Presentation on “Semantic barrier in communication”

English

Introduction to semantic barrier Why barriers occur in communication Types of semantic barrier Examples of semantic barrier Solution to overcome semantic barrier

Context:

when a message is sent by a sender to a receiver,

it might be interpreted wrongly in a communication process causing misunderstandings between them. This can happen due to different situations that form the semantic(of, relating to, or arising from the different meanings of words or other symbols) of the sender and the receiver, known as the semantic barrier. It also arises due to language, education, culture and place of origin (dialect or accent) or most likely their experiences.

Semantic Barrier

Types of Semantic Barriers in CommunicationDenotative BarriersDirect meaning of any word which must be shared by two people to understand each other is the denotative meaning. The barriers that arise due to the definition or meaning of a word used differently by sender and receiver is denotative barriers of communication. For example, the meaning of braces which is used to define the metallic structure to adjust teeth in American English whereas it means a part of clothing in British English.

Connotative BarriersThe implied meaning of a word is known as Connotative meaning. Connotative barrier in communication refers to the difference of meaning according to different abstract situations, contexts, actions and feelings. Both the communicators know both meanings of the word, but use only one meaning according to the context, which might be being used differently in the context. For example, the word god, which is used differently by people following different religions.

Causes of Semantic Barriers in CommunicationHomophones, homonyms and homographsHomophonesHomophones are the words with same pronunciation but different meaning which might have different spelling too. For example: Words buy, by and bye. They have same pronunciation, but different meanings and spellings.HomonymsHomonyms are the words which have the same pronunciation and their spellings are mostly same, but the intended meaning is different. For example, the noun "bear" and the verb "bear" has different meanings but same pronunciation and spelling.HomographsHomographs are the words that have the same spelling but the pronunciation and meaning are different. For example, "The research lead to the discovery of lead". In this sentence, both the words have the same spelling, but different pronunciation and different meanings.

These words can be interpreted wrongly when used unknowingly causing the semantic barrier in a communication process. This, in turn, makes the communication ineffective.

Body language and gesturesWhen, what you speak and your body language (kinesics) is different, the listener can get offended. Inconsistent body language creates conflict. Action and language must always go together to make people trust you. 

Differences in dialectsA person, who speak more than one language can not speak a particular language they use less in the same way he/she speaks their native language or mother tongue. People from different parts of the world use different dialects for the same language and pronounce a word differently. It causes semantic barrier as meaning of words are different. For example, the dialect of speaking English by an Australian is different than that of an American. People from Australia use the word "autumn" whereas Americans use the word "fall".

Filtering by senders and selective perception by receiversPrejudices of people make them only listen to and interpret the things they want to. They understand the way they want to. Both, sender & receiver use the words that serve their interest and objectives. The sender filters before sending and the receiver perceives selectively which shapes the meaning of the message. The message must be according to the level of understanding of the receiver and in the same way filtering before sending must be done to overcome semantic communication barrier. 

If I ask a question?

What is the meaning of “table” in urdu or any other language that you know or your audience knows.

First you create an image like this in your mind

Then answer.

What is common experience

If I ask what is the meaning of “Eii” in chinese

language?If you don’t know about chinese language, you may have faces like this.

Well the meaning of EII is one (1). After reading the meaning, you may have an image of

1 in your mind Well this is common experience.

EII?

'run' has 71 meanings as a verb, 35 as a noun, 4 more as an adjective.

If this word occurs in a message, the re ceiver is at liberty to interpret it in any of the 110 senses, but if communica tion is to be perfect, he must assign to it he same meaning as existed in the sender's mind when he used it.

What is the meaning of the word 'value'? What do we exactly mean when we say, "Radium is a valuable metal"? Do we refer to its utility or its price? Or both? Let consider the following six sentences: (i) What is the value of this ring? (ii) What is the value of learning about communication? (iii) I value my good name. (i v) I got good value for my money. (v) There is something wrong with the tone values in all his paintings.

There is no need to refer to Economics and economic interpretations to understand that in these five sentences, the word 'value' has a series of meanings, or more accurately, a series of areas of meaning. It is only from the context that we can determine which area of meaning is to be assigned to a particular word. But on account of different social, economic, cultural and educational backgrounds, people interpret even the contexts differ ently. The result is miscommunication.

Solutions to overcome semantic barriers:

• We should prefer words which are familiar to the receiver in the interpretation we wish to give them.

• If we want the receiver to give an unfamiliar meaning to a familiar word within the context of our message, we should make it amply clear the first time we use it.

• If we feel that a word being used by us is likely to be unfamiliar to the receiver, we should make its meaning clear the first time we use it.

• Whenever possible, we should choose words with positive rather than negative connotations.

When semantic barriers are less in any communication, the communication is effective and desired results can be obtained.