On communication

Been a while since I posted anything here - so, I've been thinking about communication...

I think that when we talk with someone else, we are communicating in one (or often more) of five modalities of speech.  There may be more - and I'm certainly welcome to change/expand the theory.

1) "Information Exchange" - it's about getting information from one person to another (or group). It may or may not involve iteration and feedback to clarify.
   "I'd like a bean and cheese burrito"
        "Would you like a drink with that?"
   "No thanks"
        "That will be $3.86"
Effective exchange between two people, requires an acknowledgement that the information was received - so a response here is important.  Of course, information, doesn't have to be factual. It can be opinions, hearsay, etc.

2) "Affecting Change" - this mode is where the end goal is to modify (or in some cases affirm or question) someones opinion, behavior, choice or actions.  It might be used to get someone to purchase something, for them to take on a new task, to change their sweaty shirt, or opinion.  The intent may be for immediate change, or long term change - so response may or may not be expected. Often, this leads to debate/argument which includes lots of "Information Exchange".

3) "Social Protocol" - this is the "Hi, how are you today?". "I'm fine. You?".  This is mostly a social acknowledgement of other peoples presence. There isn't an assumed "Information exchange" in most cases - you might be having a rotten day, but you understand that the intent of this protocol is just an ACK so you would likely still respond "fine" unless it's important to operate in another mode.

4) "Story" - this model is about relating personal experience or narrative, with the focus typically being on the larger themes, rather than the specific details.  It probably wouldn't matter if the story being related took place on a Wednesday or a Thursday, or if the persons shirt were green or red (and questioning or correcting on these non-central theme details demeans the value of the central story). What maters is the grand scope and central theme(s) of the story.  The intent of telling the story may be egoic amusement ("When I was a kid..."), sharing a lesson learned or warning heeded ("This one time when I was on a fishing trip..."), or relating a collection of observations ("Wow, I've gotta say the Amalfi Coast in Italy is so lovely...").  When someone is telling a story, it's generally polite to "listen", without trying to either correct, or co-opt the conversation, and make it your own story...

5) "Emotional Connection" - here, the intent is in building and/or maintaining (or in some cases lessening) the connection with another person. "How are you today?" here might get a "I'm having a really hard day - the cat barfed on my comforter, my boss just changed the specifications again, and..." Because the main purpose here is connection, the information content is often secondary, and often has elements of "Story" - where it's better to listen to hear, rather than listen to reply.

Many conversations will have more than one of the above - for instance, to affect change, one would hope that there is some information exchange. Likewise, many stories have elements of information exchange.

Thoughts??