VEkBAE. CUES 0F ORGANIZATIONAL lNFORMATEON
EN MESSAGE fiECQDiNG

'z‘he-sis Ed»: 613 Degree 6F Ph. D.
it‘dCMiGAN STATE UNEVERSITY
Mahmwfi M. Ei-Okby
{9’62

E'Hiul ‘-

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

VERBAL CUES OF ORGALIZATIOL‘AL lllFO RMA'IIOL

II; MESSAGE DECOUIL G
presented by

Mahmud m. El-Okby

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Mdegree in Communication

MM? \
Major professor

Date August 7. 1962

0-169

   
  

  

LIBR AR Y
Michigan State

University

  
  

ABSTRACT
VERBAL ours or ORGANIZATIOICAL limos-Emma;
m
MESSAGE DECODING
by Mahmud m. El-Okby

This is a study of one of the basic features
of language-in-action. It is an attempt to elucidate
the notion of organizational information in
communication, applied to the message as content-in-
form. From the point of view of the decoder, it
categorizes such information within a psychological
frame of reference. It demonstrates the various
types of cues manipulated for the organization of
linguistic response in the vocal-auditory
inter-personal communication situation, and presents
a psycholinguistic analysis of a recorded panel
discussion, based on examination of a number of
assumptions. In the course of such examination, it
presents a synthesis of some of the pertinent findings
in interrelated disciplines, all of which are concerned
with language-in-communication. It offers suggestions
for further research in an area thereby initially
explored.

Taking into consideration such factors as the
attention value of a message, the similarity of

experience supposedly shared by communicator and

Mahmud H. El-Okby

receiver, coupled with their more or less equivalent
familiarity with the symbolic representation Of such
experience in language form, the question now arises
whether the clarity of received messages and facility
Of communication may be assisted by investigations into
the structure Of content. Perhaps a basic principle of
communicability in any language is a formative principle
having to do with the organization of content units.
Consequently, one could assume the operation of verbal
cues eliciting a specific type of information.
One could probably talk of the organization value Of
messages in communication, depending on the way such
cues are calculated to Operate with the decoder.
1. Contouring and Accentuation cues are presumed to
Operate at the 'Projection' level Of linguistic reSponse.
2. Transition, Combination and Integration cues are
supposed to Operate at the 'Integration‘ level.
3. These cues are two main types under each category:
syntactic, and contextual.
4. They Operate synchronously, and are not mutually
exclusive.

The theoretic framework within which analysis
and interpretation are conducted is based on:

1. Recommendations of the 1953 Report on Psycholinguistics

 

by the Committee on Linguistics and Psychology Of

Mahmud M. El-Okby

the Social Science Research Council.

2. Applications Of some of the basic concepts Of
Information Theory.

3. Some of the findings Of structural linguistics

in the areas Of syntactics and supra-segmental
phonemics.

4. Some of the assumptions Of discourse analysis.

5. Pertinent concepts of the psychology Of perception
in general, and of the Gestalt psychology of visual

perceptual organization in particular.

VERBAL CUES 0F ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

IN
MESSAGE DECODING
By ”3d

Mahmud uz‘ml-Okby

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PEILOSOEEY
Department of Communication

1962

A CKLT OW LEDGLE it‘ll TS

 

For generous cooperation in the develOpment of
this thesis, I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to
Professors John Ball, David K. Berlo, Hideya Kumata,
Donald J. Lloyd, Malcolm S. MacLean Jr., Herbert P.
Phillips, and Dean John Winburne.

Special thanks are due tO Professor hacLean,
chairman of my advisory committee, Who has impressed
me by his watchful care and most scrupulous concern,
as well as by his broadness Of outlook. And to
Professor Berlo, Head Of the Department of Communication,
I am indebted for his making available both time and
research facilities.

As for Professor John Ball, he has contributed
a great deal to whatever I may have achieved, thanks to
his most competent and sincere guidance. He has obliged
me by taking personal interest in my progress all the
way through, and by providing ready assistance whenever
needed. Professor Donald Lloyd Of Wayne State University
has been so generous as to serve on my doctoral
committee, and give me the benefit of sharing his
valuable experiences in the field of modern language

research. I am very thankful to him.

11

Dean John Winburne Of University College has
been very kind and cooperative in demonstrating his
methodology of discourse analysis, and providing ample
materials from his research centre. I have utilized
some of his concepts, as will be acknowledged with
gratitude in the chapter on analysis.

Thanks are also due to Miss Anne Beard for her
willingness to revise the bibliography with great
care and consideration.

I am very much obliged to my wife, Fatma,
for her diligence and perseverance in revising
my manuscripts, even While writing her own,

Master‘s,thesis.

111

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CKNOWLEDGKENTS
PERT I

Chapter

I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . .
II. DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . .
III. CUES AND CATEGORIES . . . . . . . .

PART II

I. ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . .
II. CONTOURING CUES . . . . . . . . .
III. ACCENTUATION CUES . . . .
IV. TRANSITION CUES . . . . . . . . .
V. COMBINATION CUES . . . . . . . .
VI. INTEGRATION CUES . . . . . . . .

APPEHDIX I . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Corpus Material

APPENDIX II . . . . . . . .
Suggestions for Further Research

BIBLIO GRAmY O O O O O O O O O O O I 0

iv

Page
ii

15

25
52
52
67
100
124

148

158

165

CHAPTER I

This study is an investigation into the
structure of message content, from the point of
view of a decoder. It is conducted'through psycho-
linguistic analysis Of a sample of formal
inter-personal communication.

The communication situation, which is only
partially represented by recorded speech, is a
complex process, with many simultaneous component
processes, which affect the behavior of both speakers
and listeners engaged in some form Of interaction.

It is a panel discussion among eminent American
creative thinkers, taking place in one auditorium
of’Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and attended by
several hundred peOple, who are supposedly interested
in creativity in the various art forms.

The time is around 7.50 run. The tOpic of the
discussion is "Form versus Content in Art." As may be
suggested by the title, such a tOpic sounds debatable.
The notion of 'versus' implies presentation of a

controversial issue, over which panel and audience are

likely to be divided.

2

It is unquestionable that an analysis aimed
at the identification of only 'verbal' cues,
manipulated by members of the panel, to serve the
specific function of 'Organization', would leave out
a great many 'non-verbal' cues, exchanged among
members of the two interacting sides: the panel on
the one hand, and the audience on the other.
Such non-verbal cues relate to social-cultural,
psychological, and physical factors and conditions,
both personal and situational, which affect the
communication process in no small measure.
However, as far as this investigation is concerned,
the focus is on thos verbal cues, which help
organize content units in the process of perception.
It is true that the exchange of messages on the
gestural-visual band, for instance, could be utilized
in reinforcing those cues delivered on the vocal-
auditory, relating to the organization of content.
Still, this investigation has to have limits, which
encompass relationships between certain linguistic
and non-linguistic phenomena.

In linguistics, because the focus Of study
is on the 'code', rather than on the 'message',
it has been possible to maintain a difference

between two types of structure - the structure of

content and the structure of expression - and to limit
investigations to the latter, leaving the former to
semanticists, content-analysts, psycho-linguists, etc.
Also, in linguistics, because the structure Of
expression has to be maintained in its own rights,
independently of the structure of content, the

levels of structure have to be purely linguistic;

in the main, they are divided between phonematization
and grammatization. Consequently, the units of
analysis are the phoneme, the morpheme, and the
'syntagme'. Territory beyond the sentence is

'Out of bounds'.

In the study of verbal communication,
however, the focus is on the 'message', whole and
entire, as content and as expression.

As expression and as content, it is viewed as having
structure, Which is perceivable and explainable in
terms Of signals. All we have in the form of verbal
items constitute a number of 'cues' manipulated by
an encoder for a decoder. Those cues which are
selected for Observation in this study are segmental
and supra-segmental features of language-in-action,
suggestive of a specific type of information. They
do not tell the decoder, in any direct way, what the
message is about; but they tell him What goes with
what. They are supposed to help the decoder organize

the content units of received

4

messages at different levels of perceptual
organisation.

Accordingly, in Verbal Communication, the
units of analysis do not have to be phonemes, morphemes,
and 'syntagmes'. As far as the decoder is concerned,
his ones can be modulations of speech sounds, or they
can be speech items, single or combined, as words,
phrases, sentences, or utterances, etc. All that
matters is the correspondence between the level of
perceptual organization and the nature of the given
one. For instance, if at the 'Prcjecticn' level,
perceptual organization is described as " a
summation of points of maximal stimulation, and a
suppression of other activity,"1then it is reasonable
to suppose that the prosodic features of speech -
pitch, stress, Juncture - may be considered cues
providing organizational information needed at
this level of structuring. 0n the other hand, if
at the 'Integraticn' level, percpptual organisation
is described as an * ordering of semantic units ...
concordal agreement and certain other relational
phenomena, etc.,"2thmn it is reasonable to suppose

that 'eyntactic‘ items of transition from one

 

1

Charles Osgood and T Sebeck, ede., Es cholinguistics
(Indiana University Publication, 1954 , p. 4.
2

Osgood, 22. cit., p. 95.

5

sentence to another, or that redundant 'contextual'

items in combination - may be considered cues of

organizational information needed at this level.
Part I of this study is a theoretic frame-
work, which seeks to elucidate the notion of

'orgenizational information' utilised in message

decoding. The major thesis expounded in this part

may be summed up as follows:

1. There are verbal cues which.help a decoder
organise the content of received messages in
the course of vocal-auditory interpersonal
communication.

2. These cues are supposed to elicit information
at two levels of organization of linguistic
response, namely those of 'Pchecticn', and
'Integration'. 1

5. These cues may be subsumed under the corresponding
categories of 'Contouring' and ‘Accentuaticn' for
projection, and of 'Transiticn', 'Combination',
and 'Integraticn' for integration.

4. The Operation of these cues may be described in
terms of the Gestalt principles of visual

perceptual organisation.
Part II is the actual analysis of recorded

materials. It consists in:

l. Devising means of identifying cues of organizational

information.

2. Identifying such cues in the sample under
observation.

5. Testing a number of assumptions on the basis of
evidence from the corpus material, with the
understanding that conclusive evidence should
come from future field research in each of the
specified areas.

It is necessary to emphasize that this
study is of an 'exploratory' nature. It presents
a new way of looking at language-in-action.

It presents a new orientation: the communication

point of view, in which form is combined with

content, and structure with function.

CHAPTER II
DEFINITIONS

Verbal. Some students of language refer to
the supra-segmental or prosodic features Of pitch,
stress, pause, and Juncture as 'non-verbal‘. However,
such features are here considered as part and parcel
of the segmental units. It would be impossible to
consider bundles of distinctive features as human
speech components, without the hierarchies of
configurational features which give them shape and
constitution. Accordingly, the term 'non-verbal'
would be used to refer to gestural and other phenomena,
that do not fall within the scope of this enquiry.
Meanwhile, linguo-perceptual phenomena would be

referred to as ‘non-linguistic'.

9333, These are segmental and supra-segmental
features of language-in-communication, suggestive of
a specific type of information to be dealt with in
this study. The word 'similarly' is a cue to some
parallel event or situation. It may be viewed as a

'combination' cue, according to the projected theoretic

framework. A succession of the /-4-3/ intonation
contour (Pike system) in the course of an utterance
signals a 'sustain' in the encoding-decoding process.
Such an intonation contour may be considered a
combination cue.

One of the established meanings of the term
'cue' in the context Of message decoding, is any 'hint',
or 'allusion', which may be considered suggestive of
certain denotations, connotations, relationships, etc.
Another is a 'sign', or 'indicator' of a certain course
of action. A third is synoymous with a 'clue', though
this meaning is often associated with problem
situations.
In any case, the basic feature of a cue is 'indirect'
intimation. What is particularly spelled out here is
the notion of 'mediation' between stimulus and response;
what is 'given‘ is only a hint that ripples into
further hints, which finally trigger the desired response.
Should the same word Occur twice in a message, it would
act as two different cues reinforcing each other in
establishing certain relationships at levels of

organization.

Organizational Information. "In the case of
decoding, we want to know ... what segments contribute

to sequential and integrational organization in

1
language perception."

The notion of organizational information maintained in
this study is an attempt to extend the concept of
'information' in the direction of its normal usage, which
is, of course, different from the particular denotation
that it has in Information Theory.

Although 'chance' may be conceived of as a factor of
communication as regards the probability of Occurrence

of coding symbols, there is no intention of investigating
the possibility that chance may still control the
probability of occurrence of 'concepts' and their
arrangements, as words and word combinations. This,
however, would not prevent possible extensions of some

of the basic concepts of Information Theory, that

could be adapted to the wider range of the present
investigation.

It is very often observed that in dealing with
configuraticnal aspects of perception, the terms 'form'
and 'structure' are sometimes used synonymously, and
sometimes with some discrimination as to whether the
notion of 'constituents' is implied, in which case,
'structure* would be preferable.

The concept of organization is assumed to add a further

 

I
Osgood and Sebeck, eds., Ps cholin uistics (Indiana
Unisersity Publication, 1954l, p. VI.

10

distinction based on De Saussure's famous dichotomy
of 'langue' versus 'parole',2and on the principle of
linguistic duality expounded in particular by Gustav
Herdan.3

Speaking of linguistic structure at the 'code'
level, one would normally have in mind the two chief
categories of 'phonematization' and 'grammatization'.
However, speaking of how phonemic and grammatical
relationships are utilized in the encoding-decoding

processes of individual 'messages', one would think

in terms of the organization of linguistic units.

Structure of Content. Similarly, the structure

 

of content is, in fact, an ‘Organization' of content
units at the 'message' level, that one has access to,
to be distinguished from the so-called 'semantic
structure'? which.has to do with a summation of the
organizations of content units used by all members of
a speech community.

In order to study the organization of content
units with reference to the linguistic perception of

message decoders, it may be useful to consider in the

 

2
Ferdinand de Saussure. Course in General Linguistics

(New York: Philosophical Library Inc.,1959), p. 13.
5

Gustav Herdan. Lan ea c as Choice and Chance
(Groningen: NoordhofI N. 7., I953), Part IV.
4

Charles F. Hockett. A Course in Modern Linguistics
(New York: Macmillan CO., 1958), p. 142.

11

first place, the general levels of organization of
linguistic responses. Charles Osgood distinguishes
threefi: a skill level: an integrational level, and

a representational level. These happen to correspond
to the three levels of organization of sensory input6
namely:

1. Projection Level: having to do with the "summation
of points of maximum stimulation, and suppression of
other activity."7

2. Integrative Level: having to do with grammatical
relationships: "Ordering of semantic units, concrete
relational classifications of these, concordal
agreement, and certain other relational phenomena,
appear to belong to the 'integrational' level."8

5. Representational Level: with which this enquiry is
not 'directly' concerned. Information as to what the
content of a message is, though related to, is still

different from information as to the organization of

the elements of such a content.

 

Osgood, 22, cit., p. 95.
Ibid. , p. 54.
Ibid. , p. 54.

m-QO‘OU

Ibid. , p. 95.

12

Within this frame of reference, a few categories of
organizational information are hypothesized in this
study, namely: Contouring, Accentuation (at the
projection level): Transition, Combination, and

Integration (at the integrative level).

Message. A message is technically defined as
that part of the total output of a source unit, which
may simultaneously be a part of the total input to a
destination unit. It may be the utterance, or sentence,
signalled by a terminal juncture, or the 'entry',
signalled by a change of speakers.

Decoding. This is the process, Whereby auditory
patterns of stimulation elicit both structural and
representational responses in the receiver, through the

activity of the central nervous system.

ngcholinguistic. The distinction often made
between 'psycholinguistics' and 'psychology of language'
is probably based on whether the researcher is a linguist
or a psychologist in the first place, on whether his area
of competence is the verbal event or the mental process.
In either case, however, the basic concern is the
relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic

features.

13

Analysis. The procedure by which certain verbal

 

cues are: 1) identified in the recorded material:
2) empirically tested in their assumed capacity to
elicit certain responses: and 3) associated with

specific categories of organizational information.

Formal Inter:personal Communication. It is

 

supposed that the exchange of verbal messages in the
face-to-face situation Of some conference or group
discussion may offer more adequate samples for this
type of analysis than in other communication
situations. The whole point of Specifying 'formality'
is to avoid analyzing the trite expressions of every-
day life chatting, which would normally be responded
to at a level of no small automaticity.

Though intercepted by the voice of the announcer three
times after the introduction, and by that of the
moderator at points of transition, the recorded
materials from a symposium held at Miami University
in March.of 1955, still present the formal communication
situation in which the speakers address one another,
not without reservations of course, due to their

consciousness of their face-to-face audience.

Vocal-Auditory Band. Interpersonal communication

channels are often treated as consisting of different

14
bands over which messages move synchronously.
As far as this study is concerned, the gestural-visual
band is out of the question, and so are those bands
connected with other sense modalities. One is here
concerned with the decoding of messages given by

word of mouth and received aurally.

CHAPTER III

CUES AND CATEGORIES

A) Pro action Level

Contouring. A contour may probably be defined as
one or more lines Joining points of equal elevation on
a surface. An initial step in decoding speech may be
very much like 'joining points of equal elevation' on
the surface of a continuum. It is the attempt to
discover the hierarchical structure Of every utterance,
as the bundles of distinctive and ccnfigurational
features are simultaneously unreeled. The aim on the
part of the decoder is to distinguish the gross units
of which content is made up, or rather, the minimum
thematic sequences that make a difference in reSponse.
He would want to know, for instance, from the contour
cues of the utterance that there is an actor-action
relationship, or a modifier-modified relationship:
that there is a positioning of Opposites, or a
drawing together of similarities, no matter what
these are in detail, etc.

16

Psychologically, contouring is the outcome of
intensity differences, which actually consists in greater
contrast. A triangle of light projected very dimly on
a screen is nothing more than a blur of light. But as
the intensity Of illumination is increased, a contour
will emerge. Increased awareness Of the divisions of an
utterance that constitute belongingness of units to one
level of structure or another, is probably based on
similar intensity difference.

Assuming that Immediate Constituents are signalled by
Juncture patterns, among other ccnfigurational features,
one might expect that the more contrastive and
differentiated the junctures become, the more intensity
difference is available, and the more sharply defined

is the contour.

Identification of Cues.

All the prosodic features Of speech are supposed to
operate synchronously to give the decoder the contouring
cues in question. However, it is here suggested that
Juncture, in particular, may be singled out as the
chief variable affecting the simultaneous Occurrence

of relationships of grouping and separation involved in
contouring. The other supra-segmental phonemic features,
namely pitch and stress, will be considered redundant

features.

17

Accentuation. This feature has to do with the

 

degree of articulation or differentiation that the decoder
perceives as maintained in connection with certain points
of the contour. The placing of accent on any unit of some
behavioral pattern is usually associated with the notion
of prominence or distinction in comparison with other
units of the same pattern.
While contouring is supposed to enable the decoder to
'figure out' the gross form of content, accentuation is
assumed to help him distinguish the main features of the
Outline. Here he seems to Observe which units carry more
weight than others; which are stressed on account of
their presumed significance to the source; which are
underscored to create more awareness in the receiver.
Psychologically, accentuation is probably
based on all three interrelated notions of 'figure
on ground', 'contrast', and 'fixation'. Any stimulus
which contrasts strongly with its background will
show as a distinct figure on ground: it will be readily
and particularly attended to.
Elements that are maximally accentuated in the structure
of content are the ones to stand out as more significant
than others in the background. They are the ones that

call attention to themselves for special recognition.

18

Identification of Cues.

 

Again, more than one of the prosodic features may be
considered cues to this type of information. While
stress, as a chief variable, may be chosen for close
examination in this connection, the other features

may be considered redundant.

B) Integration Level

Transition. "The relations between transitional

 

sequences in messages and transitional sequencing
mechanisms in the communicator is the field of
sequential psycholinguistics."1
Integration is another level of organization of linguistic
responses. One of the basic phenomena to be investigated
at this level is transition, which is message decoding
would normally suggest a progressive motion from one
unit of the message to another, or a passage from one
stage of its thematic deve10pment to the next.

In analyzing the message in terms of the structure
of content, transition as a feature of organizational
information is not viewed with reference to the

'probability‘ of occurrence of microlinguistic units,
but in terms of the 'possibility' of occurrence of

 

1
Charles Osgood and T. Sebeck, eds., Ps cholinguistics
4}

(Indiana University Publication, 195 , p. 6.

19

conceptual frames, as content units. Gustav.Herdan‘s
concept of language as choice and chance assumes
great significance in this context. One's interest
in the organization value of the signal or cue at the
point of transition does not centre on how many times
a particular linguistic unit will 'probably‘ occur as
a succeeding unit, but rather on the 'possibility' of
proceeding thematically from there somewhere.

Information theorists are obviously interested
in the former organization value of signals; their
approach is statistical. "The statistical procedure
usually ignores, however, a matter which is basic to
linguistics - the distinguishing of levels of structure.E
Therefore, the present investigation is concerned with
the latter organization value of signals. The approach
is analogical, consisting in the use of substitution
frames based on two notions: 1) that of the level of
structure; and 2) that of the context of communication.
This is very much.the same approach of the individual
decoder in the communication situationt He cannot
proceed from one content unit to the next without
suing: l) as to the Immediate Constituent level; and

2) as to the thematic environment. If an utterance were

 

2
Ibid. , p. 94

20

to be broken up into single words, or into sections of
equal length, it would lose its sequential value in the
process of decoding. One reason is that the levels of
syntactic structure would in that case be obliterated
and the contour utterly confused. Another is that
contextual cues would also be shuffled, throwing away
every chance that the decoder might have of guessing
what is likely to come next.

Psychologically, transition seems to be
accomplished through the simultaneous operation of
systematic and non-systematic principles of
association. Principles of subordination, coordination,
etc. would belong to the former category; while
principles of similarity, contiguity, etc. would
pertain to the latter. The Operation of both level
or syntactic cues and contextual cues of transition
seems to be explainable in terms of systematic and
non-systematic principles of association.
Identification of Cues.

In structural linguistics, it is natural that the
transition phenomenon should receive only partial
treatment. Only levelzcues seem to be identifiable.

According to C.C.Fries, the links between what he calls

 

5
Charles C. Fries. The Structure English (Kew York:

Harcourt Brace & Co.:_1952), p. Ell.

21

a 'situation' sentence and a 'sequence' sentence must

be structural units, or rather, grammatical in a strict
linguistic sense. Hence, he has to limit his investigation
- and understandably so - to the'so-called' definitive
article, the 'so-called' adverbs, and the demonstratives.
However, his inclusion of such items as 'else' and 'other'
now leaves the way open for the warranted addition of

the whole category of contextual cues, within the frame
of reference of psycholinguistic analysis. Apart

from these two main types of cues, the prosodic

features also play an important part in signalling

transition from one content unit to the next.

Combination. In the course of progression
from one unit of a message content to the next, there
occurs an accumulation of parts, an addition of
thematic segments that for some reason or other may be
viewed as tacking together. This phenomenon is here
referred to as combination. Obviously, what is involved
in combination of elements is redundancy, or repetition
and reiteration. However, it is not Just redundancy, but
redundancy in transition. While pursuing a point in the
course of development, the decoder would encounter
certain items being repeated along the line of
progression. He might or might not be fully aware of

the repetition and reiteration, but the end result for

22

him is accumulative. Combination enriches context, and
this in turn affects prediction of subsequent events.
Speaking in terms of Information theory, prediction
would then be made on the basis of both 'discrete', and
'oumulative' probabilities, or rather, possibilities in
the present context.
Given only knowledge of the immediately
antecedent event at any one of these levels,
uncertainty as to the subsequent event is
maximal (within limits imposed by the structure
of the hierarchy). As we increase our knowledge
by taking into account more and more of the
sequence of antecedent events, as well as
subsequent events in the case of decoding,
uncertainty as to the subsequent event
decreases. 4
Psychologically, this is due, very likely, to
stimulus patterning. The stimulus presented in one form
after another, thereby accumulating additional
information for the decoder, becomes more specific, and
hence, more precisely associated with a given reSponse
than with other reaponses. This is what one might call
the psychological function accomplished by combination
of elements. However, the principles of perceptual
organization underlying combination as a structural
feature might perhaps be 'similarity', 'contiguity', etc.
Identification of Cues.
Here again, it is necessary to recognize the two chief
classes of level, or syntactic cues, and of contextual

cues. Prosodic features may be considered redundant.

 

~~4
Osgood, gp. cit., p. 97.

Integration. It is assumed that listening to a

 

verbal communication involves an attempt on the part

of the decoder to accomodate, as far as possible, the
presented structure of relationships into the total
framework of his previous experiences. Hence, the notion

of integration as a feature of organization. The encoder
usually provides certain cues to facilitate this

operation. Such verbal units have the value of incorporating
new relationships into a generally acceptable frame of
reference, namely the logical, through 'substitution',
'modification', and 'amplification'.

What is involved in integration seems to be the
outcome of all the foregoing Operations: not that these
Operations follow a consecutive linear order, of course,
but that they all contribute to this phenomenon
simultaneously. When contour and accent are discriminated,
when the elements of content are noted in succession, as
well as in combination, the integration of newly
established relationships into a framework already in
existence becomes possible.

Psychologically, integration is accountable in
terms of the principle of fusion or summation in
perceptual organization. Hence, the pertinence of the
notion of 'consistency' in particular with regard to
comprehension. "Whether the comprehended thought becomes

our own, whether we retain it,“and whether we can

24
use it, does not depend on comprehension as such.
The process of 'fitting in“ only defines more closely
the meaning.”5
Identification of Cues.
Cues to this type of organizational information happen
to be identified by the structural linguist in terms of
'function words', which would qualify as level cues,
according to the present classification. These are the
signals that help the decoder establish the communicated
structural relationships utilized for reasoning.
Within the presented framework of studying the message
as content-in-form, it would be necessary to recognize
the other major class of contextual cues, which consist

of 'content words'.

 

5
David Rapaport, (trans.). Organization and Pathology of

Thought. (New York: Columbia UniversityfiPress, 1951), p. 45.

CHAETER I
ANAIESIS

Within the theoretic framework sketched in
Part I of this study, the corpus material in Appendix
;_will be analyzed with the aim of identifying those
ones which are assumed to elicit the interrelated
categories of organizational information previously
discussed.

The prOposed analysis is psycholinguistic:
it has to do with the relationship between linguistic
and non-linguistic phenomena. Under 'Contooring‘, it
deals with the relationships between Juncture and
intonation, as two of the prosodic features of speech.
and the 'gross structure' of content in the process of
decoding. under 'Accentuation', it is concerned with
the relationships between stress and Juncture
phenomena, and the 'prominence' or maximal
stimulation of specific content units in the same
process. Analysis in terms of these two categories is
hypothetically representative of the 'Prodectionl, or
skill level of organisation of linguistic response.

it the 'IntegrationJ level, hypothetically

25

26

represented by the three Operations of 'Transition',
'Combination', and 'Integration', analysis of speech
is also assumed to treat relationships between
linguistic and non-linguistic features. Transition is
synonymous with 'progression' from one content unit
or group of units to another in the process of
perception: combination is assumed to consist in the
'clustering' of such units: and integration has to
do with their 'cohesion' against a background of
experience possessed by the decoder.

Under allthtee categories of perceptual organization,
identifiable verbal cues are partly 'grammatical'

and partly 'lexical' items: partly 'eyntactic', and
partly 'Oontextual'.

This analysis is 'auditory', as distinguished
from 'inetrumental' analysis in structural
linguistics. It is realised that in order to describe
linguistic features significant to communication,
such features must first be 'discovered' by deliberate
auditory analysis. However, for confirmation of the
sheer physical characteristics of speech.in field
experiments, observations made by the analyst would
have to be supplemented by instrumental measurements.

The analyst, who is a decoder of the messages
he listens to, could not possibly qualify as a

casual listener under the same conditions of the

27

particular communication situation. While losing all
the nonverbal cues previously alluded to, he has the
advantage over the casual listener in other respects.
For instance, in the process of perception, a decoder
would normally utilize in particular a two-dimensional
view of things: one prospective and the other
retrospective. The analyst has a better chance of
utilizing perception both ways: prior training and
availability of 'play-back' would naturally act
favorably for him.

However, the aim of this analysis is

exploration: otherwise, it could not have been
planned to cover so much territory. It is supposed
to demonstrate: 1) what cues to look forin field
research dealing with the organization of message
content in the process of decoding: 2) at what
levels of linguistic response they are supposed to
Operate: 5) how to identify them in a corpus material:
and 4) how to go about testing a few assumptions
empirically, in a more or less tentative way.
While the reproducibility of one identification is
maintained, and the quantitative side of measurement
initially demonstrated, the given interpretations
'would need further checks from future research.

The data under observation consists in

excerpts from a symposium on a 'supposedly'

28

contrOversial issue: Form versus Content in Art.

The various contributions, referred to as 'entries',
which are made by members of the panel in discussing
this issue, are given serial numbers in the order of
their occurrence. And because the brief statements
made by both the moderator and the announcer provide
links in between the exhhanged messages, the
contributions Of these two individuals are also
included in the general count of entries to facilitate
reference.

At the projection level of organization of
linguistic response, hypothetically represented by
'contcuring' and 'accentuation', any utterance
composed of a group of words may be analysed, however
brief such an utterance may be. While data for such
analysis could be chosen from any part of the corpus
material, it will be convenient at this level to treat
only the shorter entries. At the integration level of
organization, however, discourse units must be long
enough to permit observatimn of such.phenomena as
'transition', 'combination!, and 'integration'.

The longer entries will therefore provide data for
analysis in terms of these categories.

The procedure of analysis is two-fold:
general and specific. The general procedure consists

of three steps:

1.

2.

3.

29

Transcription of recorded material, special
attention being given to terminal Junctures, as
well as to pauses of hesitation and all instances
of hemming and hawing.

Selection of entries to be charted in terms of the
prosodic features of pitch, stress and Juncture.
Tabulation of content units for the rest of the
entries to help identify contextual cues.

Dean John Winburne's method of content analysis

is considered very helpful in this respect.

The specific procedure of analysis starts

when the data.hsyebeen reduced to these charts and

tables. It is the more 'presentable', or rather,

more condensed form of the data now on display for

the reader of this study. This procedure is suited

to
It
1.

the requirements of testing specific assumptions.
also consists of three steps:

Formation of assumptions under each.oategory,
suggested by the charted data. Generally,
Assumption ;.would be about the assumed capacity
of a particular type of cues to elicit a certain
feature of organizational information.

Assumption ;;_would be concerned directly or
indirectly with the 'predictability' of occurrence
for each of the specified types of cues, through

preliminary investigation of some correlation

2.

30
between one feature that is supposedly known to
the decoder with another that is pending occurrence,
or else, through an investigation of the Operation
of some fundamental principle like the binary
principle, on which.a decoder might consciously or
unconsciously base his predictions.
Assumption Il;.would be concerned with one of the
main characteristics of interpersonal communication
among a group, such as feed-back effects and mutual
interaction.
Should certain terms occur in any of the assumptions,
which need clarification of the intended meaning,
such clarification is done, as a rule, in the
course of interpretation. (step 3)
Identification of Cues. One or two entries are
usually chosen for observation. If the specified
cues are prosodic features of speech, the patterns
of these features are charted consistently according
to one system, such as the Pike system of phonemic
notation. All intonation contours are charted in
terms of such.a notation, and so is the case with
the patterns of tentative and terminal junctures.
Adherence to one particular system is only meant
to permit collation for purposes of comparison or
contrast. Any other well known system, such as
the Trager and Smith, could have been used for

the same purpose.

5.

31

On the other hand, if the specified cues are
'syntactic', a consistent classification of such
cues is maintained all the way through, accompanied
by a brief note on the basis of such classification
in terms of the communicative function served by
these cues. As for the identification of 'contextual'
cues, this is done, as a rule, along the lines

drawn by Dean John Winburne's research in content
analysis. His major and minor 'sensemes' are basic
notions on which the present investigator has

built tables of major and minor content units,

as well as tables Of differentiated cue clusters.
Interpretation. In a process of differential analysis,
mere identification and reproducibility are all the
evidence needed to support a given description.

In other words, verification is inherent in a
demonstrable contrast: in a comparison of points

of similarity or difference. However, because
interpretation under circumstances dictated by the
nature of this research would still have the
limitations previously alluded to in this chapter,
the presented verification of assumptions may be
considered tentative. More exhaustive treatment
under conditions permissive of more experimental

rigor would still be needed.

CHAPTER II
CONTOURING CUES

The notion of contouring may be summed up in
a few words to bear in mind in the course of analysis.
It is a presumed tendency on the part of a decoder to
respond to certain verbal cues, ihich signal two main
structural features of simultaneous cccurrenc:
grouping and separation of items. Whenever grouping
of elements occurs, separation of these from other
elements will concurrently take place.

Verbal cues, which.are supposed to signal the
two structural relationships in question, may be more
than the ones selected here for observation. Only two
of the prosodic features of speech.will be considered
in this analysis, namely, juncture and intonation.

It is assumed that juncture in particular is probably
the chief variable affecting word grouping and
segmentation, as far as field properties are concerned.
Although intonation is recognised as a factor of
perceptual organisation at this level, it is assumed to
operate in other capacities connected with communication

of feelings and attitudes.

32

33

With a view to the purpose of this analysis,
it may be helpful to distinguish between two types of
Junoture. a) Tentative Junoture / may be operationally
defined as a pause of combined phonological-and-structural
significance, occurring in the course of an utterance.
It signals a'sustain' in the encoding-decoding process.
Therefore, it can occur at the end of a 'sentence', if
such an end is not relatively 'conclusive'. It is often
accompanied by a -4-3 or a ~2-3 intonation contour,
according to the Pike system of phonemic notation.
b) Terminal iuncture # is a pause invariably occurring
at the end of an utterance, the given signal being,
relatively 'conclusive'. is far as the present corpus
material is concerned, this pause is more often than

otherwise accompanied by the -2-4 intonation contour.

1. Assumption;
Junotures and intonation contours are supposed to
operate 'iointly' as cues for the 'simultaneous'
separation and grouping of items, as represented
by the words of an utterance.
2. ldentification of Cues
(Entry 10., Ciardi)

But can you go on to the human qgegtimn /

until you know what stone will4dg /

and what reinforced concrete will4dg /

34:

and what steel will do /

~4-s
and what glass will do /
~4-5
and what plastic facings will do #
-2-4

Uh until your knowledge of these materials is such /
-2-5

that you..you can put them in second place #
~2-4
(Entry 13., Oiardi)

I'd like to ask William.Butler Yeats that question /
uh and his answer is /
0 body swayed to music o brightining glance /

how shall I tell the dancer from the dance #
. ~2-4

You can't separate these th.. these two things /
lhere is no dancer/
unless.. the..the dance is nowhere until someone dances

it #
~2-4

And he's not a dancer until he's danoéng #
3. Interpretation

Entry 10 is divided into two sections by means
of the terminal juncture after ”will do'. This juncture
may be viewed as performing two organisational functions
simultaneously. While it separates the preceding frame
from the one following it, it actually groups or unifies
all the preceding segments, marked off by tentative

35

pauses. A possible interpretation of this phenomenon may
be given in terms of the Gestalt principles of proximity
and similarity, on the one hand, and of contrast on the
other. In position, 'what stone will do', 'what reinforced
concrete will do', etc. are contiguous segments, marked
off as 'segments' by means of contiguous pauses. And in
duration, these consecutive pauses, or tentative juncturee
are very much similartiflowever, they become the more
similar, when the terminal juncture after “will do'
occurs, presenting a significant contrast in the form
of a markedly dissimilar pause. In the particular
utterance being examined, other aspects of similarity
may be noted: for instance, the intervals between
tentative junctures are almost equal in length, varying
between 5 and 6 words each. Also the segments between
tentative junctures are almost identical in structure.
Although these aspects may be viewed as contributing to
contouring relationships of grouping and separation, yet
they do not pertain to juncture cues as such.

1 look at the juncture pattern for Entry 10
may help clarify this and further illustrations.

9ws} Gwsfi Ewe? Ewe? Ewe? ewe; 9wsy' 9wsg

"flab

It is suggested that the occurrence of B, while separating
the i-B frame from the forthcoming B-c frame, actually

36

gives more unity and cohesion to the segments i-Bl, 2,
3, etc. By the same token, when 0 occurs, it would
potentially set the 3-0 frame apart, while furthering
the unity, not only of 3-01 and 3-08, but also that of
the whole B-C frame with the A-B frame. Similarity of
duration between B and c as terminal junctures, coupled
with their relative proximity could be some of the
underlying factors.

9"} 6'8}; 8's? 9"; Eve 94"? 1mg

maul

D
# 3'3#

The above terminal juncture pattern of Entry 13
would probably give a better idea of the possible effect
on contouring of the distance between these junctures.
Judging by the same criterion of contiguity, it would
appear that 3-0 and 0-D have a strong tendency to unite.
Regardless of the content of these segments, the sheer
structural phenomenon is borne out by experiments with
metronome beats distributed over longer and shorter
distances.

It may be noted in addition that, in terms of
progression, the distance between terminal juncturee
tends to get shorter, as the speaker moves on to
conclude his point. It is not clear as yet, if this

is more or less generally the case, or if it is

37

characteristic of the style of individual speakers in
argument. In any event, the observation is true of both
patterns here.

With regard to the operation of tentative
junctures in their assumed capacity to signal both
separation and grouping relationships, one would
probably find an exact replica of what happens in the
case of terminal junctures. only on a smaller scale.
The same principle of contrast may account for the
separation of frames or segments between points of
tentative juncture, while the same notions of contiguity
and similarity may explain word grouping within these
segments. For example, in the A-B frame of Entry 13,
the components of the i-Bl segment, already sharing a
rough similarity of spacing, together with proximity
in sequence, would, upon the occurrence of juncture 1,
become the more similar and the more contiguous, while
getting separated from the forthcoming components of
segmentwd-Bz.

Considering intonation in the presumed scheme
of joint operation with juncture, the general current of
speech is supposed to flow at pitch level 3, according
to the Pike system of notation. From there, glides take
place, up to levels 2 and 1, and down to level 4.
Presumably, any departure from level 3, whether up or
down, is in a sense, a signal of separation, unless a

glide back ensues. Similarly, any return or glide back

38

to level 3 from up or down is, in a sense, a signal of
grouping or unification. Meanwhile, recurrence of the
same contour is in itself a signal of grouping from
similarity.

The data being examined shows three types of
intonation contours:/-2-3, 4-3, and ~2-4./

The /-2-3/ and /—4-3/ contours glide both ways up and
down, but they do return to level 3. As such, they seem
to indicate temporary separation from the main current,
followed by a junction. These are the contours observed
to accompany the tentative junctures.

On the other hand, the /-2-4/ contour observed to
accompany terminal junctures in both entries, seems to
represent departure down to level 4, with no 'apparent'
return to level 3, or rather, a stronger type of
separation. But as the stream of speech flows on, the
decoder is made aware that such a separation is only
momentary, though for a comparatively longer duration
than in the case of the other two contours.

To sum up, as far as evidence goes, the foregoing
descriptive account of the synchronous operation of
junctures and intonation contours in their assumed
capacity for contouring could be suggestive of empirical
ways whereby the assumption may be verified in field
research.and utilised in application.

39

The second assumption to be examined in this
chapter has to do with the predictability of junctures,
as verbal cues of organizational information. It is
considered worthmhile to find out how far a decoder's
expectations of the occurrence of junctures may be
'forcseen'.

If the Gestalt principles of perceptual organization
may be accepted as adequate 'grammatical' descriptions
of how juncture-and-intonation cues help arouse in a
decoder the response of lumping and dividing speech items
upon their reception, these psychological principles
alone are not enough to explain the contouring phenomenon
in language perception.

The question now arises, whether the occurrence of
juncture, or rather, its presumed operation in the
encoding-decoding process is grammatical also in the
purely linguistic sense, that may be discussed in terms
of subject-predicate relationships, modifier-modified
relationships, etc. It is reasonable to suppose that
the relationships aroused by the verbal cues in
question are grammatical, both in the broad
ccnfigurational sense, encompassing such.notione as
similarity, contiguity, contrast, etc., and in the
strict sense of linguistic structure, based on the
notion of immediate constituents. The presented
examination.of assumptions I and II deals with

juncture cues in this double frame of reference

respectively.

1e

2e

40

Assumption II

In order for junctures to operate as organizational

cues of contouring, they must fall at syntactic

points of structure.

Identification of Cues: Juncture and Corresponding 10 En
(Entry 1., Announcer)

Early in the discussion / Ll

John Ciardi had made the statement / L2

that a rhythm is a way of knowing something #

Asked to elaborate on what he meant / 1.1

Hr. Oiardi said / L2

 

 

 

Example:
( L2) L1 L2
Asked to elaborate/ on what he meant/fur. Oiardi said/[...
2

L1 L1

(Entry 19., Neutra)
Well technology lid
to-dzy which envelope us / L3
in such a terrible fashion / 1.1
has produced / Ll unbearable situations / L4
biologically unbearable situations in our community /L2
in our cities #
We have been so in love / L2
and the technicians / 1.5
and the technologists / L4

41

and also the architects with materials / L1

that it was overlooked inst man the consumer / L3

is the greatest subject #

To understand his responses and reactions I say / L1

is the thing #

(Entry 29., Ciardi)
And..and..it's..it's..it's an experience #
It says / L1. , 3
in making this / 1.2
‘I live / L3
better / L4
more richly / L4
more truly / L4
than 1 do / L5
by not making thi' #

Whether it means anything or not / Ll
I'm more alive in the process #

As Robert Frost said / L2

a while back / Ll

a poem / L2

is a momentary stay / L3

against confusion #

You can't get clarified to stay so #
Uh you name think that #

You have to do it all over again #

42

But for a minute / Ll
the poem clarifies a thing #
It uh it's an experience or life / L1

caught #
I think that is the subject of all art #

3. Interpretation
‘ In order to find out how far the given Junctures
tally with syntactic points of structure, the corresponding
Ic pattern is sketched in every case, as shown by the
example in Entry 1.
21.12.22
corrflspondingfIc Patterns

 

 

Entry Patterns

 

1 # 1-2 #
# 1-2 #
19 # 4-3-1-3-4-2 #
# 2-5-4-1-3 #
# 1 #
29 # 1-2-3-4-4-4-5 #
# 1 #
# 2-1-2-3 #
# 1 #
# 1 #

 

43

The patterns for Entries l.and 29.share one
characteristic, which Entry 19 does not have.

It is the regularity of the hierarchical structure of
constituents. The levels would normally take a regular
ascending order ( # l-2-3-, etc. # ), a regular descending
order ( # 3-2-1 # ), or'both.

It would appear that the obvious irregularity of patterns
in Entry 19 may give a more or less accurate picture of

a Jerky way of speaking, where pauses are made at

various levels of the syntactic structure, irrespective

of the regularity of gradation. So, although Junctures
may fall at syntactic points of structure, yet, when the
hierarchy of levels gets shuffled, as it does in Entry

19, the decoder is furnished with such combinations as
'well technology‘, 'to-dsy which envelops us', 'architects
with materials', etc.

In the light of such evidence, it would seem
reasonable to modify the original assumption through the
additional specification of the feature of regularity
pertaining to the hierarchical order of linguistic
structure. Without this particular characteristic,
Juncture could not possibly perform its function, as a
one of organisational information. It could sometimes
introduce into the ccmmmnication situation more entropy
than the ordinary hesitation pause: for such entropy
would be associated with the ambiguity of 'queer'
combinations.

44

anaesther possible modification of the assumption
may have to do with the range of levels at which a
speaker would normally be able to manipulate Juncture
cues with a minimum of entropy for the decoder in oral
interpersch communication. It would appear that
manipulation of such cues above the third level of
structure would require adequate support from emphatic
stress and pitch variations, or else run the risk of
breaking up the unity and continuity of the structure
of content in the decoding process. Entry 29 gives an
excellent example of a successful manipulation of
Juncture ones at the 4th and 6th levels in the pattern
# 1-2-3-4-4-4—5 # . K

Above all, however, the notion of a common context
to be shared by both encoder and decoder would assume
importance here. the occurrence of Juncture would be
predictable, if it fulfilled the two conditions of the
regularity of order, and the range of operation.
However, it would be more predictable, if these two
individuals shared approximately the same degree of
assimilation of the language structure.

It has been demonstrated through the foregoing
examination of Assumption 11 how encoders differ in their
manipulation of Juncture cues, and how the decoding
process is affected by such a difference with respect to
the organisation of items at the projection level.

45

' Assuming that the difference touches the encoder
in terms of manipulation, and the decoder in terms of
prediction and subsequent operation, it would be
understandable to think of contouring as 'given' and of
contouring as 'expected', not as a presentation of the
same or similar patterns of organisation in every
instance, but of characteristically different patterns
at times. In short, the notion of 'relativity' seems
impelling in this connectimn. fhere is reason to believe
that while the grammatical base for Juncture is an
actuality with language users, differences will keep
occurring between source and receiver, depending on the
factors already noted and discussed.

If an encoder chose to place his junctures at points
a, b, and d, while the decoder expected them at points
b, e, and f, there would be difference between 'given'
and 'expected'. To the extent that difference existed,
the organisation.of content units at this level with
the help of such cues would be affected.

1. Assumption III
the organisation value of Juncture cues depends on

the amount of agreement between contouring as 'given!
and contouring as 'expeeted‘.

2. identification of Cues
Coupled Juncture and 10 patterns

for both 'given' and 'expected'.

46

(Entry 3., Announcer)
9.41.9.9.
Conflict with John Ciardi's point of view / L1
was provided by Hillard Sheets #
Responding to the question / L2
Is the big idea / L3
more important than concern with the actual material
medium of the painter / Ll
Mr. Sheets said /L2
Expected
Conflict with John Ciardi's point of view / L1
was provided by Millard Sheets #
Responding to the question / L2
Is the big idea / 1.5
more important / Le
than concern with the actual material medium of the p./ 1.1
Mr. Sheets said / L2

(Entry 21., Announcer)
9.1-1.1!
A question which seemed for a moment to go unanswered/ Ll
provided one of the best expressions / L2
of the view point of Millard Sheets #
the panel was asked what they meant by the word art / 1.1
and whether they are not in fact talking about several
different things / L2
when they used the word art #

47

galacted ‘
A question / L2

thioh.seemed for a moment to go unanswered / Ll
provided one of the best expressions / L2

of the view point of Millard Sheets #

the panel was asked what they meant by the word art / L1
and whether they were not in fact talking about several
different things / L2

when they used the word art #

(Entry 11., Neutra)
aim
Most assuredly I have to know first the human beings / L2
Before I know I‘Ld
what a.. cold wet stone will do/is
do to my.. skin where I have through.shich.1 have
heat losses #
the biological side of it / L3
and the empathic side of it / 1.2
understanding human beings / L3
and systematically understanding them / Lt
as well as empathically understanding them / L1
is the premise #
to know / L1 1
what to do about stone steel and any other thing #
I have to understand physiological optics before I know

how to use glass or mirrors and so forth #

48

Eco ted
Most assuredly / Ll

I have to know first the human beings / L2

before I know what a cold witsstnme will do to my skin/L3
where I have (through which I have) heat losses # '

fhe biological side of it / L3

and the empathic side of it / L2

understanding human beings and systematically understanding
them as well as empathically understanding them / Ll

is the premise / L2

to know what to do about stone steel and any other thing #
I have to understand physiological optics 1(8an .2-

before I know how to use glass or mirrors and so forth #

3. Interpretation

' rhe following table shows the result of a
oongruency test in which given and expected patterns
are compared. In either case, every Juncture point is
tagged by the I0 levels at which it occurs.

TABLE
Comuencz Test

W

Entry Given Pattern Expected Pattern

 

s # l # # 1 #
# 2-3-1-2 # # z~5~4-l-2 #

49

TABLE

 

Ooggguencz fest

 

 

 

Entryt Given Pattern Expected Pattern
21 # 1-2 # # 3-1-2 #
# 1-2 # # 1-8 #
ll # 2-4-6 # # 1-2-3 #
# s-s-s-e-l # # 3-2-1-2 #
# 1 #
# 1 #

 

The comparison between given and expected
patterns shows 1 discrepancy for Entry 3, l for Entry
21, and 7 for Entry 11. In terms of a simple numerical
calculation, it is easy to see that for the deceder
(here the present investigator), the organisation value
of juncture cues employed in both.Entries 3 and 21 must
be higher than that of uses in Entry 11. Especially as the
total number of words for the entries in question is
approximately the same on either side of the comparison,
it would be tempting to compute a ratio of organisation
value for employed cues, and the results would look

more or less satisfactory.

50

However, it is not so much.the number of
discrepancies between given and expected patterns that
really counts, as it is the type of such discrepancies.
In the foregoing interpretation of observations connected
with assumption II, it has been pointed out that variability
with regard to the operation of these verbal cues may be
viewed in terms of: a) the regularity of transition from
level to level, b) the range of juncture location between
the two poles of Immediate and Ultimate constituents, and
o) the degree of assimilation of a language structure for
both encoder and decoder.

. Accordingly, the one discrepancy noted in Entry 3
would not affect contouring in any drastic way, especially
as both given and expected patterns are, otherwise,
identical. The decoder would be more satisfied, if one
more juncture point were added at level 4: in other’wurds,
if the range were a little wider to suit an utterance
carrying so mueh.content weight..Almost the same thing
may be said with regard to the one point of disagreement
in Entry 21. fhe added juncture, however, is not out of
the range already covered: it is of the nature of adding
one more stroke to a finished contour.

In contrast with these points of disagreement
are the ones noted in comparing 'given! and 'expected'
for Entry 11. These are, for the most part, connected

with the observed irregularity of transition from

51

level to level. Also there is a lack of balance in.
contour delineation caused by a lop-sided distribution
of Junctures, as may be exemplified by the utterance
starting, 'The biological side of it,’ etc. By the time
level 1 is reached, three more words are given, followed
by a semi-terminal Juncture, which seems to create
uncertainty that could have been avoided.

In brief, the evaluation of Juncture cues in terms
of the proposed comparison between given and expected
patterns would seem plausible. However, in a field study
situation, the quantitative side of it would have to
be developed in the light of specific types of
discrepancies.

GHAPTER III
ACCENTULIION CUES

While contouring is described as a perceptual
operation.ccnnected*with the establishment among content
units, as represented by *words', of relationships having
to do with.the simultaneous occurrence of grouping and
separation, accentuation may be operationally defined as
a presumed tendency on the part of a decoder to respond
to certain verbal cues, which.signal two other structural
features of simultaneous occurrence, namely, projection
and suppression of items. It would be impossible to
think of the relative prominence of certain items in a
speech.continuum, without the concurrent levelling of
other items in the vicinity. There could be no projection
without suppression.

It is assumed that word stress, as distinguished
from syllable stress or accent, is a basic verbal cue
to this particular operation. Other prosodic features,
such.as intonation and juncture, do get into the picture.
However, the present analysis is concerned only with
‘word stress, as a chief variable affecting the prominence
and suppression of items, and with Juncture as a

concomitant variable. For the purpose of this auditory

52

53

analysis, word stress stands for two main types:

a)

normal , which is the more common types of

'sentence' stress, and b) emphatic or peak stress *,

wish is the strongest type that may be distinguished

among all the rest.

1.

2.

Assumption I

Stress and iuncture operate 'iointly'- as once for

the simultaneous proJeotion and suppression of items,
as represented by the words of an utterance.
identification of Cues

‘ (Entry 15., Oisrdi)

339.}; all you're 335135 is that /

oh when you say you want a £222. to have M /

or an architect to have M /

or an 29.2.91 to have M /

all: you're really _ag_l_z_i_ng is that he be a 9.2959. being}
oh and _I_°don't think that's 3.2.1 much to grit the

th- 222.221 # ‘

uh I don't care gighe £1 /

the'ohances are he's a 9.9.2.9. 2125 #

If he's a 93;}; human being /

he'll say 393}; things about being 1.3293 /

hewill have 531;; experiences in his art #

If he's a lag-go; human being /

he will have m ones /

but the only way he 9;; have an experience in his
art form is technical #

 

54

But oh you see that's that's the dirty word #

One thinks immediately /
*
empty correctness #

as
Uh.that's the .. not it at all #

It's the way of 52335 #
The lggggggg_must be spoken #

TABLE I.

Accentuatcd Units

 

 

 

Stress only Stress and Juncturc
asking Really ideas

poet ideas
architect ideas
artist human being
asking all artist

too I is

grnat I human being
who human
chances are

small technical
small dirty word
small immediately
larger empty correctness
larger all

only going

can spoken

language

55

W
Content Units

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Major Minor

poet

architect ideas human being asking

artist ideas human being say

he ideas human being asking

artist things being human

he experiences human being think

he once thinks
experiences you

technical you small

dirty word I small

empty correctness ? I small

way of going you larger

language - spoken one larger

 

art

art form

 

3. Interpretation

ill stressed units are supposed to have one
thing in common, though, of course, in varying degrees.
They all represent variations in intensity, compared

56

with other units in the vicinity. Whether pre-Junctural,
post-Jonltural, or medial, these stressed units
represent points of prominence, against a more or less
levelled background. Without these points, the whole
configuration of content units would be vague, and
sometimes ambiguous. In the utterance, "all you're
really m is that he be a human 11155," the

stressed units are respectively, a function word and

two content units, one minor and one major. the major
unit, receiving the emphatic stress, happens to be a
key unit, upon which the whole argument is based. It

is the only unit repeaud four times without change or
modification. The minor unit, within the larger context
of the whole symposium, is not actually minor. There is
a conflict between members of the panel, as may be seen
in the form of asking and answering. is for the function
word given prominence in this utterance, it is the most
significant in the whole frame. The speaker makes use of
it to give point to his argument.

In order for a decoder to give due attention to such
words, it is necessary that they should be distinguished
in a fashion, from the other words in the background.

In terms of the Gestalt principle of figure-on-ground,
when part a of a pattern is presented with more intensity
than parts b, o, and d, part a will be perceived as a
figure. It is not difficult to find out empirically

that stressed units in a speech continuum are the

57
only units to be distinguished against a background of
noise that could drown almost everything else.

When stressed units happen to be pre- or post-
junctural, their prominence from increased intensity,
‘would, through the additional effect of gradually
arrested movement, or of gradually started or resumed
movement, be given a more clear-cut form against the
'levelled' background. This appears to be very much.the
case with words like 'ideas', 'human being', 'technical',
'all', etc. The stress responded to under the
circumstances is characterised by a more extended
rendition of the syllable carrying it. This would
probably increase the attention value of such.a cue,
particularly if in terms of intensity, the stress
happens to be of the peak type, with respect to the
entire utterance. in example of this is: "Uh.I_don't
care ions is / the chances are he's a M M"

So much for the ccnfigurational aspect of the
Joint operation of stress and Junctore, as may be
viewed from an examination of this portion of data.
Quantitatively, stressed units are 3? in all: 17 of
these are pre-Junctural: d are post-Junctural; and
16 are of medial occurrence in their respective
utterances.

It is quite obvious that a substantial number of atrgaggd

words occur medially, irrespective of Juncture points.
Naturally, the aim of the original assumption is not

58

to prove or disprove the joint occurrence of stress and
juncture as such, but rather to find out how far the
enquiry could be pursued on the basis of such a count
in terms of major and minor contmut mnits. Stress and
intonation could also be profitably investigated in
terms of a joint partnership along these lines.

Judging by evidence from the analysis of
Entry 16, the assumption being examined here could be
tentatively qualified in the light of findings from
Tables 1, and 2. The table of accentuated units shows
which.of these are differentiated by stress, in the
main: 'only' is not literally meant. It also shows
which of these are additionally differentiated by
juncture. The table of content units is prepared with
a view to discovering which of the total number of
37 units belong to the major category, and which.belong
to the minor one. Comparing the information provided
by these two tables, one finds that out of 19 units
differmntiated by means of both stress and juncture
cues, 16 may be identified as major content units.
Therefore, it is probable that one way of qualifying
the original assumption is to say that "stress and
juncture operate jointly, when they are applied to
words of major content items." This is very much open
to question, however: further investigation is

needed.

59

1. Assumption II

2.

content units differentiated through the combined
operation of stress and juncture appear to be generally
more 'significant' than those projected by stress in a
medial position.
Identification of Cues

(Entry 15., Stevenson)
I think that Mr. mm the..the rig}; point
of 2;! #
I can't ccno:ive of the kind of music that would

interest gone /
without absolute control of materials first #

(Entry 18., Ciardi)
But I'm saying what's wrong with having a technical
meion # I
that's wrong with .1533; your 221%! #
What‘s wrong with believing that the only way you
can get mrtssed what you _a_re__ /
is through your M3 #

mm 1
isosntuated Units

 

 

Stress Stress and Juncture
Ciardi view
right anyone

eonoeive absolute first

60

TABLE 1

Accentuated Units

W

 

 

Stress Stress and Juncture
loving technical-passion
expressed medium
are
medium
EABLB 2

 

content Units

 

m

 

Major linor
point of view’ 1 think
conceive anyone

materials first Oiardi

 

technical passion saying
medium loving
medium

 

getting expressed I

you

 

wrong you
wrong

wrong

 

61

3. Interpretation
‘ The notion of 'siginificance'secms to suggest

at least two main issues in this context:

a) whether such.units are significantly 'looated' in
the utterance; whether by virtue of their positions,
they are likely to call the decoder's attention more
"20381::

. b) whether such.anits belong to a major content category.

These two issues are touched upon briefly in this study.

A third issue, which needs a much more thorough

investigation in field research, has to do with the

possible correlation between these two features of
significance in the study of individual style.
lith regard to the attention value of units
located in the pre-junctural position, the table of
accentuated units seems to indicate that in 2 cases

out of 7, these units seem to receive the highest

stress. Therefore, if they de call attention mere than

stressed units in the medial position, then intensity
alone as a field property would not explain the phenomenon.

It is probable that the change of movement at points of

juncture, coupled with the accompanying variations of

pitdh level, might account in part for the assumed
significance of this location. According to the Gestalt
principle of common movement, units may be viewed in
separation, if they move toward or away from each

other. The notion of separation is involved in the

62

operation of both juncture and intonation as
concomitant variables.

In the case of stressed units before terminal junctures,
it is true that the anticipated drop to level 4 - with
words like 'view' and 'medium', would cause a stress

to gather additional intensity. Meanwhile, it is quite
probable that the down-glide, signalling a separation
from pitch level 3, followed by a temporary arrest of
movement, should contribute to the attention value of
these units .

The question of whether the significance of
such units has to do with their belongingness to major
content categories may be tentatively answered from
Table 2. There is some indication that the assumption
is well worth investigation.

The element of choice may have been gleaned
through the initial quantitative enquiry into how much
of the total of major content units receives accentuation
or differentiation, from more than one set of coca.

The implication.of this enquiry is that the distinction
between major and minor content units, supposedly
operating with both encoder and decoder, seems to
underscore the notion of relativity. While single or
double suing is relative to the encoder‘s awareness of
such a distinction, the amount of attention given "

by the decoder is also relative , partly to his

awareness of such a distinction, and partly to his
awareness of such.cues, as physical phenomena, to say
nothing of motivational factors. The picture is even
much.more complex; what is relevant to this investigation
however, is the notion of 'seleotion' for the decoder.
Accordingly, it would be meaningful to consider two sides
of a comparison between what is 'given' in terms of
accentuated units, and what is 'expected', and to find
out what the relationship between these two could mean
with respect to this feature of organisation.

What is 'given' is available for empirical
checks. What is 1expected', however, may be difficult
to determine with unquestionable precision. The nearest
approximation would probablgxfor individuals to study
a particular message, silently, outside the communication
situation, with the purpose of locating the central
content units, or those that they consider to be
essential for understanding the message in question.
It is assumed that sueh units would be the expected
loci of accentuation. '
Accordingly, the expected pattern would vary from one
individual to another. This variability is the feature
that could be utilised in determining the organisation
value of these cues (stress cues) at this level of

language perception.

1e

2e

64-

Assumption III
The organisational value of 'normal' and 'emphatic'
types of stress depends on the amount of agreement-
between accentuation as 'given' and accentuation as
'expected'.
Identification of Coca

- (Entry 9., Neutra)
The (material) was put(§hgg§)of everything gigg_#
And it is g (considered opinion) /
and so I can (gggily) say and beyond (suspicion) /
that I haven't gggg_ new (materials) in a (922$25)
:21 /’
I would say that all.these (material) (considerations
are (231) much in (2.9.0.29) Min gm#
I (do) think that the (best) (material) the architect
ever gets under his (25953) /
are the (human bgiggg) /
who are his (clients) #
And oh to understand (human.§giggg) /
to be (fascinated) by understanding their (responsiveness)
their (responses) their(reactions) /
is the (g_r_e_a_t_) (gt) of structuring an(envircnment)
and arranging (stimuli) 325 than #

Given stress:

 

Expected stress: ( )

65

(Entry 12., Houghton)

It would (appear) /

(off’hggg) /

that this (panel) is moving in that (age-old) discussion
of (3333) versus (content) /

over on to the side of (£25!) #

And uh let's not sorry about whether we're saying
(anythingfat (£13) # '

The (important) thing is the (m) the (rhythm) the
(32523) the (;;22) #

Uh and ;,would like to come (£395) to the support of
(MP point which was that /

(£9.12) and (m) and (21152;) and (line) in (themselves)
are (£239 enough.#

And that (somehow) /

there must b_e_ the (balance) of £13 (£033) and (m)
and (52132!) and (iggg) /

addressed to (something) that relates to (human.bgiggg) #

3. interpretation

While accentuation as 'given' is denoted by the
underlined stressed words, accentuation as 'expected' is
provided through identification of the words supposed to
carry special weight in terms of content, which would
entitle them to a characteristic prominence among other
words in each utterance. These sspposedly prominent

words are denoted by means of brackets.

66

Congruency Test: For each of the two entries,
a comparison is made between given and expected patterns,
and the organisation value of stress cues is computed
as follows: a is the total number of points or
differentiated units, both given and expected. 933531.
is the number of points in agreement between the two
patterns. Organisation value is presumed to be a fraction
of Congrs./ N.

The result shows a ratio of 23/59 for Entry 9.,
as against 27/36 for Entry 12. How significant such a
result may be is hard to tell now. However, this line of
enquiry appears to be promising.

CHAPTER IV
TRANSITION CUES

Analysis at the 'projection' level of message
decoding has been conducted in terms of the two presumed
Operations of 'contouring' and 'accentuation'. At this
level, the organization of message content with the help
of the prosodic features of speech is viewed as a gross
structuring of units in the aggregate. The only relation-
ships under investigation have been those of grouping
versus separation, and projection versus suppression.

At the 'integration' level of message decoding,
however, organisation of content is viewed in terms of its
more diverse relationships, which may be subsumed under
three main categories: transition, combination, and
integration. Naturally, the overlapping of such
relationships, both among themselves and with other
relationships at the 'representational' level, would be
inevitable. But it would thereby suggest the essential
unity of the process of language perception. There could
be no transition without combination of items, and there
could be no integration without consistency among the
various combinations in view of the constant need to

substitute, modify, and amplify content units.

67

68

While integration has to do with.the aspect of
'cohesion' among content units, transition is concerned
with that of 'progression'. There is a presumedtendency
on the part of a decoder to view events in a sequence,
as proceeding from one point to another. Such a tendency
would probably underlie the questions: "Where do we go
from here? What next?" etc. The concept of motion is basic
to transition.

Verbal cues supposed to elicit this category of
organisational information, though numerous, cannot be
heterogeneous. The operation of these cues represents one
form of speech.dynamics, one form of human behavior, which
would naturally be expected to have some basic pattern.
Consequently, it is considered pertinent in the present
investigation to attempt discovery of such a pattern.

Linguistic research, having been so far confined
to utterance or sentence limits, and guarded against the
study of content, could not possibly give a more or less
complete picture of an organisational feature like
transition, which.operates in a wider frame of reference.
Howsver, because form and content are inseparable,
linguistic research must have given at least one side of
the picture, namely the syntactic.

Still, the notion of syntax within utterance or
sentence limits is incomplete. In the present enquiry,
it is extended to cover relationships between utterances

and treated within a communication frame of reference.

69
If the linguistic unit performing the function of
transition from one sentence or utterance to the next
happens to be a 'content' unit, and not a 'function'
word, it is considered logical, from a communication point
of view, to treat such a unit as a function unit, and
accept it as a syntactic cue. There is no sense in
studying syntax in terms of individual utterances.
And if people can proceed from one utterance or sentence
to the next, using units of speech other than the so-called
'function' words, these units, no doubt, fulfil a syntactic
function. Any hesitation in accepting this premise would
mean denial of the way language operates in communication.

1. 'iseumption I
Transition in message decoding is effected partly
through the operation of 'syntactic' cues, and partly
through that of 'contextual' cues.
2. Identification of Cues
(Entry 4., Sheets)
TABLE 1
§yntactic Cues

 

 

Reference Cues Shift Cues
Putting it another way And I think
But by the same token It seems to me

But I believe

70

TABLE 1
Syntactic Cues

 

 

Reference Cues Shift Cues

 

I think

I believe

I don't think
1 think

And I think

 

TABLE 2
Contextual Cues

 

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

 

 

greatest art have advanced

great arts aesthetic understanding
great ideas organisation

great art painting... a complete unit
ideas accords of color

human values handling space

great ideas texture values

ideas technical building

progress

TABIE 2
Contextual Cues

MW

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

quantities

easier to produce

experimental age
new vocabulary

new power

empty art
ideas will come back

insight
power

force

ideas

 

(Entry 6., Radiman)
TABLE 1
Syntactic Cues

 

 

Reference Cues Shift Cues

 

72

(Entry 6., Fadiman)
W
Syntactic Cues

 

_- L
_-_ j

 

Reference Cues Shift Cues
That And

The How

They You

That What...?
But You

Most of 'thea' And

They now

They Now

But Really
The first And of course
But Suppose
The first Here

The second Here

The New

The And

The Is...?

 

73

TABLE 2
Contextual Cues

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

2.42.2 'mdi'
ideas poet's ideas

summed up prose writer's ideas
list 'them' in the words themselves
ideas ideas of Shakespeare
ideas notions about the world
ideas notions

ideas as he expresses them
ideas

'of' young_novelists
of very bad .. novelists

 

ideas
ideas
rhythms
Two dates
one date another date

lighty seven years ago four score and seven years ago

same date
the first the second
Liam-.0 r and!

rhythm

74

W

Contextual Cues

 

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

rhythm
that
first statement second statement
fggt_same
statement different
statement four score etc.
beginning of great idea
idea
igga.lees operative idea operative

eighty seven years ago

5. Interpretation

Transition seems to be a product of linkage
at points of terminal Juncture and 'elsewhere'.
The former type of linkage, which.is the more obvious,
is furnished by means of syntactic cues. These cues
seem to fall into two major divisions: one of them
'refers' back to something of previous occurrence in
speech} the other 'shifts' on to what is forthcoming.
Of course both types suggest the onward motion, and both
provide the connection between what has gone and what

75

is coming; but this distinction appears to be pertinent
especially in a comparison between one style of speech
and another. It may also be correlated with particular
types of context in speeche This is a point that may be
picked up for future research.

While Table l for Entry 4 shows §,reference cues
as against §_shift cues, Table l for Entry 6 shows l1,
as against l§,.Also, the §.cues from.Entry 4 belong to
one variety: they introduce amplifications either
through similarity or through contrast. "We've advanced
... in raising the level of understanding ... .
'Putting it another way', the organisation of a painting
etc." Also, "I think we've made a tremendous progress
... . 'By the same token', I don't think that the things
we are producing ... will ever held their place etc."
Again, "I think that the experimental age ... will
contribute tremendously to the younger painters ... .
'But' it's a pretty empty art ... etc."
As for the shift cues in the same Entry, they also belong
to one variety without a single exception. That particular
variety introduces a 'persunal opinion', or a 'personal
conviction'. Eight such cues say: 'I think', 'I believe'.

0n the other hand, Table l for Entry 6 shows other
varieties of both reference and shift cues. One class of
reference case is for 'definitives' like 'the', 'the first';
another for 'demonstratives' like 'that', etc.: another
for 'pronouns': and another for 'contrastive reference',

like 'but'.

76

Shift cues for the same Entry consist of these groups
of items: emphatic items like 'really', 'and of course':
intermission items like 'now', 'here': items inviting
audience participation or involvement, like 'you',
'euppose', 'what...?' etc. Rinally, the word 'and' is of
particular interest. While it operates here as a 'ehift'
cue, it is observed to act elsewhere as a 'combination'
cue, serving the function of addition or annexation.
However, this double frame of operation is understandable
in terms of the inevitable overlapping of organisational
phenomena already discussed. The only solution for the
practical purpose of analysis would be to make this
arbitrary decision: if 'and' is located at the head of a
sequence sentence, i.e., following a terminal Juncture
(actual or potential), it is automatically considered a
'shift' cue: if it is located anywhere else, it is
considered a 'combination' cue.

In introducing syntactic cues, riference has
been made to those speech items which provide linkage
at points of terminal Juncture, as distinguished from
those that establish linkage elsewhere. The latter are
given the name of 'contextual' cues.
Contexm.is supposed to be structured in.the course of
speech through a process of 'differentiation' and
constant 'reference'. While differentiation reveals the

speaker's awareness of the sides of an issue, constant

77

reference indicates his progression. How far he proceeds,
or how fast - these are questions pertaining to the degree
of transition. The important point to note here is that
progression is achieved through a form of redundancy, once
the 'primary' cues are given, and the differentiation

ee tab lished .

Table 2 for Entry 4 shows the differentiation
established horisontally by means of two columns:
meanwhile, transition is represented vertically down
the columns through the occurrence of redundant cues
which get attached to the corresponding 'primary' cue
(here underlined), as the speaker goes on.

In a comparative frame of reference, Sheets speaks of:

l) the greatest art of past epochs: 2) the fact that
painters 'have advanced': 3) that advancement is recorded
in terms or 'quantities': 4) that this art is 'empty' art;
and 6) that painters need more 'insight' . I

Each of these items is considered a primary use, which is
continually reinforced by redundant cues of reference to
itself. A speaker could handle two or more primary cues at
a time, and have them simultaneously reinforced. That is
how he is enabled to proceed with his argument.

It may be observed that while some of these rein-
forcement cues are so close to the corresponding primary
one as to be identical repetitions; others are only slightly
related. This is understandable in terms of the

78

concurrent development of the content units
initially introduced by the primary cues. Transition
from one point of the structure of content to the next
is naturally accompanied by some development or
amplification of the primary cue, by which the particular
point has been previously ushered in.

Table 2 for Entry 6 shows the same principles
in operation: differentiation horisontally, and
transition accompanied by amplification vertically.
The obvious difference between the charted sequence here
and in Table 2 for Entry 4 is an indication of two
styles of treatment. Sheets differentiates between
classical and modern art in terms of two primary cues,
and moves on from past to present, where he remains to
the end of the entry. That is why most of his content
units cluster in the second column.
Fadiman, on the other hand, holds the two sides of the
comparison all the way through. He introduces his two
primary cues of 'ideas' versus 'words' almost
simultaneosuly, and keeps piling up reinforcements on
both sides till he moves up to the climax with the
amplification: 'young novelists', 'full of ideas', etc.
Then he makes a big shift to the question of rhythm;
but there, again, he maintains the same balance of cues
‘with.'one date' here, and 'another date' there: with one

having 'rhythm‘ and the other 'no rhythm'.

79

This is one way of exploring a pattern for
transition cues. While syntactic cues may be considered
explicitly relational, and explicitly transitional,
contextual cues are implicitly so. They further progression
through the referred to clustering phenomenon, which
is explainable in Gestalt terminology. In a sense, every
reinforcement one must be 'eimilar' to the primary cue
to which it belongs. And the more 'contiguous' it is to
the primary cue, or to the preceding reinforcement cue,
the more operative it is likely to be in achieving
unity with the rest of the cluster.

Curiously enough, although syntactic cues are
the more obvious, they seem to be the less operative
as tools of transition. A simple test would be to
remove them completely from the message under study,
and observe the results. Progression could be effected
through the operation of contextual cues alone.

But this is not the way people speak; people use, and
will go on using 'reference' cues and 'shift' cues,
and any serious displacement of these could affect
comprehension of their messages. Experiments along

these lines might be both interesting and profitable.

80
1. Assumptionggg
The pattern of transition cues, as manipulated by
individual communicatiors, seems to show two
interlocking frames: a macro-structure and a
micro-structure.
2. Identification of Cues
’ (Entry 2., Ciardi)
TABIE 1

Syntactic Cues

 

 

Reference Cues Shift Cues
It A while back
He Then

It Now

That How...?
Something And

That You

It You

It You
Whether What

It There

One of the There

It In

It In

That May...?

It What...?

' 81
TABLE 1
Syntactic Cues

 

 

 

 

Reference Cues Shift Cues
That What...?
It Because
And
TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

R. Frost .. put it rhythm

said way of knowing

said something... wave length
said something... way it goes
had to say something... primitive

rhythm (English Language)
29.!!! ee page misged gay of going
know have missed meter of the race
know aiming at iambic
know have missed other languages, other ways
know' have hit kind of beat

82

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

know have missed rhythmic (sequences)
know visual
know series of lines
know in time
know series of sounds
know
know (structure) in rhythm
structure
way of forming

bringing to shape
basic to form

rhythm (way of knowing)
way of knowing .. ourselves

human behavior .. poem
doing .. writes.. poem

doing .. receives poem

poem.nevsr idea ..

aims . . experience
what idea feels like

TABLE 2
Contextual Cues

 

m

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

live in it

experience

experience
(pass)
rate
(rhythm)..unfolding
rhythm
wave length
(way .. testing)

way one knows

 

TABLE 3

Macro-Structure

 

 

Transition Frames

 

1. I was interviewing Robert Frost ...
2. a. put it

5. He said ...

4. Then.he said ...

5. What he had to say.nexm ...

84

TABLE 5

Macro-Structure

W
Transition Frames

 

6. That's your way of knowing it.
7. One of the questions I'd like to raise ...
8. But I want to say very emphatically ...

 

5. lgtggpretation

The distinction already made between syntactic
and contextual cues serving the function of transition,
coupled with the tentative discovery that such a
function appears to be largely fulfilled through the
operation of the latter type of cues - have suggested
further investigation into what basically affects a
decoder's comprehension of the sequence of events.
If contextual cues appear to be so operative in
revealing sequential progression, where in particular
do they exercise maximum power?
One's immediate impression is that probably the
notion of a 'macrc-structure' might offer a solution.
If the big land-marks are visible, if the various turns
and points of Junction are held in view, it is very
likely that one should find one's way about, without
hitting blind alleys .

85

The problem would then be how to identify those big
land-marks which make up the macro-structure.
One way would be to chart all differentiated cue
clusters, and to mark primary cues, as is shown in
Table 2. Presumably when all primary cues are identified,
there will be nothing else to look for. These will be
the constituents of the macro-structure, without which
the decoder would be at a loss, regarding the sequence
of events. If for any reason, he were to become
momentarily inattentive and miss these particular cues,
the chances are that he would lose points of
significance in terms of sequence. This is not to say,
however, that all primary cues are of equal significance.
According to Table a, rhythmic 'pace' is reinforced only
once, but to 'kncw‘ whether one has hit or missed
something, through-one's awareness of rhythmic
sequences, gets the heaviest cluster of l; reinforcemeut
cues. Should the decoder miss as many as §Dcr even 2_
of these, he would be able to follow the presented
sequence nontheless. But if he were to miss the name
of Robert Frost or subsequent reference to his name,
he would not only miss the sequence of presentation
at this point, but also the whole idea of source
credibility attached to the better known.imerican poet.
Another way of identifying constituents of the

transition macro-structure may be to obtain communal

 

fl-_

36

Judgement on the matter from various decoders, and
study the results. Table 3 shows the investigator's
own impression of the minimum number of transition
frames, without which the decoder could miss the
sequence at one point or another. Frames 1-5 are
essential for identifying the source of quoted
information. Frame 3; signals a start for Ciardi's
own personal reactions to achieve independence of
what Robert Frost said or thought. Frame 1’signals
a shift to the next major point, namely what sort of
human behavior a poem is. Frame §_signals his
conclusion that a poem is never about an idea, but
always about the experience of an idea.

Tables 2 and 3 would make it possible to
compare the resultant macro-structures identified in
these two different ways: the quantitative and the

impressionistic.

 

 

Table 2 Table 3
R. Frost .. put it 1. A while back I was ...
know .. have missed 2. He put it ...

 

3. He said ...

4. Then he said ...

5. What he had to say next ..
ghyjhg, 6. That's your way of knowing..
human behavior .. 2232? 7. One of the questions ...
idea... experience 8. But I want to say ...

87

The fact that in either case the decoder is the analyst
would certainly be expected to affect the results.
However, the assumption regarding the correspondence
between constituents of the macrostructure and maJor
content units seems to be Justified. According to

Table 2, primary cues are no other than the maJor
content units of the Entry. Therefore, it would be
safer to employ the quantitative method of identifying
the macro-structure, as represented by Table 2.

As for the micro-structure, Which has no
separate existence per se, probably two things may be
said about it in brief. First, it would naturally be
expected to merge into the macro-structure at every point,
both syntactically and contextually. Second, the
distinction between 'macro' and 'micrc' is relative.
In Gestalt terminology, one thinks of the inter-
dependence cf action of the 'parts' within the 'whole'.
Therefore, it is possible to think of the interlocking
frames as a number of interJacent circles, ranging from
the smallest to the largest. This would probably
explain the position of the cues put between brackets
in Table 2, as distinguished from the underlined.cues
on the one hand, and from any of the reinforcement
cues on the other hand.

Finally, concerning the effect on comprehension

of the presence or absence of a macro-structure, it

88

may be tested through total or partial removal of its
constituents, followed by comparison of results for
various decoders. The underlying assumption is that
predictability of forthcoming items in a particular
order is calculated in terms of macro-structure units.
For instance, when Ciardi starts by quoting Robert Frost,
the chances are that when he moves on to discuss
rhythm, the motion is more or less expected: and when
his discussion is concluded by the statement 'It's a
way of knowing something,‘ the conclusion is more or
less foreseen, because it is made precisely in terms
of_the initial remark quoted from Robert Frost.

In other words, once the decoder is let in on the
gradual unfolding of the 'big frame', his expectations
of items in the 'followbthrough' would be more or

less accurate.

1. Assumption III
In interpersonal communication of the group

situation, the total frame of transition is
revealed through an exchange of cues, occurring
with the change of speakers in succession.

2. Identification of Cues

89

TaamullA)
Syntactic Cues

 

 

 

Panel Entry Reference Cues Shift Cues
Announcer l

Giardi 2 A while back
Announcer 3

Sheets 4 They

Adams 5

radiman 6 I Just want
Adams 8 ’

Neutra 9 Well

Adams 14.

Stevens on 15 I think
Adams 17 '

Ciardi 18 But

Announcer 21

Sheets 22 I think
Adams 26

Ciardi 27 I think
Announcer 32 '

Oiardi 33 No

 

90

TABIE 1(3)

Syntactic Cues

 

yr

 

Panel Entry Reference Cues Shift Cues
Fadiman 6

Ciardi 7 That

Neutra 9

Ciardi 10 May...?
Ciardi 10

Neutra 11 Most assuredly
Neutra ll

Roughtcn 12 It would appear
Heughton 12

Ciardi 13 I'd like ...
Stevenson l5

Ciardi 16 Really
Ciardi 18

Neutra 19 Well

Neutra 19

Ciardi 20 Absolutely
Sheets 22

Ciardi 23 But that

Ciardi 23

Sheets 24 That

91

TABLE 1(B)
Syntactic Cues

 

 

 

 

Panel Entry Reference Cues Shift Cues

Sheets 24

Ciardi 25 I mean

Ciardi 27

Sheets 28 That

Sheets 28

Ciardi 29 It

Ciardi 29

Sheets 30 I think

Sheets 30

Ciardi 31 I think
W

Contextual Cues

 

 

Entry Differentiated Cues
1 , Ciardi
rhythm

way of knowing something
2 Robert Frost
2 rhythm

way of knowing something

92

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

 

 

 

Entry Differentiated Cues
3. conflict with Ciardi
Millard Sheets
big idea material medium
4 both important
4 ideas will come back into art
5 (Adams)
6 anecdote
6 idea operative
what.. meant, John
7 ,part of it
7 human feeling technical passion
8 (Adams)
9 material of architect
9 once eternal issues
10 question
10 materials second place?
11 human beings first fault of F. Avenue renewal
ll fault of P. Avenue renewal
12 panel moving
side of form
12 content along with form

93

W

Contextual Cues

 

I
L

 

 

Entry Differentiated Cues

13 question .. W. B. Yeats
l3 dancer dance

14 (Adams)

15 Ciardi right

15 materials first

15 have ideas

being human
16 language spoken
1? (Adams) lightning bugs have passion

18 technical passion
wrong?
18 getting expressed

through medium
19 technology envelope us

19 understand human

the thing
20 saying same thing
20 human within form
21 question

art?
several different things
M. Sheets

94

TABLE 2
Contextual Cues

W

 

Entry' Differentiated Cues

22 question
pertinent

22 poetry and music

two different arts

problem

23 nonsense
24 m
25 mean remark
25 parable?
26 (Adams)
27 may have something to say
27 It says: I make this
28 idea! ‘
29 experience
29 subJect of all art
30 great idea:
31 greater experience
32 write a poem

convey idea?
33 not an idea

an experience

33 ideas .. textbooks

 

95

3. Interpretation

While Assumption I treats transition cues in
terms of categories, Assumptions II and III consider the
frames within which.they operate. Speaking of a
'macro-structure' with reference to Entries, or
individual units of discourse, would naturally suggest
an examination of the 'total frame' of transition in
a group communication situation. i

To a certain extent, the total frame of
transition for the recorded excerpts which constitute
the corpus material of this study, is in a way
'meddled with' by virtue of the nature of 'editing',
even if it consisted of nothing more than putting
excerpts together, providing the most essential links
in between. In other words, the 'presented' sequence
is slightly different from the 'actual' sequence here
and there. However, the fact remains that it 'is' a
sequence calculated to give the transition cues
necessary for one's perception of the total frame.
Such.aframe is therefore examined with this
understanding of the circumstances attending its
proJectimn.

A general look at the transition cues
occurring with the change of speakers shows the two
maJor types of syntactic cues previously identified
and discussed in the presented examination of
Assumption I.

96

What is interesting to note, however, is the almost
systematic occurrence of only shift cues, when the
turn is between Adams, the moderator, and any of the
speakers (Table 1A), and of both reference and shift
cues, when the turn is between members of the panel
engaged in the conduct of the discussion (Table 13).
The obvious reason is that Adams says nothing beyond
TMr. So-and-so wants to speak," thereby breaking the
'referential' sequence, and making it necessary for
the next speaker to start with a shift cue.
On one single occasion, however, he takes part in
the discussion (Entry 17): "I think it can be rather
arbitrary; As Mr. Neutra pointed out, even lightning
bugs have passion," upon which Ciardi retorts:
"But I'm saying what's wrong with.having a technical
passion?" It is only here that the turn from
moderator to 'speaker' produces a reference cos of
transition.
With the announcer, however, the case is

bound to be different. He is not an actual participant
in the communication, but he is, in a sense,
superimposed. Because he can control his own entrances
and exists, these could not be looked upon as
affecting subsequent cues. The opposite would rather
be true. He is the one to take the cue from the

speaker’he introduces: he is not a 'cue giver' but

97

a 'cue taker'. This being the case, he sounds twice
like ‘Adams' (Entries 1 and 21), and twice like a
participant (Entries 3 and 32).

Table 3 shows the contextual cues occurring
in the first and last sentence of every Entry. It may
be observed how these always bear some reference to the
main content units treated throughout the discussion.
While the first sentence is supposed to pick up these
significant cues from the foregoing speaker, the last
may be expected to hand these down to the following
speaker, as modified, amplified, or perhaps substituted
for by other cues.

As previously mentioned, the effect of editing
on the total frame of transition should be noted.
In other words, whenever transition occurs between the
announcer and any member of the panel, it should be
remembered that this. transiticnvis not 'actual',
but calculated to resemble actuality. These shifts,
though valuable in these terms, should still be identified
as premeditated and superimposed. Therefore, they may
be studied separately as is indicated by Entry numbers.
Therewith, it is suggested that the moderator's brief
statements with which he ushers in one speaker after
another should also be noted separately. In a sense,
these statements are also premeditated. In spite of
his presence with the group, he is not really involved

98

in the communication situation, especially as he puts
in very little or nothing in the way of participation.
His sole contribution is to turn in speakers. This
being the case, the name Adams is Just mentioned in
Table 2, with.nothing to follow. But when he does
contribute something, it is treated as with the other
members of the panel.

The assumption that the first and last
sentences uttered by panel speakers as they follow one
another would normally contain 'pickup' signals of
reference to significant content items of previous
occurrence - seems to be Justified in quite a number of
cases. The closest fit to this pattern of operation
is probably demonstrated in shifts between the
announcer and the next panel speaker. In the shift
between Entries 1 and 2, the pickup items are 'rhytha'
and 'way of knowing something': they are the very “
‘words with which.Oiardi closes Entry 2. In the
shift between Entries 21 and 22, again, the pickup
items are identical. It is on these two occasions
that the announcer cannot be mistaken for a panel
speaker, or an actual participant. The fit in
transition is too close to be true.

In the 3-4 and 32-33 shifts, however,
transition is more or less like that between the

actual participants in the discussion. The pickup

99

signals are there, but they are not exact replicas.
They are in a way similar to those in the 6-? shift:
they sound more incidental. In fact, it is this
incidental quality that may be considered characteristic
of all other shifts between panel speakers. There are
always pickup signals, which vary from the most to the
least incidental, from the most to the least casual.
If the speaker chose to start with some anecdote, or
to introduce his point at some length, it might appear
for a moment that he had failed to pick up his cue
from his forerunner..And yet such a one would sooner
or later pome.up.Again, should a speaker be interrupted
before he was able to formulate his conclusions, the
pickup signals for his follower might be anywhere,

not necessarily in the final utterance. In other
words, the first and last sentences do not always
contain the pickup items. Though syntactically, both
reference and shift cues among speakers seem to have

a more or less fixed location, yet contextually,

the so-called pickup signals could occur anywhere.

And it is through the operation of these two maJor
types of cues that the total frame of transition

may be envisaged.

CHAPTER'V
COMBINAEION CUES

Combination, as a category of organisational
information, is here located between transition and
integration for the simple reason that it is basic to
both. It is not a 'different' category: it is 'the'
category to account for communication in symbols.

It is the principle of redundancy in action. With a
separate chapter devoted to its treatment individually,
it may appear as a separate entity. This is far from
being the case with any of the categories postulated
in this study. It is only for the sake of analysis
that combination, like transition, is considered
temporarily 'in its own rights'.

Combination of items, as may be seen from the
examination of assumptions in the preceding chapter,
is fundamental to the identification of cues serving
the function of transition. The whole phenomenon of
cue clustering shown to account for progression is
explainable in terms of combination. Therefore, with.
respect to the decoder, whose task is basically the

identification of cues, it is reasonable to suppose

IOU

101

his having a tendency to add or accumulate items
repeated identically, analogously, or by association.
It is assumed that combination cues fall into
the same two classes of 'syntactic' and 'oontextual'.
Syntactic cues of combination, in the sense of
'annexation', are limited to the words 'and', 'or',
and their equivalents, such as 'in addition', 'further-
more', etc.; apart from these, a host of composite
syntactic cues may be used for combination, then
selected for 'reiteration' in close proximity.
In other words, when units like 'and', or 'or' are
used to combine content elements like 2., Q, 3, etc.,
the combination is something like a plus b plus c.
The Gestalt depends more on contiguity than on
similarity. But when function units like 'that is',
'not until', etc. are reiterated in succession, and
in close proximity, they produce combinations which
are like gg_, 32., etc. The Gestalt depends on both
similarity and contiguity. This is considered the
basis for distinguishing between 'annexation' and
'reiteration' ones on the broad syntactic side.
They are not two kinds: but they produce two
varieties of combination. It appears that any
syntactic cue, including 'and', and 'or' can Operate
as a reiteration cue for combination, once it is

selected for reiteration in close proximity.

102

Contextually, combination cues are the same two
classes of 'primary' and 'reinforcement' cues.
Differentiation being established, the decoder would
expect the same recurrence of items, noted before,
producing combinations which have either 'identical',
or 'analogous' constituents. Both of the Gestalt
principles of similarity and contiguity seem to be

in operation here.

1. Assumption I
Combination of items in message decoding at the
integration level is produced partly through
'annexation' and partly through 'redundancy'.
8. Identification of Cues
(Entry 7., Ciardi)
TaBLE 1
gyntactic Cues

 

 

 

Annexation Cues Eeiteration Cues
basic (and) true That is
husband (or) citisen This is
about notation (or) etc. It is
That means

beautiful and intense That means
beautiful and intense Till the passion
beautiful and intense Until the passion

 

103

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

 

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

human feelings

beauty

good husband

good citizen

humanity

ggglg_.. beautiful
intense

beautiful souls

intense souls

delivering sermons

beautiful sermons

intense sermons

it

notion

it x

anything technical
art form

technically concerned
notation

way hands behave
business playing piano
technical art

arts technical

m
poetry
passion technical
kisses both blubber
human feeling technical passion

0110

 

104

(Entry 9., Neutra)

TABIE 1

gyntactic Cues

 

 

Annexation Cues

Reiteration Cues

 

complex (and) shifting
thirty (or) forty years
to the Philistines (and)

structuring (and) arranging

and

and

whether . .

01‘
01'
or
01‘
01‘

and

and

and

gg,have
we have

what have you

 

105

W

Contextual Cues

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

material of the architect

 

 

complex

shifting
best material new materials
human beings stainless steel
clients plastics
human beings reinforced concrete
responsiveness (old stuff)
responses new materials
reactions material considerations
them
eyes
ears

auditive reception

thermal reception

inner ear sense of position
sense of acceleration

human beings

 

106

3. Interpretation

When Ciardi employs such.combinations as
'basic and true', 'husband or citizen', 'about notation
or about the way the hands behave ...' the function
units 'and' and 'or' are supposed to do the business
of combination in an explicit way. These units, by
themselves, seem to signal combination, positively or
negatively. And when some correlation is established
in terms of content value between 'basic' and 'true',
or between 'husband' and 'citisen', etc., as would
normally be expected, combination may be considered to
be implicitly signalled in addition. And should the
whole frame 'basic and true' be reiterated in some
analogous form, combination would get still further
implicit reinforcement. Whenever this is the case
with annexation cues, they are placed in a medial
position between the two columns of Table 1.
The frame ‘beautiful and intense' is both.annexational
and reiterative: its constituents are both explicitly
and implicitly combined. In fact, they are more
implicitly than explicitly combined. Consequently,
in a cluster count, they would go with reiteration
cues.
In order to show'how'many primary cues are responded to,
whether these are syntactic or contextual, underlinings
are used to indicate these cues. Whatever is listed

under them is supposed to belong to them.

107

Table l for Entry 7 shows §.clusters of
reiteration cues, as against §.individual annexation
cues. While the former are supposed to combine ;9_
items, the latter combine §_: that is, if one were to
equalize items aegigglg.in every case. Actually, if the
sentence starting: 'That is ... ' contained two or more
content units, to be combined with some two or more
constituents of its parallel 'That is', then the net
result would be a combination of 'two', not of 'four',
or more. This is done for the sake of equalization.
Table l for Entry 9 shows g,clusters of reiteration cues
combining I§Dconstituents, as against é.individual
annexation cues combining §_constituents.

Therefore, as far as evidence goes, it appears that
reiteration overweighs annexation, as far as
syntactic signals are concerned.

Contextually, however, the picture of
combined items is entirely redundant. it this point,
it should be re-stated that redundancy must be
conceived of as a form of repetition, sometimes
identical, and 'more often' analogous, or purely
associative. It must be broadly maintained, in order
to account for the progression and development of
items in a message organisation. As previously mentioned,
combination is not performed for its own sake.

A comparison between cue clusters in Table 8 for Entry 7

108

and those in the corresponding Table for Entry 9

shows different forms of redundancy utilized for

combination. Probably the most striking difference

lies in greater variety among cluster constitueits in

Entry 7. The grouping of such items as 'beauty',

'good husband', 'good citisen', and 'humanity' under

the primary one 'human feeling' (Table 7) is certainly

different from attaching 'rsspcnsiveness', 'responses',

and 'reaotions' to 'human beings' (Table 9); or from

attaching 'stainless steel', 'plastics', etc. to

'new materials (Table 9). While the former type of

clustering is accomplished through subtle, ingenious

repetitions, the latter is done through blank,

unqualified, or slightly qualified repetitions.
However, in either case of contextual cue

clustering, the form of combination is redundant,

and the underlying principles of perceptual organisation

are similarity in various degrees, and contiguity.

is far as syntactic combination cues are concerned,

it has been demonstrated how these tend to be more

reiterative than annexational. The results seem to

argue strongly for redundancy in the sense defined

by the described operation.

109

l. Assumption II
The principle of linguistic duality seems to
underlie the operation of combination cues.
2. Identification of Cues
' (Entry 13., Houghton)
TABLE 1
§yntactic Cues

 

 

innexation.0ues Reiteration Cues

 

that form, etc. . that
(and) that somehow .. that

and

and

and
and

and

 

TABLE 8

Contextual Cues

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

content form

 

110

TABLE 2
ContextualVCues

W

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

 

Content ‘ form
saying anything form
something related word
to human beings rhythm
what use shape
a point line

something to say

end Mrs Sheet's point

end balance

something close form

to his heart rhythm
shape
line

form

shape

rhythm

line

formalism

formal materials

words for sake of words
material means to end

content along with form

 

111

(Entry 22 . , Bheets)
TABIE 1
gyntactic Cues

 

Annexation Cues Reiteration Cues
idea (or) content It,isn't literature
rhythm (and) all ... It is music

to go over ..(and) defend It is a special ...

speaks (and) writes
You're not dealing
You're dealing

Itfs important
It's terribly ...
It's not the ...

It isn't Just ...

that never say ...
that doesnfit say ...
that is written ...

 

112

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

W
Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

different kinds of art

2.2222.
music

it

special area

of human feeling
tone

rhythm

music

music

no idea

no content
doesn't say anything

work of art
form
manner

form

literature

ideas clearly
uniquely stated

not mere rhythm

not Just rhythm

i122.
context
basic ideas
concepts
feelings
beliefs

lecturer

speaks and writes beautifully
fascinating hear him speak
doesn't say anything

never say anything

two different arts

 

problem

 

113

3. Interpretation

_ The notion of 'linguistic duality' has been
borne out by linguistic research at various levels,
but within the narrow framework of 'phonematisation'
versus 'grammatisation'.:Eowever, from the point of
view of communication, one cannot conceive of a
linguistic principle as separate in operation from
the whole conceptual framework of human experience,
as may be represented by message content.
The presented procedure of identifying combination
cues in the structure of content would not be possible
if the basic scheme of language operation was not
so amenable to analysis in terms of a system of duality
which encompasses both the structure of content, and the
structure of expression.

Fundamentally, it is possible to think of
combination cues as 'syntactic' and 'contextual'.
Syntactic cues are those grammatical units that may
be identified as 'Joiners' of content units.

Table l for Entries 12 and 22 comprise a.number of
such connecting units. Contextual cues are those
content units, which carry the sum and substance of
the message. Whatever may have been left out of Table
2 for these two Entries belongs to the category of
minor content units: those that are subsidiary
ramifications, whieh receive no further development

114

in the course of the message. Should one be interested
in giving a detailed picture of content units, such
minor elements would certainly make their appearance
in the table.

It is then possible to think of syntactic cues
serving the function of combination as 'annexational'
and 'reiterative'. This does not mean that the two
classes are mutually exclusive, but that they produce
two different types of combination. All the annexation
cues in Table l for Entry 12 are simultaneously
reiterative cues, with only one single exception.
0n the other'hand, none of the annexation cues in
Table l for Entry 22 is selected for reiteration.

This seems to be a matter of individual style.

Meanwhile, contextual cues, serving the same
function of coalescence may be divided into:
'identically redundant', and 'analogously redundant'.
While there are various forms of analogous repetition,
none of them can be confused with identical forms.

It has been stated earlier how both classes of redundant
units are essential for communications However, so long
as the aim is to achieve progression with the concurrent
development of content units, there would normally be
more items of the analogously redundant type than of
the identically redundant. Under 'content' in Table 2
for Entry 12, there is not a single item identically

115

repeated. Uhdcr 'form', there is one in this particular
cluster. *

Considering each.oue cluster individually,
the internal structure has two components: a 'primary'
cue, followed by 'reinforcement‘ cues. Sometimes, the
primary cue does not appear to be central in the
cluster following it.:Eow far organisational primacy
would coincide with conceptual centrality appears to
be relative to the point of view of the beholder:
the encoder on one side, and the decoder on the other.
For example, considering the cluster under 'music' in
Table 2 for Entry 22, should the item 'special area of
human feeling' occur first, it would be arbitrarily
called a 'primary' use for this particular cluster,
according to the presented scheme of analysis.
And should a decoder think it proper to call 'music'
still the primary cue, the difference between the
'given' order and the 'expected' order would not
really matter in this connection, as long as there
'is' a primary use with other reiterative cues in
the‘vicinity.

This is one interpretation of the principle
of 'linguistic duality', viewed as underlying one
aspect of perceptual organisation in message decoding,

namely combination.

116

l. Assumption III
In interpersonal communication of the group
situation, a speaker's reaction to opposition in
argument seems to be reflected in increased density
of combination cues.
2. Identification of Cues
Entries: 13, 16, 18, and 20., Ciardi
TABLE 1
§yntactic Cues

 

 

Entry‘ iAnnexation Cues Esiteration Cues
13 None until someone ...

_ until he ...
16 post or an architect
or an artist
Ig_he's a small ...
If he‘s a larger ...
Thgtfs the dirty word.
That's not it ...
It's the way
18 None Ehgtfs wrong with ...
‘ What's wrong with ...
What's wrong with ...
20 None If_you're going ...
If you violate ...
If you violate ...

117

TABIE l
Syntactic Cues

 

 

 

Entry Annexation Cues Reiteration Cues
20 No one objects ...

No one objects ...

 

W
Contextual Cues

 

 

Entry 13., Ciardi Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

 

W. B. Yeats

question

answer
9.191 oasis.
dancer dance
dancer dance
someone it
dancer dancing

 

Entry 16., Ciardi

 

ideas human being poet

W

118

Contextual Cues

 

 

 

 

Entry 16., Ciardi

 

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

ideas
ideas
ideas
things

03.!

human being
human being
human being
being“human
human being

poet
architect
artist
artist

he

he

he

he

he
experiences

experience

art

art form
technical

dirty word

empty correctness?
way of going,
language spoken

118

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

 

Entry 18., Ciardi

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

passion
loving
getting expressed

 

Entry 20., Ciardi

 

music
structures
premises

technical premises

pianist
what fingers doing

what fingers doing

 

‘wropg technical
wrong medium
wrong medium
same thing,

 

at it differently

poem
not something said

something happening
happens

poet
way thing flows

form

empty technically?

human
good

human

 

120

TABLE 5

Comparative Distribution

 

Density
per cluster per one

Density

 

13

L1

16

18

20

60

807

146

55

174

20

IO)

[0’6

5*

5i;

 

NOTE: The underlined figures for Entries 10 and

7 stand for available samples of 'normal' distribution,

as far as Ciardi is concerned. These are calculated to

permit a comparison within understandable limits.

3. Interpretation

. In debating this controversial issue, Ciardi
appears to be the predominant figure, fighting for
form and technical passion. As long as his opposition
can be kept under control, he is naturally relaxed:
he speaks at some length, interjects incidental remarks,
and proceeds at a moderate pace. On two occasions, however,
he seems to be gradually shaken by his opposition: once,
following Houghtonis (Entry 12) and once, following
Sheets's (Entry 22). On the latter occasion, he
retorts violently with the phrase:"That's nonsense,
Mr. Sheets," and says little under the circumstances,
that could be studied in terms of the effect of
opposition on his manipulation.of combination cues.

Boughton's opposition being milder, Ciardi

goes on at a faster tempo, apparently saying more in
less words. This is the general impression a decoder
would probably get, as he listens to Entries 13, 16,
18, and 20.
Table 1 shows no annexation cues in g,Entries. All
syntactic cues are reiterative: 5 clusters for Entry
13; §.for 16: l_for 18: and §_for 20. This
distribution of syntactic cues seems to be more or

less normal, as far as Ciardi is concerned.

See Entry 7, for example.

 

 

| I'll-It'll! ’utlfnw I...

 

 

 

122

is for contexxual cues, the general picture
shows density with brevity. Entry 13 shows §_clusters,
with a total of ;§_units. Apart from the grammatical
structure in which these content units are set,
practically nothing is said, which.is not redundant in
a measure. The density ratio seems to rise even higher
in Entry 16, as may be seen in Table 3 of Comparative
Distribution. What is noticeable in addition is that the
speaker seems to sacrifice motion and variety for the
sake of greater emphasis: his reinforcement cues are,
generally speaking, more or less identical repetitions
of his primary cuss: the only variation for 'human being'
is 'being human': 'experience' has no reiterative form i
but 'experience': 'technical' is made synonymous with
some 'dirty word', for lack of a more suitable term,
to maintain the diversity to which he is accustomed.

Entry 18 is probably the most representative
of increased density of combination cues coupled with
brevity. It is not only that the three main content
units are trebly reiterated, but the whole syntactic
frame of the question is constantly repeated. Nothing
else is said beyond this. Entry 20 shows a return back
to normal, according to Table 3. Comparing Entry 20
with Entry 16, one observes how the total number of
words rises, while density per one falls.
On the other'hand, the samples of 'normal' distributisn

123

shown as underlined in Table 3 demonstrate, in a very
'tentative' fashion, how, under the effect of
opposition in argument, density per cue rises in Entries
13 and 16, while the number of words falls. In other
words, the speaker seems to reinforce his primary cues
more than he usually does, and simultaneously, to

reduce the total number of words.

In any case, with a sample like this, it is
difficult to tell accurately how 'significant' such
differences may be. Above all, what we have here is
the reaction of one individual. Whether this is

generally the case with.others is open to research.

 

 

 

 

V ..I’III]. aid .II afl_.&m
m . ...... .
.Ix —

CHAPTER'VI
INTEGRATION CUES

Combination of the elements of a message
content has been introduced as basic to transition
on the one hand, and to integration on the other.
It has also been stated that while transition is
synonymous with progression from one end of a
message to the other, integration is presumed to
mean cohesion among parts. The assumptions to be
examined in this chapter'have to do partly with what
cohesion of parts is, and partly with what it does, as
far as the decoder is concerned. Preliminary to the
analytic process at this stage, however, one question
should be raised and taken account of.
In an investigation into what constitutes organisational
information in linguistic communication, are we
interested in the 'logic' of such.communication?
And if so, what is our standpoint, as far as the
'quality' of reasoning is concerned?

In answer to the first part of the question,
one would say that this investigation is concerned at

this point with the linguistic features of

£24

 

 

 

 

 

 

125

organisation for reasoning, not with the reasoning
process as such. In other words, when people reason
with one another, they are supposed to use certain
linguistic techniques. They might 'substitute' some
items, 'modify' other items, 'amplify' other items,
etc. These are the organisational linguistic techniques,
which are here postulated as basic to any form of
reasoning. Naturally, we are interested neither in the
'mode' of reasoning, nor in the 'quality' of reasoning.
These are questions of more interest to the logician,
and they are naturally outside the scope of this study.

Therefore, whether the communicator is reasoning
or rationalising, all we propose to do is to notewhat
type of organisational cues he manipulates, where, how
often, and with what effect on the decoder.
Our aim is to discover a basic pattern, which would be
expected to recur with other speakers of the same
language. When it is stated or implied that
'substitution' cues, for instance, help a decoder to
accomodate a suggested relationship better, and
therefore perceive it better, it should be understood
that one is not concerned at all with whether such
a decoder is convinced, whether he will accept or
reject the presented relationship.

Integration cues are, again, either syntactic

or contextual. Syntactic cues are those grammatical ~‘

 

 

III}! lllslll..1 ‘.!r

 

 

126

units viewed as providing links for speech segments,
which 'substitute' content units, 'modify', or 'amplify'
them.

Contextual cues are, according to the basic scheme of
combination, either 'primary' or 'reinforoement' ones.
The same principle of redundancy adduced to account for
combination is again utilized to achieve the
integration or cohesion of parts, often referred to as
the 'development' of content units. Naturally, contextual
cuss would fit into the same functional framework of
syntactic cues, which holds 'substitution',
'modification', and 'amplification'.

1. Assumption I
Integration of content units is accomplished 'Jointly'
by syntactic and contextual cues.
2. Identification of Cues
(Entry 27, Ciardi)
TABLE I
gyntactio Cues

W
Substitution Medification Amplification

 

of (what) goes (when) spring parable: (There)
discovered (that) (while) he was sw.. juggling: (He)
this is (what) (while) he was cl.. specialists: (One)

127

TABIE l ‘
Syntactic Cues

 

Substitution Modification Amplification

 

It is (that) anything.. idea (that) Desecration: (This)

moral: (I)

 

TABLE 2
Contextual Cues

 

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

short story

parable of artistic process

 

 

Juggler
1:551:25
Juggler
monastery_ sweeping
island of peace sweeping
monastery
dedicated to praise Juggled

sessions of Juggling
cleaning
Juggler

128

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

 

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

292.159.
specialists

wrote hymns

raised flowers
illuminated manuscripts

did decorations

Desecration
What Luce says

Desecration

Sheets says.
poetry about ideas

10881138

sweat

Virgin come down

wipe sweat

2.9.12.1.
real one

gist

anything intensely done
anything positively done
any good shape

praise

statement

experience

prayer

I say
experience of ideas

one idea

praise

 

129

(Entry 29., Ciardi)
TABLE 1
Syntactic Cues

 

 

 

 

f:-

Substitution Modification Amplification

 

think (that) is.. (whether .. or) Experience: (It)

(more .. than)

(as) R. Frost

 

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

 

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

(idea) Experience
live better
more richly
more alive in process

Robert Frost

pggm

momentary stay against confusion
not stay so (clarified)
for a minute clarifies thing
experience caught

of all art

 

3. Interpretation

One's view is here limited to inter-sentential
syntactic cues signalling the three structural features
specified as basic to the process of integration amnng
decoded content units. In Table l of Entry 27, some
units are listed as 'substitution' cues. What is meant
in the first case, for instance, is that when the listener
hears Ciardi say:"I want to make it into a parable of..",
he expects the occurrence of 'something', an obJect or
action, which could be 'artistic thinking‘, 'creative
thinking', 'the artistic process', or anything
suitable in this context. However, as soon as the
decoder receives the cue: 'what', his expectations
switch over to an expanded statement of what was of
probable occurrence, and so he gets: " .. what goes
on in the artistic process." This expansion of a
content unit pending expression is introduced by
means of such.cues as 'what', 'that', etc. And this
expansion is presumably calculated to give better
accomodation to integration between the idea of the
parable and that of the artistic process, by way of
introduction. This is not to say that other factors
may not be recognised as affecting a speaker's choice
of the expanded frame rather than the short frame.
And this is not to say that the expanded frame always
provides a better contribution to integration, but

131

that it offers another alternative to a decoder who
might need it in order to perceive the presented
relationships better. It is very likely, however, that
in oral interpersonal communication, a decoder would
be happier with the expanded form, which.is actually
more redundant than the short form. In any case, this
point would need further confirmation.from field
research.

Moving on to the second column of Table 1,
one observes another set of cues used to signal
another type of expanded frames, referred to as
'modification' frames. The chief difference between
these and substitution frames is a difference of
function» modification frames are supposed to delimit
actions already expressed or pending expression.

In the case of "When spring came around, he found himself
recovered," the whole frame,'when spring came around'

may be looked upon as 'delimiting' the forthcoming
action of the Juggler 'finding himself recovered'.

In this case, modification is 'prospectively' applied

to action 'pending expression'. 0n the other'hend,

"They were Just about to run in and throw him out,

when they saw the Virgin, etc.," is an illustration

of how an expanded frame is signalled to modify

'retrospectively‘ some action already expressed.

...;
(.0
N

The third column comprises a composite
number of cues, which signal the structural relation-
ship given the name of 'amplification' in the sense of
illustration or supplementation of something of prior
occurrence. In Entry 23, Ciardi requests three more
minutes to give a 'parable', and his request is granted
with the words: "Speak, master." Thereupon, he starts:
2... There's a lovely short story of Anatole France's,
etc. etc. 3 The cue shown between brackets in this
column is supposed to signal an amplification of the
unit 'parable'. Similarly, ‘he' is related to 'Juggling‘,
'one' to 'specialists', 'this' to 'Desecration‘, and
'I' to 'mcral'. To say that 'there‘, 'he', 'one', 'this',
and '1', etc. are 'amplification' cues is not to
contradict or denounce one's calling them previously
by the name of 'transition' ones. They are both
transition and amplification cues: they fulfil
complementary functions in one and the same process of
language perception. It is only that one is here
interested in some exploration of the different
functions fulfilled by these and other units of
speech.

Along these lines, one may read the results
shown in Table l of Entry 29. "That is the subJect of
all arts," is a substitution frame. "Whether it means
anything or not, " is a modification frame, prospectively
acting upon 'Ciardi being alive in the process'.

 

 

 

As for the list of amplification cues, it is sufficiently
varied in scope, although it comprises only three units.
The notion of 'experience' in this context happens to
be one of those delicate concepts, that can hardly be
communicated even to artists, without misapprehension.
It therefore needs amplification.in various ways.

One way, according to Ciardi, is to denote what it
means in the broadest possible terms: "It says,etc. ,"
goes the first cue. moanWhile, a comparison is needed
to demonstrate the advantage of living through an
experience: " better, more richly than I do etc.,"
goes the second cue. That does not seem enough to
convince, not ohly a panel of fellow artists and
creative thinkers, but also a large audience of mixed
thoughts and mixed feelings. So, out goes the name of
Robert Frost again: "As Robert Frost said a while
back,etc." The one "as", followed by the particular
name of Robert Frost, is calculated to usher in
amplifying information characterized by source
credibility. As a matter of fact, one could list more
cues under this category than Just three: in a sense,
development of content items consists in amplification
all the way through. However, the most conspicuous
cues that could be listed systematically here may be
arbitrarily determined as units introducing: 1)
comparisons implicitly or explicitly expressed: and

2) appositional statements.

13h

With respect to contextual cues, there is
practically nothing to add to what has already been
demonstrated in the previous chapter about differentiated
sue clusters: how they are supposed to accumulate, and
how they operate with the decoder in terms of primary
and reinforcement frames. What is closely related to
integration, however, is the scheme of their operation
in terms of the three structural features of 'substitution'
'modification', and 'amplification'.

A leek at the contents of Table 2 for Entry 27 will
show how the total structure of differentiated cue
clusters can be accemodated within the three-
dimensional frame of reference. 'Juggling', 'sweeping',
and 'the artistic process' seem to be handled as
inter-changeable substitutes: and so are the 'monks',
'Luce', and probably 'Millard Sheets'. The 'moral'
modifies everything said: anything 'intensely well
done', anything 'positively well done', etc. is,
according to Ciardi, synonymous with the artistic
experience. The whole parable as has been previously
alluded to, is an amplification of the notion of the
artistic process. Similarly, Table 2 of Entry 29
shows substitution in the inter-changeable character
of a poem as 'a momentary stay against confusion',
and as 'an eXperience of life caught'. It shows

modification through specifying the ephemeral nature

135

of organization in the artistic experience. And it
shows amplification in terms of Robert Frost's
contribution to John Ciardi's initial statement
about the notion of experience.

Finally, the essential unity of both syntactic
and contextual cues seems to be reflected in their
fitness into the same scheme of integration, which
.in Gestalt terminology is based on principles of
consistency and symmetry in the main. Through
substitution, modification, and amplification of
content units, the decoder is supposedly enabled to
perceive better consistency or more symmetry among

parts of the presented content.

1. Assumption II
The scheme of integration cues seems to reveal
a binary principle in action.

2. Identification of Cues

...;
O
O)

c.)

(Entry 53., Ciardi)
TABLE 1
§yntactic Cues

 

 

 

Substitution Modification Amplification
(What) I am oon.. (When) you put Idea in action:
(What) interests behaves (when) (In) philosophy

Creative thinking:
.. is (what) portion/ around(which)

(He) said
tell me (how) irrationalities(that)

Basie things:
tell you (how) things (that)

(You) can't get ..
in (What) it means experiences (that)

in (what) it does Profound obsourit.
the fact (that) (As)

told us (what)

 

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

W

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

 

Idea Experience
ideas experience

ideas into monographs ideas into human being
portion of a life

enactment of idea

TABLE 2

Cont

extual Cues

 

)u

 

Differenti

ated Cue Clusters

 

idee
concept

thing in the abstract

idea

he Neutra
'pure idea'

lost 18th cent. cause

experience

idea in action

in philosOphy_

pragmatic consequences
how human being behaves
accepts idea .. motivation

way of measuring ideas

experience
what idea means to human b.

what it does inside him

ghole bush of dendrites
idea with all glands on

with all fears on

with all anxieties on
with.all Joys ready
with all irrationalities
basic irrationalities

emotions

 

 

Il.‘illl|lfl’lllll ll} I, | :1!)

 

3‘3

H

TABLE 2

Contextual Cues

 

 

Differentiated Cue Clusters

 

problem solving
rational

Dean of engineering

five steps

limit problem
qualitative analysis
quantitative mathematics

check quant. mathematics

creative thinking,

mechanical implementation/ creative thinking

chess playing
problem solving
problems to solve
defining 'girls'
qualitative analysis

quantitative mathematics

text-book ideas

basic things of life
get married

get married

beget child

die decently

cardinal points of life
hinge points

important points
irrationalities
profound obscurities

g. marvellous obscurities
experiences .. stir us

resonance .. vibration

 

 

I1 I III" I III I. l . I‘ll!

5. Interpretation

To repeat an earlier statement, the pattern
postulated for the main linguistic features of
organization utilized for the integration of content
units is presumed to underlie any reasoning process.
It is neither the reasoning process as it 'should be',
nor even as it 'is'. Wh other we reason or rationalize,
whether we follow an inductive or a deductive procedure,
or both, the underlying structural features of
linguistic expression are presumably these two in the
main: 'substitution', and 'mcdification'. A content
unit or a combination of content units is either
'replaced', or 'changed' in the course of reasoning.
It may be wholly or partially replaced: and in the
process of change, it may be qualified, tempered,
delimited, or else, expanded, broadened, deve10ped,
etc. This dual scheme of integration cues does not
contradict the tripartite scheme being so far
expounded: it only presents a possible reduction in
binary terms.

As a matter of fact, the operation of die
binary principle seems to be so pervasive as almost
to dictate a scheme of dualities all the way through.
In the first place, Table l for Entry 55 presents one
of two categories of integration cues, namely the

syntactic. A look at column l.will show two varieties

140

of substitution cues: one occupying an initial position
in the sentence; the other occupying a terminal
position. It would be interesting to investigate the
relative significance of these two positions from the
point of view of the decoder.
moving on to column 2, one observes two varieties of
modification cues: those in the upper part modify
both prospectively and retrospectively, according to
their position in the sentence. This has already been
discussed in the previous examination of Assumption 1.
Those in the lower part of the column must always
follow whatever they modify. They never precede it.
As it now stands, column g comprises two
types of amplification cues: one is distinctively
analogical and extensional; it often suggests a
comparison implicitly or explicitly. This type is
here represented by the unit 'as'. It is as
distinctively analogical and extensional as 'and'
is distinctively 'combinational', and as 'then' is
distinctively 'transitional'. The other type is a
composite group of shift cues employed to introduce
the amplifying combination of items.
However, when column §.is mashed into column g,
the result will be a compound of two chief elements:
one characterized by introducing further development

and extension (now amplification): and the other

14-1

comprising different features of change (now
modification).

0n the other hand, Table 2, which stands for
the other chief category of integration cues, namely
the contextual, shows, in turn, a dual distribution of
these cues, as represented by the two columns of
differentiated cue clusters: one for the notion of
'idea', and the other for the notion of 'experience'.
It may be argued that the observable duality of
distribution may very probably reflect the two-sided
issue under discussion: 'form' versus 'content', and
that the Juxta-position of 'idea' versus 'experience'
is probably foreshadowed by the two sides of the topic.
It is also possible that this basic duality is a
characteristic of Ciardi's personal style.
All this may be true to a certain extent. Observation,
howeger, seems to support the assumption that 'duality'
is inherent in the very process of differentiation,
without which there could be no distribution of cues,
no communication. A content analysis of any of the
Entries treated in this study would invariably reveal
the binary structure of content in every case.
In Entry 4, for instance, the major content units
cluster around 1) the great art of the past; and
2) the empty art of the present. Entry 9 centres on

two points: 1) technical concern with raw materials:

142

and 2) technical concern with human response.

Within this dual frame, the same features of
substitution and modification are observable about
contextual cues in Table 2 for Entry 35. In a sense,
all clusters under 'experience' are offered as
substitutes for those under 'idea'. The 'whole bush
of dendrites' would replace the 'pure idea': 'creative
thinking' would replace 'problem solving', etc.
Meanwhile, the notion of 'pragmatio consequences' in
philosophy is adduced to amplify the 'idea in action'.
The notion of the 'basic irrationalities' is modified
by the very mention of the item 'emotion', and by the
thought of 'dying decently', etc. There is ample
evidence here of the operation of the binary principle.

1. Assumption III
In interpersonal.communication over a controversial
issue, the total structure of content consists in
a 'systematic' integration of 'salient' contextual
cues, manipulated on both sides of the controversy.

2. Identification of cues

143

TABLE 2A

Contextual Cues

 

 

Contention

Reaction

 

Entry 2., Ciardi

 

rhythm
way of knowing

basic to form
poem
not about idea

about experience

 

Feature of Integration:

Exchanged Remarks:

Entry 6., Fadiman

 

Lincoln's four score and ..

idea operative

Ideas of Shakespeare

as he expresses them

cannot list them

Amplification

Fadiman: Is that all what you meant, John?

Ciardi: That's very much a part of it.

 

Entry 9., Neutra

 

best materials
human beings
Entry 18. Eiardi

 

technical passion
loving medimm

Entry 10., Ciardi

 

human_question
second

Entry 19., Neutra

 

technology:enve10ps us

man, greatest subject

14-4

TABLE 2A

Contextual Cues

 

 

 

 

 

Contention Reaction
Entry 18., Ciardi Entry 19., Neutra
Feature of Integration: Modification

 

Exchanged Remarks:

Neutra: To understand his responses and reactions,
I say, is the thing.

Ciardi: Absolutely. We're saying the same thing but
coming at it differently, etc.

 

a

 

 

 

 

 

Entry 15., Ciardi Entry 15., Stevenson
human Question Mr. Ciardi right

second materials first

Feature of Integration: Substitution for similar

 

Reference: ' Agreement acknowledged

 

 

 

‘11}{lljlil1l

 

 

14-5

TABLE ZB

Contextual Cues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contention Reation
Entry 4., Sheets Entry 12., Houghton
both terribly important balance of
form ideas form
fair equality rhythm
shape
line

addressed to .. human b..
Lincoln's four score ..

utilized to make a point

 

Feature of Integration: Amplification

Reference:

Houghton : I would like to come back to the support of
Mr. Sheet's point which was etc.

 

Entry 22., Sheets Entry 25., Ciardi

 

 

four score .. out of context nonsense

two different arts

problem

Feature of Integration: Substitution for different
_ expected

Reference: Disagreement declared

 

 

 
 

 

14-6

TABLEwEB

Contextual Cues

 

W

 

Contention Reaction

 

Entry 27., Ciardi Entry 28., Sheets

 

 

 

poetry .. experience

fi

 

 

 

 

one idea .. praise an idea
Entry 29., Ciardi Entry 50., Sheets
an experience praise .. great idea

 

 

 

Entry 51., Ciardi

 

greater experience

Feature ofIntegration: Substitution for different

Reference: Disagreement declared

5. Interpretation

In a communication situation like this, where
members of the panel form two sides, the total
integration of contributions from both sides would
presumably be a product of the operation of cues

signalling approval on the one hand, and disapproval

 

 

'llllllilllll'lllli“

 

 

14-7

on the other. In terms of the basic three-dimensional
scheme postulated for integration cues, signals of
agreement between two or more members of the panel
would be associated with a 'substitution' of something
similar or with 'amplificaticn'.

On the other hand, signals of strong disagreement would
be associated with a 'substitution' of something
completely different, or with mere rejection followed
by a pause of suspense. Half-way between are signals
of mild disagreement, which suggest some form of
'modifioation'.

All three types of signals have naturally
been transmitted, received, and reacted to by every
member of the panel. Table 2A for one side of the
controversy, and Table 23 for the other side give
a briefing of the exchanged cues at points of
contact. The question of the saliency of these cues
is determined partly by their recurrence, as
previously shown in Tables of differentiated clusters,
and partly by their appearance as the points
'at issue'.

As for the sequence followed in these two
tables, it does not show the actual order of
presentation, but the order found to reveal the
systematic nature of the process of agreement and
disagreement, as corresponding to the postulated

pattern of integration cues.

- .-.-.2 ..,-- 3. ‘ TL???
'22er mini-"-

0 .... -..
M Ad ' 'Zn-Ir. :12 ' A-‘J' 524.320.3133.

33 Cvj..;.lamTvvt1 fin

‘m"

( Excerpts from a Syn mp0 osiu um heLd at Miami Universit by, Oxford, Ohio
f/A/rn/Z?’ /;J’/

—Q-~---‘m~~e‘mmm-m~mwflmma......-0.“-“nu-Che.”

we
H 3‘
LeAel
“KY.“

J. Ciardi, poet and poetry editor of the Saturday Rev iew

C. Fadimen, author lecturer and critie .

N. Houghton, managing direetor of the Phoenix Theater, NGW'YOEK

R. Mantra, Los Angeles architect

ML Sheets, aitist designer and directo; of L. A. Art Institute

H. Stevenson, composer musics an. chairman of the Composition
Dept., Un3.vereity of QoLLho: Californsa.

Phil Atiams, director of the Cincinnati Art ML seam

~---~~---*-m-~--~-m—-——-e’-a~e“----mm

‘
'4

pn—E rev NEE 0333333 73 ART

“.6 ‘ ...-.—

Early in the diSCLt.seions John Ciardi had made the
ste't emeht that a rh.ytnm is a way of knowing SOTPthnS}

Asked to elaborate on what he moantlflro Ciardi said

Ciardi. .2.

"fimmwm A.while be ck I was interviewing Robert Frost uh in

Florioa and he put it uh as well as I LLh I've ever heard it

said# Uh it‘s somet hing thAt's be on bus sing around the ed.ge

of my my head for a long t:x.o and he he hsted locate it#

He said when you start a poem you don't xnow:oore it's going?

It's on its way uh ani you don't A new fibers it's coming out

but you do know when you' we missed 1% Uh then he said now

there’s a questioof M33 do you know ah me you've missed what

you dzLu.n‘tE :now you were ai.ming etf3 Uh and he d.oesn't know#

You do knot” You do hm3w wELen you ve mzssed itJ Yen kn3w

you hope you know e‘hen i We ve hit it bL:t you can be positive

you know when y3u we m:Lssed itJ Eh the v.rh what he aghat he

had to say next on it was t1 at the 3E qu is in it” That's

that' a your way of. knowing it# ‘ometuxrs eoou‘ the wave length

of the to .y t goes3 There‘s something 3.3 prin.tivo as the

be at of Mother Gronif That‘s thatEA the rhythm! of Lhe English

lcuvu""nr It's the wraoL of the re Eh the? 3 there’ 3

a kindU of wzv of T03R23 In ELgiioh leis Lasxc 11y iambicfi
‘38 a kind of

O

.‘

/
In other 183.3 J“”“8 it 3h 33 goes Giver V‘vsf

1‘ 7:2";

beat# newthxic eeueAcoo” Whether tAAV're eh ..o ..9 uh
visual as in a series of lines or in timenae 3.3 a series of
sounds a1 atrscture‘s involvei in rhythm# Structure is

your way of Earning a poem it's yo3r ray of formimg mythirgfi
wringin: it to ehepef May l’hove Lo insist that a rhythm is

a way of gnowing sogz“hion 3 That it‘s very basic to form;

149'

2.

It's a way of knowing something about ourselves# One of the
questions I'd like to raise is what sort of human behavior
is a poo what is a human being doing when he writes a
poem# What is a human being doing when he receives a poem#
Because I'd I don't know how the others would feel about
this but I went to say very emphatically a poem is never about
an idea# It's always and only about the experience of an idea
And that's a very different thing# It's what what an idea
feels like when you live in 13# That is it is an experience
and it has to come to you at a pace# Experience has to happen
at a certain rate# And the rhythm of the unfolding as well

as the rhythm and and the wave length of the language are
the basic ways uh poetry has of testing the vali 1ty of the
esthetic experience# It's the way one knows#

Announcer.&

Conflict with John Ciardi's point of view was provided
by Millard Sheets# Reoponding to the question is the big idea
more important than concern with the actual material medium
of the painter Mr Sheets said:

Shbets.4.

They're both terribly important# And I think the
greatest art uh a a I look back upon the great arts.of many
epochs contains both of these qualities in fair equality#

It seems to me that ... if we do look our own age comparatively
we must recognize that ... wedva advanced ... I I believe very
honestly tremendously in the last 20 ... 25 years in America and
throughout the world in raising the level of esthetic understanding
and feeling about painting# Putting it another way the
organization of a painting as a complete unit ... the accords'
of color the new concepts of handling space within a ace
texture values and all the things that are part of t e the
technical building of of a of a painting ... I think wo8vc

made a tremendous progress over the perfectly banal cheap

kind of literal painting that that degenerated 1n the late

19th and earl 20th century where where realism was an

and in itself‘ But by the same token I don't think that

the things that we are producing to day in these large ..
.quantities which are so much easier to produce than dealing
with great ideas will ever hold their place in terms of of
comparison with great art of of many epochs of the past#

I believe that idea: and deep human values are permanent

I don't think that the twent eth century has ruled those

out for a moment# I think that the experimental age that we've
gone through will contribute tremendously to the younger
painters coming on in the next few generations-who will

inherit with one stride new vocabulary new power# But it's
chirctcy empty art if you compare it to great 1deas# And I

t nk that the ideas will come back into-art if we as a.
society have the f the insight and the power and the force

to develop these ideas,

 

 

 

 

 

 

150

3.

Adams 51
Mr. Fadiman wants to speak of that too Mr. Sheets
May he#

Fediman K5
I Just want to add a little anecdote which may be

familiar to all of you involving the great French uh painter
Derein and the great French poet Mallarme# Derain was a very
intelligent man who was a friend of Mallarme who once said
to him Mallarme he said I cannot understand why I ... I
cannot write poetry as you do# I have such remarkable ideas#
And Mallarme said that's your trouble poetry is made with
words# not ideas# New ... that may seem aradoxical#
You might say this is art for art's sake; Not at all# '
The poet's ideas and the prose-writer's ideas are in the words
themselves# They are not somethi which can be summed up#
What are the ideas of Shahespe No one knows No one knows#
You cannot list theefi And if your English professor here tells

u to list Shakespeare's ideas you must see that he is fired#

ow that doesn't mean Shakespeare has no ideas# Not at all
Not at all# But his notions about the world and you may call
them ideas if you will those notions are only perfect and clear
when they are ressed precisely as he expresses them and
in no other way Now a great many ... I I in the course of m
Job as an editor I used to meet a great many young novelists
Moetsgf them very bad young novelists but they had a lot of
idea They're full of ideas# Really they had many more ideas
than Dickens ever had in all of his life I assure yo
But the ideas were not of the.sort that could he married to
this particular medium narrative prose# The first question
asked of Mr. Ciardi was in connection with what he meant by
his statement about rhythms# And of course he said he couldn't
... answer you exactly and he's quite right# But I think we
can make it a little clearer this way we can say ... suppose
I gave you two dates Here's one dat Eighty seven years ago
Here's another dat Four score and seven years as New both
the same date aren't they# The first date has no rhythm# The
second date has rhythm# Mr. Ciardi could tell-you Just what‘
rhythm that is and why it is that Lincoln chose to say that
rather than eighty seven # Now the second statement is a .
different statement than the first etatement# Curiously enough#
The fact is the sanefl The statement is different# The statement
four score and seven years ago is the beginning of'a great
idea and you know what_the idea was You've read the Gettysburg
Address# And we remember that idea is operative # The idea
would be less operative if Lincoln had said eighty seven years
ago# Does that make ... Is that all what you meant.John#

151
A»

Ciardi 7

That's very much a part of it# This this is such
a basic and true notion and yet it's one the audience resists
so uch As soon as I've had this experience uh uh ever since
I began with the Saturday Review if you try to say anything
technical about the art form that means you have no human
feslings# Uh that that means you hate beauty uh and you’re
not really a very good husband or citizen# It's it's it's as
if’a musician destroyed his humanity b being technically
concerned about ... notation or about he way the hands behaVe
in the business in the business of uh playing the pian
People think consistently that so long as their souls are
beautiful and intense they're poets# Now I think there are
Inany beautiful and intense souls delivering sermons for
example delivering perhaps beautiful and intense sermons#
But they're not poems# Poetry is a technical art# All arts
are technical# And until the passion is technical it doesnt
gp# I made an aphorism for that once# Till passion is technical
kisses are blubber# Uh the that's that's you've you've got
to :9 both the human feeling and the technical passion have
to e on

Ad§§§4l
Mr. Neutra would like to speak to that too#

Nggtgg .

7 well uh p s the material of the architect is

a little bit more comp ex and shifting than the material of
the poet and that's why I would uh I could make a much -
clearer statement about it from my point of view# About 30

or 35 or to yearspgfo modern architecture started to be
explained to the listines and to all the good people

who didn't know why we need a new architecture# You know

uh we have all these new materials we have the stainless
steel and the plastics and the reinforced concrete what'

have you and we can't go on with this old stuff# The material
was put ahead of everything else and it is my .. considered
opinion and'so I can easily say and beyond sus icion that

I haven't used new materials in a daring way# would say
that all these material considerations are very much in second
place in my in my mind# I do think that the best mate

the architect ever ets under his hands are the human beings
who are his clients; And uh to understand human-beings to

be fascinated by understanding their responsiveness their
responses their reactions is the great art of structuring

an environment and arranging stimuli for them# Whether it's
for their eyes or for their ears or for their.audit1ve reception
or for their thermal reception or for their inner ear sense
of position or acceleration and so forth# He has to understand
human beings and.this is his material# I suppose that every
issue of the trade magazines bring new materials and new
engineering and new installations and they are always played
up as the decisive factor in architecture# But once upon a
time archetecture was concerned with eternal issues

152
5.

Cigdi I“

May I may I ask one question of that Mr Neutra#
Uh I'm interested in your emphasis but can you can you go
on to the human question until you know what stone will do
and what reinforced concrete will do and what steel will
do and what glass will do and what plastic facings will do#
Oh until until your knowledge of these materials is such
that you you can put them in second place#

Neutra M ’ ' ‘

Most assuredly I have to know first the human beings
before I know what a cold wet stone will do to my skin where

I have heat losses# The biological side of it and the

empathic side of it understanding human beings and systematically
understanding them is the premise to know what to do about
stainless steel and any other thing# I have to understand
physiological optics before I can know how to use glass

mirrors and so forth I don't start with mirrors and glass#

And this is the great fault of Park Avenue re uh renewal#

Hggghtgg /2,

‘ It would appear off hand that this panel is moving
in that age old discussion of form versus content over on to
the side of fbrm# And uh let's not worry about whether we're
saying anything at all# Uh the important thing is the word
the rhythm the shape the line uh and I would like to come
back to the support of Mr. Sheets' point which was that
form and rhythm and shape and line in themselves are not
enough and that somehow there must be the balance of this
form and shape and rhythm and line addressed to something
that relates to human beings# I don't think anybody would
really dispute me but the uh may be they would this panel
I think would# But we have heard so much emphasis on the
formalism on the formal materials as opposed to what use these
were to be put to that I would like to to try to put my
weight back on the side of of suggesting that certainly
four score and seven years ago is better than eighty seven
years ago and one does understand the meaning of the
difference but Lincoln was utilizing the phrase in order
to make a point and he had something to say# And he wasn't
just playi with words for the sake of the words in
themselves They were the material which was a means to an
end and the end was something that he had very much close
to his heart to say to other people and the content is
important along with the form in which it's said#

clildi xi.

I'd like to ask William Butler Yeats that question
uh and his answer is 0 body swayed to music 0 bri ht'ning
glance how shall I tell the dancer from the dams Ibu can't
se to these things these two things# There's no dancer

ees .. the the dance is nowhere until someone dances it
and he's not a dancer until He's dancing#

153
6.

Adams x4.
'" I'd like to ask a musician who practices the most
Eurely artificial and abstract of all art forms# Mr. Steven

ow do you speak to this pcintfi

§§eyensgg /51

I think that Mr. Ciardi has the the right point of
yiew# I can’t conceive of the kind of music that would
interest anyone without absolute control of materials first#

Ciardi /5;

““””'" Really what you're asking is that when you say you
want a post to have ideas or an architect to have ideas or
an artist to have ideas all you’re really asking is that he
be a human being# Uh and I don‘t think that's too much to
to grant the the artist# Uh I don't care who he is the chances
are he‘s a human being# If he‘s a small human being he'll
any small things about being human# He will have small
experiences in his art# If he's a larger human.being he
will have larger ones but the only way he can have an
experience in his art form is technical# But uh you see
that's that's the dirty word# One thinks immediately

empty correctness# Uh that's the not it at all# Its the

way of going# Thelanguage must be spoken#

Adwms I77
.3“. I think it can be rather arbitrary# As Mro Neutra
pointed out even lightning bugs have passions#

Ciardi / J)-

But I'm saying what’s wrong with having a technical
passion# What's wrong with loving your medium# What's wrong
with believing that the only way you can get expressed what
you are is through your mediumfi

New_1t;_§ / f

' ' ' Well technology today which envelope us in such a
terrible fashion has produced unbearable situations biologically
unbearable situations in our community in our cities#.We have
been so in love and the technicians and the technologists and
also the architects with materials that it was overlooked
that man the consumer is the greatest subject# To understand
his responses and reactions I say is the thing#

154
7.

some 20—

Absolutely# We're saying the same thing but coming
at it differently uh may be across the hedge of of uh our
different art forms we see this differently# But a poem is
not something said# It's something happening# And how does
it happen unless one engages it in the terms of what it's
already started# Uh if you're going to write music you have
to you have to watch your uh structuree# If you violate your
premises you’re going to be in trouble# If you violate your
technical prenises you're going to be in trouble# No one
objects to a pianist being worried about what his fingers
are doing# Uh he couldn't be a good human pianist without
worrying about what his fingers are doing# Uh no one objects
to this in a dancer# Uh yet if a poet says that he is in
love with the way one thing flows into another in his poem
ho'o s posed to be empty tochnically# This is the only way
he canugo human within his form#

522222222 2%

, A question which seemed for a moment to go
unonsworod rovidod one of the boot expressions o the view
int of'Mi ard Shoets# The panel was asked what th meant
y the word art and whether they were not in fact tal ing
about several difforont things when they used the word art#

Shag: .22, -
I think this this question is no of the most
pertinent questions that has been asks In other words we

are talking about several different kinds of art# What's

true in music it doesn't have to represent an idea or

a content# It isn't literature it's music# It's a special

.aroa of human feeling that best expresses itself through

tone rhythm and all the other definitions that you might

givo for music# But in the word in in the art of literature
you have another proble You're not dealing with more

rhythm alone you're dealing with ideas# The four score and
seven years ago is out of context# It's imposrtant# It's
terribly important the definition that uh the comparison
you've given Mr. Fadiman# But it's not the basic reason

that w respect that particular address# It isn't just the
rhythm; There are some basic ideas concepts feelings beliefs
that were very clearly uniquely statod# Now I feel that tho
the problem that we are talking about here is is one that

we can be wo can leave everyone confused about by merely
stressing the importance because we are nearly always as
autists as critics on the defensive about what constitutes

an organic work of art# The form the manner in which it's done#
And therefore we are a little prone to go over on that side
continuously and defend the importance of the form# But I wont
to a lecture one time which someone summed up like this

He speaks and writes beautifully# Of course he doesn't say
anyt ing but it's Just fascinating to hear him speak# I dont
think we bags time in a world like this to listen to things
that are Just spoken well that never say anything# I would love
to hear music that doesn't say anything that is written

155
8.

.tseautifully# But they are talking about two different arts
:and I think we've got to face the fact that this is our
problem

Ciardi 23-
' """ But that's that's nonsense Mr. Sheets# I mean that's
the kind of thing one says

Shgegs 24 .
That ' a bad#

(”£291 25’.

I mean this remark that you quote is a piece of
tuonsense# May I take about three minutes to give a a
parable# I uh ...‘ I

A953; 2 6:
Speak masters?

Ciardi 2 7—

Uh I think it may have something to say# Uh.there's
a lovely short story of Anatole France's and I want to make it
into a parable of what goes on in the artistic process# 0
You recall the Juggler of Notre Dame uh went through France
for a long time and made himself a good living by Juggling#
He would get to a county fair and spread a rug on the ground
and get down on his back and toss balls up in the air and
Juggle them with his hands and his feet and his nose and
all went well and he made a good living out of it# Then some
years later one winter ill and broke and homeless he found
himself wanderin down a back.road of France and he came
to a monaster 9 brothers took him into the monastery and
they kept him through the winterand tended him# When spring
came around he foun himself recovered# He was,well# But he
decided he didn't want to leave this monastery# He was going
to stay there he had found a little island of peace# But he
also discovered that this monastery was dedicated to the .
praise of the Virgin and he liked that# But all or the monks
were specialists of some sort One wrote hymns in praise of
‘the Virgin and one raised flowers for her alter and another
illuminated manuscripts and another did decorations of a sort
and only the juggler had nothing to give her# So he'took.to
sweeping out the chapel# But one day while he was sweeping out
he was taken by an urge to to do Something real for the Virgin
and he took out his mat and Juggled for her# There There There
after he uh he began to sneak in little sessions of Ju ling .
before the statue while he was cleaning out the chapel;8
And one day one of the monks looked in and saw this happenin
and called all the others and said Desecration of the temple;
This is what the what Luce says about the novel every once in
a while-the desecration of the temple# And the monks looked in
through the window and sure enough there was the Juggler juggling
in front of the_statu They were just about to run in
and throw him out when they saw the Virgin come down from

156

the pedestal and wipe the sweat from the juggler's brow#

And I uh I’ll leave you to pick out the moral# I th I think
it‘s a real one but I think the gist of it is that anything
intensely well done any anything positively done any good
shape is a praise is a statement is an experience#

It's a prayer# I don‘t know hOW'muCh more meanin there is
than that# Mr. Sheets says poetry is about ideas; I have to
go back to my original phrasing# It's not about ideas#

It's about the superience of ideas and basically the one idea
that a poem has to give is praisefi It says I make this#

Sheets 2¢fi- . '
That's an idea#

one; 2‘7" -

" And and it's it's it’s an experience# It says
in making this I live better more richly more truly than I do
by not making this# Whether it means anything or not I'm
more alive in the process# As Robert Frost said a while
back a poem is a momentary stay against confusion# Yen can't
get clarified to stay so# Uh you musn't think that# You have
to do it all over again# But for a minute the poem clarifies
a thing? It uh it’s an experience of life caught# I think
that is the subject of all art#

Sheets 3 O-
I think praise is a great idea#

Ciardi '3’-
I think it's a greater experience#

 

announcer 39~
John Ciardi was asked if he was not when he writes
a poem in fact trying to convey an idea#

Ciardi. 3?-

"uw"m”' Uh no it is not an idea I want to convey to the
reader# Let him find his own ideas# I'm trying to give him

an experience# Uh yes ideas exist# I leave those to academicians
to put into monographs# What I'm conveying what interests me

is when you put this idea into a human being what portion of

a life follows in the enactment of this idea# That‘s an
experience# It's the idea in action#sfih if you we in philosophy
they speak of pragmatic consequences# Sometimes it's hard to
evaluate an idea a-concepty The e The only real measure turns
out to be .0 all right I don't know how to definedthis thing

in the abstract# But tell me how a human being bah so when he
accepts this idea as a motivation and then I'll to 1 you

how I feel about it# Thatis a way of measuring ideas you see#
But it’s the experience # All all I’m interested in for any
idea is what it means to a human being what it does inside

him# Uh Mr. Heutra was speaking earlier of the fact that
there’s no such thing as pure idea# That was a lost 18th
century cau5s# Zeufve‘gotgthis ghole bush of dendrites around

lL‘-

157
10.

your glands on with all your fears on with all your anxieties
on with all your Joys needy with all your irrationalities#
And I refuse to be rational about this process# It's not a
matter of problem solvin ' Uh it‘s it's a matter of those
basic irrationalities we call the emotions and that do the
most important things of our lives# Uh I found myself on a
panel with the dean of engineering# And this panel was called
a panel on creative writing# On creative thinking# And he
told us what creative thinking was# He said it consists of
five steps you define the limits of your problem uh you
perform a qualitative analysis you then perform the
quantitative mathematics check the quantitative mathematics
and find the mechanical implementation of your aolutio ~

And that’s not creative thinking that's chose playing#

That's problem solvin I have a great deal of respect for it
we all have problems to solve# But I defy you t& do any of
the basic things of a life in these terms# You can't get
married this way by defining the girl and performing
qualitative analysis and quantitative mathematics#

You cant get married on can't beget a child you can't

dic decently this way And all the cardinal points of our
life all the hinge points all all the things that make our
lives important to us are irrationalitiea# They're they're
they're full of_very profound obscurities as the Bible is
full of ringing marvellous obscurities because they involve
those experiences that stir us# Resonance is the word here
Thorbe a vibration# That is nothing to do with tefltbook

ideas as stated

APPENDIX II

This study has as many implications as can
be applied to message decoding in any form of
inter-personal communication. When research of this
type is further developed, the time may come when
speaking 'and‘ listening can be taught by notation.
Playing it by ear will, of course, remain the
privilege of those who either lack training, or do
not think it necessary to have such training. The
rest will have access to information of increasing
precision about how messages need to be encoded on
the basis of how they are decoded.

One of the implications of this study is
that clarity of message content may be provided for
in terms or cues, associated with specific features
of perceptual organisation. The value of manipulating
these cues in such a way as to achieve a well
organized content has always been hasily perceived.
Because the concept or organization itself’has been
vague, what constitutes a cue to such information
could not have a clearly defined function. As a
matter of fact, the very notion of 'cuing' in this
context may have been Just initiated in this study.

158

159

One would normally hear about 'well chosen words',
and 'well constructed sentences', or about discourse
characterized by 'unity', 'brevity', 'variety', etc.,
without ever getting to the roots of revealing a
basic pattern of organization encompassing all these
items.

The problem of how to improve speech or
writing has been more often than otherwise attacked
from the point of view of 'vocabulary' or of 'grammar'
in the narrow sense of 'linguistic' grammar, which
whether 'prescriptive' or 'descriptive', must be
recognized as a body of summary statements about a
'code'. What should receive more emphasis is the
grammar of 'messages', as content-in-form, 'intra'
as well as 'inter-sentential': and the psycholinguistic
perceptual 'grammar', introduced in this study as
cues and categories of organizational information.
The first two chapters on contouring and accentuation
cues emphasize the importance of the prosodic features
of speech, as consisting in their capacity to outline
and demarcate the structure of content units in a
more or less general way. This is not to say that
representational mediation would cease to operate,
but that it would operate in unison with the referred

to organizational cues.

160

At the integration level, this is borne out
by the possible division of cues (in the.next three
chapters on transition, combination, and integration)
into 'syntactic' and 'contextual'. Syntactic cues are
immediate constituent, or level, cues. They are both
structural and 'semantic', i.e., representational.
Contextual cues are both semantic and 'structural'.
The one clustering phenomenon operates on the same
principle of complementary distribution observed
about allophones as related to phonemes.

In brief, according to the orientation and main
thesis of this study, it is recommended thatthe
listener's or reader's expectations be given priority
of consideration in any attempt to tackle problems

of inadequate verbal communication: that organization
of content in a broad sense, based on psychological
principles, be the focus of investigatimu.

In inter-personal communication, the value of
fluency and speed is very often exaggerated. If we
mean to 'communicate', it does not always pay to be
ready with ‘words'. The chief characteristic of
fluency is 'profusion', which is in many cases lacking
in organizational cues. Particularly in a critical
age like ours, speakers, salesmen, all public
relations people, including teachers, might do well

to contribute to research in this connection.

1‘31

Probably the most distinctive feature of personal
style in speech or writing is organization. So far,
almost nothing has been done, that the author is
aware of, in terms of investigating the relative
potency of oral cues relating to organization.

More experimental work along these lines
would give a tremendous push to the study of
individual style. The focus would then shift to
oral communication, which in itself is a big gain,
especially if the aim of study is to improve the
ability to predict in the taco-to-face situation.
In oral inter-personal communication, more cues are
available than in written communication. Particularly
those cues that tell more about the individual are
usually the ones we miss in analyzing written messages.
For instance, speaking only of the organizational
aspect, when we analyze oral communication, we have
a chance to study pause and hesitation phenomena,
which are almost completely obliterated in the written
form. We can project accentuated items of content with
great precision. We can probably detect signs of
certainty or uncertainty, applicable to the communicator,
his audience, or his topic, from a study of the
feature of 'redundancy', which in this investigation,
is given very broad implications.

162

The situation affecting the decoder's ability
to predict forthcoming events in a message may be
described as entropic in so far as it presents
uncertainty to him. Such a situation is supposed to
lose as much of entropy as it gains in redundancy.
Research dealing with transitional and other
integrational phenomena would provide ample chance of
seeing these concepts in application. One may choose
to consider the effect of pause and hesitation on the
decoder, as he tries to put the pieces of the puzzle
together. Passes of particularly longer duration, which
fall between syntactic Juncture points, and thus seem
to interrupt the continuous flow of speech, are
assumed to correlate with the rise of entropy on the
part of the decoder. They operate as 'noise'.

While the normal juncture pauses are an aid to the
decoder in a process of structuring relationships,
hesitation pauses are a hindrance. It is suggested
that hesitation pauses be experimented on in field
study situations, with the aim of determining their
effect on organization.

Finally, this study has various implications
for research in language learning. With the focus
gathering on the 'message', as content-in-form, both
'vocabulary' and 'grammar' will be viewed in truer

perspective. Research.could demonstrate to teachers

163

and learners how 'words' stand for content units,
sometimes as separate, and sometimes as combined items.
It could demonstrate how the code-structure students
are taught at school is actually embedded in a
psycholinguistic structure, based on principles of
similarity, contiguity, contrast, etc.

It could demonstrate how the organization of content
units is inseperable from the so-called 'word order',
and how sentence order is as important as 'word order'.
Meanwhile, focus on the 'message' as content-in-form
would rid language learning of the artificialities of
code analyses. Learners would naturally be interested
more in a study of how 'individual messages' are
'communicated' than in summary descriptions of how
'language' operates in general terms.

And, as far as speech.training is concerned, research
could show that more is involved in improving
articulation, for instance, than a mere sharpening of
blurred edges across word boundaries, to facilitate
auditive reception, namely the provision of
organization cues. Also, teachers telling their
students to introduce more 'pitch variation', would
come to realize that this is desirable, not only for
the sake of change, not only to avoid monotony with

a resultant drop in attentive reception, but

particularly to provide the decoder with more

 

organizational cues.

In brief, the more research gets communication-
oriented, the more it is directed to the investigation
of relationships between linguistic and non-linguistic
phenomena, the more meaning language would have for
both speaker and listener. After all, when we speak

or listen, we communicate with somebody somewhere.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ball, John, and Williams, Cecil B. Report Writing. Lew
York: The Ronald Press 00., 1955.

 

Bartlett, Sir Frederic. Thinkin , Ln Experimental and Social
Study. London: George Allen & anin, 1956.

Bendig, A. "Twenty Questions: An Information Analysis,"
Journal g§_Experimental Psychology, 1955, 46, 545-48.

 

Berelson, Bernard. "Content Analysis," in G. Lindzey (ed.),
Handbook of Social Psychology. Cambridge: Addison-
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