Week 3 Discussion Post #2

Consider the pragmatic perspective. Does it make sense to think of communication as patterned interaction? How is communication like a game? How is it different from a game?

I agree that communication can be like a patterned interaction. When we get to know certain people, we communicate with them in different ways depending on our relationship with them. When children want something from their parents (ie candy or sweets), they play a sort of game depending on how their parents react. First they may ask kindly, then they may try to persuade, and they creative various tactics depending on the mom or dad’s reactions.

We live in a society that has created various norms and rules that we subconsciously abide by. In Trenholm’s comparison between the pragmatic model of communication and chess, she writes “To understand chess, you need to understand the present state of the board and the series of moves that produced it” (Trenholm 33). If I were the boss of a company and my employer became seriously ill when a deadline was approaching, I would definitely act a different way toward he/she if he/she was not sick. An altered situation/environment affects the way of communication.