Week 7 Question 3

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading, that has not already been discussed this week, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

I found the concept of paralanguage to be fascinating. It is a type of nonverbal communication, in which “the meaning that is perceived along with the actual words used to deliver a message.” This is not what you say, but how you say it. On the whole, it is using a vocal inflection by means of stretching the same words and using different tone, pitch, rate, vocal qualities, pauses, and silence.

If we decide to talk about tone, it is not the words one chooses, but the manner in which he or she choose to say it. When we were little kids, we probably often raised our voice to express anger or frustration. For example, when I was a child, I would ask my parents’ permission to go out to my friends and if my parents said no. I would say “fine!” Then my parents often said “don’t take that tone with me Mr.!” the reason is not the word, but the way I’d say it. It was very disrespectful to talk to my parents like that; transmitting a message that says “I am angry or frustrated at them.”