Title: Intercultural Communication
1Intercultural Communication
- Language and Verbal Behaviour
2Outline
- What is Language?
- Symbols, design features and rule systems
- Pragmatics
- Cooperative Principle
- Politeness and facework
- Indirect/direct speech and high- /low-context
speech - Language Attitudes
- Standard/nonstandard speech
- Attitudes and discrimination
3What is Language?
- Communication is the process of exchanging
messages and creating meaning. - Language is a symbol system. It includes rules
regarding the combination of sounds into meaning
units, meaning units into words, words into
sentences, along with the rules for using that
language.
4Symbols
- Symbols are arbitrarily assigned representations
that stand for something else conventional
labels used by participants in a language
community to arouse standardized aspects of
reality.
5Some Design Features of Language
- Arbitrary
- Conventional
- Discrete
- Displacement
- Productivity
6Rule Systems in Language
semantic
The vet examines the dog.
syntactic
the
vet
examine
s
the
dog
morphological
Theveteksaminsthedog
phonological
7Rule Systems, contPragmatics
- Grices (1975) Cooperative Principle
- Make your conversational contribution such as is
required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk
exchange in which you are engaged. (p. 45)
8Rule Systems, contPragmatics
- Grices (1975) Cooperative Principle
- 4 Maxims
- Quantity Say only what is required, no more, no
less - Quality Be nonspurious, be sincere, speak the
truth - Relation/Relevance Be relevant, to the point
- Manner Be perspicuous, avoid ambiguity and
obscurity
9Rule Systems, contPragmatics
- Politeness and Facework (Brown and Levinson,
1978, 1987) - Violations of maxims happen in the interest of
politeness, in an effort to be efficient but meet
face concerns. These violations can render our
speech more or less direct or indirect.
10Rule Systems, contPragmatics
- Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) Politeness and
facework - Face the positive social value a person
effectively claims for himself by the line others
assume he has taken during a particular contact
(Goffman, 1967, p. 5) - Negative face autonomy concerns
- (e.g. requests and impositions)
- Positive face closeness concerns
- (e.g. disagreements and criticism)
11Direct and Indirect Speech
- Speech varies in the extent to which it is
direct, explicit, and exact with regards to the
speakers true intentions vs. indirect, implicit,
and ambiguous. - 2 dimensions of indirectness are correlated
(Holtgraves, 1997) - Look for indirect meanings in others remarks
- Speak indirectly
- Using indirect speech may be related to
minimizing face-threats.
12Direct and Indirect Speech
- Direct speech
- reveals speakers true intentions (manner).
- is relevant to the topic at hand (relevancy).
- is consistent with true feelings opinions and
reveals personal information (quality). - is precise (quantity).
13Direct and Indirect Speech
- Indirect speech
- Does not reveal speakers true intentions
(manner). - May be ambiguous and irrelevant the listener
must infer what is relevant (relevance) - Does not reveal personal information but relies
on group-based information (quality) - Involves the use of understatement.
14High vs. Low-Context Language
- We can figure out indirect speech from context.
- Context can include
- World knowledge
- Knowledge of the other
- Knowledge of the context
- The history of their interactions
- Verbal and nonverbal messages
- Social roles
15High vs. Low-Context Language
- Hall (1976, p. 79)
- High-context messages include most of the
information in either in the physical context or
internalized in the person, while very little is
in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the
message. - Low context messages include most of the
information in the explicit code.
16High vs. Low-Context Language
- High context (direct) speech
- reveals speakers true intentions (manner).
- is relevant to the topic at hand (relevancy).
- is consistent with true feelings opinions and
reveals personal information (quality). - is precise (quantity).
17High vs. Low-Context Language
- Low context (indirect) speech
- Does not reveal speakers true intentions
(manner). - May be ambiguous and irrelevant the listener
must infer what is relevant (relevance) - Does not reveal personal information but relies
on group-based information (quality) - Involves the use of understatement.
18Related Ideas
- Elaborate vs. Understated Interaction Style
- Elaborate style refers to the use of expressive
language in everyday conversation (e.g.,
exaggeration or animation). - Understated style involves use of subdued
language (e.g., silence, pauses, and
understatements).
19Language Attitudes Definition of Attitudes
- An attitude is a mental and neural state of
readiness, organized through experience, exerting
a directive or dynamic influence upon the
individuals response to all objects and
situations with which it is related. (G.W.
Allport, 1935)
20Attitudes and Language Variation
- Persons have attitudes toward language which are
especially salient and influential in initial
interactions. Various linguistic features
trigger in message recipients beliefs and
evaluations regarding message senders and these
beliefs and evaluations are most likely to affect
recipients behaviours toward senders in contexts
of low mutual familiarity (Bradac, 1990, p. 388)
21Standard and Non-Standard Speech Styles
- A standard speech style is the prestige form of a
language, associated with the higher status group
in a society. - A nonstandard form is any variant from the
standard form (e.g., another language, dialect,
accent), usually associated with the lower status
group.
22Hypotheses about Standard and Non-Standard Speech
Styles
- Inherent value hypothesis
- The standard dialect became the prestige form of
the language because it evolved as the
aesthetically ideal form of that language. - Imposed norm hypothesis
- Standard and non-standard dialects are equally
aesthetically pleasing, but the non-standard form
is viewed negatively because of social norms
which are biased against it.
23Research Approaches
- Content analyses
- Survey research
- Experimental research
24Matched Guise Technique(Lambert, Hodgson,
Gardner, Fillenbaum 1960)
- Independent Variable
- 4 bilingual speakers read passage once in English
and once in French 8 passages - Dependent Variable
- Height, good looks, leadership, sense of humour,
intelligence, religiousness, self-confidence,
dependability, entertaining, kindness, ambitious,
sociable, character, likeablity
25Evaluative Dimensions
- Evaluations can occur along 2 (or more)
dimensions (Ryan et al., 1977) - Status
- Educated-uneducated, wealthy-poor,
intelligent-unintelligent - Solidarity
- Trustworthy-untrustworthy, friendly-unfriendly,
kind-cruel
26Language Attitudes and Discrimination
- Compliance
- Workplace
- Education
- Law
- Medicine
27Language Attitudes and Discrimination in the
Workplace (de la Zerda Hopper, 1979)
Probability of Employment
28Code-switching
- the juxtaposition within the same speech
exchange of passages of speech belonging to two
different grammatical systems or sub-systems
(Gumperz, 1982, p. 59) - Examples
- extra-sentential
- Il est difficile, you know?
- intersentential
- Sometimes Ill start a sentence in English y
termino en español. - intrasentential
- Jaime ta jupe, mais je naime pas le way que it
hangs.
29Culture-Based Conversational Constraints Theory
(Kim, 2005)
- Goals approach
- Want to understand why certain types of verbal
strategies are preferred by a cultural group - Predictability of strategy choices
- Want to discover underlying reasons why specific
strategy choices are made across cultures and how
general impressions of competence are formed.
30Culture-Based Conversational Constraints Theory
- Conversational constraints (Kim, 1993, 1995)
- cognitive generators of tactical preferences
(Kim, 2005, p. 95) - principles that guide an individuals
conversational style in general. - General and overarching criteria for choosing
conversational strategy (Kim, 1993)
31Culture-Based Conversational Constraints Theory
- Knowledge of interaction goals is cast at 3
levels of abstraction - 1. tactical or strategic goals
- Desires for a specific behavioral action (e.g.
raise eyebrows, ask a question, turn away) - 2. primary communication goals
- desires for the outcome of a conversation (e.g.
gaining compliance, seeking information, testing
affinity) - 3. global goals
- Guide conversational style in general (e.g.,
Clarity/efficiency and face-support/
appropriateness)
32Culture-Based Conversational Constraints Theory
- 5 global constraints
- Concern for clarity
- Concern for minimizing imposition
- Concern for others feelings
- Concern for avoiding negative evaluation by the
hearer - Effectiveness
33Culture-Based Conversational Constraints Theory
- Kim (1994)
- No significant cultural differences in concern
for avoiding negative evaluation by the hearer
(appropriateness) and in concern for
effectiveness. - Group differences emerge in terms of what
predicts effectiveness - Korea avoid neg. eval/hurting other
- US clarity
-
34Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals
(Markus Kitayama, 1991)
Coworker
Mother
Coworker
Mother
SELF
SELF
Friend
Neighbour
Friend
Neighbour
Independent
Interdependent
35Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals
(Markus Kitayama, 1991)
- Independent
- Separate from social context
- Bounded, unitary, stable
- Internal, private (feelings, thoughts)
- Life tasks Be unique, express self,
self-actualization - Self-esteem depends on ability to express self,
validate internal attributes - Direct communication
- Interdependent
- Connected with social context
- Flexible, variable
- External, public (roles, statuses, relationships)
- Life tasks belong, fit-in, engage in appropriate
action, promote others goals - Self esteem depends on ability to adjust,
maintain harmony, restrain self - Indirect communication
36Culture-Based Conversational Constraints Theory
- (Kim et al., 1994 Kim Sharkey, 1995)
- The higher the level of independent
self-construals, the greater the concern for
clarity - The higher the level of interdependent
self-construals, the higher the perceived
importance of not hurting the hearers feelings. - The higher the level of interdependent
self-construals, the greater the concern for
negative evaluations.