Speech Comm

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

[She's in costume, dressed as a Gypsy] Happy Halloween. I brought chocolate...eat it.

[adjusts her glasses] Ok, gang. I had a lovely weekend meeting your parents. Chip, Parker, Anya...I think I now know yours best. I'm sure we're all glad it's over, let's move on.


301--Register

Register is the level of formality with which we communicate. We do it everyday, and it's both hardwired and learned social behavior. We are social creatures, and as such we accept the concept of status. Other things factor into our register choices, such as trust, respect, and influence, and even intimacy...

For example, you all know I'm dating the Doctor. Why might I call him Doctor in the lounge here at school, and Ten at home? For that matter, why do I call all of you Mister or Miss in the classroom, and by your name when we are out and about? Consider how you communicates depending on both person AND setting.

What do you think about this? Let's take the concept and roll it around on our tongues like a Jujube of Justice until it sticks to our teeth of understanding explore what it means to speak differently to different people.

Comments

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

Aha, yes, E. Setting has a lot to do with it. I want you to consider the role of external audience and how that factors in to the dender/message/receiver paradigm.

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

You're more likely to use more personal names without an external audience. Unless you slip up, and it just gets all embarrassing for you, the person who you've called this private name, and often the audience.

An external audience often makes you more formal, especially if they're people you either don't know too well, or are in... *hesitates, wincing* a superior position, or a position of authority that's higher than your own.

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

Do you think that makes the external audience another receiver? A secondary receiver? Therefore the sender tailors the message for more than the one intended receiver?

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

*thinks for a moment*

*nods* Yeah. Even when there's just the potential for there to be an external audience, because you're in a public place, you still tailor the message so that it's appropriate for more than the actually receiver.

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

And what are the potential repercussions if you don't, E. What if someone overhears you? and is so sad OMG

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Embarassment is the obvious one. It could also give the person who overheard you blackmail material. It may be damaging to something... a relationship, or a project.

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

And what social function does embarassment fulfil?

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

*chews on her lip, thinking*

It's a way apologizing, because socially, you've made a faux pas... It's like an appeasment gesture in a way. It's also likely to make the repercussions of the faux pas less severe, because it shows that you care about breaking the rule and that you're sorry for doing so.

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

Yes! And this takes us back to my favorite words. Trust and Reciprocity [Writes RECIPROCITY on the board]

How does embarassment fulfil a reciprocal obligation, E?

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

When it's positively interpreted, it elicits a positive response. By maintaining the reciprocal obligation, it helps to maintain social norms.

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

Very good, Elizabeth. Astute and perceptive as always.