Communication

We see communication as the sharing of thoughts or states of mind between human beings.  The elementary piece of communication is called 'the communicative act.'  The state of mind to be shared between a subject A and a subject B is formulated in some language.  The produced language expression is called 'information.'  This information must be made perceivable by A such that it can be interpreted by B. In order to make a communicative act from A to B successful, four conditions must be met: Condition 1: Communication channel There must exist a communication channel between A and B, i.e., A and B must be able to perceive signs produced and acts performed by each of them. Condition 2: Common language A and B must have a common language, such that the signs/acts produced/performed are recognized correctly.  Otherwise said: there is no syntactic distortion between A and B. Condition 3: Common view A and B must have a common view of their worlds, such that there is no semantic or pragmatic distortion in the communication between them. Condition 4: Common social culture A and B must have a common social culture, such that there is no social or normative distortion in the communication between them.  In particular, they must fully agree on which commitments are raised by the distinct communicative acts. Through communication the subjects in an organization perform their coordinating actions (like requesting and promising).  For a successful coordinating action, it may be necessary to have a number of to and fro communications between A and B, in order to make sure that all conditions mentioned above are complied with.  Therefore, it is quite normal that B checks with A to see his interpreted state of mind. The semantic content of a communicative act (the information) consists of two parts:  (1) the proposition and (2) the intention with which the proposition is expressed.  The proposition is about the object or target world, and it consists of a fact and a time.  The fact states the result or situation referred to.  The time is some period on the time axis.  The interpretation of the time period depends on the kind of the intention.  If it is, for instance, a request then the time period is the timeframe within which the fact has to come into existence. A communicative act is fully specified as follows: <communicator> : <intention> : <addressee> : <fact> : <time> For example one can think of the action-list used in a meeting.  In such a list it is good practice to state what is to be achieved in terms of result rather than process.  Also such a list indicates when the action-item has to be finished. A simple example of a communicative act in the OER-notation is: John : promise : Mary : the lawn is mown : tomorrow