Review

Overview

The elemental components of communication have now been examined in order: starting from Stimuli at L1, which establishes contact, and below which there can be nothing more elemental—other than uncontrollable biological processes; and ending with Openness at L7, which ensures preparedness, and above which there can be nothing more abstract, encompassing or experiential—and yet still recognizable as Communication (rather than some other part of the taxonomy).

Reminder

Now we can look at this hierarchical framework as a whole so as to bring the picture together. The goals of this review section are:

to check the usefulness of our discriminations
to clarify the discontinuity from one Level to the next
to discover additional properties of communicative events
to apply what has been discovered to specific issues e.g. use of words.

Cumulative Quality

The levels were cumulative in the sense that a signal-L2 is also a stimulus-L1, and anything that signifies-L3 also has signal-L2 features and stimulates-L1, and so on up the hierarchy.

As a result, the error possibilities cumulate as the hierarchy is ascended, until the possibility, or rather likelihood, of error by the time we reach the critical levels of meaning-L6 and openness-L7 seems to be enormous.

The effects at each level also cumulate as core contributions to the communicative event, which uses them all: preparedness (L7), importance (L6), reference (L5), connotations (L4), significance (L3), content (L2) and contact (L1)

Basics for Senders & Recipients

Matrices always provide a beneficial perspective even if (or especially if) you are interested in only one specific Level. Why? We can only understand something by comparison to other related things.

The matrix below lists the THEE-names with the defining functions for each of the Levels of Communication and what that function requires of a person.
For best viewing: narrow the left-hand navigation column.

L	Component & Effects	Function for Sender & Requirements	Function for Recipient & Requirements
7	To be Open & Openness creates preparedness.	To activate an experiential state that maintains the potential for sending meaningful messages. Requires ► freedom in playing mentally with alternative expressions.	To activate an experiential state that maintains the potential for receiving meaningful messages. Requires ► maintenance of receptivity via self-mastery.
6	To Mean & Meanings create importance.	To generate a sense of something that can form the contents of a communicative event within a specific context. Requires ► sufficient precision and coherence in generating entities at lower levels in the hierarchy: or the sense remains obscure.	To develop a sense of something based on the contents of a communicative event within a specific context. Requires ► sufficient precision and coherence in appreciating the sense embedded in entities at lower levels in the hierarchy.
5	To Name & Terms (syn.label)create references.	To use something to make specific reference to an object of experience—outer, inner, virtual or imaginary—for use in a social context. Requires ► appropriate exposure to terms and what they refer to, which results from socialization, education and interactions.	To regard something as being used to make specific reference to an object of experience—outer, inner, virtual or imaginary—in a social context. Requires ► appropriate exposure to terms and what they refer to, which results from socialization, education and interactions.
4	To Symbolize & Symbols create affiliation.	To use something to represent and evoke ideas from a different domain of discourse. Requires ► expression that is dependent on a cultural world-view and social experience.	To regard something as representing and evoking ideas from a different domain of discourse. Requires ► an understanding that is dependent on a cultural world-view and social experience.
3	To Signify & Signs (syn. signifier) create significance.	To use something to indicate or suggest something else within a single domain of discourse. Requires ► placing of the sign in a context that indicates the relevant domain and some knowledge of that domain.	To regard something as indicating or suggesting something else within a single domain of discourse. Requires ► interpreting the sign and the relevant domain, and using what is known about that domain.
2	To Signal & Signals create content.	To use a specific stimulus or pattern of stimuli to convey a specific content or message. Requires ► generation of content by using given agreed rules to produce stimulus patterns.	To regard a specific stimulus or pattern of stimuli as conveying a specific content or message. Requires ► applying a relevant agreed rule to the stimuli to produce content.
1	To Stimulate & Stimuli create contact.	To use the elemental biological means for sending any message. Requires ► generation of stimuli that can be socially recognizable as potential content.	To use the elemental biological means for receiving any message. Requires ► noticing what is sensed or felt as being potential content.

Topics in this Review section examine:

The communicative event and the role of critical factors, like context and the reference group.
How precision and ambiguity reveal that communication is often made subservient to other demands.
Intense resonance with the Primary Hierarchy of Experience-PH4.
Words and how they relate to this framework.
More about receptivity.
Whether the levels are a hierarchy.
Why and how communication usually fails.

This review section completes #1 in the challenges posed prior to commencing this inquiry. Although it is assuredly not in its final draft, it seems good enough to enable further frameworks to be derived. We shall see.

Validating the observations and propositions requires more detail. We also need evidence that the analysis is fertile and can help us in communicating effectively within our endeavours. Much of this should be supplied by structures derived from the Primary Hierarchy.

Originally posted: 15-May-2011; Last updated 25-Sep-2011.