How Language Affects Interpersonal Communication

The fifth chapter of Interplay centers itself around the principle of language, and how it so greatly effects interpersonal communication. One of the concepts that stuck out to me from this chapter was the nature of language, and how language is rule-governed. There are both phonological rules and syntactical rules, which respectively mean “how sounds are combined to form words” and “the way symbols can be arranged,” which are simply how the language is organized and interpreted to their speakers (Adler, Rosenfeld, Proctor, 2015, pg. 141). There are also semantic rules, which “govern our use of the language,” in other words, “the meaning of statements” (Adler et. al, 2015, pg. 141). This is how it established that a particular word associates …show more content…
Powerless language is described in this section as including “tentative and indirect word choices, with hedges and hesitations.” On the other hand, powerful language is “direct and forceful word choices, with declarations and assertions” (Adler et. al, 2015, pg. 148-149). These two different kinds of speech convey drastically different portrayals of the individual who is communicating. Disclaimers are included in the powerless statement category, as they tend to simply aggravate the statement and enhance that which they are disclaiming. Politeness, which typically involves powerless language, is a method communicating that “saves face for both senders and receivers” (Adler et. al, 2015, pg. 149). This method of communicating establishes the necessity of having the need met, but also takes the other person’s feelings into account. For example, I have had to select certain types of language depending on the role that I am in at that moment. When I worked as a server this past year I made sure to always use very polite language, because in the restaurant world “the guest is always right.” But at the same time, when I have to send an email to a higher authority than myself such as an employer or a professor, I tend to use powerful language, as this type of language is much more professional and lacks personal elements. While …show more content…
When we use “you” language, it creates the effect of pointing the finger at someone else and shifting judgement onto them. When the “we” language is used, it portrays both parties as both having to deal with the issue and more closely relates the two individuals. The third form, “I” language, allows us to show the effect of any behaviors on yourself, and in doing so attempts to place the blame upon yourself. (Adler et. al, 2015 pg. 159-160) All three of these techniques can be useful in various scenarios, however, it is recommended that communicators combine and alternate through the pronouns so that they don’t come across as autonomous or inappropriate in repeating the same pronoun over and over. I have had to implement a technique involving responsibility and the language that I chose to employ, which actually occurred just in this last school year. My freshman year, my roommate always chewed with his mouth open, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. It didn’t bother me much at first, but after a while I knew it had to be addressed. Therefore, I used the “I” statement format as in the book by saying that I was sorry, but chewing with your mouth open bothers me for some reason. I wasn’t sure how to bring it up to you without being rude. When I phrased it that way, he didn’t feel judged or harassed, as I placed the blame upon