interpersonal-communicationlisted

# Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange meaning through verbal and nonverbal messages in the context of a relationship. Unlike public speaking (one to many) or mass media (one to many through technology), interpersonal communication is characterized by mutual influence, relational context, and irreversibility -- once something is said, it cannot be unsaid. The field draws from rhetoric, psychology, sociology, and linguistics, and its practical applications touch every human relationship. **Agent affinity:** tannen (conversational style and linguistic analysis), wollstonecraft (assertive communication and social dynamics) **Concept IDs:** comm-conversation-skills, comm-active-listening, comm-register-formality, comm-professional-communication, comm-respectful-disagreement ## Communication Models ### Linear Model (Shannon & Weaver, 1949) Sender encodes message, transmits through channel, receiver decodes. Noise can distort at any point. This model is useful for understanding transmission failures but fatally limited: it treats communication as a one-way process and the receiver as passive. ### Transactional Model (Barnlund, 1970) Both parties are simultaneously senders and receivers. Communication is not something you do *to* someone but something you do *with* someone. Context (physical, social, cultural, temporal) shapes meaning. Feedback is continuous, not sequential. This is the working model for interperson