Comparison of Udmurt, Estonian, and Finnish Communicative Behavior

1
Comparison of Udmurt, Estonian, and Finnish
Communicative Behavior

• Elena Ryabina

2
High- and low-context (Hall 1976)

• Context is shared information between the
  interlocutors, what is different in each culture
• In high-context cultures, information is conveyed
  more by the context than by the verbal
  expression. The talk goes around the point and
  interpretation of utterances is the task of
  listener (Mostly the collectivistic cultures)
• In low-context cultures, communication is
  explicit and overt, the information is largely
  verbalized (Mostly the individualistic cultures)

3
Individualism-collectivism (Hofstede 1980)

• High-context cultures are mostly collectivistic
• Low-context cultures are mostly individualistic
  (Gudykunst Ting-Toomy 1988)
• In collectivistic cultures group goals have
  precedence over individuals goals
• In individualistic cultures the emphasis is
  placed on individual goals

4

• High-context cultures (collectivistic)
• Japan
• China
• Korea
• African Americans
• American Indians
• Arabs
• Greece
• Latin Americans
• Italy
• England
• France
• North America
• Scandinavia
• German
• Switzerland (german)
• Low-context cultures (individualistic)

5
Communicative Behavior of Estonians and Finns
(Pajupuu 1995, 1997)

• Estonian dialogues
• Short turns
• Frequent interruption of the interlocutor
• Short pauses
• Fast speech
• In the speech are a lot of ellipses
• Communication tend to be with low-context

• Finnish dialogues
• Long turns
• Rare interruptions of the interlocutor
• Long pauses
• Quiet speech
• Silent listening
• Communication tend to be with high-context

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The Udmurts
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The Data and Methods of the Study

• 10 dialogues were recorded by the radio Mynam
  Udmurtie broadcasting programme Mi doryn kunoyn
  as direct transmission
• Measuring the duration of turns, pauses and the
  interlocutors simultaneous speaking (program
  SoundForge 8.0.)
• Comparison of Udmurt dialogue components with
  Estonian and Finnish dialogue components

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What are measured (abbreviations)

• a the turn of the leading interviewer
• b the turn of the interviewee
• (s)ab simultaneous speaking not leading to
  turn-switching (intra-turn double speaking)
• (l)ab simultaneous speaking leading to a
  switching of turns (turn-ending double speaking)
• (s)p pause not leading to turn-switching
  (intra-turn pause)
• (l)p pause leading to a switching of turn
  (turn-switching pause).

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The mean duration of the Udmurt, Estonian and the
Finnish dialogue components
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Conclusion

• In Udmurt dialogues
• Durations of turns are between Estonian and
  Finnish
• Shortest pauses
• (These characteristics refer to low-context)
• Very low occurrence of interruptions
• (This characteristic refers to high-context)
• Consequently it is impossible to define with
  absolute confidence the location of Udmurt
  culture in the continuum of high- and low-context
  cultures on the basis of the temporal
  characteristics of dialogues