverse fields such as
   personal symbolic name use, animal emotions, animal culture and
   learning, and even sexual conduct, long thought to be well understood,
   have been revolutionized.

Plant communication

   Plant communication is observed (a) within the plant organism, i.e.
   within plant cells and between plant cells, (b) between plants of the
   same or related species and (c) between plants and non-plant organisms,
   especially in the rootzone. Plant roots communicate in parallel with
   rhizobia bacteria, with fungi and with insects in the soil. This
   parallel sign-mediated interactions which are governed by syntactic,
   pragmatic and semantic rules are possible because of the decentralized
   nervous system of plants. As recent research shows 99% of
   intraorganismic plant communication processes are neuronal-like. Plants
   communicate also via volatiles in the case of herbivory attack behavior
   to warn neighboring plants. In parallel they produce other volatiles
   which attract parasites which attack these herbivores. In stress
   situations plants can overwrite the genetic code they inherited from
   their parents and revert to that of their grand- or great-grandparents
   ( see also: Witzany, G. (2006) Plant Communication from biosemiotic
   perspective. Plant Signaling & Behaviour 1(4):169-178.)

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