For most of the 20th century, Roman Jakobson's name will have been synonymous with the definition of communication as a human science, i.e., communicology. Jakobson is the modern source of most of what communication scholars theorize about and practice as human communication, and he will be the source of how communication scholars shall come to…

This paper asks in turn: (1) What is phenomenology? (2) What is a phenomenology of communication? and (3) What is a phenomenology of human communication? The progressive application of the three questions represents an explicit use of the phenomenological method, involving description, reduction and interpretation. The phenomenological reduction…

Divided into three sections, this paper explores semiotic phenomenology as a paradigm for communicology (a translation for the new French "comunicologie" and the "German Kommunikationgemeinschaft," which are used increasingly to suggest a qualitative and human signification as opposed to the quantitative and technological…

This paper formulates a semiotic metatheory (theory of change) of human communication, in six analytical steps: First, semiology indicates that the coding function in communication relies on the nature of the signifier and the signified. Second, the nature of coding (as distinct from its function) is best described by social systems theory. Third,…

The examination of the conventionality of discourse at speech communication conventions reveals the ideological commitments of these conventions. The symposium, conference, and congress differ from the convention in that at such meetings the participants are interested in generating concrete experience, while at conventions, participants are…

John Searle's book, "Speech Acts," opened with the question, "How do words relate to the world?" This paper suggests a way of answering Searle's question by relying--in spirit if not in method--on Austin's linguistic phenomenology. The existential phenomenology approach is described in Austin's phrase as a "sharpened…

Traditional concepts of speech ethics are based on either "national value" or "formula value" theories. The national value theory asserts that the ethical standards by which a speaker and a speech are evaluated must reflect established societal mores. The formula value theory delineates a set of rules for the student to follow in the process of…

John Austin's notion of illocutionary force is explored within the context of the speech act in the total speech situation; definitions of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts are reviewed. It is argued that illocutionary acts are performatives that occur within a complete communication situation in which the key element is the…

Arguing that all language is communication, but very little communication is language, this paper explores questions of method and evidence in the human science practice of communicology. The first part of the paper analyzes the dialectical question of methodology in which method as procedure is implicated with thought (logos) as judgment per se,…

The paper presents a nontechnical analysis of the philosophical theory of speech acts as a paradigmatic explanation of interpersonal communication. A contrast is drawn between the idea that meaning is "in people" and the speech act theory that meaning is an interpersonal construct. There are nine conditions of interpersonal communication that must…

Speech communication is a distinct discipline, but one in a healthy state of conflict between theory and practice. The crisis in the speech discipline (and in academic generally) exists because speech does not present itself as a consumable value; quality program decisions are not made; speech is often conceived as only one subject matter; general…