"what is 'meant' is invariably more than what is 'said' " Contemporary semioticians refer to the creation and interpretation of texts as 'encoding' and 'decoding' respectively. In the context of semiotics, 'decoding' involves not simply basic recognition and comprehension of what a text 'says' but also the interpretation and evaluation of its meaning with reference to relevant codes. A distinction is made between comprehension and interpretation; what is 'meant' is invariably more than what is 'said' (Smith 1988, Olson 1994). Roman Jakobson's model of interpersonal verbal communication - 1960 (drawing on work by Bьhler dating from the 1930s) The addresser sends a message to the addressee. To be operative the message requires a context referred to ('referent' in another, somewhat ambivalent, nomenclature), seizable by the addressee, and either verbal or capable of being verbalized, a code fully, or at least partially, common to the addresser and addressee (or in other words, to the encoder and decoder of the message); and finally, a contact, a physical channel and psychological connection between the addresser and the addressee, enabling both of them to stay in communication. (Jakobson 1960, 353) Roman Jakobson's six 'constitutive factors... in any act of verbal communication': Jakobson proposed that 'each of these six factors determines a different function of language' (Jakobson 1960, 353): Type Oriented towards Function Example referential context imparting information It's raining. expressive addresser expressing feelings or attitudes   conative addressee influencing behaviour   phatic contact establishing or maintaining social relationships   metalingual code referring to the nature of the interaction (e.g. genre)   poetic message foregrounding textual features   Class assignment (group work, done orally): 1. Fill in the last column of the table above with the following sentences (the first one has been done for you): This is the weather forecast. It's bloody pissing down again! Nasty weather again, isn't it? It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven. Wait here till it stops raining! 2. Invent you own situation and describe it in 6 sentences each illustrating one of the factors shown in the table.