Przemiany modelu komunikacji werbalnej

Abstract

Despite the generally accepted opinion that one of the basic language functions is communication, for linguists language is still the most essential issue, while social interactions of speech are regarded as secondary. The author surveys various theoretical suggestions that deal with the problem of language communication. The communicative approach toward speech is connected with Ferdinand de Saussure, in whose theory the two participants A and B are fully symmetrical. Such symmetrical vision of the world is found in C. E. Shannon and W. Weaver’s mathematical model of cummunication, who formalized communication process depriving it of all social or psychological implications, relationships and dependencies. This kind of model is referred to in R. Jakobson’s representation, where each component is directly connected with one of the language functions. All the critical reactions to Jakobson’s famous article and opening of linguistics to other branches of studies are seen in the interactive view of communication presented by C. Kerbrat-Orecchioni. One can observe shift of emphasis in the studies of verbal communication: structuralists predominantly employ abstract aproach to language (cf. Martinet’s concept of speech as a tool of communication or transformational-generative grammar with its notion of an ideal native speaker using homogeneous language), whereas sociolinguistics or communication ethnography is mostly concerned with speech functions and speaking activity rather than with the language code (cf. D. Hymes, Palo Alto school, E. Goffman or P. Bourdieu). Shifting away from logocentrism one must recognize the fact that verbal communication is one of the aspects of human communicative behaviour. Both verbal and nonverbal communication make up one integrated whole that uses all the senses; hence the interest in multicode (also verbal) communication. By referring to interdisciplinary studies linguists can view the phenomenon of human communication holistically.