Grounding, which is most easily defined by the “development of mutual understanding between conversational participants”, is an extremely important principle in communication. This afternoon, I talked to my brother via blackberry messenger. The purpose of this conversation was to plan a weekend for him to come visit me at school. One factor that immediately stands out in this scenario that was not acknowledged in the readings, was our innate connection and “genetically enhanced common ground”, if you will. As brother and sister, our nature and nurture have been identical our entire lives, which provides a solid foundation of common ground in itself. As a result, I felt we had to do very little grounding to establish mutual understanding.
The conversation started with:
Me: “Bean, get up here”
Will: Trying…
That statement can be translated to “Will, come up to visit me at school in Ithaca, New York”. From previous knowledge and past conversations, he knew exactly what I was saying. When he said “trying…”, I knew he meant he wants to but needs to keep looking for a job and get his life together.
Blackberry messenger is essentially like Instant Message on blackberry’s. Other factors that stands out here is the cotemporality, the fact that he receives this message immediately after I send it; simultaneity, it’s a two way form of communication; reviewability, and revisability. These, I did not feel like played a significant role in our conversation. Given the fact that he is my brother, I am not particularly worried about minor typos, or my diction- I simply say whatever comes to mind without reviewing it.
Another factor in grounding is acknowledgement. Because we’re not in the same physical presence, a simple nod of the head is not sufficient. BBM has a technological form of acknowledgement. When I send it, there is a “D” for delivered and “R” when the receiver has read it.
The only common ground we needed to establish was possible dates. That was not known from previous knowledge. He said “when the weather is nicer”, which I know is because he hates the cold. The “grounding verbatim content” consisted of possible dates that he wrote down to check his schedule.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Wow, lots of grounding there. Your idea of genetically enhanced common ground is super interesting, but how is it genetic any more than it is environmental? You and your brother share an understanding for slang and nicknames because they were used around your house, but is that innate?
ReplyDeleteSorry I did not mean to click post yet! Anyway, my other question for you is when your brother received your message, your bbm will read D, and when he has read it, your bbm reads R, and does not respond immediately, how long does it take for you to reiterate what you sent or to ask if he understood your last message? In my opinion, the new bbm feature of letting the sender know that you have received and read the message seems very helpful, but somewhat intrusive. It seems common ground here is forced and not necessary solicited.
ReplyDelete