Language Blog
The first part of this assignment asked us to engage in a conversation for fifteen minutes where we were not allowed to use any version of a symbolic language. I had my husband and my mother participate in this experiment with me. This part was fairly easy. I was more on the outside of this conversation than anything else. They talked between each other and I sat back and listened. I feel because of my absence of communication it was easy to not have to include me in the conversation.
For this segment the other parties were in control of the conversation. They changed topics and asked each other questions. They even asked me a question and while it was some work to get the answer across, it only happened one time. I feel because I am a little more of an introvert, I am okay with sitting and listening in a conversation as opposed to actively being in it. For the most part I was excluded from the conversation. If we think of this as a balance of power, the party who had the ability to speak holds the power. They can ask and demand as they wish because trying to get the point across is quite a bit of work and sometimes that party gets frustrated and moves on.
The culture that has the advantage in my opinion is the one that can speak. But this only might ring true because we are so used to symbolic language. It has become our way of life to communicate in this way (spoken, ASL, writing, texting). When it comes to who has the advantage within their own population, that comes down to how well the other people in the population can understand the person who is either using symbolic language or none at all. I cannot say for sure how the attitudes of a speaking culture would be towards one that does not. If we go way back in time the culture that does not speak could have been superior. I feel they must have been confused at first, but if they really wanted to communicate they would make it work. It was difficult to find a situation where there is one party that can speak and one that cannot. I thought about when someone loses their voice, but they rely on writing what they need to say as opposed to having to play charades to get their point across.
For part two we were asked to communicate without any physical embellishments. I had everyone try it this way to see how we all reacted to each other. This was a lot harder for my mom and I than we thought it would be. I talk with my hands quite a bit and change my vocal tone depending on what I am talking about. So having to remember to stay monotone was hard at first. My husband on the other hand is very calm when he speaks no matter the situation so doing this experiment I realized he did not have any trouble with it. I think we all had a good understanding of each other though. Even when someone asked a question it was not difficult to decipher.
I think for the most part the use of signs in our language is very important. It helps the conversation flow and there are different parts to it. When there are no signs being given the conversation feels flat and it drags on at least for me. When we read a person's body language when they speak it gives us an understanding of how they are feeling. This is why over text, messages can be misinterpreted because we are not seeing how the other person is conveying their message.
The adaptive benefit to possessing the ability to read body language can help a person survive, obtain resources and reproduce because they know how to respond effectively once they understand what the other person is trying to say.
I am sure there are people who have difficulty reading body language but I cannot identify them nor do I like to assume. A situation where body language might not give reliable information is talking to a pathological liar. By this point, the person can mirror their body language any way they please but they are still lying. Someone who does not understand this might believe the lie and in turn trust unreliable information.
For this segment the other parties were in control of the conversation. They changed topics and asked each other questions. They even asked me a question and while it was some work to get the answer across, it only happened one time. I feel because I am a little more of an introvert, I am okay with sitting and listening in a conversation as opposed to actively being in it. For the most part I was excluded from the conversation. If we think of this as a balance of power, the party who had the ability to speak holds the power. They can ask and demand as they wish because trying to get the point across is quite a bit of work and sometimes that party gets frustrated and moves on.
The culture that has the advantage in my opinion is the one that can speak. But this only might ring true because we are so used to symbolic language. It has become our way of life to communicate in this way (spoken, ASL, writing, texting). When it comes to who has the advantage within their own population, that comes down to how well the other people in the population can understand the person who is either using symbolic language or none at all. I cannot say for sure how the attitudes of a speaking culture would be towards one that does not. If we go way back in time the culture that does not speak could have been superior. I feel they must have been confused at first, but if they really wanted to communicate they would make it work. It was difficult to find a situation where there is one party that can speak and one that cannot. I thought about when someone loses their voice, but they rely on writing what they need to say as opposed to having to play charades to get their point across.
For part two we were asked to communicate without any physical embellishments. I had everyone try it this way to see how we all reacted to each other. This was a lot harder for my mom and I than we thought it would be. I talk with my hands quite a bit and change my vocal tone depending on what I am talking about. So having to remember to stay monotone was hard at first. My husband on the other hand is very calm when he speaks no matter the situation so doing this experiment I realized he did not have any trouble with it. I think we all had a good understanding of each other though. Even when someone asked a question it was not difficult to decipher.
I think for the most part the use of signs in our language is very important. It helps the conversation flow and there are different parts to it. When there are no signs being given the conversation feels flat and it drags on at least for me. When we read a person's body language when they speak it gives us an understanding of how they are feeling. This is why over text, messages can be misinterpreted because we are not seeing how the other person is conveying their message.
The adaptive benefit to possessing the ability to read body language can help a person survive, obtain resources and reproduce because they know how to respond effectively once they understand what the other person is trying to say.
I am sure there are people who have difficulty reading body language but I cannot identify them nor do I like to assume. A situation where body language might not give reliable information is talking to a pathological liar. By this point, the person can mirror their body language any way they please but they are still lying. Someone who does not understand this might believe the lie and in turn trust unreliable information.
Hi Ariana, I agree with you that the people who can speak has the power and the control over the people who cannot. They have the voice to be hard loudly and clearly. I never thought about how it is hard to read liar's communication. That is a very good point of view that you mentioned because it is hard to decipher if the liar is telling the truth or not.
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ReplyDeleteHi Ariana, I find it interesting that you found it easy to do part one. I had a hard time with it. Maybe because I only had one person so there wasn't another person to help carry the conversation. I agree with you and my husband definitely had control over the conversation. I am also an introvert so I didn't mind when the conversation got quiet. I really like your answer to a situation that body language doesn't give reliable information. I would have never thought of a pathological liar. Great Post!
ReplyDeletePart 1: Okay on your opening description, but even with your minimal participation, I would have liked more detail. What efforts did you make to participate in this conversation and not be excluded?
ReplyDeleteGood discussion on the issue of control and power.
" that comes down to how well the other people in the population can understand the person who is either using symbolic language or none at all. "
But that wasn't the question here. This asked not about just communication but communicating *complex ideas*. That's a separate issue. Back up and understand what "complex ideas" actually are. Would you be able to explain Darwin's theory of natural selection or Einstein's theory of relativity without symbolic language? I don't think I could. If body language was good at communicating these complex ideas, we wouldn't need spoken symbolic language. Because symbolic language is pervasive in all cultures, that tells us that it is advantageous in communication, particularly with concepts that are just ideas and not things to demonstrate and show.
To find a real life example of this experiment, we need to find a situation where you have a speaking population and another group that doesn't speak that language, and this results in a power differential, with the speaking culture having power over the non-speaking. We see that in the interaction between English speakers and non-English speaking immigrant populations. Think about how non-English speaking immigrants are treated in Southern California? Are they treated as equals?
Google limited my response so I will finish it here:
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Part 2: Okay here, but I really wanted your partners to focus on their response to *you* and your lack of body language. Instead, they were focusing on restricting their own movement, so you may have thrown your results out of wack. Usually the most interesting part of this experiment is the response of the partner. Some have actually gotten angry and stormed out. Sticking wiht the assignment as per the guidelines would have offered different information that was worth exploring.
I don't disagree with your conclusions regarding the information we receive from body language, but you are only considering the situation where body language matches and supports the information you receive from spoken language. What does it tell you when the body language doesn't match the spoken language? Humans tend to use body language as a type of lie detector. If spoken words don't match with the body language, we are more inclined to believe the body language and doubt the words. Think about how being able to detect liars might help an individual's ability to survive and reproduce (which applies to the next section).
Okay on the benefits of body language, but what type of benefits do you get by being able to detect liars?
"... but I cannot identify them nor do I like to assume."
No assumption necessary. We know from medical information that those in the autism spectrum have great difficulty reading body language. This is why they have a hard time detecting sarcasm or understanding jokes. Additionally, those who are blind struggle with body language, though they can still hear vocal intonation and sense spatial clues.
"By this point, the person can mirror their body language any way they please but they are still lying."
This is true, but very difficult to do. I once had a police officer taking this class who said that there are people who train to control their body language to allow for lies, but that even then, they always seemed to have a "tell". It is easy to lie with words. Much harder to do with body language. Regardless, if body language was the only way for me to detect a lie, I would not want to ignore it.
But is there any situation you can think of where body language might actually mislead you, not because the person is lying but because you don't know how to read the body language? Do all cultures use the same system of body language? They all use different systems of spoken/written language, so why would we assume their body language isn't different? If you travel to another country, can you trust the information you get from their body language?
Good evening,
DeleteI liked that your experiment was different than the one I conducted, which was between me and one other person. I could only imagine the level of difficulty with attempting to do this experiment with a group of three as you did. What we did have in common was the fact that it was nearly impossible to have any control of the conversation. I find it pretty funny that the two people who were part of your experiment went on without you in their own conversation as if they forgot they were participating in your assignment. I guess that could be a good thing because it provides us with a realty of what it must be like for those who are really mute and how they are received by members of our society. My partner did the same thing to me even if it was just the two us. Now I realize that there might as well have been a third person in the mix so that my partner would have someone to talk to. I definitely felt as if there was a loss of consideration to make room for my two cents. Although I totally understand because whenever I had something to say it became a game of charades. Just the thought of this makes me crack up. Just as you said, my partner would only get frustrated and eventually move on. It's funny that you mention how text messages can be misinterpreted. This is so true. I would always tease my wife about this. Whenever she would read a text message from her sister, my wife would read it as if she was her sister and give the narrative so much sass and attitude. After she would read it, I would read it back to her in the most polite and cheerful manner with a smile. My wife hated when I would do that always saying, "You don't know my sister the way I do!" So your mention about how easy it is to misinterpret something that doesn't have any body language with it, such as a text message, I think is spot on. Good work.