Adeola Abdulateef Elega

2.4 Verbal Communication 
This dimension of communication is the use of words to communicate. This mouthed 
kind of communication helps to give meanings to things. At the mention of school 

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you already know the person is talking about an educational institution, at the 
mention of ‘anger’ you already submit it represents a strong emotion that signifies 
grievances. At the mention ‘hunger’ we posit that there is need for food. Language is 
an integral part of our live. It defines a group of people from others. The main and 
universal function of Language is to communicate. Language is broad, progressive 
and endless. In some cases words in same language can rightly mean different things 
to different people; this defines what I mean by broad, also been progressive and 
endless I mean language forever continues to be a learning process, some new words 
are added and some old ones are discarded. Same language spoken at different ends 
has vocabulary differences, like in the case of Nigeria and Ghana. When you hear a 
Nigerian speak English it is quite different when a Ghanaian or Tanzanian speaks the 
same language. Language as defined by Fromkin and Rodman (1993) is “Whatever 
else people do when they come together-whether they play, fight, make love, or 
make automobiles- they talk. We live in a world of language” (Fromkin & Rodman, 
1993 p.3). 
Language can also change over time, it is changeable. There is no guarantee that a 
particular word must remain forever, before now the word ‘gay’ used to mean 
something “light headed” but all over the world now at the mention of gay , 
homosexuals come to one’s mind because the meaning has changed (Wood, 2007 
p.102). Over time meanings change. According to Johnson (1997) “whores” used to 
mean a person who loves a man or a woman but the meaning has changed to a 
woman who engages in sexual intercourse to make ends meet. Also the word “bitch” 
used to mean the goddess of hunt before Christianity. This means at the mention of 
bitch back in the days, you don’t have a picture of a woman who is disliked in your 

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head (Johnson 1997 p.103). Meanings are even still changing because nowadays girls 
call themselves bitch just like that. 
Verbal communication allows for relay of messages through a mouthed kind of 
communication. This is not to say all mouthed communication is verbal 
communication. Cry, exclamation, laughter etc. These are nonverbal cues which are 
mouthed. Most importantly it is pertinent to say that verbal communication helps us 
to convey our ideas, opinions through a way of producing speech to the receiver. A 
very viable tool of instruction is verbal communication. When teachers give us an 
assignment, we order kebab or even call the customer care line of Turkcell to lay 
complaints about some extra charges we are making use of mouthed kind 
communication to express our thoughts and submissions.