The Message Model of Communication

Chapter One raised the question of linguistic form and meaning, and the relationship between the two. Saussure's definition of the linguistic sign was given, as a dual entity in which form and meaning are paired. This definition is accepted and used by many linguists, although it is contested by others.

An associated concept proposed by Saussure is that of the ‘speech circuit', which is a way of explaining what happens when people communicate using language. It is similar to ideas proposed by philosophers in earlier times, and its basic features are found in a related concept today: the Message Model of communication. (A model is a way of representing an idea visu­ ally.)

In terms of the Message Model, when two people communicate, one of them may be regarded as the ‘sender’ and the other as the ‘receiver'. The sender has a particular meaning or message in mind, which is ‘encoded’ in words and then ‘transmitted’ to the receiver. The message reaches the re­ ceiver, who ‘decodes’ it and then ‘receives’ the ‘content’ of the message that was originally in the mind of the sender.

The Message Model may create the impression that meaning is like a pack­ age that can be passed from one person to another, and also that the meaning ‘sent’ by one person is identical to that ‘received’ by another. In this view of the process, language functions as a ‘conduit’ or channel along which thoughts are transferred from one person to another.

Harris (1981: 11) points out that this idea of language as a conduit is re­ flected in the actual words that English speakers use when they talk about communication. He quotes Reddy (1979), who has identified more than a hundred English expressions that suggest this. For example, we speak of conveying meaning, and putting ourpoint across. People who speak other lan­ guages possibly do not use expressions like these, and may think differently about communication.

In fact, the process of communication is more complex than the Message Model suggests. For example, the model does not reflect the fact that words and meaning are not the same thing, and that there is not always a perfect march between the meanings of the words people use and the meanings that they want to convey.