Meaning is Internal and Individual

BSU ((BlogSpot University)) Profile
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Title: The Main Aspects of Style in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Author: HG Furaha///BlogSpot University online-editor-in-chief
Timescape: 2008
Type: Class Assignment
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INTRODUCTION:
Communication is the process of understanding and sharing meaning between two or more people. It is a process of passing ideas and feeling to other people. It is a way of expressing feelings and thoughts. It also is a way of making one’s ideas, feelings and thoughts known to others.
There are several types of communication:
Intrapersonal communication
Small group communication
Public communication
Mass communication
Dyadic communication

MEANING IS INTERNAL AND INDIVIDUAL:
Meaning is internal and individual: this statement shows that meaning is always personal and unique to every individual. Although similar meaning can be held by different people, but precise meaning is always personal. When a communicator passes a signal, he has, in himself, a meaning that he has intended to convey to his receivers, but each of the receiving individuals will understand him in one’s own unique way.
When an individual communicates, he uses signals. These signals could be words (written or oral), gestures, pictures, touch, or visual objects. These signals are received through the receiver’s five senses: hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell. From these senses, meaning is developed. When the meaning developed is similar to the meaning intended by the communicator, we have achieved, at most, a measure of communication. (Note: the key word here is “similar” because the shared meaning cannot be the same). However, at many times there seems to be no communication because the audience may not truly understand the intended meaning.
The developed meaning is determined by two factors: First is the different ways in which we use the signals according to our culture (i.e. every culture has a set of symbols to which meaning is assigned. Though different cultures may employ the same symbol, the meaning could be different in the cultures.) Secondly is the interpretation of those signals, the same signal will be interpreted in different ways because we have different needs and environments. In addition, though we might think that we are talking of the same thing, we could actually be referring to different things.

Factors that influence the development of meaning:
a) SIGNALS
These are objects or ideas that are used for passing information to the audience. They are the medium through which communication is achieved. Some of these communication signals include words, body motions (gestures/movements), food, pictures, touch and anything else that conveys information. (They are sometimes referred to as symbols.)

b) REFERENT
This is the idea that is held in a communicator’s mind – it is the intended meaning. The same idea may as well have different meaning in another communicator’s mind. Example of a referent is the word “table.” (To one, table could mean the surface on which we sit to eat, while to another it denotes geographical phenomena e.g. Table Mountains).

c) EXPERIENCES
From the perspective of communication, experience may refer to past interpretations of a certain signal, either bad or good in respect to the receiver’s interpretation. This experience is used for interpreting signals in use, to estimate intended meaning.
d) NEEDS
Needs are those things essential to us as humans e.g. food. They are things we require, and consider indispensable for our existence. They also affect the interpretation of symbols. For example, a hungry person will have a different response to a description of “a feast” from a person who has digestive problems. The man and woman who are getting married in a month will listen more closely to advice on how to have a happy family than he will a non-adolescent boy who is not even interested in girls (yet).

e) ENVIRONMENT
This in communication refers to the surrounding in which communication takes place. It also shapes interpretation of signals e.g. an Eskimo living in Northern Canada and a woman of South India protecting her baby against a draft in her home will have different interpretations of the idea of cold. The context within which the signal is used has a large influence on the meaning that will be given to it. This is of course a basic principle of literary interpretation and understanding the Bible.

A characteristic common in all these factors is that they affect the communicator, or the receiver, internally. Even when outside stimuli exist (as in the case of needs and environment), the impact is felt within the person. And from these one contrives meaning – showing that meaning is internal. In addition, they are not societal or shared entities. They happen to individuals. Their impact is felt internally at a personal level – one develops meaning, influenced by these factors, personally – showing that meaning is individual.
THE MENTAL MODEL
This is like an interpreter, taking signals and translating them – giving them significance. For the receiver, significance is given to the signals so that they can make sense. One does so making use of the model that seems most appropriate at the moment. One thing to be noted is that, the receiver’s model may be similar to the sender’s mental model or very different. Example of a mental model: A story of one Canadian’s experience in Tokyo illustrates how an incorrect mental model leads to erroneous interpretation. Unable to find a certain place, the Canadian went to a Japanese police officer and asked, in excellent Japanese how to find the place. The police officer replied in Japanese, “I do not speak English.” Then my friend responded, “If you listen carefully you will hear that I am speaking Japanese.” Without repeating the request for the direction, the Canadian waited. Suddenly a smile came to the Japanese police officer’s face. “Oh! Yes! I can tell you how to get there” and he gave him full direction to the place.
The police officer saw a white man – his face, size, and style of clothes – and thus recalled experiences with visitors who could not speak Japanese. His mental model left him unprepared to hear anything but English and prompted his almost automatic reply that he could not speak English. With more information, a different model was called up; the police officer heard the request and was able to answer without the words being repeated.
A conscious thought arises from one’s mental model, leading to an outward response, conveyed by a signal of some type. Using this outward response we are able to determine how close the meaning is to what we originally intended to develop in our audience. Human communication does not work like a copy and paste machine. Every body must understand on its own. Therefore, for good communication we should make sure the meaning of the audience is a close approximate to the original meaning. Meaning exists in peoples minds, when a signal is recorded; it seems a different thing because I interpret the record according to my experience, needs, and environment. The meaning developed internally will be as different from the original intended meaning as my experience, needs, and environment are different from the communicator. For a communicator to develop meaning that is approximately similar to its audience they should carefully learn: The original context, the receiver’s context, the concentration on transferring sufficient information (full information).t

INFORMATION
The term information is used in communication to have a meaning roughly equivalent to facts. Information is measured in BITs: Binary Information uniTs. A BIT is the basic unit for measuring the quantity of information. BITs are used to transfer information. It is the BITs of information transferred to the receiver’s mind that enables him to develop meaning.

People living in different cultures however, have fewer shared experience than do those living in the same culture. Therefore, the development of similar meaning becomes more difficult for the people in different cultures. Difficulty in inter-cultural communication is further increased by differing interpretations because of different mental models. The challenge of inter-cultural communication is to overcome these two major barriers to understanding – different experiences and different interpretations. For example, George Bernard Shaw once described England and America as “two countries separated by the same language.” When an American visits England, he believes he shares the same language, values, and culture of the British. After only a few hours, however, he realizes to his disappointment that the words he uses convey a completely different set of meaning to the British from the one he intended. For example, he goes into a coffee house and orders biscuits. After some minutes of waiting, he is surprised when the waitron brings him cookies. His use of some words common to everyday American speech shocks his hosts, who consider those words crude. The meaning assigned to gestures as well as words is different in York from what it is in New York.

For communication to be effective, we should concentrate on three key points, which include:
1. Understanding the models held in the peoples mind, different groups as well as different individuals would have different mental models. The general (shared) model of people must be learned first and then through dialogue, the specific models of the individual with whom we are communicating.
2. Understand how information is transferred in a specific culture and situations where we seek to minister.
3. Transfer sufficient information – give the full illustration so that the receiver can reconstruct a meaning closely approximating that which we intended.

BIBLICAL VIEW OF MEANING IS INTERNAL AND INDIVIDUAL
Read 1Corinthians 2:9-14: The difficulties addressed in these verses are those that develop when we try to pass on what we understand. We must always be alert to the danger of substituting our still-growing perception for the absolute meaning in the scripture. We are obliged to test constantly that which we seek to communicate of God’s truth using his own revelation of that truth in scripture. In another place, God’s word says, “to the pure, everything is pure.” Explaining that the attitudes and worldviews we use to counter the world determine how everything will be to us. If our attitudes are “pure” then we will view life in a “pure” light. Additionally, the verse goes on to elaborate how one’s perception of things affects his understanding of those things, and, ultimately, his way of living. This shows us that every individual is unique in his approach to everything, and, depending on his attitudes, his worldview, the cultural meanings assigned to certain symbols, his needs and the other above-mentioned factors, meaning will differ from individual to individual.
Furthermore, in our studying of God’s truth, we must not only study content – for we might assign meanings erroneously – but also context – striving to understand how these words must have sounded to their original receivers. It is proper that we seek a meaning closely approximate to that of the communicator and not rush into concluding meanings for passages we might not even fully understand. Moreover, we must be aware of the meaning and possible meanings attached by the listeners to the information we share.
God is absolute meaning. When asked to reveal his essence, he described himself as “I AM who I AM” appealing to nothing or anything else to explain himself. Jesus said, “I am the truth” because he is God – the totality of truth lies on him. He is the substance and essence of truth itself. He is the meaning of truth.

CONCLUSION
Although communication is the development of shared meaning, meaning is internal and individual. In human communication, we cannot just copy-paste the intended meaning from the communicator to the receiver: from teacher to students, from employer to employees or from preacher to the congregation. The meaning received is not a Xerox of the meaning given. Every one develops his own meaning from the information given by the speaker depending on one’s needs, environment, culture, and experiences. A simple experiment could be done if one is to prove that communication is internal and individual: ask a group of about fifteen to twenty five people to sit in a circle. The experiment starts by one whispering into the ear of the one next to him/her a random word(s) without repeating. Generally, you find that the last person in the circle will have a word (or phrase) completely different to the original word whispered by the first participant. As the word went circulating around the group, every receiver interpreted it to mean something in his/her own way. This shows us the obligation we have, if we are to be excellent communicators, to provide information with clarity and precision, as much as we can. As communicators, we should leave no room for ambiguity and at all times give information with as much exactitude and clearness as we can for the receivers to develop a meaning that is a close approximate to the one we originally intended.