This theory-based introduction to basic concepts in human communication provides coverage of new and innovative theories as well as the more traditional coverage of an introduction to communication course, giving students an understanding of the discipline and helping them develop strategies for becoming better communicators.

Fundamentals of Human Communication presents the basic theoretical and practical concepts of the human communication process. DeFleur uses a multidisciplinary approach, with a balance of innovative and traditional perspectives to give students the tools to communicate effectively in the workplace and in everyday situations

This introduction to the basic concepts in human communication provides a theory-based overview of the communication studies discipline and helps students develop strategies for becoming better communicators. Substantially revised, the third edition focuses on communication research and theory from a social science perspective, and emphasizes communication in practice, both in everyday life and in the workplace. Fundamentals of Human Communication is not intended for courses in which the text is meant to support an extensive public speaking/performance component.

A leading expert on evolution and communication presents an empirically based theory of the evolutionary origins of human communication that challenges the dominant Chomskian view. Human communication is grounded in fundamentally cooperative, even shared, intentions. In this original and provocative account of the evolutionary origins of human communication, Michael Tomasello connects the fundamentally cooperative structure of human communication (initially discovered by Paul Grice) to the especially cooperative structure of human (as opposed to other primate) social interaction. Tomasello argues that human cooperative communication rests on a psychological infrastructure of shared intentionality (joint attention, common ground), evolved originally for collaboration and culture more generally. The basic motives of the infrastructure are helping and sharing: humans communicate to request help, inform others of things helpfully, and share attitudes as a way of bonding within the cultural group. These cooperative motives each created different functional pressures for conventionalizing grammatical constructions. Requesting help in the immediate you-and-me and here-and-now, for example, required very little grammar, but informing and sharing required increasingly complex grammatical devices. Drawing on empirical research into gestural and vocal communication by great apes and human infants (much of it conducted by his own research team), Tomasello argues further that humans' cooperative communication emerged first in the natural gestures of pointing and pantomiming. Conventional communication, first gestural and then vocal, evolved only after humans already possessed these natural gestures and their shared intentionality infrastructure along with skills of cultural learning for creating and passing along jointly understood communicative conventions. Challenging the Chomskian view that linguistic knowledge is innate, Tomasello proposes instead that the most fundamental aspects of uniquely human communication are biological adaptations for cooperative social interaction in general and that the purely linguistic dimensions of human communication are cultural conventions and constructions created by and passed along within particular cultural groups.

Praised for its teachability, Thinking Through Communication provides an excellent, balanced introduction to basic theories and principles of communication, making sense of a complex field through a variety of approaches. In an organized and coherent manner, Thinking Through Communication covers a full range of topics- from the history of communication study to the methods used by current communication scholars to understand human interaction. The text explores communication in a variety of traditional contexts: interpersonal, group, organizational, public, intercultural, computer-mediated communication and the mass media. This edition also offers new insights into public speaking and listening. This text can be used successfully in both theory- and skills-based courses. Written in a clear, lively style, Trenholm's overall approach-including her use of examples and interesting illustrations-helps both majors and non-majors alike develop a better understanding of communication as a field of study and an appreciation for ways in which communication impacts their daily lives.

Human Communication: The Basic Course surveys the broad field of human communication, giving attention to theory, research, and skill development. This Twelfth Edition provides an in-depth look at the concepts and principles of human communication, emphasizing public speaking, interpersonal communication, and small group communication. Designed to allow flexibility in teaching approaches, Human Communication: The Basic Course offers instructors a wide range of topics to discuss and apply to real-world experiences.