ABSTRACT
In daily life each person accomplishes feats only slightly less astonishing, for basically all communication involves a similar series of interchanges and inferences. The common sense way of looking at communication is mechanical; individual organisms are viewed as influencing each other through interstimulation. The product of communication is not merely the modification of the listener's attitude or behavior through the stimulation, but the establishment of some measure of consensus. Consensus is built up primarily through symbolic communication, interaction that occurs through an elaborate set of conventional symbols which stand for shared meanings. Symbolic communication can occur through any gesture that can be produced voluntarily, as long as there is consensus over the meanings to be represented by the various sounds and bodily movements. In speaking of symbolic communication, then, reference is being made to a system of gestural interchanges which is subject to some measure of social control.
