Exploring Miscommunication A Study of the Select Works of Albert Camus Kazuo Ishiguro Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Milan Kundera

Abstract

Every communication is a miscommunication because speakers and hearers are involved. It is basically about the sharing of the contents of conversation of the participants that also includes the attitude of the persons involved. Miscommunication is not misinformation. While misinformation is a deliberate act on the speaker s part, miscommunication is more hearer oriented; when the hearer doesn t assign the intended meaning to the speaker s utterances, it causes miscommunication. The verbal aspect, that is, barriers to communication are plenty and more so distinct in the variety of texts. The cognitive aspects like, implication, disruption, distortion, confusion, misunderstanding are significant pointers in profiling miscommunication. Non verbal communication effectively indicates miscommunication signals but that is not within the scope of our present research. The content analysis and situations though tentatively appear to be realistic but in actual terms they raise many communication and comprehension problems. newlineMost of the times, indirect speech, allusion, subtle hints produce communication difficulties. So a set of inferences may not help the hearer in understanding the situation. To minimise the failure of understanding, Paul Grice, David Mortensen, Sperber Wilson and many proponents of critical theoretical insights have proposed different approaches and perspectives. The review of literature and the consequent gap analysis have highlighted study of miscommunication. newlineThis awareness of language and its operation in concrete literary text open up new possibilities of mitigating miscommunication challenges. newline