Assumptions about Communication

[William Mann]

Dear Funknetters:

I am compiling a collection of the various sorts of assumptions that have
been used in linguistics and other communication sciences concerning the
nature of Communication.

To illustrate, the well known Code Model provides one option.  One version
of the model says that Communication is exchange of ideas, and that those
ideas can be represented as propositions.

Further, exchange of an idea from one person to another takes place by
encoding the proposition(s) in language, transmitting that encoded
linguistic product to another person, and that person decoding the given
language and thus recovering (a copy of) the proposition(s).

Leaving aside the process part, I am trying to identify distinct versions of
the first part, what Communication is.

I am not particularly confining my search to modern ideas alone.

If you know of other foundational assumptions about what Communication is, I
would like to hear from you, either through the list or directly.

Many thanks in advance,

Bill Mann