Actions speak louder than words - strategic communication and (un)intentional signalling: a semio-pragmatic taxonomy

Palmieri, Rudi ORCID: 0000-0002-5122-3058 and Rocci, Andrea (2023) Actions speak louder than words - strategic communication and (un)intentional signalling: a semio-pragmatic taxonomy. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT, 27 (3). pp. 345-361.

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Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>The article tackles the under-defined notion of communication in strategic communication research and elaborates a taxonomy of semiotic processes, which distinguishes different types of communicative and signalling events. The purpose is to offer an improved analysis of the processes by which meaning emerges from strategic communication situations.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>The proposed taxonomy is based on a conceptual framework combining semiotics, linguistic pragmatics and signalling theory. Several real cases of strategic communication are analysed to exemplify the taxonomy.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>Different sub-types of signalling events are highlighted and explained. The communicative function of performed behaviours (i.e. when actions speak and do it louder than words) depends on how informative and communicative intentions are managed by the message source and inferentially interpreted by different receivers. It is suggested that the ways in which meaning is signalled can be best understood with an argumentative perspective that foregrounds the inferential processes of persuasion, interpretation and decision-making. The limitations of the transmission vs. ritual and the one-way vs. two-way theories of strategic communication are highlighted.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>The article discusses strategic communication events with the under-considered perspective of communication theories in the fields of semiotics and pragmatics. Signalling phenomena are interpreted from a communicative viewpoint, emphasising the argumentative dynamics that constitute them.</jats:p></jats:sec>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Influence, Rhetoric, Financial information, Strategic communication, Communication strategy, Communication planning, Persuasion
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	07 Oct 2022 08:43
Last Modified:	08 Aug 2023 22:16
DOI:	10.1108/JCOM-12-2021-0154
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3164943