The problem of sense making in communication
Abstract
The article analyzes explanatory potential of the structural/formal and cognitive models of language as well as coding-encoding, cognitive, inferential, and interactional models of communication to outline alternative explanations of sense making shaped by the models of enacted and situated cognition. It puts forward a conception of communication as an intersubjective interaction in a socially-culturally constructed intersubjective act, initiated by a subject’s focusing attention on a communicative (verbal-coverbal) action of the other subject, which triggers parallel mental processes (involving active perception, affect, cognition, volition, and action) that pass into each other and combine the conscious with the subconscious. Mental structures activated in the act (propositions, images (images-memories as well as images-fantasies; visual and motoric images (patterns of behavior); memories of phrases, gestures, colors, sounds, fragments of melodies, tastes, smells, tactile sensations; inner sensations/anticipations, fragmentary wishes, and moods) self-organize around the subject’s dominant motive to form the current semantic configuration. This dominant motive determines both the intention of the communicative action and the inferences made in the process of interpretation of the communicative action. The article claims that sense making in verbal-coverbal communication does not rest on the conventional nature of a linguistic unit (which all the analyzed models of language and communication eventually appeal to). It rests on the intersubjective nature of human consciousness, a hard-wired capacity of a human social being to share experiential content (thoughts, sensations, emotions, actions), which is being developed in a socially and culturally constructed context of everyday engagements with other social beings.
Downloads
References
Bakhtin, M.M. (1979). Estetika slovesnogo tvorchestva [Esthetics of verbal creation]. Moskva: Iskusstvo. (in Russian)
Voloshinov, V.N. (1929). Marksizm i filosofiya. Osnovnyye problemy sotsiologicheskogo metoda v nauke i yazyke [Marxism and philosophy. Basic problems of the sociological method in science and language]. Leningrad : Priboj. (in Rusian)
Gulieva, D.O. (2018). Realizatsiya komunikatyvnukh strategij posytyvnoyi / negatyvnoyi otsinky v anglo-amerykanskij v neofitsijnij komunikatsiji. Diss. kand filol. nauk [Realesation of communicative strategies of positive/negative assessment in non-official communication. Kand. philol. sci. diss.]. Kharkiv. (in Ukrainian)
Dubtsova, O.V. (2014). Lingvokognityvna pryroda komunikatyvnykh nevdach (na materiali amerykanskogo kinodyskursu). Diss. kand filol. nauk [Lingua-cognitive nature of communicative failures. Kand. philol. sci. diss.]. Kharkiv. (in Ukrainian)
Makarov, M.L. (2003). Osnovy teorii diskursa [Basics of discourse theory]. Moskva : ITDGK «Gnozis».
Maksimenko, O.V. (2018). Aktualizatsiya zhestovo-verbal’nykh vyslovlen’ v amerykanskomu rozvazhal’nomu teleinterv’yu. Diss. kand filol. Nauk [Instantiation of gesture-verbal utterances in American entertaining television interview. Kand. philol. sci. diss.]. Kharkiv. (in Ukrainian)
Maksimenko, O.V., Martynyuk, A.P. (2016). Kognityvna klasyfikatsiya zhestovo-verbal’nykh vyslovlen’ (na materiali amerykanskogo rozvazhal’nogo teleinterv’yu) [Cognitive classification of gesture-verbal utterances (based on American entertaining television interview)]. Visnyk Kharkiv. nats. un-tu im.V.N. Karazina [V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National Univ. Messenger], 84, 6–16. (in Ukrainian)
Sossyur, F. de. (1977). Trudy po yazykoznaniyu [Works in linguistics] Moskva : Progress. (in Russian)
Ukhtomskij, A.A. (1997). Zaslyzhennyj sobesednikh: etika, religiya, nauka [Honored interlocutor: ethics, religion, science]. Rybinsk: Rybinskoye podvor’ye. (in Russian)
Ukhtomskij, A.A. (1997). Intuitsiya sovesti. Pis’ma. Zapisnyye knizhki. Zametki na polyakh. [Intuition of conscience. Letters. Note books. Notes on the margins]. Sankt Peterburg : Peterburgskij pisatel’. (in Russian)
Adolphs, R. (2003). Cognitive neuroscience of human social behavior. Nature Review Neuroscience, 4, 165–178.
Barsalou, L.W. (2009). Situating concepts. In: by P. Robbins and M. Aydede (eds.). The Cambridge handbook of situated cognition. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 236–263.
Barwise, J., and Perry, J. (1983) Situations and attitudes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Brown J., Collins A., Duguid P. Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher. 1989. № 18(1).
Collins, A., and Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42.
Clancey, W. J. (1997). Situated cognition: On human knowledge and computer representations (Learning in doing: Social, cognitive and computational perspectives). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Colombetti, G. (2017). Enactive affectivity, extended. Topoi, 36(3), 445–455.
Croft, W., and Cruse, D. (2004). Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
van Dijk, T.A. (2008). Discourse and context: A sociocognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Di Paolo, E.A, and Thompson, E. (2014). The enactive approach. In: L. Shapiro (ed.). The Routledge handbook of embodied cognition. New York: Routledge Press, 68–78.
Fauconnier, G. (1997). Mappings in thought and language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Friends. Available at: https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/friends/100168/
Gallagher, S. (2012). Neurons, neonates and narrative. In: A. Foolen, U. Ludtke, T. Racine, J. Zlatev (eds.). Moving ourselves, moving others. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 167–196.
Grice, H. P. (1978). Further notes on logic and conversation In: Syntax and semantics. Vol. 9: Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, 113–127.
Grice, H.P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In: Syntax and semantics. Vol. 3: Speech acts. New York : Academic Press, 25–69.
Griffiths, P., and Scarantino, A. (2009). Emotions in the wild: The situated perspective on emotion. In: P. Robbins, and M. Aydede (eds.). The Cambridge handbook of situated cognition. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 437–453.
Hardy, C. (1998). Networks of meaning: A bridge between mind and matter. Westport, CT; London : Praeger.
Home improvement. Available at: https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/home-improvement/100210/
Hufendiek, R. (2018). Explaining embodied emotions – with and without representations. Philosophical Explorations, 21(2), 319–331.
Jeannerod, M. (1997). The cognitive neuroscience of action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the mind (the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason) Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G. (1990). The invariance hypothesis: Is abstract reason based on image-schemas? Cognitive Linguistics, 1, 39–74.
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire and other dangerous things: What categories reveal about mind. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., and Johnson, M. (2003/1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., and Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. New York : Basic Books.
Lakoff, G., and Nuñez, R. (2001). Where mathematics comes from: How the embodied mind brings mathematics into being. New York : Basic Books.
Lakoff, G., and Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
Landis, T. (2006). Emotional words: What’s so different from just words? Cortex, 42, 823–830.
Langacker, R. (2008). Cognitive grammar a basic introduction. Oxford, New York : Oxford University Press.
Langacker, R. (2001). Discourse in cognitive grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 2. 143–188.
Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Langacker, R. (2017). Ten lectures on the basics of cognitive grammar. Leiden and Boston : Brill.
Lave, J., and Wenger, E. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levinson, S. (1997). From outer to inner space: Linguistic categories and non-linguistic thinking. In: J. Nuyts, E. Pederson (eds.). Language and conceptualization. Language, culture and cognition 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 13–45.
McNeill, D. (2005). Gesture and thought. Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press.
Martynyuk, A. (2016). The art of metaphoric political insult within the cognitive framework // Language – literature – the arts: A cognitive-semiotic interface. Frankfurt am Main and Bern: Peter Lang Edition, 245–261.
Martynyuk, A. (2017). "Now that the magic is gone" or toward cognitive analysis of verbal/co-verbal communication. Cognition, communication, discourse,15, 51–72.
Ninio A, and Snow, C.E. (1996). Pragmatic development. Boulder, CO : Westview Press.
Noë, A. (2016). Sensations and situations: a sensorimotor integrationist approach. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 23(5–6), 66–79.
Pulvermuller, F., and Fadiga, L. (2010). Active perception: sensorimotor circuits as a cortical basis for language. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 11, 351–360.
Rosch, E. (1973). Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 47–532.
Ruby, P., and Decety, J. (2001). Effect of subjective perspective taking during simulation of action: a PET investigation of agency. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 5, 546–550.
Sсhiffrin, D. (1994). Approaches to discourse. Oxford; Cambridge: Blackwell.
Shannon, C.E., and Weaver, W. (1949). A mathematician theory of communication. Urbana, Il.: University of Illinois Press.
Shargel, D., and Prinz, J. (2018). An enactivist theory of emotional content. In: H. Naar and F. Teroni (eds.). The ontology of emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 110–129.
Sperber, D., and Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: Communication and cognition. Oxford, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Strawson, P. F. (1991). Intention and convention in speech acts. In: Pragmatics: A reader. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 290–301.
Talmy, L. (1988). The relation of grammar to cognition. In: B. Rudska-Ostyn (ed.). Topics in cognitive linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 165–205.
Varela F., Thompson, E., and Rosch, E. (1991). The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vigliocco, G., Meteyard, L., Andrews, M., and Kousta, S. (2009). Towards a theory of semantic representations. Language and Cognition, 1, 2, 219–247.
Ward, D., Roberts T., and Clark, A. (2011). Knowing what we can do: actions, intentions, and the construction of phenomenal experience. Synthese, 181 (3), 375–394.
Watzlawick, P., Beavin, J., and Jackson, D. (1967). The pragmatics of human communication. New York: Norton.
Will and Grace. Available at : https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/will-grace/1102393/
Zlatev J. (2008). Intersubjectivity: What makes us human? In: J. Zlatev, T. Racine, C. Sinha, and E. Itkonen (eds.). The shared mind: perspectives on intersubjectivity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1–17.
Zlatev, J., Racine, T., Sinha, C., and Itkonen, E. (eds.). (2008). The shared mind: perspectives on intersubjectivity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
