Volodymyr Goshylyk, Nataliya Goshylyk A Glossary of Intercultural Communication acculturation anthropocentricity bilingualism cognition competence comprehension concept conflict context culture shock discrimination ethnocentrism etiquette faloe friends identification idiomaticity intercultural communication Kinesics lacuna loyalty mentality miscommunication motivation multiculturaliom national character noise nonequivalence nonverbal communication norms nostalgia obstacles of perception picture of the world pidgin politeness political correctness prejudice presupposition purism racists realia rule Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis social distance socialization speech standard stereotype stranger siraiegy style taboo tolerance tradition valuesMINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE VASYL STEFANYK PRECARPATHIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY ENGLISH PHILOLOGY DEPARTME! Volodymyr Goshylyk, Nataliya Goshylyk AGLOSSARY OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Tvano-Frankivsk 2010YAK 81'374(038)=111 BBK 81.2Anra-4 1-54 Penensentu: Bucmpoe #.B., 3aniqynan xadeapu— aurailiceKoi — pistonorii axyasrery inosemmnx Mop [Ipukapnarepxoro naionapHoro yuisepeutery imexi Bacuaa Crespanuxa, Kawauaat ¢inonoriunnx Hayk OsapKo LL, savigysau xaeap auraificskoi_ Mosu — Lwauio- paukizesxoro Hayionamsuoro TexHiunoro yuisepeurery wadru i ragy, kananar ditonorinHHx Hayk Pexomendosano 00 dpyky Buetow padoi bakyabmemy inozemnux moe Lpuxapnamcokoz0 nayionarenozo yisepcumemy imeni Bacurn Cmeibanuxa A Glossary of Intercultural Communication / Ed. by G-54 Goshylyk V.B., Goshylyk N.S. — Ivano-Frankivsk, 2010. — 64 p. Taocapit tepminis Mixkynetypnoi Komynixanit / yknan. T-54 Poumon B.B., Poumax H.C. — Isano-bpanxisex, 2010. — 64 c.— Aura. Monoto. aocapiti € nepuoro cnpo6ow na aexcuxozpadpiunoay pieni oxpecaumu xteoici meopii miscxynemypnoi Komynixayi’ ax chaxosoi xinesicmumoi ducyunninu dhayromemie inosemmux mos euryux nastaronux saxnadie Vepainu. Bin micmums load ma caodocnonpuenia, Aki nocaidORHO OKpectOIOMs KOO numaie ma npobaent, wo eunuKaroms y npaxmuyi mioic Banpononosane 6udania noKauKane donomozmu cmydenman nabymux na ackyine paxoeux snare, nidcomosyi do npaxmumux sanamb 3 meopit ma npaxmuku migckyaomypnoi kouyuixayii, camocmiiinomy onpaywosanni mem sa npoepamow —inuux Mososnasuux — ducyunain, —nanucanni— Kypcosux ma saxpinaenni Keanidixayitinux pobim mowo. Dnocapitt maxoow cmane y npucodi y sin, XMO npacne dozyuumuca do ckapGnuyi cyvacnux mososnasutx meopiil © V. Goshylyk, N. Goshylyk, 2010Foreword Glossary References Contents 584 FOREWORD In the modern world of expanding globalization people of different cultures have increasing frequency of contact and need for fruitful cooperation on a daily basis. Clashing, cultures urge their bearers to communicate, though it is not an easy thing to do. Communication across cultures presupposes not only speaking a different language, but also “speaking” a different culture which is a greater obstacle to intercultural communication. The concept of cultural diversity, implying that every culture grips a human being with certain values, norms and rules, is not new and has received particular attention in the sociocultural field worldwide. Thus, awareness of this cultural diversity and being able to work with such diversity is of vital importance to the development of mankind. Global issues have caused the inevitable appearance of Intercultural Communication Studies as a scientific discipline with deep sociological roots. It aims at constructing the taxonomy of potential intercultural communication obstacles, increasing intercultural awareness and improving intercultural competence. Challenging our fundamental ways of experiencing, numerous obstacles to intercultural communication make us find out how to navigate around them. The problem is that specific recommendations how to bypass difficulties creating misunderstanding and ineffectual communication should be presented in easy-to-follow terms. The Glossary meets the present-day requirements and establishes the foundational terms and concepts of intercultural communication. Introducing the key theories of intercultural communication, it covers basic phenomena connected with our encountering culturally different people, their dissimilar way of thinking and behaving. It is expected to become an essential resource for students, lecturers and practitioners interested in the conceptual foundations of the study of intercultural communication. We hope that the Glossary will raise your consciousness about cultural differences and help you become more competent in intercultural communication. Volodymyr Goshylyk, Nataliya Goshylyk5 -A- ABLEISM Discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities. ACCENT The cumulative auditory effect of those features of pronunciation which identify where a person is from, regionally or socially. The linguistics literature emphasizes that the term refers to pronunciation only, and is thus distinct from dialect, which refers to grammar and vocabulary as well. The investigation of the ways in which accents differ from each other is sometimes called accent studies. Regional accents can relate to any locale, including both rural and urban communities within a country (e.g. ‘West Country’, ‘Liverpool’) as well as national groups speaking the same language (e.g. ‘American’, ‘Australian’), and our impression of other languages (‘foreign accent’, ‘Slavic accent’). Social accents relate to the cultural and educational background of the speaker. Countries with a well-defined traditional social-class system, such as India and Japan, reflect these divisions in language, and accent is often a marker of class. In Britain, the best example of a social accent is the regionally neutral accent associated with a public-school education, and with the related professional domains, such as the Civil Service, the law courts, the Court and the BBC — hence the labels ‘Queen’s English’, “BBC English’, and the like. Received Pronunciation (RP) is the name given to this accent, and because of its regional neutrality RP speakers are sometimes thought of as having ‘no accent’. This is a misleading way of putting it, however: linguistics stresses that everyone must have an accent, though it may not indicate regional origin. The popular label ‘broad accent’ refers to those accents that are markedly different from RP. ACCOMMODATION (1) A theory in sociolinguistics which aims to explain why people modify their style of speaking (accommodate) to become more like or less like that of their addressee(s). For example, among the reasons why people converge towards the speech pattern of their listener are the desires to identify more closely with the listener, to win social approval, or simply to increase the communicative efficiency of the interaction. (2) In semantics and pragmatics, a term which refers to the acceptance by a hearer of a presupposition made by a speaker that was not previously part of their common ground. For example, on hearing “All Mary’s children have got colds’, we would accept the presupposition that Mary has children, even if we were previously unaware of the fact. Accommodation is often modeled using rules which copy the presupposition into the representation of the preceding discourse.6 ACCULTURATION Deriving from the word culture, the term ‘acculturation’ indicates the processes of transformation and adaptation which take place within cultures when two or more groups — each of which has specific cultural and behavioural models ~ enter into relations with one another. ADAPTATION A process of reconciliation and of coming to terms with a changed socio-cultural environment by making “adjustments” in one’s cultural identity. It is also a stage of intercultural sensitivity, which may allow the person to function in a bicultural capacity. In this stage, a person is able to take the perspective of another culture and operate successfully within that culture. The person should know enough about his or her own culture and a second culture to allow a mental shift into the value scheme of the other culture, and an evaluation of behaviour based on its norms, rather than the norms of the individual’s culture of origin. This is referred to as ‘cognitive adaptation’. The more advanced form of adaptation is ‘behavioural adaptation’, in which the person can produce behaviours appropriate to the norms of the second culture. Adaptation may also refer to patterns of behavior which enable a culture to cope with its surroundings. AGEISM A term used to refer to discrimination against a person or group on the basis of age. Age discrimination usually comes in one of two forms: discrimination against youth, and discrimination against the elderly. AGGRESSION The term ‘aggression’ is used to describe a generally hostile type of behaviour which is directed either at the self or at others. The term is closely connected and often confused with the concept of destructiveness. While the latter term has purely negative connotations, aggression can also be seen to be positive, expressing competitiveness, assertiveness and the capacity to make an impact on the world and to fight. Nevertheless, the two concepts cannot be completely separated, as an individual’s desire for assertion can sometimes degenerate into self- destructiveness or destructiveness towards others. AIM A term used to refer to a clearly directed intent or purpose of communication. AMBIGUITY The degree to which a communication message has many possible meanings to its receivers. AMBILINGUALISM A term used to refer to the ability to speak two languages with equal facility.v ANTHROPOCENTRICITY The belief that humans are the most important elements in the universe and reality can be approached exclusively in terms of human values and experience. ANTHROPOGENESIS (1) The evolution or genesis of the human race. (2) The scientific study of the origin and development of humans. ANTHROPOLOGY The study of humans, their origins, physical characteristics, institutions, religious beliefs, social relationships, etc. ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS A branch of linguistics which studies the role of language in relation to human cultural patterns and beliefs, as investigated using the theories and methods of anthropology. For example, it studies the way in which linguistic features vary in order to identify a member of a speech community with a social, religious, occupational or kinship group. Any social situation can be explored from an anthropological point of view, such as everyday interaction, ritual behaviour, political discourse, verbal art and educational practice. The term overlaps to some degree with ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics, reflecting the overlapping interests of the correlative disciplines involved — anthropology, ethnology and sociology. When the research takes place primarily within an anthropological paradigm, the subject is known as linguistic anthropology, and the practitioners as linguistic anthropologis APPLICATION A term used by some linguists to refer to the overall relationship which exists between language and non-linguistic entities, situations, etc. The ‘application’ of a linguistic unit is its use in a specific context; a unit is said to be applicable to that context. For example, a lexical item may be applied to a range of situations (none of which would constitute part of its normal denotation or reference), e.g. heap being applied to a car, a house, a sculpture. The term is particularly useful in the context of translation, where pairs of apparently equivalent terms turn out to have different ranges of application (or applicability); e.g. the use of merci in French differs from the use of thank you in English. If items from different languages totally correspond in the range of situations where they may be used, they are said to have the same application. APPLIED LINGUISTICS A branch of linguistics where the primary concern is the application of linguistic theories, methods and findings to the elucidation of language problems which have arisen in other areas of experience. The most well-developed branch of applied linguistics is the8 teaching and learning of foreign languages, and sometimes the term is used as if this were the only field involved. But several other fields of application have emerged, including the linguistic analysis of language disorders (clinical linguistics), the use of language in mother-tongue education (educational linguistics), and developments in lexicography, translation and stylistics. There is an uncertain boundary between applied linguistics and the various interdisciplinary branches of linguistics, such as sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, especially as several of the latter’s concerns involve practical outcomes of a plainly ‘applied’ kind (e.g. planning a national language policy). On the other hand, as these branches develop their own theoretical foundations, the distinction between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ is becoming more apparent, and the characterization of research as being in ‘applied psycholinguistics’, etc., is now more regularly encountered. APPROPRIATENESS In any given society certain ways of communicating are considered normal. What is said and how something is said can be viewed by members of a society as either appropriate or inappropriate according to prevailing cultural norms. The selection and use of an utterance that is deemed correct by the general population of speakers of a language is called appropriateness. Knowing whether a statement is appropriate or not depends on the individual speaker's ability to judge the impact the statement will have on others across a variety of social and cultural situations. Appropriateness is therefore more a function of being able to interpret and understand the subtleties of a wide variety of sociocultural contexts. The concept of appropriateness, as it has been applied to sociolinguistics, is typically associated with communicative competence (having the ability to use language to communicate culturally appropriate messages). AREAL LINGUISTICS The study of the languages or dialects which are spoken in a particular area. An example is a study of two neighbouring languages to see how they influence each other in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE A language which has been invented to serve some particular purpose. Artificial languages include those which have been devised to facilitate international communication (where they are a type of auxiliary language, such as Esperanto), programming languages (c.g. BASIC), languages which communicate with computers or robots in artificial intelligence (e.g. shrdlu), and simplified languages which are used by people with learning difficulties (e.g. Bliss symbols).9 ASSIMILATION A process of consistent integration whereby members of an ethno-cultural group, typically immigrants, or other minority groups, are “absorbed” into an established larger community. If a child assimilates into a new culture, he/she gives up his/her cultural values and beliefs and adopts the new cultural values in their place. Originates from a Piagetian (Swiss Developmental Psychologist Jean Piaget, 1896-1980) term describing a person’s ability to comprehend and integrate new experiences. ATTITUDE A term used to refer to an emotional response to objects, ideas, and people. ATTRIBUTION The process in which an individual explains the meaning of others’ behaviors based on the individual’s own experiences, values, and beliefs. AUXILIARY LANGUAGE The term used for a language which has been adopted by different speech communities for purposes of communication, trade, education, etc., being the native language of none of them. English and French are auxiliary languages for many communities in Africa, for example; Swahili is used thus in parts of East Africa. This sense must be clearly distinguished from the use of the term to mean an artificially constructed language, such as Esperanto. AVOIDANCE Avoidance refers to culturally sanctioned rules for regulating abstinence or refrainment from particular behaviors, most often avoidance of interaction between specific members of extended kin groups (members of a family unit beyond the immediate family, such as cousins, aunts and uncles, and distant relatives). Avoidance rules may also direct food taboos, choice of linguistic codes (polite versus impolite, formal versus informal, direct or indirect conversation, and greeting forms), and ritual observances. == BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE A term used to refer to the mutual knowledge about specific realia both of the speaker and the recipient of the message. BEHAVIOURISM The influence of this school of psychology (the study of observable and measurable behaviour) has been most marked in the work of the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield. It can be seen in the10 Bloomfieldian insistence on rigorous discovery procedures, and most notably in his behaviourist account of meaning in terms of observable stimuli and responses made by participants in specific situations. The limitations of behaviourist (or ‘mechanistic’) accounts of language (especially that associated with the work of the American psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990)) were criticized by Noam Chomsky in the late 1950s, in writings which anticipate the development of mentalistic ideas in linguistics. BELIEFS A term for an individual's representations of the outside world. BILINGUAL The general sense of this term — a person who can speak tw languages — provides a pre-theoretical frame of reference for lingui: study, especially by sociolinguists, and by applied linguists involved in foreign- or second-language teaching; it contrasts with monolingual. The focus of attention has been on the many kinds and degrees of bilingualism and bilingual situations which exist. Definitions of bilingualism reflect assumptions about the degree of proficiency people must achieve before they qualify as bilingual (whether comparable to a monolingual native- speaker, or something less than this, even to the extent of minimal knowledge of a second language). Several technical distinctions have been introduced, e.g. between compound and co-ordinate bilingualism (based on the extent to which the bilingual sees the two languages as semantically equivalent or non-equivalent, and being represented differently in the brain), between the various methods of learning the two languages (e.g. simultaneously or in sequence in childhood, or through formal instruction), and between the various levels of abstraction at which the linguistic systems operate — bilingualism being distinguished from bidialectalism and diglossia. A balanced bilingual is someone whose command of both languages is equivalent. Of particular importance is the way in which studies of bilingualism involve the analysis of social, psychological and national (e.g. in the case of Welsh and Flemish) concerns — such as the social status of the different languages, and their role in identifying speakers with particular ethnic groups. In additive or elite bilingualism, a majority group learns a second language without this being a threat to its first language (e.g. English-speaking Canadians learning French); in subtractive or folk bilingualism, the second language comes to replace the first (a common situation with minority languages). BILINGUALISM (1) A speaker’s competence in two or more languages and their use in everyday communication. Depending on the kind and extent of the competence in both languages, a distinetion can be made between:nN (a) the mastery of different, but only partially differentiated dialects or varieties vs distinct languages; (b) the acquisition of bilingual competence within a family (e.g. in mixed marriages) vs the acquisition in school or at work; (c) the (simultaneous or successive) acquisition of two languages in child- or adulthood; (d) directed vs non-directed language acquisition; (e) different competence in both languages (dominance of one language) vs ‘genuine’ bilingualism (which is less common), where passive as well as active competence in both languages is actually equal. (2) Apart from these questions of individual bilingual competence (individual bilingualism), the existence of two or more languages within a society (societal bilingualism) and their communicative functions are also of interest. BORROWING A term used to refer to a linguistic form taken over by one language or dialect from another; such borrowings are usually known as ‘loan words’ (e.g. restaurant, bonhomie, chagrin, which have come into English from French), and several types have been recognized. Less commonly, sounds and grammatical structures may be borrowed, e.g. the pronunciation of the above loan words with a French or quasi-French accent, or the influence of English grammar often found in European languages, e.g. using an English plural -s for a noun, as in drinks, ski-lifts, goals, girls eS CHANNEL The way in which a message is conveyed from one person to another. The two most common channels of communication are speech and writing. Other examples are the use of drum beats, smoke signals, or flags. CHAUVINISM In relation to nations the term describes a fanatical form of extreme nationalism which denies the value of any other population or nation. It is also used to indicate the exclusive and arrogant self-favouring fanaticism of any faction or group (nationalism). It derives from the French chauvinisme, from N.Chauvin, a soldier who fought in the Napoleonic wars and whose allegiance to the Emperor never wavered. His allegiance is depicted in caricatures, songs and plays about fanatical patriots. The current meaning of the word was introduced to the humanities by W.G. Sumner in 1906 in order to describe how patriotism can degenerate to the point where it blemishes and perverts both thought and judgement. In his analysis of chauvinism, Sumner draws attention to the way in which a chauvinist ideology uses a few, simplified formulas to2 influence and even control the behaviour of people and thus overrides their ability to behave on a rational and logical basis. CHRONEMICS Formal time is measured abstractly by units such as hours, days, months, and years, and by different calendars. Informal time is measured by systems such as moons, weather seasons, or customs. People easily understand the differences in formal time between cultures but find it more difficult to understand a foreign culture’s informal time system. Informal time elements are loosely defined by a culture, not explicitly taught, and typically operate outside consciousness. Chronemic cues can be intentional or unintentional and are often ambiguous. Time cues in communication have an ability to evoke strong emotional reactions. CODE The general sense of this term — a set of conventions for converting one signalling system into another — enters into the subject-matter of semiotics and communication theory rather than linguistics. Such notions as ‘encoding’ and ‘decoding’ are sometimes encountered in phonetics and linguistics, but the view of language as a ‘code’ is not one which figures greatly in these subjects. The term has come to the fore in sociolinguistic, where it is mainly used as a neutral label for any system of communication involving language — and which avoids sociolinguists having to commit themselves to such terms as dialect, Ianguage or variety, which have a special status in their theories. The linguistic behaviour referred to as code-switching (sometimes code-shifting or, within a language, style-shifting), for example, can be illustrated by the switch bilingual or bidialectal speakers may make (depending on who they are talking to, or where they are) between standard and regional forms of English, between Welsh and English in parts of Wales, or between occupational and domestic varieties. Code-mixing involves the transfer of linguistic elements from one language into another: a sentence begins in one language, then makes use of words or grammatical features belonging to another. Such mixed forms of language are often labelled with a hybrid name, such as (in the case of English) Spanglish, Franglais and Singlish (Singaporean English), and attract attitudes ranging from enthusiastic community support (as an expression of local identity) to outright condemnation (from some speakers of the related standard languages). Several sociologists and sociolinguists have given ‘code’ a more restricted definition. For example, codes are sometimes defined in terms of mutual intelligibility (e.g. the language of a private or professional group). But the most widespread special use of the term was in the theory of communication codes propounded by the British sociologist Basil13 Bernstein (1924-2000). His distinction between elaborated and restricted codes was part of a theory of the nature of social systems, concerned in particular with the kinds of meanings people communicate, and how explicitly they do this, using the range of resources provided by the language. COGNITION The various mental processes used in thinking, remembering, perceiving, recognizing, classifying, etc. COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS An approach to the study of language structure and linguistic behaviour that has developed mainly since the 1980s. Underlying this approach are a number of basic assumptions. The first is that language has evolved for the purpose of conveying meaning, and so all its structures, whether semantic, syntactic, or phonological, should be related to this function. The second is that linguistic abilities are embedded in, and are inseparable from, general cognitive abilities, there being no autonomous portion of the brain specialised for language. A consequence of this for semantics is that no principled distinction can be drawn between linguistic meaning and general knowledge. The third assumption is that meaning is conceptual in nature and involves shaping or imposing form on conceptual and perceptual raw material in specific ways. Cognitive linguists maintain that a truth-conditional approach cannot give an adequate account of meaning. Cognitive linguistics has close links with cognitive psychology, drawing particularly on work on the structure and nature of concepts. Two scholars have been especially influential in developing this approach: Lakoff and Langacker. COLLECTIVISM One of the most fundamental ways in which cultures differ is in the dimensions of individualism versus collectivism. Collectivists interact closely and are interdependent. They are best encouraged by appealing to their group spirit and by requesting cooperation. Persons in individualistic cultures are motivated by stressing individual competition COLLECTIVISTIC CULTURE One in which the collectivity’s goals are valued over those of the individual. COLLOQUIAL SPEECH An informal type of speech used among friends and others in situations where empathy, rapport or lack of social barriers are important. Colloquial speech is often marked by the use of slang or idioms and by other linguistic characteristics such as deletion of subject or auxiliaries (e.g. as in “Got the time?” instead of “Do you have the time?”). Colloquial speech is not necessarily non-prestige speech and14 should not be considered as substandard, Educated native speakers of a language normally use colloquial speech in informal situations with friends, fellow workers, and members of the family. COMMUNICATION A fundamental notion in the study of behaviour, which acts as a frame of reference for linguistic and phonetic studies. Communication refers to the transmission and reception of information (a ‘message’) between a source and a receiver using a signalling system: in linguistic contexts, source and receiver are interpreted in human terms, the system involved is a language, and the notion of response to (or acknowledgement of) the message becomes of crucial importance. In theory, communication is said to have taken place if the information received is the same as that sent: in practice, one has to allow for all kinds of interfering factors, or ‘noise’, which reduce the efficiency of the transmission (e.g. unintelligibility of articulation, idiosyncratic associations of words). One has also to allow for different levels of control in the transmission of the message: speakers’ purposive selection of signals will be accompanied by signals which communicate ‘despite themselves’, as when voice quality signals the fact that a person has a cold, is tired/old/male, etc. The scientific study of all aspects of communication is sometimes called communication science: the domain includes linguistics and phonetics, their various branches, and relevant applications of associated subjects (¢.g. acoustics, anatomy). Human communication may take place using any of the available sensory modes (hearing, sight, etc.), and the differential study of these modes, as used in communicative activity, is carried on by semiotics. A contrast which is often made, especially by psychologists, is between verbal and non-verbal communication (NVC) to refer to the linguistic v. the non-linguistic features of communication (the latter including facial expressions, gestures, etc., both in humans and animals). However, the ambiguity of the term ‘verbal’ here, implying that language is basically a matter of ‘words’, makes this term of limited value to linguists, and it is not usually used by them in this way. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE Knowledge of not only if something is formally possible in a language, but also the knowledge of whether it is feasible, appropriate, or done in a particular speech community. Communicative competence includes: (a) grammatical competence (also formal competence), that is knowledge of the grammar, vocabulary, phonology, and semantics of a language: (b) sociolinguistic competence (also sociocultural competence), that15 is, knowledge of the relationship between language and its nonlinguistic context, knowing how to use and respond appropriately to different types of speech acts, such as requests, apologies, thanks, and invitations, knowing which address forms should be used with different persons one speaks to and in different situations, and so forth; (c) discourse competence (sometimes considered part of sociolinguistic competence), that is knowing how to begin and end conversations; (d) strategic competence, that is, knowledge of communication strategies that can compensate for weakness in other areas. COMMUNITY LANGUAGE A language used within a particular community, including languages spoken by ethnic minority groups. For example, in Australia, apart from English, languages such as Italian, Greek, Polish, Arabic, and Australian Aboriginal languages are community languages. COMPETENCE A term used in linguistic theory, and especially in generative grammar, to refer to speakers” knowledge of their language, the system of rules which they have mastered so that they are able to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences, and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. It is an idealized conception of language, which is seen as in opposition to the notion of performance, the specific utterances of speech; the Saussurean distinction between langue and parole is similar, but there are important differences between the definitions of competence and langue. According to Noam Chomsky, linguistics before generative grammar had been preoccupied with performance in a corpus, instead of with the underlying competence involved. As a general conception, this distinction has been widely accepted, but there has been criticism from linguists who feel that the boundary between the two notions is not as clear-cut as their definitions would lead one to believe. There are problems, often, in deciding whether a particular speech feature is a matter of competence or performance (e.g. a feature of intonation, or discourse). A particularly strong line of criticism emerged in the notion of communicative competence, which focuses on the native-speakers’ ability to produce and understand sentences which are appropriate to the context in which they occur — what speakers need to know in order to communicate effectively in socially distinct settings. Communicative competence, then, subsumes the social determinants of linguistic behaviour, including such environmental matters as the relationship between speaker and hearer, and the pressures which stem from the time16 and place of speaking. If speakers have a tacit awareness of such communicative constraints, it is argued, then a linguistic theory ought to aim to provide an explicit account of these factors, in so far as these are systematic within a community, and not restrict itself to the analysis of structure in purely formal terms (as in the notion of ‘linguistic’ competence). This view has received a wide measure of acceptance, but to date relatively little progress has been made over the question of how to model this broader conception of competence in precise terms. More recently, an analogous notion of pragmatic competence has been proposed COMPREHENSION The general sense of this term is found in linguistics, referring to the ability to understand and interpret spoken and written language; it is opposed to production. In psycholinguistics, the analysis of the process of speech comprehension is a major theme, encompassing such topics as the strategies used by children in language acquisition, the strategies adults use in interpreting different types of sentence (e.g. ambiguity, negation, questions), the role of the extralinguistic situation, and the role of cognitive factors (such as memory, attention and perception) in arriving at the interpretation of sentences and discourses. CONCEPT The fundamental unit of knowledge central to categorisation and conceptualisation. Concepts inhere in the conceptual system, and from early in infancy are redescribed from perceptual experience through a process termed perceptual meaning analysis. This process gives rise to the most rudimentary of concepts known as an image schema. Concepts can be encoded in a language-specific format know as the lexical concept. While concepts are relatively stable cognitive entities they are modified by ongoing episodic and recurrent experiences CONFORMISM The term ‘conformism’ derives from the verb to conform — from the Latin cum and forma — and describes a social process in which an individual complies with the behavioural, moral and legal standards of a group or society, Although conformism is often scorned in Western society as a type of behaviour which destroys an individual’s creativity and reduces his or her freedom of choice, it is also acknowledged as a process fundamental to the existence of society. In order to create an organized society, its members must adapt to certain common rules, thereby ensuring that their behaviour is at least partly predictable and coordinated and that the division of society into groups — characterized by genre, generation, employment, etc. — is “natural”, accepted and admitted, even if such divisions seem unjust.7 CONTACT A term used to refer to a situation of geographical continuity or close social proximity (and thus of mutual influence) between languages or dialects. The result of contact situations can be seen linguistically, in the growth of loan words, patterns of phonological and grammatical change, mixed forms of language (such as creoles and pidgins), and a general increase in bilingualism of various kinds. In a restricted sense, languages are said to be ‘in contact’ if they are used alternately by the same persons, i.e. bilinguals. CONTENT The general sense of this term — referring to the meaning of an expression — is found pre-theoretically in linguistics, but some linguists have given it a technical status, by analysing language into two major dimensions, distinguishing a content plane from an ‘expression plane’ (analogous to the Saussurean distinction between the meaning and form of linguistic signs). More specifically, some approaches to word classification recognize a class of content words or contentives, defined as words which have stateable lexical meaning — the majority of words in the language, in fact, apart from the few function words, whose role is primarily to express grammatical relationships. Alternative terms include lexical and full words. In semantic studies of demonstratives and indexicals, the term is often used to designate the meaning of an expression relative to a particular pragmatic context; it contrasts with character CONTEXT As a comprehensive concept in communication theory ‘context’ refers to all elements of a communicative situation: the verbal and non- verbal context, the context of the given speech situation and the social context of the relationship between the speaker and hearer, their knowledge, and their attitudes. CONTEXT CLUE In comprehension, information from the immediate setting surrounding an item in a text and which provides information that can be used to understand the meaning of an item. Such clues may be lexical or grammatical. In speech context clues include the verbal, paralinguistic and non-verbal signs that help speakers understand the full meaning of a speaker’s utterances in context. CONTEXT OF SITUATION A term used to refer to the linguistic and situational context in which a word, utterance or text occurs. The meaning of utterances, etc., is determined not only by the literal meaning of the words used but by the context or situation in which they occur.18 CONVENTION Linguistics uses this term in its general sense — referring to any accepted practice in the use of language (e.g. the ‘convention’ of using certain formulae upon leave-taking), or in developing a model of language (e.g. it is ‘conventional’ to transcribe phonemes using // brackets). But there is also a restricted sense, where it refers to the arbitrary nature of the relationship between linguistic expressions and their meanings: one says that the relationship between the lexical item table and the thing ‘table’ is conventional, the term here being used in a traditional philosophical sense which dates from Plato. CONVERSATIONAL RULES A term used to refer to the rules shared by a group of people which govern their spoken conversational behaviour. Conversational rules may, for instance, regulate when to speak or not to speak in a conversation, what to say in a particular situation, and how to start and end a conversation. These rules vary not only between different languages but also between different social groups speaking the same language. CONVERSATIONAL STYLE A_ particular way of participating in conversation. People differ in the way they take part in normal conversation. Some people participate very actively in conversation, speaking fairly quickly and with little or no pausing between turns. This is called a high involvement style. Other people may use a slower rate of speaking, longer pauses between turns and avoid interruption or completion of another speaker’s turn. This is called a high considerateness style. CO-OPERATIVE PRINCIPLE A term derived from the work of the ilosopher H.P. Grice (1913-1988) and now frequently used in ics as part of the study of conversational structure. At its simplest, the principle states that speakers try to co-operate with each other when communicating: they will, in particular, attempt to be informative, truthful, relevant and clear (maxims of ‘quantity’, ‘quality’, ‘relation’ and ‘manner’ respectively). Listeners will normally assume that a speaker is following these criteria. Speakers may break these maxims (in lying, sarcasm, political debates, etc.) but conversation proceeds on the assumption that they do not. It is then possible to deduce implications from what has been said concerning what has not been said (conversational implicatures), though the extent to which this can be done consistently and generally is somewhat controversial.19 CORRECTNESS A term usually encountered in linguistics in the context of criticism of prescriptive attitudes to language. The judgements of traditional grammarians that usages were either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ (correct v. incorrect) has been replaced by a concern to describe the observable facts of linguistic usage, without reference to value judgements, and to replace absolute notions of correctness by an emphasis on the relative appropriateness of language to social settings. Similarly, the question of evaluating grammar in terms of correctness (as in a decision procedure) has given way to a concern over the relative merits of competing grammars, bearing in mind their purpose (as in an evaluation procedure) COSMOPOLITENESS The degree to which an individual has a relatively high degree of communication outside of the individual’s local system. CREDIBILITY The degree to which a communication source is perceived as trustworthy and competent CREOLE A term used to refer to a language that has its origin in extended contact between two language communities, one of which is generally European. It incorporates features from each and constitutes the mother tongue of a community CROSS-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE A cover-term used to refer to phenomena such as borrowing, interference, and language transfer in which one language shows the influence of another. It is sometimes preferred to the more widely used term ‘transfer’ and especially ‘interference’, because ‘cross-linguistic influence’ avoids associations with behaviourism. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY The study of contemporary and recent historical cultures among humans all over the world. The focus is on social organization, culture change, economic and political systems and religion. Cultural anthropologists argue that culture is “human nature”, and that all people have a capacity to classify experiences, encode classifications symbolically and teach such abstractions to others. They believe that humans acquire culture through learning and people living in different places or different circumstances may develop different cultures because it is through culture that people can adapt to their environment in non-genetie ways. Cultural anthropology is also referred to as social or socio-cultural anthropology. Key theorists: Franz Boas, Emile Durkheim, Clifford Geertz, Marvin Harris, Claude Levi-Strauss, Karl Marx20 CULTURAL CLASH The conflict that occurs between two or more cultures when they disagree about a certain value. CULTURAL CODE A system of words or nonverbal behavior that has acquired certain arbitrary meaning within a culture; a systematic collection of regulations and rules of behavior. CULTURAL DETERMINISM The philosophical doctrine of ‘cultural determinism’ assumes that every event, human action and choice is determined by the culture within which preceding events and states of affairs have taken place, with the consequence that freedom from the influence of culture is illusory. The doctrine denies the element of chance or contingency and is opposed to indifference, or indeterminism, which maintains that preceding cultural circumstances do not definitely determine subsequent ones. As cultural determinism is generally assumed to be true of all events except volition, the doctrine is of greatest importance when applied to ethics. In modern anthropology, the theory was first affirmed by Franz Boas and his school (cultural relativism). CULTURAL IDENTIFICATION A term used to refer to the degree to which an individual considers himself/herself to be a representative of a particular culture. CULTURAL NOISE A term used to refer to impediments to successful communication between people of different cultures. Sources of cultural noise include differences in language (e.g., the same words have different meanings), values (¢.g., importance of being on time or setting work schedule times in a culture), nonverbal cues (e.g., interpretation of body language), and many others. CULTURAL RELATIVISM Cultural relativistic theories date back to Herodotus and the sophistry of Ancient Greece, but the expression ‘cultural relativism’ should be reserved to a social-anthropological theory first implemented by Franz Boas (1858-1942) and his disciples. He and his school established new and complex concepts of culture and race, as outlined in his writings. The theory of cultural relativism is also known as ‘cultural determinism’ and sets forth the view that all morals, rules and needs must be judged in the context of the society and culture which produce them and observed from that society and culture’s point of view. Judgement from the point of view of the observer may lead to ethnocentrism.21 CULTURE The total way of life of a people, composed of their learned and shared behavior patterns, values, norms, and material objects. CULTURE SHOCK A state of distress and tension with possible physical symptoms after a person relocates to an unfamiliar cultural environment. This term was used by social scientists in the 1950s to describe the difficulties of a person moving from the country to a big city, but now the meaning has changed to mean relocating to a different culture or country. One of the first recorded use of the term was in 1954 by the anthropologist Dr. Kalervo Oberg who was born to Finnish parents in British Columbia, Canada. While giving a talk to the Women’s Club of Rio de Janeiro, August 3, 1954, he identified four stages of culture shock — the honeymoon of being a newcomer and guest, the hostility and aggressiveness of coming to grips with different way of life, working through feelings of superiority and gaining ability to operate in the culture by learning the language and finally acceptance of another way of living and worldview. DECODING The process by which a message is converted into an idea by the receiver. When decoding a speech utterance, the listener must: (a) hold the utterance in short term memory, (b) analyze the utterance into segments and identify clauses, phrases, and other linguistic units, (c) identify the underlying propositions and illocutionary meaning. Decoding is also used to mean the interpretation of any set of symbols which carry a meaning, for example a secret code or a Morse signal. DEFICIT HYPOTHESIS The name given to the view that some children, especially those belonging to an ethnic minority or with a working-class background, lack a sufficiently wide range of grammatical constructions and vocabulary to be able to express complex ideas, such as will be needed for su ss in school. An unfashionable hypothesis in the intellectual climate of the present day, it is contrasted with the difference hypothesis — the view that the language used by such children is simply different from that found in middle-class children, though its social standing is lower. The difference hypothesis views all dialects as intrinsically equal and able to express ideas of any complexity, though children who speak non-standard dialects may not have had the same kind of opportunity or motivation to use their language in demanding educational contexts.22 DEVELOPMENT A widely participatory process of social change in a society intended to bring about both social and economic advancement for the majority of people through their gaining greater control over their environment. DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION The exchange of information between two or more individuals in which one individual, a change agent, seeks to assist the other individual to achieve a higher socioeconomic status. DIALECT A variety of a language, spoken in one part of a country (regional dialect), or by people belonging to a particular social class (social dialect or sociolect), which is different in some words, grammar, and/or pronunciation from other forms of the same language. A dialect is often associated with a particular accent. Sometimes a dialect gains status and becomes the standard variety of a country. DIALECTOLOGY The study of the regional variations of a language. Usually, studies in dialectology have concentrated on different words used in various dialects for the same object or on different pronunciations of the same word in different dialects. DIASPORA The term originally used by the ancient Greeks to mean citizens of a large city who migrated to a conquered land with the purpose of colonization to assimilate the territory into the empire. Later the word was used to refer specifically to the populations of Jews exiled from Judea in 586 BC and from Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans. Now the term is used to refer to other population dispersals, voluntary and non-voluntary. The modern term evokes a sense of exile and homelessness. DIFFUSION A term used for the increased use of a language or linguistic form throughout an area over a period of time. Specifically, the theory of lexical diffusion explains the way a sound change moves through the vocabulary of a language, emphasizing that it spreads differentially and gradually through the words to which it applies, and not in an ‘across-the- board’ manner at a uniform rate. Some speakers introduce a change into their speech before others; some use it more frequently and consistently than others: and some words are affected before others DISCOURSE Verbal or written texts that extend beyond the level of a single sentence are referred to by linguists as discourse. Discourse is expressed in a wide diversity of forms or genres. For instance, informal