null experience |
Working Definition:
In instances where persons cannot share experiences, either of two conditions usually pertains: (1) one of the persons has not yet had experiences that would enable communication, or (2) one of the persons CANNOT actually have the experiences that would enable communication. This study focuses upon experiences that persons cannot actually have which are termed "null experiences"
Type 1 is a TYPICAL null experience and occurs frequently. Type 2 is a RADICAL null experience and occurs in specific racial, gendered, generational, or specialized communications.
Disciplinary Definitions:
Since I coined the term there are no disciplinary definiitons other than mine. The adjective "null" refers to the significant absence of an experience that would aid a person in understanding another person(s). It also reflects the fact that there is a "gap" in a person's experience owing to the circumstance that not having had a particular experience means that there is no "record" of it in a person's memory system.
Comments:
For
example: 
Men
cannot have many experiences women typically have.
Women cannot have many experiences men typically have.
Persons of one race cannot have many experiences persons of another race typically
have.
Persons who are alive cannot have many experiences
persons typically had before they were born.
Person's living in the present cannot have many experiences persons in the
past typically had.
Young persons cannot have many experiences older persons typically have while
they are young.
Older persons cannot have many experiences younger
persons typically have in their generation.
Persons who have not fought in battle cannot have had many experiences soldiers
who have fought have had.
Persons who are not pilots cannot have had many experiences
pilots typically have.
Persons
who have not had cancer cannot have had many experiences persons ill with
cancer have had.
Persons without funds do not have many experiences persons with funds typically
have.
Persons with funds do not have many experiences persons without funds typically
have.
Notes
"this model accommodates recent work in crosscultural communication (including cross-gender communication) much more easily than the alternative model. It is well known that crosscultural communication is often plagued by misunderstandings that have nothing to do with the meaning of linguistic forms in the narrow sense (Gumperz 1982; Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (1995). Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach, 1995, [page??]).
A model based on the view that communication involves the exchange of shared 'concepts' between individuals would have considerable difficulty in accounting for this phenomenon. In a frame-oriented approach, however, knowledge differences based on an individual's life experiences (including growing up in a particular culture) can be built into the model. If this kind of experiential knowledge informs our use of language //12 // and our understanding of specific linguistic forms, as the frame-based approach claims, then we have the beginnings of an explanation for some of these findings. In chapter 11 we will consider a specific manifestation of this phenomenon, involving cross-generational communication." Lee, Cognitive Linguistics, 2004. 11-12)
U&S point out that a lack of knowledge of the appropriate script in a specific situation gives rise to misunderstandings. Here the notion of "protocol" becomes important as a bridge for experience transfers.(Ungerer & Schmid, An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics1996, 216) They also note that frames are context-dependent and culture-dependent.(Ungerer & Schmid, An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics, 1996, 219)
Check:
("In certain circumstances, the term weekend will conjure up different images (that is, have different connotations) for them. To this extent they understand the term in different ways. This does not normally lead to a communication problem, since the differences in question are small in relation to the degree of common ground and they are largely irrelevant to most situations in which the word is used. Nevertheless, there is some potential here for minor or even major communication problems. This issue is taken up in chapter 11." Lee, Cognitive Linguistics, 2004. 10)
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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