Intercultural Communication Language and Verbal Behaviour

Intercultural Communication

Language and Verbal Behaviour

Outline

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

What 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.

Symbols

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.

Some Design Features of Language

Arbitrary Conventional Discrete Displacement Productivity

Rule Systems in Language

the vet examine s the dog

The vet examines the dog.

morphological

phonological

syntactic

semantic

Th+e+v+e+t+e+ks+a+m+i+n+s+th+e+d+o+g

Rule Systems, cont:Pragmatics

Grice’s (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)


Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principle4 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


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.


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)

Direct and Indirect Speech

Speech varies in the extent to which it is direct, explicit, and exact with regards to the speaker’s 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.


Direct speech reveals speaker’s 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).


Indirect speech Does not reveal speaker’s 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.

High 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


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.


High context (direct) speech reveals speaker’s 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).


Low context (indirect) speech Does not reveal speaker’s 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.

Related 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).

Language 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 individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related. (G.W. Allport, 1935)

Attitudes 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 recipient’s behaviours toward senders in contexts of low mutual familiarity” (Bradac, 1990, p. 388)

Standard 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.

Hypotheses 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.

Research Approaches

Content analyses Survey research Experimental research

Matched 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

Evaluative Dimensions

Evaluations can occur along 2 (or more) dimensions (Ryan et al., 1977)

Status Educated-uneducated, wealthy-poor,

intelligent-unintelligentSolidarity

Trustworthy-untrustworthy, friendly-unfriendly, kind-cruel

Language Attitudes and Discrimination

Compliance Workplace Education Law Medicine

Language Attitudes and Discrimination in the Workplace (de la Zerda & Hopper, 1979)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Supervisor SkilledTechnician

UnskilledWorker

AccentedUnaccented

Pro

babil i

ty o

f Em

pl o

ym

ent

Code-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 I’ll start a sentence in English y termino en español.

intrasentential J’aime ta jupe, mais je n’aime pas le way que it

hangs.

Culture-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.

Culture-Based Conversational Constraints Theory

Conversational constraints (Kim, 1993, 1995) “cognitive generators of tactical

preferences” (Kim, 2005, p. 95) principles that guide an individual’s

conversational style in general. General and overarching criteria for

choosing conversational strategy (Kim, 1993)


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)


5 global constraints Concern for clarity Concern for minimizing imposition Concern for other’s feelings Concern for avoiding negative

evaluation by the hearer Effectiveness


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 otherUS: clarity

Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals (Markus & Kitayama, 1991)

SELF SELF

MotherCoworker

Friend Neighbour

Mother Coworker

FriendNeighbour

Independent Interdependent

Independent 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


(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 hearer’s feelings.

The higher the level of interdependent self-construals, the greater the concern for negative evaluations.

Documents

Intercultural Communication Language and Verbal Behaviour