Ling 122: English as a World Language -14

1
Ling 122 English as a World Language -14

• VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
• Conversational Interaction
• Readings
• Kachru Smith, Ch. 8

2
Talk Shows from Around the World

• Note the similarities and differences in such
  conversational features as turn-taking,
  back-channeling, simultaneous talk, gestures,
  eye-gaze, etc. among the talk shows in
• Japanese
• Thai
• Mexican
• Philippino
• Vietnamese
• Chinese

3
The Structure of Conversation in Outer and
Expanding Circle Contexts

• Required Concepts
• Interactive acts how the interaction is managed
• Speech acts what is being conveyed or
  negotiated between participants
• Crosscultural Differences
• Speech acts
• Cooperative principle
• Politeness

4
Interactive Acts

• Turn-taking the pattern of conversation in which
  one person speaks, then another
• Normally in SAE one person speaks at a time
• End of talk is signaled by
• Intonation, expressions like you know, gesture,
  lengthening of final syllable, stressed syllable,
  etc.
• Floor the right to begin to talk
• Has some duration
• Is topic-related
• Specific devices to gain or hold the floow and to
  control the topic
• Backchanneling cues that signal attention and
  encourage the speaker to continue
• Simultaneous Talk talk by more than one person
  over an extended period

5
Crosscultural Differences - Turns

• Turn refers to the opportunity to assume the
  role of speaker and what is said by the speaker
• In some speech communities (e.g., Hindi,
  Japanese, Middle East, Eastern Europe) the
  one-speaker-at-a-time rule doesnt apply

6
Crosscultural Differences Floor

• Floor refers to the right to make a first
  statement during a conversation
• A Did you hear the news?
• B What?
• A Bill is back in town!
• Who is/are controlling attention in conversation
• Who is/are controlling the topic of conversation
• Who is/are the central figures in the
  conversation

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Crosscultural Differences Floor

• In SAE
• Men are more successful in initiating and
  maintaining topics and tend to demand the floor
  more frequently
• In India
• Older participants have the right to initiate
  conversation, maintain the floow and yield the
  floor
• In traditional Western Europe
• Children are admonished to be seen, not heard
• In many other cultures
• Only older males initiate, maintain and control
  the floor

8
Crosscultural Differences Backchannel

• The frequency and duration of backchannnelling
  behavior varies from culture to culture
• Japanese speakers Use more frequent backchannel
  cues and the cues are of longer duration
• Speakers of languages that are socialized in the
  patterns of providing frequent and longer
  backchannel cues may use the same strategy in
  English
• This may be disconcerting to the Inner circle
  English speaker

9
Crosscultural Differences Simultaneous Talk

• Simultaneous talk is normally considered rude
  in Inner Circle speech communities
• Rhythmic coordination patterning of speech and
  non-verbal body movements
• Sync talk overlapping speech synchronized
  head nods, both postures
• High involvement style vs. high considerateness
  style

10
FitzGeralds 6 Styles of Interaction

• Institutional/exacting (Northern and Western
  Europe)
• Individual autonomy, non-imposition, brevity,
  explicitness, linearity, goal oriented
• Spontaneous/argumentative (Eastern Europe)
• Sincerity, spontaneity, closeness, blunt, direct
• Involved/expressive (Southern Europe, Latin
  America)
• Warmth, emotion, expressive, concern with
  according positive face to others, affective and
  contextual, tolerates overlap, collaborative
  rather than competitive

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FitzGeralds 6 Styles of Interaction

• Elaborate/dramatic (Middle Eastern)
• Harmonious relations, positive face, affective
  contextual style stressing form over content,
  sweeping (over)generalizations, expressive
  metaphors
• Bureaucratic/contextualized (South Asian)
• Harmonious relations, positive face, affective
  contextual style stressing form over content,
  formal bureaucratic language, inductive
  organization
• Succinct/subdued (East Southeast Asian)
• Harmony, modesty, conformity, positive face,
  masking negative emotions, status oriented,
  deferential

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• How do FitzGeralds six styles of interaction
  accord with the distinction seen in the video
  Culturally Speaking High Context - Low
  Context?
• How do FitzGeralds six styles of interaction
  accord with your own experiences?

13
Crosscultural Differences Rhetorical Strategies

• Rhetorical strategies refers to how what one
  says is organized.
• Chinese professionals often first provide
  background info (history), then transition to
  main point
• (How do you decide what topic to research?)
• Because now, things have changed. Its different
  from the past. In the past, we emphasized how to
  solve practical problems. Nutritionists must know
  how to solve some deficiency diseases. In our
  country, we have some nutritional diseases. But
  now it is important that we must do some basic
  research. So, we must take into account
  fundamental problems. We must concentrate our
  research to study some fundamental research.

14

• Indian English
• Often expresses direct disagreement, followed by
  backing down
• A So in your family were you treated
  differently from your brothers in other ways?
• B No, not in other ways, but yeah yes I was.
  They didnt allow me.

15
Crosscultural Differences Rhetorical Strategies

• Signals of in-group membership
• Maori
• R Tikitiki, well were across the river from
  there and
• N ae.
• R If we wanted to go to Tikitiki we had to go
  right around to Ruatoria. And that was in winter.
• N in winter eh.
• Malay
• Eh Mala, where on earth you went ah? I
  searching, searching all over the place for you
  no sign til one oclock, so I pun got hungry, I
  went for makan.

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Implications for Crosscultural Conversations

• It is difficult to train people to change their
  patterns of synchronized, harmonious
  conversational interaction.
• But it is possible to
• Sensitize people to observe and minimize
  conditions that lead to a sense of discomfort in
  verbal interactions.
• Accommodate different rhetorical strategies in
  crosscultural communication

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Speech Acts

• By uttering a string of meaningful sounds, we
  perform not only the act of speaking, but also a
  variety of acts such as informing, questioning,
  ordering, etc., via the act of speaking.
• Open the door!
• Why are you frowning?
• Would you mind closing the door?
• The formula for finding the area of a circle is
  ?r².

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Speech Acts

• There is no set of speech acts and no set of
  strategies for performing speech acts such that
  all languages and cultures share them
• Example saugandh khaanaa Hindi for to swear
• Doesnt carry negative meanings
• Can swear by anything valuable
• and Ramu, she cried desperately, I have
  enough of quarrelling all the time. In the name
  of our holy mother, cant you leave me alone!

19
Speech Acts

• Speech acts are interpretable only in the context
  of a society or culture
• Indian languages Elders may bless a child
  instead of saying thank you for rendering a
  service.
• Taiwanese Mandarin uses a more direct strategy
  for making requests than SAE
• Igbo Silence is the appropriate way to express
  sympathy to the bereaved following a death.

20
The Cooperative Principle Implicature

• A. "Is that the phone?"
• "I'm in the tub."
• B. "Uncle Charlie is coming over for dinner."
• "Better lock up the liquor."
• C. "Do you know where Bill moved?"
• "Somewhere on the east coast."
• D. "How was your blind date?"
• "He had a nice pair of shoes."
• E. "Professor Smith is sure he'll get tenure."
• "And my pet turtle is sure it will win the
  Kentucky Derby."

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Grices Cooperative Principle

• To describe in a systematic and consistent way
  how implicature works in conversation, Grice
  proposed the cooperative principle
• In conversations, participants cooperate with
  each other.
• They do this by observing the conversational
  maxims.

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Grices Four Conversational Maxims

• Quantity - contribution should be as informative
  as required
• Quality - contribution should not be false
• Relation - contribution should be relevant
• Manner - contribution should be direct

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Assumptions

• 1. We don't adhere to them strictly.
• 2. We interpret what we hear as if what we hear
  conforms to them.
• 3. Where maxim is violated, we draw
  implicatures.

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Violations

• Quantity -
• Letter of reference Bob speaks perfect English
  he doesn't smoke in the office and I have never
  heard him use foul language.
• Quality -
• "Reno is the capital of Nevada, isn't it?"
• "Yeah, and London is the capital of New Jersey."
• Relation -
• "What time is it?"
• "Well, the paper's already come."
• Manner -
• "Let's stop and get something to eat."
• "OK, but not at M-c-D-o-n-a-l-d-s."

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Practice

• What maxim is violated? What is the implicature
  raised?
• 1. "How did Jeff do on the test?"
• "Well, he wrote something down for every
  question.
• 2. "Do you know where Bill is?"
• "Well, he didn't meet me for lunch like he was
  supposed to."

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Implicature Across Cultures

• Inner Circle Englishes value the Maxim of
  Quantity
• Speak directly to the point
• Long pauses are seen as disagreement or hostility
• Japanese English
• Employs much longer pauses than SAE
• South Asian English
• Silence on the part of the younger person is seen
  as agreement or acceptance.

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Politeness

• Face the public self-image that every person
  wants to claim for him/herself.
• Negative face the basic claim to freedom of
  action and freedom from imposition
• Positive face the positive consistent
  self-image or personality claimed by the person

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Threats to Negative Face

• Could you lend me a hundred dollars for a couple
  of days?
• Imposing a request
• If I were you, I would consult a doctor as soon
  as possible. That cough sounds dangerous to me.
• Offering a suggestion
• You are so lucky to have such good friends all
  over the world!
• Compliments (envy)

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Threats to Positive Face

• Werent you supposed to compete the report by
  now?
• Mild criticism
• I am not sure I agree with your interpretation of
  the by-laws.
• Disagreements
• One girl friend to another) Mabel thinks you have
  put on some weight.
• Bad news (shows the speaker not adverse to
  causing distress to addressee.)

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Crosscultural Takes of Face

• Japanese culture values group harmony over
  individual rights
• Positive face considerations play a greater role
  in determining politeness than negative face
  considerations.
• Taiwanese culture prefers strategies like
• I dont like your performance I am not pleased
  with your performance I am not satisfied with
  your performance
• Rather than the preferred SAE strategies
• I am concerned about your performance I have
  been extremely concerned about your work
  performance lately I dont feel that youre
  working to your full potential.

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Conclusions

• Communicative success depends on various aspects
  of conversational interaction.
• Content speech acts, conversational maxims,
  politeness strategies
• Organization turn-taking, maintaining the
  floor, backchannelling, simultaneous talk
• Languages and varieties differ with respect to
  how these aspects of content and organization are
  valued and realized in day-to-day interactions.