语言与文化论文

Contents Abstract 1 Introduction 1 1Definition of non verbal communication 1 2necessities of non verbal communication 2 Classifications of non verbal language 2 1Body language 2 1 1 Gesture 2 1 2 Posture 2 1 3 Eye contact 2 1 4 Facial expression 2 2 Space distance and touch 2 2 1 Space distance 2 2 1 1 Privacy 2 2 2 Touch 3 Ways of overcoming the obstacles of non verbal communicating 4 Conclusion Non verbal communication in cross cultures Abstract When it comes to the communication between persons people often tend to rely on linguistic communication in the process of talking instead of non verbal expression for linguistic communication can pass on messages more quickly and directly In fact non verbal communication also plays a crucial role in the process of passing messages between individuals According to the psychological research 50 percent messages are produced by non verbal body language in the face to face communicating between two persons However as the meanings of the same linguistic expression changes in cross cultures so does non verbal expression In cross cultural communication we should account for the influences of cultural diversities on non verbal communication This paper will focus on the study of non linguistic communication in cross cultures under the guidance of functional equivalence theory At first it briefly introduces the definition characteristics necessities classification and functions of non verbal communication By utilizing the methods of comparative analysis and exemplification this article discuss reflections of people under different cultural backgrounds to the same non verbal communicative method Key words non verbal communication non verbal communicative method 1 Introduction 1 1 Definition of non verbal communication Nonverbal communication involves those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source speaker and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver listener Samovar et al 2000 Basically it is sending and receiving messages in a variety of ways without the use of verbal codes words It is both intentional and unintentional Most speakers listeners are not conscious of this 1 2Necessities of non verbal communication Basically non verbal communication is one of the key aspects of communication especially it is important in a high context culture We can conclude four necessities 1 It is often used to repeat the verbal message e g point in a direction while stating directions 2 It is often used to accent a verbal message e g verbal tone indicates the actual meaning of the specific words 3 It often complements the verbal message but also may contradict E g a nod reinforces a positive message among Americans a wink may contradict a stated positive message 4 It May substitute for the verbal message especially if it is blocked by noise interruption etc i e gestures putting one finger on lips is to convey a signal for keeping quiet facial expressions i e a nod in Chinese people mind often indicates a yes 2 Classifications of non verbal language 2 1 Body language Body movement often passes a kind of non verbal message According to a scientific data our body can make more than 700000 motions and it is impossible to discuss them all here so we only discuss some active codes and cultural connotation of body actions used frequently This article just deals with four categories gesture posture eye contact facial expression 2 1 1 Gesture Messages are passed between persons by using palms fingers and movements of arms For example the gesture handshaking is used by people all around the world when we meet somebody at first time we often shake hands to show our friendship But we must recognize that an acceptable gesture in one s own culture may be offensive in another in addition a large of gestures varies from culture to culture Some cultures are very vigorous while others are rigorous Vigorous culture often think rigorous cultures lack emotion and interest and rigorous cultures in turn view vigorous cultures lack manners Take the following two gestures to examples The first one is that people use different fingers to point under different cultural settings American uses index finger to point Germany points things with little finger while Japanese uses entire hand The other one is that groups under the influence of different cultures show different attitudes to thumbs up In china people tend to show their feelings of appreciation or satisfaction to others with thumbs up while Australians extremely despise thumbs up for they argue that giving thumbs up to others is extremely rude and impolite especially in talking with others 2 1 2 Posture Messages are passed by body actions Our human beings often unconsciously do some postures in different circumstances and postures to a large extent reveal one s inner expressions and their real characteristics and help us to understand what the others are thinking and their inner emotion in communicating Many persons start their first public speeches they often show their nervousness or stage fright by unconsciously grasping their clothes corners touching their hair even keeping their heads lower during the whole speeches However even the identical posture also conveys different messages in different settings The degree and speed of postures and habitant of standing and sitting reflect the different psychological states and cultural backgrounds For instance Japanese are likely to give a bow which a person stretches his neck to another As is well known to everyone neck is the weakest and most important part of physical body So bowing in Japan shows your trust and loyalty to the other side What s more bowing usually is divided into three parts on the basis of the degrees of bowing and each degree conveys a kind of message The ninety degrees bend shows the most respect to the other side which shows the most grateful or the sincerest apology The forty degrees bend often takes place when two persons meet each other at first time or when a staff of a hotel or a supermarket welcomes customers The thirty degrees bend usually takes place when two familiar persons or close friends greet each other at the first meeting in a new day Although Japanese like to greet others by bowing Americans despise this posture very much Americans greetings are more likely to hug or shake hands For they think bowing shows an unequal value and is very affected and America is a country which is pursuing democracy and everyone created should enjoy equal right Moreover differences between western and oriental postures originate in both cultural differences and their each national quality of national culture 2 1 3 Eye contact In the process of communicating it is very important for communicators to keep eye contacting with each other The most effective way of reflecting people s inner world is the eyes where changes of all kinds of human s internal mood emotion and attitudes towards a thing are unconsciously released For example In china descriptions about eyes often appears in idioms and literary works for example han qing mo mo exactly explains that a shy ladylike expresses her tenderness and love to her lover by her soft eyes And in The Story of the Stone Cao XueQin depicted the eyes of DaiYu that her speaking eyes held both merriment and sorrow 一双似喜非喜 含情目 Those mentioned above tell us that eye contacting plays a very important role in non verbal communication Generally in different cultures the time of eye contact is limited in 3 5 seconds every time If the time of your eyes gazing at somebody is beyond the normal time the person you gaze will feel uncomfortable Reversely if less than normal time the other one will think you are impolite or unconfident However to a certain extent eye contact is also bound by cultures In Arabic cultures a prolonged eye contact shows a person s interest and can help him understand truthfulness of the other person if the other person who doesn t reciprocate is seen as untrustworthy In western cultures people are encouraged to look others in the eyes In china it is impolite to look eyes to eyes Usually a Chinese looks at the neck of the other one when talking 2 1 4 Facial expression As is well known to us facial expression also plays an important role in communicating As the identical eye contact given to different meanings under different cultural settings the same is true for facial expression In china people are used to suppress inner emotion by facial expression This is realized in many idioms such as to read one s face and to give somebody the long face In return many Arabic people tend to show facial expressions to exaggerate their grief or sadness 2 2Space distance and touch 2 2 1 Space distance According to the psychological research every individual in the world needs a space It is significant to keep a reasonable space when two persons are conducting a conversation which indicates not only the relationship inner situation but the characteristics of a nation and his culture The distance of space depends on the cultures In china folks are apt to keep close distance when talking because the tradition of uniting and community has already been rooted in Chinese people s minds Nevertheless people in English spoken countries attach more attention to the space distance For example when talking person always leaves a certain space to another one whose distance relies on the relationship between two talkers American anthropologist Edward T Hall Jr firstly put forward the concept of proxemics and personal space he divided distance between individuals in talking into four groups including public distance as far as 360 meters social distance ranging between 120 and 360 meters personal distance ranging from 45 to 120 meters persons in such a distance are often acquaintances the last one is intimate distance within 45 meters the relationship between persons in this group are relatives close friends lovers and couples Edward T Hall Jr The Hidden Dimension page 113 123 From the four space distances it is clear that relationship between western persons decide that persons space distance 2 2 1 1 Privacy Privacy is also a crucial fact causing cultural shock In west countries people have a strong awareness of privacy while people from china don t care about it at all For example in western families parents cannot come into children s room directly and look into kid s personal things without getting their children s allowances In china the old generations have rights to interfere into children s lives For instance television series reflecting the conflicts between mother in law and daughter in law are prevailing which in a large extent is the result that mother in law likes interfering into her son s marriage Moreover westerns put more emphasis on disposition for personal objects Such as when seeing a colleague wearing beautiful clothes westerns will only convey their praise on the colleague s clothe but do not touch it Contrariwise a chinese person will touch the clothes and ask the price 2 2 2 Touch As I mentioned above some countries are positive in touching while some countries are opposite In addition identical touching may be attached to different meanings in different cultural settings For example in china a child s mother will happily respond to another female s touch on her child s head or hug her child for a certain long time for she thinks such actions stand for love and praise On the contrary the identical touching will make a western mother feel unhappy even if the western mother knows the touch is not harmful 3 Ways of overcoming the obstacles of non verbal communicating Due to the complexity of non verbal communicating and diversities of cultures it is very easy to cause cultural shock only to improve our ability in non verbal communication can we keep a good communication between cultures 1 We should have a good knowledge about our own non verbal communicative culture We can learn the rules of non verbal communication under alien cultures after fully studying ours 2 We should consciously cultivate the ability of explaining other non communicative actions It requires us to improve our competent in observing evaluating and conducting non communication 3 We should enrich our experience to keep sensitive on non communicative actions First of all foreign books magazines and movies are good resources to widen our knowledge in non communication Especially foreign movies are very practical in learning non communicative expressions Secondly communicating wi