The Experience Of Human Communication

This book deals with matters of embodiment and meaning—in other words, the essential components of what Continental thought, since Heidegger, has come to consider as “communication.” A critical theme of this book concerns the basic tenet that consciousness of one’s Self and one’s body is only possible through human relationship. This is, of course, the phenomenological concept of intersubjectivity. But rather than let this concept remain an abstraction by discussing it as merely a function of language and signs, this work attempts to explicate it empirically. That is, it discusses the manner in which—from infancy to childhood and adolescence (and the dawning of our sexual identities) through physical maturity and old age—we come to experience the ecstasy of what Merleau-Ponty has so poetically termed “flesh.” It is rarely clear what someone means when she or he uses the word “communication.” An important objective of this book is, thus, to advance understanding of what communication is. In academic discourse, “communication” has come to be understood in a number of contexts—some conflicting and overlapping—as a process, a strategy, an event, an ethic, a mode or instance of information, or even a technology. In virtually all of these discussions, the concept of communication is discussed as though the term’s meaning is well known to the reader. When communication is described as a process, the meaning of the term is held at an operational level—that is, in the exchange of information between one person and another, what must unambiguously be inferred is that “communication” is taking place. In this context, information exchange and communication become functionally synonymous. But as a matter of embodied human psychological experience, there is a world of difference between them. As such, this book attempts to fully consider the question of how we experience the event of human communication. The author offers a pioneering study that advances the raison d’être of the emergent field of “communicology,” while at the same time offering scholars of the human sciences a new way of thinking about embodiment and relational experience.

A novel approach to traditional subjects, the wide variety of opinions, and the extensive introductory material lift this book out of the ordinary “readings" class, and will reward the reader with understanding and appreciation of a complex subject. This collection of 37 provocative selections on human communication shares with the reader the experience and insights of some of the best minds in the discipline. The selections for the most part deal with traditional communication topics in a novel way. For example, in the chapter on verbal communication, there is a selection on profane language; in the chapter on nonverbal communication, there is a section entitled “The Silent Language of Love”; in the chapter on small group communication, there’s the Parkinson article on laws in groups; and in the chapter on mass communication, there’s one on today’s interest in sexually oriented magazines. The entire spectrum of topics usually found in beginning courses in speech communication is here. An extensive Section Two includes discussion on the psychological and transactional analysis views of communication. A brief introduction precedes each section focusing on the key ideas of each reading. Sources include the Journal of Communication, Industry Week, Journalism Quarterly, Psychology Today, Supervisory Management, Journal of Social Issues, Harvard Business Review, and Today's Speech.

A novel approach to traditional subjects, the wide variety of opinions, and the extensive introductory material lift this book out of the ordinary "readings" class, and will reward the reader with understanding and appreciation of a complex subject. This collection of 37 provocative selections on human communication shares with the reader the experience and insights of some of the best minds in the discipline. The selections for the most part deal with traditional communication topics in a novel way. For example, in the chapter on verbal communication, there is a selection on profane language; in the chapter on nonverbal communication, there is a section entitled "The Silent Language of Love"; in the chapter on small group communication, there's the Parkinson article on laws in groups; and in the chapter on mass communication, there's one on today's interest in sexually oriented magazines. The entire spectrum of topics usually found in beginning courses in speech communication is here. An extensive Section Two includes discussion on the psychological and transactional analysis views of communication. A brief introduction precedes each section focusing on the key ideas of each reading. Sources include the Journal of Communication, Industry Week, Journalism Quarterly, Psychology Today, Supervisory Management, Journal of Social Issues, Harvard Business Review, and Today's Speech.

This is a book about speech and language. It is primarily intended for those interested in speech and its neurophysiological bases: phoneticians, linguists, educators, speech therapists, psychologists, and neuroscientists. Although speech and language are its central topic, it provides information about related topics as well (e.g. structure and functioning of the central nervous system, research methods in neuroscience, theories and models of speech production and perception, learning, and memory). Data on clinical populations are given in parallel with studies of healthy subjects because such comparisons can give a better understanding of intact and disordered speech and language functions. There is a review of literature (more than 600 sources) and research results covering areas such as neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, development of the nervous system, sex differences, history of neurolinguistics, behavioral, neuroimaging and other research methods in neuroscience, linguistics and psychology, theories and models of the nervous system function including speech and language processing, kinds of memory and learning and their neural substrates, critical periods, various aspects of normal speech and language processes (e.g. phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, reading), bilingualism, speech and language disorders, and many others. Newcomers to the field of neurolinguistics will find it as readable as professionals will because it is organized in a way that gives the readers flexibility and an individual approach to the text. The language is simple but all the technical terms are provided, explained, and illustrated. A comprehensive glossary provides additional information.

This book addresses questions that have concerned rhetoricians, literary theorists, and philosophers since the time of the pre-Socratics and the Sophists: How do people come to believe and to act on the basis of communicative experiences? What is the nature of reason and rationality in these experiences? What is the role of values in human decision making and action? How can reason and values be assessed? In answering these questions, Professor Fisher proposes a reconceptualization of humankind as homo narrans, that all forms of human communication need to be seen as stories—symbolic interpretations of aspects of the world occurring in time and shaped by history, culture, and character; that individuated forms of discourse should be considered "good reasons"—values or value-laden warrants for believing or acting in certain ways; and that a narrative logic that all humans have natural capacities to employ ought to be conceived of as the logic by which human communication is assessed.

This best-selling textbook for introductory human communication courses places communication theory within the context of everyday skills.

In Introduction to Human Communication, Third Edition, authors Susan R. Beauchamp and Stanley J. Baran show students how central successful communication is to gaining effective control over perception, meaning making, and identity.