Functions of language文本.docx

Ok, thanks for my partner, now I will continue my part. My part is about the functions of language. We all agree that language has many functions, such as informative, interpersonal, performative, etc. But here we will not emphasize this aspect of function. A cultural group may have quite distinctive ways of understanding the basic functions of language. So our purpose here is to better understand how a particular culture conceives the functions of language. That is to say, in intercultural communication we pay more attention to the cultural differences in the functions of language .We will talk about the information and relationship function, negotiation and ratification, and finally group harmony and individual welfare.Firstly, lets look at the information and relationship function. We all agree that any communication will have both an information function and a relationship function. When we communicate with others we simultaneously communicate some amount of information and indicate our current expectations about the relationship between or among participants.Although the use of language always accomplishes both functions to some extent. We can still see that cultures often are different from each other in how much importance they give to one function of language over the other. For example, Japanese culture places a very high value on the communication of subtle aspects of feeling and relationship and a much lower value on the communication of information. International business culture, however, places a high value on the communication of information and very little value on the communication of relationship.In regular conditions of intercultural professional communication, this difference between a focus on information and a focus on relationship often leads to a misunderstanding of the purposes of specific communicative events. From the point of view of the functions of language, the westerners may well want to get to the bargaining table as quickly as possible because he or she believes that it is in direct talk that information is exchanged and that any other form of communication is quite beside the point. His or her Asian counterpart, on the other hand, may want to set up a series of social events in which the participants can more indirectly approach each other and begin to feel more subtle aspects of their relationship. The second aspect of functions of language we need to consider is negotiation and ratification. As we have said that there is a cultural difference about whether language is primarily used for the purposes of conveying information or expressing relationships above, there is also a difference among cultures in the extent to which relationships are thought to be freely negotiated on the one hand, or given by society in a fixed form on the other. In Asian societies, human relationships are thought of as being largely vertical relationships between preceding and following generations and most of the relationships are understood to be given by the society, not newly negotiated by the participants in the situation. One is born the son or daughter of particular parents, the descendants of particular ancestors, a member of a particular village. Language is thought of as being used for the purposes of ratifying or affirming relationships which have already been given. In contrast to this, in contemporary western society relationship has come to mean almost exclusively horizontal or lateral and, in fact, sexual, relationships made between people who freely choose to enter into them. In this kind of relationships, freedom and equality are greatly evaluated. Language is seen as a major aspect of the ongoing negotiation of the relationship. Particular care is taken not to ratify existing relationships, but to seek continual change or growth. The third way in which we can see that cultures differ in the focus on information or on relationship in language use is to mention group harmony and individual welfare. In intercultural discourse involving Asians and Westerners, Asians tend to state their positions somewhat less extremely so as to maintain the harmony of the negotiations. Westerners tend to assum