The Communication Playbook. Teri Kwal Gamble
have an abnormally high fever.12 Similarly, when teachers use jargon without defining the terms being used, it can hamper students’ understanding.
Slang
In contrast to jargon, slang is a much more informal vocabulary that bonds its users together while excluding others who do not share an understanding of the terminology. Usually popular with young people, members of marginalized groups, and users of online social networks, examples of slang include “My bad” (I made a mistake), and “lol” (laughing out loud).
Whether Language is Concrete or Abstract Influences Meaning
The language we use varies in specificity. Consider the family pet. We could call it:
A domesticated animal
A dog
A poodle
A standard poodle
My standard poodle Lucy
In each instance, our description becomes somewhat more specific. Alfred Korzybski and S. I. Hayakawa designed an abstraction ladder to describe this process.13 The ladder is composed of a number of descriptions of the same thing. Items lower on the ladder focus specifically on the person, object, or event, while items higher on it are generalizations that include the subject as part of a larger class. As our words move from abstract (less specific) to concrete (more specific), they become more precise in meaning and are more likely to appeal to the senses and conjure up a picture. Specific words, such as Lucy, clarify meaning by narrowing the number of possible images that we imagine.
Using high-level abstractions serves a number of functions. First, because high-level abstractions function like verbal shorthand, they let us generalize, making communication easier and faster. Second, because they also let us be deliberately unclear, high-level abstractions allow us to avoid confrontations when we believe it is necessary. If, for example, your boss asks you what you think of a new corporate strategy and telling the truth appears too risky to you, you can offer an abstract answer to the question and avoid being put on the line. On the other hand, relying on high-level abstractions can also cause meaning to become fuzzy—primarily because the words you use can be misunderstood. The goal is to use the level of abstraction that meets the needs of your communication objectives and the situation.
Barriers to Understanding: Patterns of Miscommunication
If we fail to consider how people’s backgrounds influence them in assigning meaning, we may have trouble communicating with them. Words often have more than a single meaning. In fact, a commonly used word can frequently have more than 20 definitions.
For example, a strike in bowling is different from a strike in baseball. Striking a match is not the same as striking up the band. Thus, we must pay careful attention to a message’s context. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that words are rarely used in one and only one sense, assuming that others will understand our words in only the way we intend them to be understood. Our receivers, however, may assume that their interpretation of our words is the meaning we intended. Let’s explore what happens when this occurs.
Bypassing: Confusing Meanings
All someone said was “Hi, Jack!” But at a suburban Detroit airport those two words precipitated a crisis. A microphone happened to be on when an individual aboard a corporate jet greeted the co-pilot. Air traffic controllers on the airport’s control tower heard the word hijack. The police, the SWAT team, and the FBI were alerted. The plane was ordered to return to the tower.14
People often think they understand each other, when, in fact, they miss each other’s meaning. This pattern of miscommunication is called bypassing, because meanings pass by each other.
There are two main kinds of bypassing.15 The first occurs when people use different words to represent the same thing but are unaware that they are both talking about the same thing. Imagine two politicians arguing vehemently over welfare policies. One holds that their city’s welfare program should be “overhauled,” whereas the other believes that “minor changes” should be made. Eventually they realize the first politician’s overhaul is actually equivalent to the second politician’s minor changes.
The second and more common type of bypassing occurs when people give different meanings to the same word or phrase. In such cases people appear to be agreeing when they substantially disagree. For example, imagine you are on a hike in the woods with a friend when your friend suddenly says, “Bear to the right.” You run to the left, hoping to avoid an encounter with what you believe is a big brown bear, when all your friend was actually doing was telling you to turn right.
Developing an awareness that bypassing can occur when you communicate is a first step in preventing it from needlessly complicating your relationships. If you believe it is possible for your listener to misunderstand you, then take the time you need to ensure that your meanings for words overlap. To avoid bypassing, you must be “person-minded” instead of “word-minded.” Remind yourself that your words may generate unpredictable or unexpected reactions in others. Trying to anticipate those reactions will help you prevent communication problems.
Labeling: Mixing Up Words and Things
Sometimes we forget that people, not words, make meanings. When this happens, we pay too much attention to labels and too little attention to reality. We can approach this phase of our study of meaning by considering the problem of labels and how strongly they influence us.
How important are labels in our culture? Consider this: A judge ruled that an individual could not change his name to a number because doing so would be totalitarian and an offense to human dignity. What does a number, as opposed to a name, signify? Would we change if our names were changed?16
We display an intensional orientation when we let words or labels fool or blind us. When we focus on what a label really represents, we display an extensional orientation.
Our name-brand society is a testament to the power of labels to alter perceptions of value. Recent tests, demonstrating how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children, revealed that anything tastes better to them—even carrots, milk, and apple juice—if wrapped in paper with the McDonald’s label. Labeling is known in marketing jargon as branding and appears to have the ability to physically alter perceptions of taste.17
Career Builder: “The Name Game”
In your opinion, could your name have anything to do with your chances of succeeding in your chosen career? Could the appellation used to represent a group function similarly?
What does a name do? Your name identifies you. It also distinguishes you from others. Your name is part of your identity. The question is: Does a name reveal any other pertinent information? The fact is that others will make assumptions about us based solely on our names.
Names have been shown to influence whether or not an employer chooses to interview or hire a potential employee. Such implicit bias is particularly harmful to people with unusual sounding names, especially non-Whites.18 Passing judgment on someone’s potential to succeed based solely on her or his name is one harmful name-game effect.19
Another harmful name-game effect involves having a name that stereotypically matches the gender of the job for which you are applying. Some first names, for example, suggest your sex and ethnicity and even perhaps your age and personality. College students demonstrated their own implicit bias when asked to predict what careers job applicants with feminine- and masculine-sounding names were most likely to succeed in, indicating that those with masculine-sounding names would most likely be successful in stereotypically masculine occupations such as