This document summarizes six principles of verbal messages: 1) Meanings are interpreted by individuals based on their unique perspectives 2) Messages have both literal and implied meanings 3) Messages vary in how abstract or specific they are 4) Messages can be more or less polite depending on their directness 5) Message meanings can intentionally or unintentionally mislead or deceive 6) Messages differ in their levels of assertiveness from passive to aggressive

1. Verbal
Messages
Chapter 5

2. Six Principles of Verbal
Messages
 Meanings are in people
 Messages meanings are denotative and
connotative
 Messages vary in abstraction
 Messages vary in Politeness
 Message meanings can deceive
 Messages vary in assertiveness

3. Principle 1 –
Meanings are in people
 Everyone has a unique worldview and style of
communicating
 When we interpret a message, the message is
filtered through our
beliefs, values, morals, and the way that we
see the world.
 Language is ambiguous, so words can have
multiple meanings and it is up to the message
receiver to choose a meaning (interpretation)
for the message.

4. Meanings are in People
 We have a model that we use to
understand how people differ in
interpreting messages.
 This model is known as the Ogden and
Richards Triangle of Meaning.
 This model demonstrates how interpreting
a message works on an individual level.

5. Ogden and Richards Triangle
of Meaning
Thought (reference)
Symbol (word) Object (referent)

6.  Thesymbol is the word that you are
using, such as “dog.”
Dog - Symbol

7.  The object would be that we are referring
to an actual animal known as a dog.
Symbol (word) Object

8.  The thought is the way you feel about the
object or the meaning you associate with
it. For example, I think of a dog as “man’s
best friend.” But my grandmother, who
was attacked by 3 pit bulls, thinks of all
dogs as dangerous.
“Man’s best Thought
friend” cuddly
puppy
Dog - Symbol Object

9. Principle 2 –
Message Meanings are
Denotative and Connotative
 Denotative refers to the literal meaning of
a word or it’s dictionary meaning.
 For example, if I look up “dog” in the
dictionary the definition is: “A highly
variable domestic mammal closely related
to the gray wolf.”
 The denotative meaning of the word dog
means that we are literally talking about a
dog.

10. Message Meanings are
Denotative and Connotative
 The Connotative meaning refers to the
individual interpretation or association with
the word.
 For example, when I say the word “dog”
some people may think “man’s best friend,”
“cute,” “lovable,” spoiled,” or “dangerous,”
“annoying,” “dirty,” “drool factories.”
 Some people may not think of an animal at
all, but may interpret one of the cultural uses
of the word “dog” such as an insulting name
or what you call your “home boy.” (insert
laugh here)

11. Denotative and Connotative
Meaning
 On the Ogden and Richards
Triangle, denotative and connotative
meaning would fit in like this:
Thought
Connotative Meaning
Dog - Symbol Object
Denotative Meaning

12. Principle 3 –
Messages Vary in Abstraction
 Words vary in description from concrete to
abstract
 Abstract terms are general and refer to ideas
that can’t be physically described. Examples
of abstract terms would be “love,”
“democracy,” “animal,” “human.”
 Concrete terms are very specific. They can
be perceived by the senses and described.
Examples might be “Valentine’s Day card,”
“President Barack Obama,” “chocolate
brown Labrador Retriever,” or “five month old
baby girl named Chloe.”

13. Abstraction
 Words and messages vary in how abstract or
concrete their meaning is – some are more
abstract than others and some are more
concrete.
 For example the term “leisure activities” is very
abstract because it is so general and could
include any number of different activities such
as “sports,” “hobbies,” “games,” or “clubs.”
 The more specific you get, the more concrete
the term becomes.

14. The Ladder of Abstraction
 TheLadder of Abstraction is a model that
helps demonstrate how descriptive terms
and words vary in how abstract their
meaning is. The word at the top of the
ladder is the most general or abstract
descriptive term; the term at the bottom is
the most specific. The terms in between
demonstrate how word meanings can
move from abstraction to being more
concrete.

15. The Ladder of Abstraction
Leisure Activities
Hobbies
Abstract Art
Painting
Landscape
Painting Watercolor
Landscape
Painting
Concrete

16. Principle 4 –
Message Meanings Can Vary
in Politeness
 Politenessmeans helping others save face
or avoid embarrassment.
 Building on that concept, are the
methods of directness and indirectness in
messages.

17. Directness and Indirectness
 Direct communication can be very
helpful in contexts where staying on
task or on topic is key, however -
 Direct communication is usually very
blunt and to the point – which can
often be interpreted as rude.
 Comments such as
 “How much did you pay for that purse?” or
 “Write me a recommendation.” are
direct, but can also be rude.

18. Directness and Indirectness
 Indirect communication is usually more
helpful in socially sensitive situations and is
a way to get information in a “round-a-
bout” manner without causing
embarrassment.
 Examples might be:
 “I like that purse, do you mind if I ask where you
bought it?”
 “I’m currently applying for a new position, would
you be interested in writing a recommendation
for me?”

19. Principle 5 –
Message Meanings can
Deceive
 Deception, or lying, is one of the
unfortunate drawbacks to interpersonal
communication.
 Lying is when you intentionally send a
message with false information.
 There are many different motives for
lying, which your textbook groups into four
main areas.

20. Types of Deception
 Pro-Social – lying to achieve some good
 Saying that you think your friends new haircut
looks good, when it actually doesn’t.
 Excessively praising a mediocre achievement to
build confidence.
 Self-Enhancement – lying to make yourself
look good
 Exaggerating your accomplishments or
 Only talking about the good stuff and
leaving out the bad

21. Types of Deception
 Selfish – lying to protect yourself
 Saying that you did something you did not
(or vice versa) to keep from disappointing
someone.
 Telling a prospective employer that you
resigned from your former position when
you were fired.
 Anti-Social – lying to hurt someone
 Spreading false rumors
 Falsely accusing someone

22. How People Deceive
 Exaggeration - falsely expanding on the truth
 Minimization – Falsely covering up information
 Substitution – telling a lie in place of the truth
 Equivocation – being ambiguous about key in
formation or shifting the focus to somewhere
else
 Omission – avoiding telling the truth.

23. Principle 6 –
Messages Vary in Assertiveness
 The term “assertiveness” often has a
negative connotation, but assertive
communication is actually healthy
communication that you want to strive
for.
 Messages vary in their level of
assertiveness from nonassertive to
aggressive.

24. Nonassertive Messages
 Nonassertive means that the
communicator doesn’t assert themselves
in their communication style.
 Communicators who are nonassertive
tend to have a “you win, I lose” attitude
towards interaction with other people.
 Nonassertives typically comply with what
others want, regardless of their own rights
and/or needs.

25. Aggressive Messages
 Aggressive communicators would be on
the other end of the balance.
 These communicators tend to have an “I
win, you lose” approach to conversation.
 Agressives often abuse the rights or needs
of others to get what they want at any
cost.

26. Assertive Messages
 The assertive communicator strives to stand
up for their own rights while still respecting
others.
 Assertive communicators strive for an “I
win, you win” solution to interpersonal
difficulties
 Assertives seek to find a solution that will
benefit everyone involved or find a
compromise that works.
 See table 5.2 on pg 113 in your text for
examples of assertive messages

27. Confirmation and
Disconfirmation Messages

28. Confirmation
 Confirmation takes place when you
acknowledge others and accept the way
this person views themselves.
 An example of a confirmation might be
an athlete sees himself as a good football
player and then makes varsity or -
 When a child brings home art work that
her mother puts on the fridge.

29. Disconfirmation
 Disconfirmation takes place whenever you
ignore or devalue someone else’s
contribution or self-concept.
 Using the previous examples, disconfirmation
could take place when an athlete who thinks
he is a good player stays on the bench for
most of the season, or –
 When a child brings home artwork from
school and her parents ignore the child’s
effort or devalue it in their remarks.

30. Disconfirmation, cont.
 Culturally,our language and behavior are
often guilty of disconfirmation of
individuals in these areas:
 Racisim
 Heterosexism
 Ageism
 Sexism

31. Racism
 Racism is when you hold negative
attitudes towards a race(s) different from
your own.
 Racist language devalues other
ethnicities or cultures and is often
derogatory.
 Racist language can often occur when as
assumption that one group is superior
shows up in the language we use.

32. Heterosexism
 Heterosexism is prejudice against people
of alternate sexuality –
homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, and
transsexuals.
 Heterosexist language is usually
derogatory in nature, but can also come
from exclusive language.
 Exclusive language is language that
places individuals outside the “group.”

33. Ageism
 Ageism is discrimination based on
age, usually people who are older.
 Ageism often occurs when we mistakenly
assume information about an individual
based on their age.
 For example, not all older people are
hard of hearing, but younger people
often speak loudly around an older
person, assuming that they are deaf.

34. Sexism
 Sexism is derogatory or dismissive
language directed at members of the
opposite sex.
 Sexism occurs both on an individual level
and an institutional level.
 Many translations of the Christian Bible are
examples of institutional sexism because
all humans are referred to as “men” or
“man-kind.”

35. Using Verbal Messages
Effectively

36. Effective Messages
 When communicating, there are some pitfalls
that we can avoid to improve the way we
communicate with others. These are:
 Extensionalizing
 Recognizing complexity
 Distinguishing between facts and inferences
 Discriminating productively
 Avoiding polarization
 Avoiding static evaluation

37. Extensionalize – Avoid
Intensional Orientation
 Intensional orientation is our tendency to
label people based on their group or
ethnicity
 To extensionalize, look at a person as an
individual before looking at the label or
group they belong to.

38. Recognize Complexity –
Avoid Allness
 We sometimes have a tendency to make
universal statements or assume that we know
everything there is to know on a given topic –
this is known as “allness”
 To avoid allness, don’t assume that you have
all the information – use the term “et cetera”
to acknowledge there may be more
information available.
 Avoid using universal or blanket statements
that include words like “everyone,” “no-one,”
“all,” or “none.”

39. Distinguish Between Facts and
Inferences
 Facts are observable, provable
information.
 Inferences are assumptions that we make
based on the facts we observe.
 Inferences are not always true and so
should not be treated as fact, but as a
possibility.

40. Avoid Indiscrimination
 Often the word “discriminate” has a
negative connotation.
 But failing to notice differences between
individuals is a form of stereotyping.
 Healthy discrimination would be to
discriminate (notice the differences)
between individuals instead of
discriminating against (thinking you’re
better) than other individuals.

41. Avoid Polarization
 We often have the tendency to see things
in black or white or as opposites.
 Usually there is a lot of gray area in
communication that doesn’t fall on either
side of an extreme.
 Using words that communicate more of a
middle ground helps to keep from
alienating others.

42. Avoid Static Evaluation
 Static evaluation is when you retain a certain
image of an individual and don’t allow them
room for change.
 For example, one of your popular high school
classmates may have been stuck-up and self-
centered in school – static evaluation would
be when you assume they are still the same
as they were then and did not change.
 It’s important that we update our images of
people and allow them room for change and
growth.