Human communication which is essentially the skills and strategies employed by humankind in their psychological, linguistic, and sociocultural encounters, has engaged the attention of scholars for centuries. But while social scientists, and technologists have discovered new and more efficient ways of communicating, a disproportionately low level of attention has been paid to the foundations of communication and the elements involved in the processing of information. This chapter is therefore, devoted to addressing this academic imbalance which hast ended to deny young scholars and students the opportunity to explore this veritable subdiscipline of communication.
The discussion here is divided into six sections: Psycholinguistics and Communication, Uniqueness of Human Communication, Interdependence of Language, Thought arid Cognition, Psychological Foundations of Communication, Linguistic Foundations of Communication and Human Information Processing.
Psycholinguistics and Communication
Like sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics is a hybrid of two disciplines. Psycholinguistics has been defined as a hybrid of psychology and linguistics. It employs the empirical tools used in both disciplines in order to study the mental processes which underlie the acquisition and use of language in communication. Clearly the discipline poses serious scientific and academic challenges to the communication scholar whose concern is with ensuring s/he understands the communication complex and paradox. The concerns of psycholinguistics become critical to the communication scholar because s/he must try to understand why certain communication problems persist in spite of efforts to reduce or eliminate them. Since communication itself is a dynamic, intentional, transactional, and symbolic process which requires the use of shared codes, its link with psycholinguistics is obvious.
Unoh (1987:35) defines psycholinguistics in very lucid terms when he says it is: “partly a linguistic and partly a psychological study of processes and skills that underlie the acquisition and use of receptive communication and language behaviour (listening and reading) and expressive communication and language behaviour (speech and writing).”
Unoh adds further that reading, writing, listening and speaking are psycholinguistic processes involving not only the mastery and application of the mechanics and the structural essentials of language, but also the interaction of language, thought and the perceptual and cognitive abilities of the reader.
From the above postulations, it is hard not to recognise the fact that any view of communication must necessarily start with the psycholinguistic activities of thinking, reflecting, carrying on internal dialogue with oneself, reading one’s writing (as in a diary) or listening to oneself (as in a tape recording) or even dreaming. These intrapersonal activities are critical elements in how we communicate because they form the basis of all other forms of human communication.
Therefore, as all definitions of communication have embedded in them explicit and implicit references to behaviour, process and purpose (Burgoon & Ruffner, 1978), these elements as we have shown above are also cm bedded in psycholinguistics.
Psycholinguistics deals with language behaviour, the process of its acquisition and use as well as the purpose for which language is used in communication contest in intrapersonal interpersonal, group or mass communication.
This intrinsic relationship between psycholinguistics and communication is established through a model of learning and memory which forms a basis of information Processing and which is discussed in the last segment of this chapter.
It is also worthy of note to observe that linguists are engaged in the formal description of an important segment of human knowledge which includes the structure of language, its speech sounds and meanings, the complex system of grammar which also relates sounds and meanings.
On the other hand, psychologists want to know how children acquire the various systems of language and how such systems function when people are actually speaking writing and understanding sentences.
We also know that psychology deals with concepts such as human at feeling Personality, intelligence intellectual ability, human learning patterns and behaviours, individual differences, as well as the extent to which these are influenced by environmental and other factors.
In addition, we also know that the following linguistic elements are of concern to the communication scholar: phonology (phonetics) gram morphology syntax (lexis) and semantics because as any general communicator would admit various aspects of these influence their practice
Therefore, we can say categorically that psycholinguistics is necessary for the understanding of the communication process because
· It Clarified communication principles
· It deals with what psychological and linguistic activities go into, tie Production of communication messages as well as the mental conditions which operate in the individual during reception.
· It helps to explain the science of the communication fact.
· It explores the psychological, physical and sociocultural environment of the communication transaction as well as the environment of the participants.
A failure to recognise these facts leads inevitably to the several false starts we make in public and mass communication.
Uniqueness of Human Communication
Human communication is unique in various ways. Of all human activities, communication is the most critical because it pervades all human interactions. If there was no communication, nature would have probably provided us with another activity to help serve our communication needs. We can itemise its uniqueness along the following lines:
· It is transactional, each element influences every other element.
· It is processual, meaning that it is dynamic and in constant process.
· Human communication consists of several different elements in constant interaction with one another. The elements are: source, receiver, encoder, decoder, message, channel, noise, feedback, content and effect. This implies that human communication is somewhat complex.
· Human communication has no observable beginning or end; implying that human communication transactions do not have fixed boundaries.
· Each human communication act influences future transactions and is influenced by past transactions as well.
· Noise is inevitable in any human communication transaction.
· Man cannot not communicate. Communication is an inevitable element in human life. All behaviours communicate. Any behaviour in an interactional situation has message value.
· Each communication event is unique. No two communication acts are ever identical or repetitive.
· Only humans discuss human communication as an intellectual pursuit.
The Interdependence of Language, Thought and Cognition
There is a relationship and interdependence which exists between language and thought and between thought and cognition. In communication, language is the vehicle, thought the raw material, and cognition the Perception which brings knowledge which communicators convey. Language competence when added to organise thought and co-ordinate acknowledge leads to efficient and effective communication performance.
