LEADERSHIP
Verbal Messages And
The Meanings They
Create In The Minds Of
Listeners
By Dr. Kellen Kiambati
Packaging of the message
Verbal and nonverbal message signals
occur at the same time playing the role of
reinforcement. For example if a person is
expressing words of excitement the body is
not resting but responding simultaneously
with happiness to express and blend
thoughts and feelings.
In today’s socially interconnected world,
social media sites like facebook, twitter,
telegram and blogs allows for combination
of photos, videos and emojis with the
verbal communication.
One has to be careful to notice this kind
of well thought through packaging of the
message.
In circumstances where the verbal and
nonverbal signals are contradicting,
people are quick to notice. An awareness
of the packaged nature of communication,
then, suggests a warning against the too-
easy interpretation of another’s meaning,
especially as revealed in nonverbal
behaviors.
Receiver’s thoughts and
meanings
Meaning depends not only on the
packaging of messages (the combined
verbal and nonverbal elements), but also
how the message interact and relate with
the receiver’s own thoughts and feelings.
This is because meaning is not received but
created or constructed depending with the
persons’ social and cultural perspectives
(beliefs, attitudes, and values).
The word love in the dictionary would be
defined as attraction and desire however
if a young man tells a young girl that they
love them, they must look for the meaning
of love in the young man. So meaning
in this case is in the two and not in the
words. It is important to realize that as
they get to know each, the meaning they
attached to love keep changing.
Meanings are in people and each person
is unique and different from every other
person. No word or message will mean
the same thing to two different people.
Meanings are in people and each person
is unique and different from every oth-
er person. No word or message will mean
the same thing to two different people.
We therefore must be careful because
failure to recognize this aspect can lead
to interpersonal conflict.
78 MAL35/20 ISSUE
We therefore must be careful because
failure to recognize this aspect can lead to
interpersonal conflict.
Denotative and Connotative
Context is very critical when sending
verbal and nonverbal messages. Words
or behaviors may have totally different
meanings when they occur in different
contexts. Hello can mean how is your
health in ‘a hospital set up' and in an
office set up it can be interpreted to mean
how a person is doing generally. A wink
to an attractive person may be considered
gracious in one culture and offensive in
another culture.
The emotional and subjective meanings
are connotative sides of a meaning
attached to a word while the denotative
is the objective definition of a word for
example migrant and settler in different
contexts.
Message abstraction
Message abstraction is concerned with
how people metacommunicate. Effective
verbal messages include words at many
levels of abstraction. At times an abstract,
general term may suit a person’s needs
and at other times a more concrete,
specific term may serve better. However,
in order to become effective being specific
in the usage of concepts provides better
choices because this guides us to create
appropriate images in the listeners’ minds.
This can be compared to how we use
specific concepts to direct internet search
engines to a particular area.