Sunday, November 28, 2010

What are ways the meanings of words can hinder communication?

The meaning of words can hinder communication in several ways. First, if a communication partner does not know the meaning of a word used, they will be unable to understand the full meaning of the conversation. For example, if I said, "That child is rambunctious" and my partner does not know what "rambunctious" means, we are having a communication breakdown and the point of my sentence is completely lost. Another reason that word meaning can hinder communication would be if a word has multiple meanings. If I said, "I scaled the fish" and my partner does not know that this can mean to remove the scales of a fish, but instead thinks this means that I put the fish on a scale and weighed it, our conversation would take a very different turn and comprehension would be compromised. 

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