A Study on Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Communication.doc

毕业论文(设计)B.A. Thesis A Study on Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Communication B.A. Candidate: Zhang LiliAdvisor: Zheng Sanliang Foreign Language DepartmentJiaying UniversityMay 20, 2008vi Acknowledgements After a long painstaking period of work, I now have finally finished my thesis. I would like to take this opportunity to express my wholehearted gratitude to Ms Zheng Sanliang. It is she who has given me the most precious suggestions. She was willing to take the pain of reading drafts after drafts and to take time off her busy schedule to help me revise them. I would also like to give my thanks to all my friends who have been standing by me during my hard times, especially April, who has given me many suggestions and help on my studies as well as on my life.AbstractWith the rapid development of globalization and frequent contacts among different countries, cross-cultural communication is getting more and more important and becomes one of the most prominent and significant activities today. Communication breakdowns still happen all the time when we try to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds. Pragmatic failure is one of the several factors which influence cross-cultural communication. Pragmatic failure is a term given by British linguist Jenny Thomas to “the inability to understand what is meant by what is sad”. Thomas (1983) divided pragmatic failures into two types, pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. Pragmalinguistic failure refers to the inability in interpreting the linguistic meaning caused by mistaken beliefs about pragmatic force of utterance, and it is generally categorized into the following three kinds of failures: failures in literal meaning, failures in structure and failures in style, which mainly revealed as confusing the literal meaning with pragmatic meaning, overusing complete structure and violating the language rule of speaking. While sociopragmatic failure refers to the expressive inappropriateness resulted from the misunderstanding or the ignorance of social or cultural differences. It falls into two main aspects: failures in culture and failures in social norms. The causes for these two pragmatic failures, according to Thomas, are negative transfers, which include negative transfer of social norms, negative transfer of conventional value, negative transfer of politeness, inadequate instruction guidance and inadequate exposure to actual use of the target language. In order to avoid pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication, the author puts forth such suggestions as strengthening cultural awareness, avoiding negative stereotyping, and cultivating cross-cultural communicative competence from the aspects of grammatical competence, pragmatic competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. Key Words: cross-cultural communication pragmatic failures communicative competence 摘 要随着全球化进程的加快，跨文化交际已越来越成为当今世界的重要活动之一。但由于不同地域的人之间存在各种文化上的差异，不同文化背景的人之间的交际障碍仍然存在，交际失败经常产生。 语用失误是影响跨文化交际的因素之一。语用失误一词是由Jenny Thomas于1983年在Applied Linguistics发表的文章Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure中提出的。她认为语用失误是由于听话人没能理解说话人的意图而引起的。在文中她区分了语言语用失误和社交语用失误。语言语用失误即因语言使用不当而造成的失误，一般有语义失误、句式失误和语言形式失误，这些失误主要由于混淆字面意思与实际表达意思，滥用完整句式和违反言语行为规则造成的。而社交语用失误则主要是由于不了解社会文化习俗而造成的失误，主要有文化失误和社会规范失误。Thomas认为，负迁移是引起语用失误的最直接原因，其包括语言层上的负迁移和文化规约上的负迁移,以及不恰当的教育指引和不恰当的目标语的实际使用。为了避免跨文化交际中的语用失误，作者提出这样的建议，提倡人们应该加强文化意识，从语言能力，交际能力，社交语言能力及策略能力方面培养综合的跨文化交际能力。关键词 : 跨文化交际 语用失误 交际能力ContentsAcknowledgements.iAbstract (English)iiAbstract (Chinese).ivContents.v1. Introduction.12. Cross-cultural communication2 2.1 Definition .3 2.2 Factors affecting cross-cultural communication43. Pragmatic failure.5 3.1 Definition5 3.2 Classification.6 3.2.1 Pragmalinguistic failure.6 Failures in literal meaning6 Failures in structure.8 Failures in style9 3.2.2 Sociopragmatic failure10 Failures in culture10 Failures in social norms.114. Causes for pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication .12 4.1 Negative transfer of the social norms.12 4.2 Negative transfer of conventional value.13 4.3 Negative transfer of politeness.15 4.4 Inadequate instruction guidance.16 4.5 Inadequate exposure to actual use of the target language.17 5. Suggestions for avoiding pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication17 5.1 Strengthening cultural awareness17 5.2 Avoiding negative stereotyping.18 5.3 Cultivating cross-cultural communicative competence.19 5.3.1 Grammatical competence.20 5.3.2 Pragmatic competence.20 5.3.3 Sociolinguistic competence.21 5.3.4 Strategic competence.226. Conclusion23References.25嘉应学院毕业论文(设计)A Study on Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Communication1. IntroductionNowadays, there is a wave of globalization due to factors including mass access to Internet, globalization of industry, expansion of educational exchanges, and so on. New technologies, growth of the worlds population, and shifts in the global economic arena have all contributed to the increase in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, cross-cultural communication has become indispensable today.Cross-cultural communication refers to communication between people from different cultures. Due to the increase of the cross-cultural communication, the factors affecting communication are drawing much more attention from the researchers. People from different cultures have different ways of encoding or decoding messages. Thus the pragmatic failure, caused by different cultures, in cross-cultural communication arises. In the past two decades, there has been an increasing interest in the study of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication. Cross-cultural pragmatic failure has been an important area of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication studies ever since the term was first used by British linguist Jenny Thomas in her 1983 paper, “Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure”, published in Applied Linguistics. It is to define the inability to understand what is meant by what is said. Research shows that the main cause of pragmatic failure is lack of knowledge of cultural differences. With more and more closer international communication, pragmatic failure has become one of the main sources that give rise to cross-cultural communication breakdown. Pragmatic failure is divided into two types, i.e. pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. Pragmalinguistic failure can be regarded as part of the grammar and is easy to overcome. Sociopragmatic failure, however, involves the speakers knowledge of the language and system of belief which makes it more difficult to deal with.This thesis focuses on the analysis of the different forms of pragmatic failures and tries to explore the reasons of pragmatic failures and puts forth some suggestions to avoid them. Only when one has a deep understanding of cultural differences, adopt the appropriate measures and cultivate ones communicative competence can the cross-cultural communication proceed effectively and successfully. 2. Cross-cultural communication Nowadays, more and more people are involved in the activities of cross-cultural communication even though they are not aware of it. The political leaders state visits to other countries and their meeting with other countries leaders are cross-cultural communication; businessmens dealing with foreign investors is cross-cultural communication; and a tour guides conversation with foreign travellers is also cross-cultural communication. Cross-cultural communication happens even when people are not in face-to-face interaction with foreigners. Especially nowadays, culture is becoming more diffused under the influence of movies, television and radio programs, popular songs, newspapers and magazines, VCD, DVD, Internet, etc, which can all be reflected in language. When cultures come into contact, words are often borrowed from one language to another. Large amount of evidence has shown that cross-cultural communication can have beneficial effects on those participating in it.2.1 Definition Cross-cultural communication is the exchange of cultural information between two groups of people with significantly different cultures. According to British anthropologist Edward Tylor, “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” (Hu Wenzhong, 1994:1). In short, cross-cultural communication refers to the communication between people of different cultural backgrounds But the problem is that different scholars have different understanding of what is “different cultural background”. Some hold the view that every communication between two individuals is “cross-cultural” because every individual is cultural unique. While some others disagree and argue that the study of cross-cultural communication should focus on the comparison between different countries.The purpose of cross-cultural communication is to enhance the understanding of the worldwide cultures in order to help the people in different cultures maintain peaceful coexistence and promote the cooperation in the fields of economy, science and technology and education, etc. Therefore, this thesis adopts the view of Hu Wenzhong who suggested that the primary concern of cross-cultural study should be those of a cross-country, cross-ethnic, or cross-race nature (1994:7).2.2 Factors affecting cross-cultural communicationThe issue of proper communication is culturally relative. It does not only concern what, when or where to talk, but also how to talk-the intonation, stress, pacing and pausing, speech acts adopted, ect. Actually, many of these variables in the communication process are to some extent determined by culture. Porter once suggested that eight variables-attitudes, social organization, patterns of thought, roles and role prescriptions, language, use and organization of space, time conceptualization, nonverbal expression-influence the perception and to affect the meaning one assign to communicative acts (Hu Wenzhong, 1994:3). Later, in 1988 Porter and Samovar categorized these eight items into three groups (Lin Dajin, 1999:24): (1) Process of observation: belief, value, attitude, worldview, and social organization(2) Verbal process: language, thought pattern(3) Nonverbal process: nonverbal, time space.Communication is the exchanging of information. It is essential to human being as we all need to express ourselves and exchange our thoughts with others. One cannot not communicate. Communication is not an isolated process. It always happens in certain social environment. The environmental elements may affect peoples understanding of the speakers messages. Different cultures prefer different styles of social interaction. People from different cultures have different ways of encoding or decoding messages. However, based on the central assumption that exposure to an unfamiliar culture may be stressful and harmful, there also exists a great challenge of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, cross-cultural communication is more difficult and problems tend to rise in the cross-cultural communication.3. Pragmatic failureMost of our misunderstandings of other people are not due to any inability to hear them or to parse their sentences or to understand their words. A far more important source of difficulty in communication is that we so often fail to understand a speakers intention, thus pragmatic failure occurs.3.1 Definition Pragmatic failure is first proposed by Jenny Thomas (1983:91) to refer to the inability to understand what is meant by what is said. It occurs whenever a communicator cannot use language appropriately or interpret language correctly. He Ziran (1988:159) defines it as failure to achieve the desired communicative effect in communication. Pragmatic failure refers to the violation of decency and felicity resulting from the inappropriate ways of expressions. We use the term “failure” instead of “error” to indicate that this kind of problems is not the lexical or grammatical performance errors but the inability to understand what is meant by what is said. Pragmatic failure is more likely to occur in interactions between native and nonnative speakers, and it also occurs between native speakers. And this thesis is mainly confined to the former.3.2Classification Based on the nature of the failures, Thomas (1983) classified the cross-cultural pragmatic failure into two categories: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. The former refers to the failures made by the second language learners, because the extra pragmatic meanings of mother tongue are completely different from the ones of the target language and the customs of mother tongue from the target language; While the latter refers to the failures made by the second language learners because different culture leads to the improper choice of the language form. The distinction of these two categories is not absolute.3.2.1 Pragmalinguistic FailurePragmalinguistic failure refers to the inability in interpreting the linguistic meaning caused by mistaken beliefs about pragmatic force of utterance. It occurs when communicators cant avail themselves of the same language form and function to make themselves understood. It mainly manifests itself in the arrangement of phonetics, lexicon, grammar and discourse, mostly the failures in lexicon and grammar. The common pragmalinguistic failure often revealed as violating the language rule of speaking, transferring native language norms, confusing the literal meaning with the pragmatic meaning, overusing complete structure and so on. So it can be generally categorized into three aspects: failures in literal meaning, failures in structure and failures in style. Failures in literal meaningEach language is a complicated system that contains phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax and semantics. In the same language system, polysemy, change of meaning and semantic motivation may diversify the vocabulary. In the cross-cultural communication, the process of code-switching is more complicated as a result of lexical gap and less shared cultural presupposition. Many failures in literal meaning are often blamed as poor language ability, but in fact, they are pragmatic failures resulting from the negative transfer of the native knowledge. For example, some expressions seem quite right according to the sentence structure and grammar. However, it will have a different meaning if it appears in a dialogue.A (American student): Is it a beautiful city?B (Chinese student): Of course.B is intended to give a definite answer to A, but he ignores the implication of “of course” in English differs from that in Chinese. A may interpret it as “it is a common sense and only an idiot would ask such a question.” Thus a pragmatic failure will lead to displeasure. Another example,A (American student): Thanks a lot. Thats a great help.B (Chinese student): Never mind.The example shows the disobeying of the normal way that a language is used here. Bs answer is used when people are bothered but dont take it seriously. In this case, B should say: “With pleasure,” “You are welcome.”This kind of negative transfer of the native language knowledge often affects the communication subconsciously. Failures in structureForeign language learners are apt to subconsciously or unconsciously employ the rule of speaking of their mother tongue. Such kind of sentences which reveal typical features of Chinese information structures can often be encountered as follow:“Come to visit me if you are convenient.”It reveals the Chinese redundancy in statement. If a native speaker expresses the same idea, he will say, “Come to visit me if convenient.”It may be a habit for the students to answer a question with a whole sentence. However, it is not always suitable because sometimes a whole sentence can have a different meaning. For example,A: John, have you finished your homework?B: Yes, I have finished my homework.It will be nice to use the simple expression “Yes, I have.” However, B uses the whole sentence here instead. As a result, it gives the hearer an impression that B is tired of answering such questions or he is getting into a temper.People will inevitably be influenced by the thinking and expressing pattern of their mother tongue during the course of studying a foreign language. Chinglish is awkward English created by Chinese, in which ideas are ungrammatically or unidiomatically expressed in English. For example, as a shop assistant, you should say “Can I help you?”, but some Chinese learners may say it as “What woul