The study of communication as a field is vast and complex. Our goal here is to present you with three communication diagrams[1] by order as an exercise that allows you to test your comprehension. We invite you to limit your observation to elements that you learned until now.
1. Ferdinand de Saussure’s Communication Diagram
2. Roman Jakobson’s Communication Diagram
3. Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni’s Communication Diagram
4. Some Possible Answers
By observing the form of the first, the second, and the third diagram, we can learn that they are arranged by order of complexity; The first one is simpler than the second, and this latter is less complicated than the third: There is a clear evolution.
The first diagram shows the circuit that is formed during communication, starting from the formation of sign in the mind, then its transformation into physical waves thanks to phonatory organs, then its travel in the air to the ear of the listener, which will communicate it to the brain and the mind next.
The second diagram adds more elements including context, contact, and code. Context is anything that surrounds/and to what the communication event refers to. Contact represents the established and maintained contact between the sender and the receiver on the physical and psychological levels. And finally, the code that the two share.
By adding context, this second diagram adds the extralinguistic. However, is code alone enough for successful communication? Also, is it adequate to talk about codes or languages when these are in use?
The third diagram adds the ideas of linguistic, cultural, and ideological competencies, as well as psychological determinations and constraints of the universe of discourse on the production and the interpretation level to demonstrate that the code alone is insufficient and that the code in use is no more a code, but a discourse.
[1] It is important to note that a communication diagram does not represent communication solely, but also the system of the author in question. On top of communication, the diagram of Ferdinand de Saussure, for instance, expresses the structural ideas of communication.
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“Communication Diagram” is part of:
Khettab, Sid Ahmed. Semiotics and Semiology: From Sign to Semiosis and From Code to Discourse [Course]. 2021. DOI.org (Datacite), https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.23509.55520. [Online Article]
KHETTAB, Sid Ahmed. Semiotics and Semiology: From Sign to Semiosis and From Code to Discourse. Independently published, 2021, https://www.amazon.com/Semiotics-Semiology-Sign-Semiosis-Discourse/dp/B0959N6111. [Paperback]
