Words About Words
Every word that you utter has a history. Every word that you utter may have more than one meaning. What this means for you as a speaker, as a writer, and as a listener is that communication, although seemingly simple, can really be very complex. When you tell someone that you will return soon, you are relying not only on the listener's interpretation of your sentence but also on his or her sense of the word "soon" as an indicator of time. This may seem very simple on the surface, but, realistically, your interpretation of soon may differ greatly from the listener's interpretation. And this may not always just be a matter of impatience. Soon to you may mean an hour, while it may mean five minutes to your audience.
Temporal judgements aside, the real point here is that a single word may have multiple meanings and multiple uses. And to be an effective listener and communicator, you should at least be aware that communication involves much more than just vocalizing one's thoughts. Communication is an interactive process that relies on both the communicator and the listener or reader sharing a common vocabulary, a common syntax, and a common cultural background. This said, pause a moment and think about the last time you found your "foot in your mouth," and analyze what factors might have contributed to that moment of miscommunication. Somewhere in your analysis you might discover that the "faux pas" resulted merely from ill-chosen words.
Communication is more an art than a science. Although our language has its rules, our use of the language is still very much a creative process. Just as a painting may reveal to one person something more than it does to another person, a line of text or a paragraph of prose may reveal to you something different than it might to me. So, is there any way to limit the possibilities for confusion? Is there any way to better understand the full weight of one's words, the nuances of one's choice of words? Perhaps. By choosing carefully which words to use to express your thoughts you can limit the directions that your listener or reader can go. And you have many tools at your disposal. We'll look at a few here and suggest ways to find other tools to suit your communication needs.

Alderman
9/20/99

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