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Channels of Communication | 49

Action Language
Action language is transitory. But at the same time it represents a universal
kind of language. When people wish to convey the exact nature of a situation
to others, such as, ideas involved in the performance of music, in the servic-
ing of machinery, in teaching flying, painting, photography, or dance, this
can often be done more efficiently in a nonverbal way. It is also the way in
which emotions are expressed, like the slamming of a fist on the table during
the course of a deadlocked argument, or showing joy when one watches one’s
favourite team winning match.

Pictorial Language

Gesture and speech were man’s first means of communication. The pictograph
was probably the first stage in codifying his ideas. In the early beginnings
of man’s social history, there were pictorial symbols denoting a real object,
person, or institution and these formed the primitive system of writing used
by the Egyptians, Sumerians, and the Babylonians. Still these symbols did
not satisfactorily express ideas, actions, or emotions. The ‘ideograph’ was
developed, denoting a combination of actions and ideas, like, a drawing of
the sun and the moon to denote time or light. Among the more recent uses
of pictorial language are the diagrams of the botanist, or the use of Venn
Diagrams in mathematics.

LANGUAGE AND EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION

Linguistic Functions
Depending upon the linguist’s importance distinctions are made between
‘linguistic’ and ‘non-linguistic’ is made. Linguistics refers to the degree to
which signals are integrated into the verbal content of an utterance. Since it
uses words, the verbal language is the clearest example of a linguistic signal.
An overall classification of all the different types of verbal and nonverbal
signals is possible only on a scale of linguistic-ness. Figure 3.1 exhibits the
completed scale of linguistic-ness).
Linguistics does not prescribe rules of correct usage. In any given situa-
tion, the setting and the circumstances must dictate the appropriate usage.
It is impossible to generalize what is linguistically right or wrong. One can
only be concerned with appropriateness. Communication failure could be
a result of language failure. If you cannot understand someone’s language,
communication cannot take place easily. If we cannot speak each other’s
language we have a language failure. Sometimes we speak the same lan-
guage and fail to communicate because of the way we use the language.

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