Communication as action
2.1 The Organon
model
In the last decades, the slogan
"Communication is action" has come into fashion, but in fact this
view of communication is more than two thousand years old. One of the earliest
works on language, Plato's Cralylus (a dialogue on the origin of language
written in about 390 B.C.), describes speech as a form of action and words as
instruments With which actions can be performed.
The German philosopher and
psychologist Karl Bühler was referring to this work when he described language
as a tool "Organon" which people use in order to communicate with one
another. Bühler's Organon model (1934/ 1990) has had a major impact on the way
language is dealt with in discourse studies. Bühler stated that a sound can only
qualify as a linguistic sign if a three-fold relationship exists connecting the
sound to a sender, a receiver, and an object that is being referred to.
Parallel to this three pronged relationship, each linguistic sign (S) has three functions simultaneously:
1.
A sign functions as a symptom as it says something about a
sender, for example, whether the sender is female or male or what the intention
of the utterance is.
2.
A sign is a symbol because it refers to objects and states
of affairs.
3.
A sign serves as a signal because a receiver must
interpret it or react to what has been said.
This three-part division can be illustrated with any
utterance. Below is an example,
a.
Have you heard that strange story about the drunk who
decided to play barber and cut off his friend's ear?
By asking this question, the speaker indicates that he
wants information from the person who is being addressed. By using the word
"strange" the speaker is also expressing an opinion. This is the symptom aspect. In the utterance a
reference is made to a story, a real even. That is the symbol aspect. The question is an appeal to a listener. A listener
is not expected to just answer "yes" or "no· and change the
topic. Something along the line of "No, tell me about it" or
"Yes" followed by the listener's own reaction is expected. This is
the signal aspect.
In this chapter the focus is on the
basic assumptions of the Organon model, namely, that language is an instrument
with which objectives can be achieved and that this instrument cannot
considered to be separate from speakers and listeners, or writers and readers,
in performing communicative acts.
Language, and
therefore discourse, is a two-way instrument, an instrument for a speaker and a
listener or a writer and a reader. Or as the Danish linguistic philosopher Otto
Jespersen wrote in the introduction to his Philosophy of Grammar (1924):
b.
The essence of language is human activity - activity on
the part of one individual to make himself understood by another, and activity
on the part of that other to understand what was in the mind of the first.
If two parties use an instrument for an “activity” then such
an activity can only be successful if both parties adhere to general rules or
principles and thereby utilize certain strategies. This can be illustrate with
a non-linguistic example. If two people want to hang a painting (activity),
they use a hammer, nails, and a ladder (instruments), and they have to
coordinate their actions. There will have to be some form of cooperation; while
one is standing on the ladder, the other can hand the tools to the first, etc.
Rules concerning politeness will also have to be followed; while one person is
on the ladder, the other should not try to push the first off. One general principle
of collective activity is cooperation
and an often-used strategy to achieve this is politeness. This is also true in the case of verbal communication.
On the basis of this cooperation principle and guided by so-called politeness
strategies the communicators have to perform their communicative acts. But what
precisely are those communicative acts? The theory, called speech act theory, provides an answer to this question.
