Pure mathematics

Lifeworld

Metadiscourse

Communication

Argumentation theory

Field (mathematics)

Biosemiotics

Social science

Dialogical self

Semiotics

Communication studies

Linguistics

Conceptualization

Philosophy

Sociology

Rhetorical question

Communication theory

Epistemology

Mathematics

Metatheory

Communication Theory

This essay reconstructs communication theory as a dialogical-dialectical field according to two principles: the constitutive model of communication as a metamodel and theory as metadiscursive practice. The essay argues that all communication theories are mutually relevant when addressed to a practical lifeworld in which “communication” is already a richly meaningful term. Each tradition of communication theory derives from and appeals rhetorically to certain commonplace beliefs about communication while challenging other beliefs. The complementarities and tensions among traditions generate a theoretical metadiscourse that intersects with and potentially informs the ongoing practical metadiscourse in society. In a tentative scheme of the field, rhetorical, semiotic, phenomenological, cybernetic, socio-psychological, sociocultural, and critical traditions of communication theory are distinguished by characteristic ways of defining communication and problems of communication, metadiscursive vocabularies, and met...

Communication Theory as a Field