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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 6

Publication Date: June 25, 2023

DOI:10.14738/assrj.106.14245.

Liliweri, A., Widowati, D., & Manafe, Y. D. (2023). Construction of Meaning in Verbal Communication. Advances in Social Sciences

Research Journal, 10(6). 314-327.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Construction of Meaning in Verbal Communication

Alo Liliweri

Communication sudies, University of Nusa Cendana,

Kupang, Indonesia

Dewi Widowati

Dewi Widowati, Institute of Communications and

Business, LSPR, Jakarta, Indonesia

Yermia Djefri Manafe

Communication sudies, University of Nusa Cendana,

Kupang, Indonesia

INTRODUCTION

In the social sciences, coordinated meaning management (CMM) provides an understanding of

how individuals create, coordinate, and manage meaning in their communication processes. In

general, it refers to "how individuals establish rules for creating and interpreting meaning and

how those rules are related in conversation where meanings are constantly coordinated".

(West and Lynn, 2007)." Human communication is seen as a flexible, open and changeable

process that develops in continuous mutual interaction, which allows movements, shifts, and

ways of evolving with one another". According to Miller and Sarah (2019). CMM embodies this

vision and enables interpersonal connections and open conversations between individuals or

groups, and can be applied across a wide range of academic fields and social scenarios.

Therefore, defining CMM has become a challenge. However, some commonly agreed upon

definitions of CMM are: it is "a multi-level structural theory in which rules describe the

movement or relationship between meaning and action. From a CMM perspective, two people

talk about compromises on interpersonal systems with two interpersonal component systems.”

Pearce and Cronen (1984) offer CMM to “encourage us to look at communication processes and

the ways in which meaning is made. We are encouraged to think about the ways we might act

in critical moments." Miller and Sarah (2019) CMM "offers a framework that allows us to take

a collaborative approach to taking the position of working together to explore meaning and

arrive at a shared understanding and an agreed plan for moving forward".

Fundamentally, CMM is also "a social construction theory that posits how we create our

relationships and even the world itself through communication. It is complex and includes ideas

of coherence and mystery". [4] Data and information shared between two parties are

understood visually and socially through “hierarchies and coordination of meanings in our

messages” (Thompson and Kleine, 2016).

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Liliweri, A., Widowati, D., & Manafe, Y. D. (2023). Construction of Meaning in Verbal Communication. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal,

10(6). 314-327.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.106.14245

CMM THEORY ASSUMPTIONS

Assumptions of CMM suggest that; (1) humans live in communication (social constructionism),

(2) humans create social reality, and (3) information transactions depend on personal and

interpersonal meaning. From the beginning, CMM theorists argued that social situations are

created by interactions. This theory believes that the people involved in conversation build

their social reality which we call social constructionism. From this social construction several

questions can arise: "What do you mean by that?" - the real questions to ask are: "What do we

create together?", "How do we make it?" and "How can we make a better social world?", this is

called human creating social reality.

THE MAIN PURPOSE OF CMM THEORY

This theory aims to explain how people create meaning in conversations. That, everyone, when

conversing uses rules to interpret meaning. These rules can be the same or they can be different

so that they can produce different meanings. The meaning of communication in conversation is

only obtained when those who are conversing follow a constant and coordinated

conversational structure. According to CMM theory; everyone will be able to "organize meaning

hierarchically."

There are at least two things related to the hierarchy of meaning.

First, a hierarchy of meaning defines the context in which regulative and constitutive rules are

to be understood. These are the rules for interacting according to the context or situation of the

communication.

Context setting is part of much communication theory which refers to setting (where and when)

participants, and relationship with (who); communication content (what), intention (why),

means of communication used (how), etc. Interaction (and communication) rules occur within

the context of interaction (and communication). There are also some rules that are generated

in interactions and communication relationships (generative rules), there are also other rules

that are imposed in communication situations (by) groups, communities, or society (enforced

rules).

Second, the above contexts are arranged in an "abstract hierarchy" from the lowest to the

highest. Higher level contexts define - and perhaps encapsulate - lower-level contexts. Or each

context in the hierarchical level can be understood by looking at other contexts because each

context always contextualizes other contexts.

HIERARCHY OF MEANING

There are at least six levels of meaning (from the lowest level to the higher level); namely:

content, speech acts (speech act, episode, connection (relationship, contract, life scripts (sense

of self), and cultural patterns (cultural patterns) (Veron E, Cronen; Pearce, W. Barnett; Harris,

Linda M, 1979).

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 6, June-2023

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

CONTENT

According to CMM theory, content or messages are related to the raw data of information

spoken during the communication (conversation) taking place. Simply put, content is the word

(words) used to communicate. Content is the basic building block of any language, but content

alone is not sufficient to construct the meaning of communication. Linguists often refer to

content as indirect speech acts which exist only in and can be understood in terms of context,

is speech act, episode, relationship/contract, life scripts (self-concept) dan cultural patterns.

The following image shows two people having a conversation. Conversational content is

displayed through a series of vowel sounds represented by symbols. "Where is the beef?" is

content whose meaning is 'not enough' understood so that the recipient still wonders what the

sender meant. CMM theory suggests that we move to the next level, namely 'speech act' so that

we can understand the content. (Note: all models in this article are sourced from all models in

this article are sourced from

http://www.rdillman.com/HFCL/TUTOR/Relation/relate5.html > March 4, 2023).