Actions speak louder than words – strategic communication and (un)intentional signalling: a semio-pragmatic taxonomy

Abstract

Purpose

The article tackles the under-defined notion of communication in strategic communication research and elaborates a taxonomy of semiotic processes, which distinguishes different types of communicative and signalling events. The purpose is to offer an improved analysis of the processes by which meaning emerges from strategic communication situations.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed taxonomy is based on a conceptual framework combining semiotics, linguistic pragmatics and signalling theory. Several real cases of strategic communication are analysed to exemplify the taxonomy.

Findings

Different sub-types of signalling events are highlighted and explained. The communicative function of performed behaviours (i.e. when actions speak and do it louder than words) depends on how informative and communicative intentions are managed by the message source and inferentially interpreted by different receivers. It is suggested that the ways in which meaning is signalled can be best understood with an argumentative perspective that foregrounds the inferential processes of persuasion, interpretation and decision-making. The limitations of the transmission vs. ritual and the one-way vs. two-way theories of strategic communication are highlighted.

Originality/value

The article discusses strategic communication events with the under-considered perspective of communication theories in the fields of semiotics and pragmatics. Signalling phenomena are interpreted from a communicative viewpoint, emphasising the argumentative dynamics that constitute them.

Citation

Palmieri, R. and Rocci, A. (2023), "Actions speak louder than words – strategic communication and (un)intentional signalling: a semio-pragmatic taxonomy", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 345-361. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-12-2021-0154