communication (n.)

A fundamental notion in the study of behavior, which acts as a frame of reference for LINGUISTIC and PHONETIC studies. Communication refers to the transmission and reception of INFORMATION (a ‘message’) between a source and a receiver using a signalling system: in linguistic contexts, source and receiver are interpreted in human terms, the system involved is a LANGUAGE, and the notion of response to (or acknowledgement of) the message becomes of crucial importance. In theory, communication is said to have taken place if the information received is the same as that sent: in practice, one has to allow for all kinds of interfering factors, or ‘noise’, which reduce the efficiency of the transmission (e.g. unintelligibility of ARTICULATION, idiosyncratic ASSOCIATIONS of WORDS). One has also to allow for different levels of control in the transmission of the message: speakers’ purposive selection of signals will be accompanied by signals which communicate ‘despite themselves’, as when VOICE QUALITY signals the fact that a person has a cold, is tired/old/male, etc. The scientific study of all aspects of communication is sometimes called communication science: the domain includes linguistics and phonetics, their various branches, and relevant applications of associated subjects (e.g. acoustics, anatomy).

Human communication may take place using any of the available sensory modes (hearing, sight, etc.), and the differential study of these modes, as used in communicative activity, is carried on by SEMIOTICS. A contrast which is often made, especially by psychologists, is between verbal and non-verbal communication (NVC) to refer to the linguistic v. the non-linguistic features of communication (the latter including facial expressions, gestures, etc., both in humans and animals). However, the ambiguity of the term ‘verbal’ here, implying that language is basically a matter of ‘words’, makes this term of limited value to linguists, and it is not usually used by them in this way.