Communication Across Cultural

Contexts
INTERLANGUAGE AND INTERCULTURAL
PRAGMATICS

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

New Material

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Purpose of this Class

Introduce you to the field of pragmatics
Explore the notions of context, presupposition &

inference
Give you an overview over several fields where
pragmatics plays a crucial role, including

Speech Act Theory

Politeness Theory
Interlanguage pragmatics

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

What Pragmatics is not

Unlike linguistic philosophers or syntacticians, the

truth value of a sentence is of little interest to

pragmaticians
Pragmaticians arent interested in whether what
someone says constitutes a well-formed sentence
Pragmaticians arent interested in whether what
someone says is true or false

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

What is Pragmatics
Pragmaticians are interested in why people say

something and why they say it in this particular way

Pragmaticians are interested in how an utterance
gains meaning from the surrounding social and
situational context
Pragmaticians are interested in how speaker and
addressee create and negotiate meaning

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Context
Context can be understood as the particular

environments in which communication, texts and

meaning making occur and in which they function as
meaningful (Schirato & Yell, 2000: 109-110)

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Context
Physical
I want that book
Be here at 9 tonight
Linguistic
I cant believe you said that
Social
I do hereby humbly request that you might endeavor to
telephone me with news of your arrival at your domicile when
such arrival occurs.

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Context
Context is a conceptual dimension, a way of reading

what is going on out there

Context is a subjective interpretation
Idiosyncratic perception

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Context
Contextual factors to consider
What is going on
Where it is happening
Those involved
The role of the text in the situation
The other texts (intertexts) which are related to this one
The wider social and cultural context

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Context
Example: A member of the opposite sex asks you out for a coffee
What is going on an invite
Where it is happening

a) where is the invite made (in class, a nightclub, at a conference, in the street)
b) where is the meeting proposed (the nearest starbucks, a private home, coffee
shop at place of business, in a romantic garden setting)

Those involved a friend, a stranger, a boss

The role of the text in the situation out of the blue, after discussing organising a
get-together to do your group work, after a presentation at a conference, after a
job interview
The other texts (intertexts) which are related to this one did you just have a
discussion about where you can get the best coffee in town, what have you just
been talking about previously, what is your joint history of interaction together
The wider social and cultural context is it appropriate in your culture society to
ask a friend/stranger/employee our for a coffee under the given circumstances
and is it appropriate for you to accept this?

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Presupposition
Unchallenged Acceptance
Common ground
Assumptions
It must:
Be mutually known or assumed by the speaker and addressee for
the utterance to be considered appropriate in context
Generally remain a necessary assumption whether the utterance is
placed in the form of an assertion, denial or question
Generally be associated with a specific lexical item or grammatical
feature (presupposition trigger) in the utterance

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Presupposition
An implicit assumption about the world or background belief

relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in

discourse.
Examples:

Jane no longer writes fiction

Presupposition: Jane once wrote fiction

Have you stopped eating meat?

You had previously eaten meat

Example:
The utterance John regrets that he stopped doing linguistics before he
left Cambridge has the following presuppositions:

There is someone uniquely identifiable to speaker and addressee as John.

John stopped doing linguistics before he left Cambridge.
John was doing linguistics before he left Cambridge.
John left Cambridge.
John had been at Cambridge.

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Inference
An act or process of deriving logical conclusions from

premises known or assumed to be true

The non-logical, but rational, means, through
observation of patterns of facts, to indirectly see new
meanings and contexts for understanding

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Inference
Syllogism: correct three part inferences, that can be used

as building blocks for more complex reasoning

Example:
All men are mortal
Socrates is a man
Therefore, Socrates is mortal

Fallacy: An incorrect inference - Philosophers who study

informal logic have compiled large lists of them, and

cognitive psychologists have documented many biases in
human reasoning that favor incorrect reasoning

Example:
All tall people are Greek
John Lennon was tall
Therefore, John Lennon was Greek

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Inference
Speaker
Implied
Suggested
Meant
Addressee
Meaning derived from context
Interpretation of utterance
Deriving intended meaning

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Areas of Interest within Pragmatics

Speech Act Theory
Politeness Theory
Interlanguage Pragmatics

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Speech acts are language in action
By making an utterance, people perform the action
Name some speech acts

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Speech acts by nature are relatively scripted and

conventionalized
Rules govern which behaviour is appropriate for
which speech act
Such rules and conventions vary across cultures

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Example: Disagreement
Researchers have argued that:
We mostly aim for agreement and conflict avoidance in
interaction
Fundamental tendency to cooperate and align
We avoid threatening social bonds
Disagreement is downplayed or at least weakened

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Preferences differ across cultures
Cultures that avoid dissent include: Anglo-Saxon cultures,
Japanese culture, Chinese culture, other Asian cultures
Cultures that enjoy a heated debate and like to engage in a
confrontational style include: Jewish culture, German culture,
Turkish culture, Polish culture, Spanish culture, some South
American cultures

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Emphasis on the expression of surface-level agreement

and maintenance of harmony

Whether disagreement is seen as harmony-destroying
Whether disagreement is seen as social event that builds
bonds
Whether disagreement is seen to have a sociable nature
Whether cultures have a high involvement style
Whether it is seen as more face-threatening not to be
able to defend own opinion
Genre-dependent

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Leave-taking
In British culture if dinner guests indicate they want to leave,
the British let them go
Reasons?
Acknowledging their autonomy
Acknowledging their wish for self-determination

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Leave-taking
In Polish culture the hosts will try to persuade the guests to
stay
Reasons?
Display of warmth and caring is more important than respect for
autonomy
Seen as uncaring and cold if they didnt

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Consequence:
British see Poles as lacking consideration for others and
showing a tendency to being inflexible, bossy and to interfere
Poles regard Brits as lacking in warmth, spontaneity and
sincerity

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Act Theory

Example Compliments
Different cultures have different norms on
Compliment formulae
Who to compliment
When to compliment
How frequently to compliment
What to compliment on
How to respond to compliments

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speech Acts
For a speech act to be successful it is not enough to

have the right intentions

It has to meet the cultural expectations
If it doesnt comply with what a culture considers
appropriate it will fail

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Example
On Germans: How they would like others to see

them

They would like to be respected for their devotion to truth and

honesty. They are surprised that this is sometimes taken as
tactlessness, or worse. After all, if I know you to be in error,
surely it is my duty to correct you? Surely the truth is more
important than pretending to like your ghastly shirt or sports
coat? Foreigners just cannot seem to appreciate this.
(Xenophobes guide to the Germans)

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

How does this relate to Pragmatics

Speech acts acquire their meaning in the cultural

context in which they occur

For a speech act to be successful a speakers and a
hearers cultural expectations of what is
(in)appropriate must align
The speakers and hearers respective evaluation of
the situation, context, social aspects and the
interlocutor must be accurate (and similar)

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Applied Politeness
Utterances are never innately polite or impolite
What makes an utterance polite depends on the

social and situational context in which they occur

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Speaker intention
Cultural & social influences on the speaker (out of awareness)

Speaker
Assessing
applicable social &
cultural norms
(conscious)

Assessing
situational context

Assessing
addressee

Assessing the level

of politeness
perceived as
appropriate

Utterance
Cultural & social filter (out of awareness)
Addressee
Assessing
applicable social &
cultural norms
(conscious)
HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Assessing
situational context

Addressee
interpretation

Assessing
speaker

Assessing
politeness, prosody
& non-verbal cues
of an utterance

How does politeness relate to pragmatics?

What is polite is a culture-bound perception
Politeness is also strongly context dependent
The social context and situational circumstances

influence when something is or is not polite

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Sociopragmatic Factors
There are 3 main factors that influence our choices
How these 3 factors are perceived and weighted is

culture-dependent

Power
Distance
Imposition

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Sociopragmatic Factors
Power
Does a person have a lot or little power?
Is the person I am talking to in a higher or lower power
position than myself?
Which impact does my culture attribute to such differences?
Which strategies are appropriate in my culture to use?
H -> L
Equals
L -> H

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Sociopragmatic Factors
Distance
How well do I know the person?
How close a relationship do we have?
Strategies will depend on whether they are:
Strangers
Acquaintances
Friends
Family/intimate relationships

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Sociopragmatic Factors
Degree of Imposition
What is it that I am asking for?
How much is it that I am asking for?
How easy or difficult is it for the other person to comply?
How much of an imposition is it on the other person?

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Misconception
If people speak the same language they automatically

understand each other

Wrong, because:

Language is just a message medium

Understanding stems from:
Appropriate packaging of a message (i.e. when to say what to
whom under which circumstances)
Appropriate unwrapping of a message (i.e. culturally correct
interpretation of context, presupposition, inference)

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Interlanguage Pragmatics
Interlanguage Pragmatics is the relationship between

L1 and L2
Pragmatic transfer
Difficulties arising for learners from pragmatic
transfer
Pragmatic failure

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Interlanguage Pragmatics
Relationship between L1 and L2
How similar are the pragmatic norms of the cultures
Do L1 strategies work in L2

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Interlanguage Pragmatics
Pragmatic Transfer
Is to transfer L1 sociocultural competence in performing L2
aspects of communication
Learners impose their own cultural norms on target language

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Interlanguage Pragmatics
Pragmatic Transfer
Types of transfer
Interference/negative transfer
Facilitative/positive transfer

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Interlanguage Pragmatics
Pragmatic Transfer
Factors in pragmatic transfer
Perception of language distance between native and target
language
Learning context
Instructional effect
L2 proficiency
Access to target language

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Interlanguage Pragmatics
Pragmatic Transfer
Transferability is determined by learners assessment of:
Contextual appropriateness of a given strategy in their L1
Assessment of equivalence of strategies in native and target
language

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Interlanguage Pragmatics
Pragmatic failure
Miscommunication arising from pragmatic transfer
Communication breakdown due to lack of pragmatic
understanding

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Interlanguage Pragmatics
Pragmatic failure results from
Overgeneralization
Simplification

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler

Homework
Reading:
Zegarac, V. and Pennington, M. (2008). Pragmatic

Transfer. In H. Spencer-Oatey (ed.), Culturally

Speaking, 141-163.

HG8004 Stefanie Stadler