Lecture 1.

Communication as viewed from the point of the theory of

communicative acts.

Communication can be verbal or non-verbal. Verbal communication is our habitual use

of language for communication, non-verbal communication is carried out without the
use of linguistic means.
Verbal (language) communication is of more systematic and structured nature. Non-
verbal communication is not as clear, but it carries enough relevant information. There
are other typologies of communication.
Functions of communication in society are as follows:
- contact-establishing (establishing an atmosphere of mutual readiness to transmit and
receive messages and keep in touch until the act is completed communication);
- social (formation of a certain level of cultural linguistic competence, allowing one to
exist in society);
- informational (exchange of information, descriptions, questions and answers);
- encouraging (encouraging a partner, audience, or yourself to performing certain
physical, physiological, intellectual, spiritual, and others actions);
- coordination (mutual orientation and coordination of actions of participants
communication regarding their joint activity);
- cognitive (adequate perception and understanding of the content of the message,
mutual understanding of each other's intentions, attitudes, experiences, states);
- emotional ("sharing" emotions, excitement from a partner or audience certain
experiences, mental states, etc.);
- pragmatic (awareness and fixation of their place in the system role, status, business,
interpersonal relationships);
- influential (aiming at changing the state, behaviour, value-motivational stage of the
partner: intentions, views, thoughts, decisions, ideas, needs, activity levels, tastes,
behaviours, evaluation criteria, etc.).

Many communication models have been developed today. A model of communication

comprises certain constituent elements and functionalities in the system.

Linear models include those by G. Laswell, K. Shannon (R. Jacobson). Harold Laswell
presented the communication model as a series of questions: Who? → What does it
say? → What channel? → To whom? → With which result? (Who says what to whom
in what channel with what effect?).
Claude Shannon, one of the creators of cybernetics, in "Mathematical
communication theory” (1948) provided a model of communication that
contained five elements: source of information, transmitter, transmission channel,
receiver and final destination. Except for these elements, Shannon introduced the
concept of communicative noise.
Shannon's model is widely based on philosophers perception of communication.
Jacobson's article in "Linguistics and Poetics" (1960, Russian translation) 1975) is one
of them.
R. Jacobson’s Model: In the language communication the sender and recipient, a
message is sent written in the code, the context is related to the content of the message
and information, transmitted (by a referent), the concept of contact is related to the
regulatory aspects of communication: context (referent), sender, message, recipient,
contact, code.

Referrent (Latin referre - to report, report, name, correlate) is information that is the
subject of the reality which the message refers to.
The addresser is the sender of the message (speaker, author).
The addressee is the recipient of the message (listener, reader).
Communication is understood as the process and result of the production of speech
that is a text (discourse).
Contact is an interaction that makes communication, information exchange, possible.
Code is a sign system (sign systems) by the help of which communication is in
progress.
Laws of communication were described by the scientist J. Sternin.
The law of mirror development of communication: one interlocutor in the
communication process imitates the communication style of the other. This is done by
a person automatically with little or no intervention.
The law of dependence of the result of communication on the volume of
communicative efforts: the more communication effort is spent, the higher the
efficiency of communication.
The law of progressive impatience for listeners: the longer they speak, the greater the
inattention and impatience of the listeners.
The law of declining audience intelligence with increasing size: the more people listen
to you, the lower your average audience intelligence is. This is sometimes a
phenomenon called the crowd effect: when there are many listeners, they start to get
worse "to reason," though the personal intelligence of each individual, of course,
remains.
The law of primary rejection of a new idea: a new, unusual idea, reported to the
interlocutor, at the first moment they are rejected.
The law of communication rhythm: the ratio of speaking and silence in each person's
speech is a constant. That means every person you need to talk for a while and be silent
for a day.
The law of linguistic self-suggestion: the verbal expression of an idea or emotion
generates this idea or emotion in the speaker. If a person explains in his own words
something to the interlocutor, the essence reported is comprehended better.
Law of rejection of public criticism: the person rejects public criticism in its address.
The law of trust in simple words: the simpler the thoughts and words of the speaker,
the more the speaker is understood and trusted. Ease of content and form in
communication is the key to communicative success.
Law of Attraction of Criticism: The more one stands out from the environment
(crowds), the more they are criticized for their actions. The person who stands out,
always becomes the object of increased attention and "attracts" to itself criticism.
Law of communicative remarks: if the interlocutor is in communication and violates
some communication norms, the other interlocutor feels the urge make him remarks,
correct him, make him change his communication behaviour.

The law of accelerated dissemination of negative information: negative, capable of

causing changes in people's status information spreads faster in communication groups
rather than positive information. It has to do with increased attention of people to the
negative facts due to the fact that the positive quickly perceived by people as the norm
and ceases to be discussed.
The law of distortion of information in its transmission ("the law of the corrupted
phone"): any transmitted information is directly distorted in proportion to the number
of people who transfer it. This means: the more people pass on information, the greater
the likelihood of information distortion is.
The law of rejection of public criticism: when publicly criticizing someone for one
reason or another in the presence of another person who has similar flaws, this person
criticizes himself almost always dismisses, believing that "she has something else."
The Law of Detailed Discussion of Trivia: People tend to focus on discussion of minor
issues and are willing to devote more time to this discuss important issues.
The law of linguistic amplification of emotions: emotional exclamations of the person
amplify the emotion experienced.
The law of linguistic absorption of emotion: a verbal description of any emotion in
question, absorbed in language, disappears. That's why you are advised to talk about
unpleasant emotions - a person quickly gets rid of them.
The Law of Emotional Leveling Logic: under the сonditions of emotional arousal the
person speaks poorly and does not understand what they are being told.
Knowledge of the laws of communication and the ability to interpret them make up an
important component of everyone's communication skills and most importantly should
be accounted in the process of translation/interpreting.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE SPEECH ACT THEORY (SAT)

In SAT the terms "communicative act" (CA) and "speech" are used ”(SA), and their
meaning is almost the same.
A speech act is an utterance (speech act) or set utterances (speech actions) performed
by one speaker taking into account the other.
A communicative act is a set of speech acts performed communicators towards each
other.
The speech genre is thematically, compositionally and stylistically established type of
message - the medium of speech acts united for the purpose of communication, the
speaker's design, taking into account the addresser's personality, context and situation
communication. According to the theory of speech genres, in its origins, the famous
Russian scientist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895 - 1973), human speech is embodied in certain
ready-made forms - speech genres. They are characterized by a trinity: 1) thematic
content, 2) style, 3) composition of expression.

Communicative intention is the desire to join in communicating with another person.

The concept of the message is information in the original form that the author wants to
convey to the addressee, the project, the idea of the future message.
A communicative goal is a strategic outcome to achieve within a targetted
communicative act. Communication goals can be different: a) informative - to convey
to the interlocutor your information and receive confirmation that it was received; b)
substantive - to get something, learn, change in the behaviour of the other party; c)
communicative - to form appropriate relations with the interlocutor.
There are two types of goals to achieve: a) the closest, directly expressed by the author,
and b) more distant, long lasting one. Among the immediate goals there are usually
intellectual, related to obtaining information, clarifying positions and opinions,
explaining and criticism. There are also goals related to establishing the nature of the
relationship: development or termination of communication, support or denial partner
views, motivation to act.
According to John Austin, there are two types of statements: performative and
assertive.
Performatives (from English performance - action, act, performance) – are linguistic
components of real situations, verbs, the use of which is formulated in an appropriate
form (most often in the form of the 1st person singular, rarely the plural of the present
time) and is a simultaneous action. Estimated by J. Austin, in English there are more
than 200 performatives in the language. About the same number is in other languages.
3. SA as a complex action has its own structure. According to J. Austin, SA is a unity
of three acts: 1) constructing a grammatically correct expression of a particular
language, enducing it with a certain meaning, a reference that is a reference to the
reality in question (referred to as the locution and locutive act); 2) making the statement
desirable communicating the focus on the specific reaction and consequences
(illocution and illocutionary act) and 3) providing a means of speech act to create a
new situation through influence on the addressee's consciousness or behavior
(perlocution and perlocution act). The perlocutionary effect is the effect that the
expression exerts on the addressee, while not referring to the fact that the addressee
understands the meaning and the changes that result from it.
4. At present there are about 200 classifications of SA and CA. Most Universal is
considered the classification by John Searl, who classifies SA based on the following
criteria:
1) the purpose (purpose) of the speech act;
2) directionality of the act (statements are directed from reality to words, promises and
demands - from words to reality).
3) expression of the speaker's psychological attitude;
4) the power of striving to achieve the goal;
5) the difference in the status of the speaker and the addressee, etc.
Based on these criteria, the scientist identifies 5 major groups.
1. Representatives. These are informative speech acts in progress to whom the
interlocutor is provided with information about certain events and objects or
phenomena. They indicate the speaker's intentions to convey to the listener a certain a
collection of information or take responsibility for their truth.
2. Directives are "imperative" speech acts, they have imperative illocutionary
orientation, ”that is, trying to force listener to do something. In effecting them, the
speaker actually compels (orders, compels) the addressee to exercise (or not to do
anything). The specificity of directives is that they are binding to take into account the
speaker's wishes or needs.
3. Commissions - speech acts of commitment. They impose an obligation on the
addressee (speaker) to perform certain actions in future or adhere to a certain line of
behavior. J. Sorl to the commissives carry threats, and G. Pocheptsov identifies threats
into the group menace.
4. Expressives are speech acts that express attitudes the speaker to real affairs,
characterize the degree of his openness. It acts of congratulation, apology, greetings,
condolences, etc.
5. Declaratives - speech acts whose function is to verbal design of different types of
social activities: weddings, assignment, title, etc. The peculiarity of declarations is that
they can be perfomed by a person with certain responsibilities.
Ukrainian scientist Professor G. Pocheptsov as based on illocutionary forces
distinguishes the following types of SA:
1. Statative - statement.
2. Promisive - a promise.
3. Menace is a threat.
4. Performative - statement and implementation of action at the same time.
5. Directives - the direct motivation of the addressee to take action.
6. Questive - a question.

A communication channel is a real or imaginary communication line (contact), along

which messages move from the speaker to the recipient. Communication channels
provide movement of material embodiment of only those messages that express the
semantic content, with traffic occurring in physical (geometric) space and in
astronomical time.
The development of mankind was accompanied by a steady increase in numbers of
communication channels due to the complement of natural channels that formed during
anthropogenesis, channels artificial, consciously created by people.
Natural communication channels are the channels used by human beings for
transmitting messages in physical space. There are two channels: non-verbal (non-
verbal) and verbal (verbal).
A non-verbal channel is a legacy of high-level zoological communication animals.
The verbal canal is accessible only to the human prossessing through the use of natural
language. Formation of linguistic ability (and accordingly - the verbal communication
channel) took place in the process anthropogenesis.
The need for artificial communication channels arises when the addresser and the
addressee are devoid of direct contact, can neither see nor hear each other, and at the
same time there are socio-cultural values that require transmission in time and space.
Artificial channels include: document channel (writing), telegraph, telephone, radio,
television, electronic media (Internet), etc.

The concept of business communication

Currently in the humanities there are many definitions of the concept of
"communication". In the context of this lecture we assume the following definition.
Communication is a specific act of information exchange, the process of transmitting
emotional and intellectual content.

The main tasks of business communication can be productive cooperation, striving

for convergence of goals, improvement of partnerships.
From the point of view of social psychology, communication is the process of
transmitting information from the sender to the recipient. The purpose of the sender is
to exert on the recipient a certain influence by transmitting a specific message. The
recipient needs to decode the message to understand the information. Thus, a complete
single cycle of communication consists of alternate moves of partners.

Business communication is a process of interaction aimed at optimizing one or another

type of subject activity: industrial, scientific, etc. In business communication, the
communication partner always acts as a person of importance to another.

Business communication involves the implementation of the following conditions:

1) the obligatory contact of all participants of communication, regardless of their

political likes and dislikes;
2) the object-specific content of communication;
3) adherence to formal role-playing principles of interaction;
4) interdependence of all participants of business communication in achieving the end
result;
5) communicative control of participants of interaction, including high (game,
manipulation, camouflage).
Business communication is realized in three main forms of communication:
monological, dialogical and polylogical.

Traditionally, it is customary to identify the following types of communication

barriers.

1. A logical barrier in business communication occurs every time business partners

who differ in their mental activity do not consider it necessary to take into account the
views of the communication partner. The barriers include: inaccurate expression; the
imperfection of transcribing thoughts into words; the presence of semantic breaks and
jumps of thought; presence of logical contradiction in the tag. The translator is to
adhere to the strategy of strict adherence to the speaker’s formulations.
2. A stylistic barrier arises when the form of information presentation by the partners
do not match. The translator is to adhere to the speaker’s style, however, is to beware
of the speakers intentions in this respect, which is to be preliminary discussed.
3. The phonetic barrier should be understood as an obstacle created by the features of
the speaker's language. Logical emphasis allows the partner to more clearly understand
the thought, but if it is missing or incorrectly made, the meaning of the language
construct may be misunderstood. To avoid such a barrier, it is necessary to speak
clearly, loud enough, while avoiding collusion. This barrier is the most engraving on
the translator and thus is to be reported as an objective condition to be removed.
4. The semantic barrier is related to the fact that business partners use the same signs
(including words) to indicate completely different things. Semantic barriers can arise
from a variety of reasons. First, it is a mismatch between thesauruses, that is, a
linguistic dictionary of the language, with full semantic information, limited to one
partner's lexicon and rich to another. Second, there are professional, social, cultural,
psychological, national, religious and other differences. The translator is to adhere to
the strategy of neutralization in such cases and under the condition of sever obstacles
to make the speaker aware of the semantic breach in communication and let him handle
the situation.
Verbal and non-verbal aspects of business discourse
Representatives of different cultures use different models of social reality perception
through symbolic systems, which are reflected in the language constructions used, the
styles of oral and written communication. The language reflects the usual patterns of
thought, models of perception of reality, accumulated in the culture of the experience
of knowing the world. Linguistic problems are often the first difficulties in
communicating with representatives of other cultures. In most cases, the difference
between the verbal communication styles is a barrier in intercultural interactions, a
typical reaction is the person's adaptation to the new context, tolerance to other style
characteristics of the language.

The linguistic behaviour that distinguishes the language of people from different
national and ethnic communities manifests itself equally clearly and at the level of non-
verbal interaction. Differences in non-verbal communication may affect the
effectiveness of business interaction. The experience of immersion in another cultural
context makes it possible to see the following features of non-verbal partner systems.
The meaning of many characters is clearly polar different. This manifests itself in a
difference of meaning:

• paralinguistic characteristics: volume, tone, speed of speech, etc.;

• body language: gestures, facial expressions, postures, etc .;
• communication context: appearance, kinetic and proxemic parameters, etc.
Additional reasons for converting differentiation of non-verbal behavior and language
difficulties into a barrier to interactions in an intercultural environment are:
• personal characteristics;
• psychological stress and fatigue, not controlled by humans;
• no previous experience of immersion in another cultural environment.
Accordingly, tolerance for unusual behavior of partners, understanding of the role of
non-verbal symbols in the process of intercultural interactions will facilitate effective
business and intercultural communication.

There are many definitions of the term "culture". In terms of semiotics, culture is a sign
system. Thus, culture, in terms of the semiotic approach, should be considered as a
complex of semiotic systems. The phenomena of culture are nothing but sign education
involved in communication.

According to this definition, culture has several "layers".

1. The outer layer - explicit products and artifacts (language, national cuisine,
architectural features, semiotics of fashion, semiotization of behavior, etc.).
2. The middle layer - norms and values. Values are silently recorded by the actions and
norms of behavior approved and condemned in society.
3. The inner layer is the collective subconsciousness of the members of this
community.
The norm is the legally or traditionally fixed set of core values of a given cultural
community. Behavioral rules in this context will mean certain rules that are specific to
the citizens of a given society and are based on morality. Norms can be formal and
informal. Norms are closely related to values.

Business culture, by S. Myasoedov's definition, is a well-established set of values and

behavioral stereotypes that are used in the country or organization when conducting
business and acquired by the individual. Business culture also reflects the norms,
values, behavioral stereotypes of a given socio-cultural community. Those are the main
building blocks for the effective translation in business communication and are to be
thoroughly mastered prior to the communicative act in a case to case manner.

Business communication accompanies the process of professional activity, in

particular, in the field of business. This is usually the fulfillment of professional tasks
related to achieving the goals of the business system. However, in addition to
metasystem goals (in this case, business systems), an individual pursues his or her
professional goals (interests), and personal goals may serve as constraints (conflicts)
in such a situation. Thus, the target communication situation in the interests of which
communication can be defined as complex and, as a rule, poorly structured, and on the
effectiveness of communication, the purpose of which is the solution of problems and
problems of business, crucially depends on the ultimate and purposeful business
development.
Effective communication, which accompanies the process of sending messages and
information exchange in the course of purposeful activity, requires skills. The common
communication model is the transmission of a message from the sender to the recipient

The main elements of the communication model are:

1) participants: the sender and the recipient;

2) messages;
3) the communication channel, ie the means of information transmission;
4) means of communication;
5) target communication situation, which is determined by both local and more general
goals and interests of participants.
When transmitting messages, distortions occur at both the encoding and decoding
stages due to differences in communication tools and cognitive models of information
processing on both sides. The purpose of communication is to convey meaning, except
for the transmission of factual information. At the coding stage, the meaning is
verbalized by translation into some professional language with a choice of available
visual forms of its presentation. The message is transmitted through the selected
communication channel: directly from partner to partner, by phone, e-mail. In
transmission, distortions are inevitably caused by distance, cultural differences,
linguistic characteristics, and so on. So the question is always how clear the message
will be and the translator performs a decisive role here.

In order to realize the main criteria for adequacy of translation one is to clearly
distinguish the character of communication: its objective, expected result, terms of
communication, communicative forms and means.
Cognitive communication
Objective: To expand the partner information fund, to pass the necessary information.
Expected result: development of new information and its application in practical
activity.
Terms of communication: accounting for the cognitive capabilities of specific business
partners, their individual attitudes to obtain new information and intellectual capacity
for its processing, understanding and perception.
Communicative forms of communication: report, message, seminar, conversation,
report.
Communicative tools and technologies: commentary, argumentation and proof;
characterization of cause and effect relationships, comparative analysis; interpreting
new vocabulary, summarizing, using verbal and non-verbal keys to access audio, visual
and kinesthetic channels, language culture and oratory.

Convincing communication
The goal is to cause the business partner certain feelings and to form value orientations
and attitudes; to persuade the validity of interaction strategies; to make like-minded
people.
Expected result: involvement of a partner in his position, change of personal attitudes,
attitudes, beliefs, reorientation of goals.
Conditions of communication organization: support for the sensitivity of the partner,
his personal motivation and intellectual-emotional culture.
Communicative forms of communication: persuasive, inviting language, press
conference, discussion, dispute, negotiation, drinking, compliment, conversation,
presentation, roundtables.
Communication tools and technologies: argumentation, demonstration and proof;
clarification and comparative analysis; facts, figures, and examples showing the
benefits; support for the emotional mood of the partner and inclusion of his kinesthetic
channel with the help of verbal and non-verbal access keys; accounting of partner
counterarguments; psychological methods of accession; building an attraction, creating
an atmosphere of trust.
Expressive communication
Purpose: to form a psycho-emotional mood in the partner, to convey feelings, feelings,
to stimulate the necessary action.
Expected result: changing the mood of the partner, provoking the necessary feelings
(sympathy, empathy), engaging in specific actions and actions.
Terms of communication: support to the emotional sphere of the partner, the use of
artistic and aesthetic means of influencing all his sensory ropes.
Communicative forms of communication: presentations; conversations and meetings;
rallies; stories about the situation, about the company, about the person; briefings;
brainstorming, synectics; demonstration of video, film fragments; analysis of possible
consequences; slogans and calls.
Communication means and technologies: audio, video and artistic means; brevity of
language constructions; emotionally colored, figurative vocabulary; acting skills:
smile, voice, look; gesture brightness, facial expressions; demonstration of
congruence; reliance on actual needs of listeners; sincerity of demonstrated feelings
[1].

In modern conditions, communication is accompanied not only by one channel but two
or more channels. Accordingly, communications of different types use several channels
of communication with some predominance of one of them:

For example, in an oral way of transmitting messages we have an audio channel and a
non-verbal channel, and then the subject's cognitive means are used to process
information. In the written method of communication, only a visual channel is
available, but the design style, structure, design and visual elements form a non-verbal
channel, similar to the body language of the oral message.
In the case of oral communication, non-verbal communication and more rigid ways of
structuring the main purpose of the message, in particular, the expected results of
communication, are of particular importance. In the case of indirect communication,
such as written, you can find an analogue of the non-verbal way of influencing the
recipient. It is, above all, the design, structuring and styling that determine the "face"
of the sender.

You can select a mixed form of communication, for the transmission of messages using
both channels: visual and audio, respectively. This is a presentation. When preparing
presentations it is necessary to take into account both verbal and non-verbal
characteristics, as well as to understand the specifics of the perception of oral messages
and the structuring of material for them.
Business communication mainly refers to the form of group communication, as the
subjects affiliated with certain organizations interact, and to some extent the
communication process does not depend on interpersonal connections and individual
preferences of the subjects.

Keeping in mind the peculiarities of the message transmission, experts distinguish

direct, in particular interpersonal, and indirect communication. Indirect communication
is defined by the symbolic environment in which a person receives, transmits,
processes signals, images, meanings. The dynamics and effectiveness of indirect
communication depends on the culture, organization and technology of the particular
communication system.

Accordingly, there are three types of communication channels:

1) direct channel - communication system, as a rule, a distributed system, which

consists of the functionality of various information systems of automation of activity
in the organization (Fig. 1.2);
2) multimedia media;
3) global information and communication network.
Based on the affiliation of participants in business communication, it is possible to
distinguish communications of participants representing the interests of the
organization, and participants who are not affiliated with specific organizations, that
is, represent their business interests.
It is important to understand that in business communication that is associated with the
organization, firm, there is external and internal communication.

It is also customary to describe the directions of communication not only in terms of

the external and internal environment of the company, but also in terms of the hierarchy
of the organizational structure.

1. Up: from lower-level managers to senior-level specialists.

2. Down: from senior managers or heads of functional units to employees and
executors.
3. Outside: to other organizations or people who do not work for the organization.
4. To the side: to external participants of the business situation in the organization.
The set of connections of an organization or a specific participant forms a
communication space, under which it is customary to understand the system of various
communication connections that are influenced by professional, cultural, economic,
political, technological and other factors.