How Language Affects Meaning, Cultural Appropriateness, And Barriers To Effective Communication

Effect of language on meaning

Communication is one of the most important elements to keep the human race connected with each other (Knapp, Hall & Horgan, 2013). However, it is not only the human beings but the animals have a certain form of communication amongst them. Moreover, there is certain communication between the human beings and the animals exist that at times, gives rise to a new relationship (Burgoon, Guerrero & Floyd, 2016). Some communications are verbal where the people speak to share their feelings and emotions. Some communications can be non-verbal where the body gestures or eye contact can help in communication among the individuals (Cornelissen & Cornelissen, 2017). Communication becomes even more important in business context. The way the people communicate with each other will ultimately decide the business that the organization will garner (Van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 2016). The communication among the employees in the business context should be transparent, clear and straight-forward so that no problem arises at the later stage.

The present write-up will concentrate on the effect of the language on the meaning of the words. It will then evaluate whether different types of language are appropriate to different cultural differences.  The barriers for effective communication will be discussed along with the solutions.  Finally, the effect of jargons and euphemism will be criticized.

The effect of meaning on the language is a huge issue (Stüber, 2017). Some words mean completely different in other languages from the ones that they might mean in English (Broadbent, 2013).

Some of the examples different meanings of words in different languages are as follows:

• The English word ‘fart’ mean ‘speed’ in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.
• The English word ‘gift’ mean ‘poison’ in Scandinavian languages.
• The English word ‘crap’ mean ‘carp’ in Romanian language.
• The English word ‘brat’ mean ‘brother’ in Russian
• The English word ‘kiss’ mean ‘pee’ in Swedish.
• The English word ‘preservative’ mean ‘condom’ spelt as ‘préservatif’ in France.
• The English word ‘LOL’, which is mainly used as a short form for Laugh Out Loud mean ‘fun’ in Dutch.
• The English word ‘slut’ mean ‘end’ in Swedish.
• The famous name from Game of Thrones ‘Sean Bean’ mean ‘old woman’ in Irish

The situation might turn tough for the people who are working in a business environment. In many organizations, the employees from various cultures work together in a collective manner (McChesney, 2015). In such a situation, the effect of the languages of various cultures will be seen in the meaning of the language used by the individuals. The employees might face issues even while communicating in daily life (Bates, 2014). It is necessary for the organizations that have employees from different cultures to fix a common language that will be used for communication. The language can be the most prevalent language of that place (Wenger, 2014). In this way, use of multiple languages will reduce in the organization and in turn the confusion will be lesser.

Other than the lifestyles of the individuals, the languages that they speak portray the cultural differences between the groups (Hovland & Lumsdaine, 2017). The language is not particularly taught to any individual since birth. A newborn baby learns the language that is spoken around him or her (Castells, 2013). Eventually, the baby grows up and identifies the culture with the language that is spoken in his or her surroundings. The languages are at times used to understand the culture of any individual (Van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 2016). If it is not possible to make out the nationality of an individual by the appearance, the languages that the person is speaking will help in understanding that. Having different types of language are necessary for different types of culture as it helps in bringing diversity among the people who are living in the society (Grunig, 2013).

Different types of language are appropriate to different cultural differences

In the business context as well, the types of language are appropriate to identify different cultural differences. The languages that they speak can do the identification of the culture of the employees in an organization (Cornelissen & Cornelissen, 2017).

Communication can be affected if barriers are created in between them (Burgoon,  Guerrero & Floyd, 2016). If communication is not proper, it can give rise to further misunderstanding. Some of the barriers that can affect communication are:

Communication should be done in a simple and straight-forwards manner (Knapp, Hall & Horgan, 2013). Use of complicated words and  technical terms will make it difficult for the listener to get an idea of what the speaker meant.

The differences between two individuals can be a huge issue when it comes to communication (Stüber, 2017). People from different culture will have different beliefs. Once they will communicate with each other, they will different perspectives regarding any issue (Broadbent, 2013). In addition to this, their way of presenting themselves will be completely different from each other. There is a high chance that they would not be able to communicate with each other as they might get different meaning of something that is not meant (McChesney, 2015).

The barriers in the communication can be solved by taking into consideration certain steps. The solutions can be as follows:

A person can reduce the use of jargon by self-control (Bates, 2014). The person should understand that by using jargon, things might get complicated. The person who is speaking should reduce the use of jargon so that easier for both the parties to communicate properly (Wenger, 2014).

Giving a proper study of the culture before starting the communication will help an individual to communicate with ease (Hovland & Lumsdaine, 2017). Whenever a person is coming in contact with another person who belongs from another culture then studying the culture is important (Castells, 2013). In this way, the people who are involved in the communication will be able to understand the things that they should say and the things that they should avoid saying.

It is a common idea that communication should be kept simple and straightforward (Van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 2016).  Simple communication helps in preventing misunderstanding among the individuals. In a business atmosphere, simple communication becomes even more necessary as they are dealing with business (Grunig, 2013). In such a situation, use of jargons and euphemism will make the situation complicated.

About using jargons in communications, people have given mixed reactions. Some people feel that jargons are more about using technical terms. Using the jargons will be helpful in learning new terms (Cornelissen & Cornelissen, 2017).  However, it has been seen that jargons are at times used in a negative way as well (Burgoon,  Guerrero & Floyd, 2016). Many employees form small groups in the organization and to share some of the inside information they use jargons that may not be known to others in the organization (Knapp, Hall & Horgan, 2013). In such a situation, it becomes difficult for the employees to communicate. Even if a senior member is using any difficult term then also the meaning should be explained in detail so that other employees do not face any issue to communicate in the organization.

Quite similar to the use of the jargons, mixed reactions have been received for euphemism as well. Euphemism helps in giving a light image to any harsh terms (Stüber, 2017). If any person has to use any harsh words then euphemism can help in reducing the harshness of the words. On the contrary, some people think that euphemism prevents transparency in communication and that might  create issues in the communication process (Broadbent, 2013).

Conclusion

After going through different aspects of communication and the usage of  communication, it can be concluded that communication is important  both  in the business as well as social perspective. The languages have a huge impact on the meaning of the words. The words that mean certain thing in English can mean something entirely different in other languages. In organizations as well, there are employees from different cultural backgrounds. There can be issues with language. Different languages are appropriate for different cultures. The individual can identify themselves with the culture and the language. Using jargons and the cultural difference can create barrier in the communication. Use of jargons can be stopped by self-control and the cultural differences should be studied first before indulging in the communication. The use of the jargons and euphemism can have negative and positive implications. It is up to the user to use it in the appropriate manner.

References

Bates, E. (2014). The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy. Academic Press.

Broadbent, D. E. (2013). Perception and communication. Elsevier.

Burgoon, J. K., Guerrero, L. K., & Floyd, K. (2016). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.

Castells, M. (2013). Communication power. OUP Oxford.

Cornelissen, J., & Cornelissen, J. P. (2017). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage.

Grunig, J. E. (2013). Excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge.

Hovland, C. I., & Lumsdaine, A. A. (2017). Experiments on mass communication. Princeton University Press.

Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. A., & Horgan, T. G. (2013). Nonverbal communication in human interaction. Cengage Learning.

McChesney, R. W. (2015). Rich media, poor democracy: Communication politics in dubious times. New Press, The.

Stüber, G. L. (2017). Principles of mobile communication. Springer.

Van Eemeren, F. H., & Grootendorst, R. (2016). Argumentation, communication, and fallacies: A pragma-dialectical perspective. Routledge.

Wenger, E. (2014). Artificial intelligence and tutoring systems: computational and cognitive approaches to the communication of knowledge. Morgan Kaufmann.