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Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
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Lecture Notes
Chapter 3: Verbal Communication
Learning Outcomes
1. Identify several ways in which communication is “symbolic.”
6. Demonstrate more fully (than from Chapter 1) how verbal communication can be
presentational and representational.
7. Define and be able to list several functions of verbal communication.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
A. Recall briefly what frames mean in the context of a conversation.
B. Language has syntax.
C. Language has a grammatical structure.
G. Language is an ordered collection of symbols arranged according to syntax.
H. For a more refined understanding of communication, it is useful to follow the ladder
of abstraction.
i. The ladder reinforces connections between the key characteristics of
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
II. How Is Verbal Communication Symbolic?
A. Verbal communication uses language that, in turn, is made up of symbols.
B. Symbols are arbitrary human creations that denote a real world object.
C. Symbols lack inherent meanings.
D. Verbal Communication Involves Meaning
i. Denotative and Connotative Meanings
a. Determination of meaning depends on the relevance of use of the word.
b. Polysemy: The fact that multiple meanings can be associated with a given
2. We use clues from frames, context and cultures to determine denotative
meaning.
d. Presentational meaning of the word: For example, Dictionary, Definition,
and Denotative all start with the same letter, if you need help remembering the
term on a test.
e. Connotative meaning: The overtones, implications, or additional meanings
associated with a word or an object.
f. Connotative meanings elicit emotional responses, depending on cultures and
ii. Words and Values
a. It is the connotative meanings of words that ascribe value to them.
E. Approved Terms and Disapproved Terms
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
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i. Kenneth Burke first suggested how words and symbols assume value in a
society.
a. Values make words positively loaded or negatively loaded.
F. Verbal Communication Is Relational
i. Verbal communications influence relations, and vice versa.
G. Relationships Regulate Verbal Communication
i. Relationships influence the choice of words to be used and the meanings that are
given to those words.
ii. Specific relationships are reinforced through word meanings and intentions.
iii. Relationships and Shared Meanings
a. Nature of relationships and the shared meanings between individuals in a
iv. Conversational Hypertext
a. Hypertextual shared meanings and overlaps of perceptions make
H. Verbal Communication Is Cultural
i. Verbal communications influence cultures, and vice versa.
ii. Cultures not only refer to national state cultures such as American or Chinese, but
also include social or group cultures, such as hipsters.
iii. Verbal Communication Transacts Cultures
a. Cultures are symbolic creations.
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iv. Cultures Regulate Verbal Communication
v. Cultural Ways of Talking
a. There are certain categories or styles of talking in each culture.
b. These styles have unique meanings and values.
c. Gender Pronouns:
1. Also called ‘epicene.’
2. In most languages, including English, there are gender-neutral words in
use.
I. Verbal Communication and Frames
i. Frames help assign meanings to verbal communication.
ii. Frames aid in improving quality of communication.
iii. Feminine talk: Talk that is characterized as nurturing, harmonious, and
compromising (contrast with masculine talk).
iv. Masculine talk: Talk that is characterized as tough, aggressive, and competitive
(contrast with feminine talk).
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
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viii. Individualist talk: Talk that is characterized as stressing individual needs and
achievement (contrast with collectivist talk).
ix. Recognizing Frames
a. Relational
x. Ways of Speaking
a. Forms of language and speech are employed to properly frame
communication.
b. Forms of language can either be high code or low code.
J. Accommodation: Adjusting Relational Frames
i. Communication frames help set up an interaction.
a. However, they can be adjusted as the interaction progresses.
ii. It identifies two types of accommodation, when people change their accent, their
rate of speech, and their words in order to indicate a relational state with the
person to whom they are talking.
a. Divergence: A person moves away from another’s style of speech to make a
relational point, such as establishing dislike or superiority (contrast with
K. Verbal Communication Is Presentational
i. Verbal communication is both presentational and representational.
a. Representational communication conveys facts of information, as they are.
ii. Telling Stories
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
a. Homo narrans, a term coined by Walter Fisher, refers to the everyday human
tendency to tell stories about ourselves and others.
b. A narrative is an organized way of telling stories about what people are doing
f. Narrative: Any organized story, report, or talk that has a plot, an argument, or
a theme and in which speakers both relate facts and arrange the story in a way
that provides an account, an explanation, or a conclusion.
g. Accounts: Forms of communication that go beyond the facts and offer
iii. Giving Accounts
a. Narratives account for the behaviors of the people involved in the story.
b. Accounts offer justifications, excuses and exonerations.
III. Kenneth Burke’s Pentad
A. The Pentad (Greek for ‘five’) reviews the connections between the five elements of a
story.
B. “Ratios” explore relationships between these five elements in sentences and clauses.
C. Pentad: Five components of narratives that explain the motivation of symbolic action
D. Elements of the Pentad
i. Act: Element of the pentad involving what happened (see scene, agent, agency,
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iii. Agent: Element of the pentad involving who performed an act (see act, scene,
agency, purpose).
iv. Agency: Element of the pentad involving how an act was accomplished (see act,
E. Ratios of the Pentad
i. Each one of these elements may be included in a story, in varying degrees of
emphasis, depending on how the speaker wants us to interpret from it.
ii. The five elements of the Pentad, though separate, are also interconnected.
IV. Functions of Verbal Communication
A. Verbal communications are transactive where purposes are achieved beyond the mere
exchange of symbols.
B. Verbal communication not only represents facts, it also presents the worldviews of
speakers, in order to influence others.
C. Influencing Others: Facework and Politeness
i. The purpose of human interactions in everyday life is the need to be viewed in a
certain (usually positive) way by others, and to influence the behavior of others.
ii. Achieving both these purposes involves the exercise of facework and politeness.
iii. Nonverbal Facework
a. Facework
a. The term has been coined by William Cupach and Sandra Metts.
iv. Face Wants
a. Positive face wants: The need to be seen and accepted as a worthwhile and
reasonable person (contrast with negative face wants).
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
b. Negative face wants: The desire not to be imposed on or treated as inferior
(contrast with positive face wants)
v. Maintaining Positive Face
a. All social interactions necessitate the management of face.
b. People cooperate to maintain positive face for one another and to avoid
negative face for one another.
c. Politeness Theory
1. Developed by two linguists, Brown and Levinson in 1978.
2. Describes the ways in which people deal with the possibilities that positive
face can be diminished and negative face can be imposed.
3. Three things usually help to determine the size of a face threat and the
d. Bald on record (politeness strategy): When a person acts directly without
e. Positive politeness (politeness strategy): When a person focuses on positive
face, often through flattery or by offering something in return (see avoidance,
bald on record, negative politeness, off record).
f. Negative politeness (politeness strategy): When a person acknowledges the
possibility of negative face, offering regrets or being pessimistic (see