COMM 2303 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Communication Theory, Middle Ages, Code-Switching

• School: Northeastern University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMM 2303
• Professor: Margaret Williams

Document Summary

More than just a cluster of words or set of grammatical rules, a language is a flash of the human spirit, the filter through which the soul of each particular culture reaches into the material world. Critical language and its relation to intercultural communication contextual uses of linguistic codes the relations between discourse and power. Emphasis on individual aspects of language use. Linguistics- scientific study of language & its structure. Nominalist language does not influence at all the way we think. Relativist sapir-whorf hypothesis: our different languages create different social realities and our languages work as frames/lenses to view the world. Qualified relativist steve pinker (middle ground) yes, to some extent language shapes the way we think but it is not as strong and determining as the relativist position says. Not just rhetorical devices for public speaking, they are part of how we think. Metaphor is not just a matter of language, but of thought and reason .