It is suggested that the literature on communicative competence, replete with various formulations, mirrors the diversity of language outlined by Martin Joos in his essay "The Five Clocks." Three concepts of communicative competence are reviewed, in historical perspective. The first, promoted by Norm Chomsky, distinguished linguistic…

The current style-specific theories of human communication include the public speaking style, the relationship style, and the message communication style. It now appears that intercultural communication may emerge as the fourth style-specific theory as a result of scholars' concern over the ethnocentric bias found in the study of communication.…

Examines the consequences of powerful and powerless speech styles in a hypothetical job interview by investigating the effects of seven linguistic features. Found, for example, that hesitations and tags were judged relatively powerless, ineffective, and unlikely to fulfill the communicator's intentions while polite linguistic forms and…