CAC All Lectures

Communicating across
Cultures
Week 1
Janet Connor
❑Course introduction
❑How and why we
communicate
*all information is available on Brightspace

Who are we Tutorials (check your schedule)
Lectures (Tuesdays)
Drs. Lisa Wolring

Dr. Habiba Chafai
l.wolring@hum.leidenuniv.nl
h.chafai@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Dr. Janet Connor Group 118
Groups 113, 114, 115
j.e.connor@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Carol Kerolos LLM Dr. Aleksandra Plazinic

c.g.a.s.kerolos@hum.leidenuniv.nl a.plazinic@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Groups 101, 107, 108, 117 Groups 104, 105, 106
Aims and objectives of the course
"How do people manage their understanding in (intercultural)

interaction?"
❑ What is communication?
❑ How is communication organized?
❑ How do participants attribute meaning to interactional behavior cross-culturally?
❑ What is culture?
❑ What role does culture play in attributing meaning to (inter)action?
Aims and objectives of the course
▪ Identify and describe examples of how culture shapes communication;

▪ Discuss how different modes of communication (e.g. non-verbal, computer-
mediated) differ across cultures;
▪ Think critically about the main concepts in pragmatics and analyze their
adequacy in describing communication in different cultural contexts and
situations;
▪ Apply the theoretical concepts discussed to analyze concrete instances of
communication and interaction.
Hopefully this course will encourage you
❑ to recognize how extraordinary the ordinary is

❑ to notice communicative patterns and norms
❑ to appreciate the complexity of putting
language to use
“Open deuren intrappen”

[lit. Kicking in open doors]
“Nice scarf! It is so…colorful.”
Lectures
The lectures are organized in three parts:
1. Aspects of interaction 3. Interaction rituals

o week 2 o week 9
o week 6 o week 10
o week 11
o week 12
2. The classics: speech acts,

politeness and pronouns
o week 3
o week 4
o week 5
o week 7
o week 8
Interactive lecture
❑ Tuesdays 17:15-19:00 in Wijnhaven 201

❑ Not only a lecture, but also an interactive exchange
NOTE: All lectures will be recorded, but the recordings will

not be available until 2 weeks before the final exam.
Tutorials
1. Introducing pragmatics
The tutorials will be used to

(i) discuss materials covered in 2. Doing things with words
the last weeks,
(ii) do in-class exercises to
prepare you for the 3. Language, culture, and
assignments and exam
(mis)communication
(iii) exchange feedback on ongoing
research projects
4. Towards intercultural
communicative competence
Assignments
Tutorial grade (50%) Final exam (50%)

❑ speech act analysis ❑ short open questions
▪ due 8 November ❑ essay questions
▪ individual ❑ about application not memorization
▪ 20% of end grade
❑ Individual
❑ research project + poster presentation
❑ Online
▪ due Tutorial 4
❑ 20 December, 09.00-11.00*
▪ group project
▪ 30% of end grade *Will possibly have a slightly longer time
window in case of technical problems.
More information to come soon.
Note
There is no midterm exam
The Final Exam grade needs to be 5.50 or higher.
Course Readings
1. What is the main aim or research question the author(s) address
in the text?
2. What method is used in this case study? How does the chosen
method impact the (possible) outcomes?
3. How did the researcher(s) collect data?
4. What are the main findings reported in the study?
5. Can the findings be generalized to other contexts? Why (not)?
6. Can you think of possible improvements or future steps to take?
For example, related to topics that were not addressed,
conclusions that cannot be drawn, flaws in the design or method
used, etc.
Active Reading Examples
Sidnell (2000) Basso (1970) Rosaldo (1982)

Key terms and concepts
▪ The only terms you will be expected to be able to define

▪ Check the reading guide!
Questions?
1. Ask during the lectures

2. Ask via the Google form
3. Ask during the workgroups
4. Ask a friend
5. Come to office hours (email j.e.connor@hum.leidenuniv.nl for
appointment)
For personal circumstances, email bais.stuco@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

How (and why) we communicate
Central questions
1. Starting from the beginning a. What is language?
2. Defining the discipline
b. What is communication?
3. Pragmatics vs sociolinguistics
c. Why do we communicate?
d. What is culture?
e. How is communication cultural?
What is language?
A system of signs (what Enfield calls “semiotic”)
In language, we formulate our thoughts for others and hence for ourselves.
It's a system for publicly expressing our thoughts to help others imaginatively
reconstruct them.
(Dor, Knight & Lewis 2004:3)
“Language” (as an ideal thing)

vs.
language-in-use (code-in-context, what we’re focusing on)
What is communication?
Sender noise Receiver

source target
message signal signal message

encode channel decode
“I need coffee” Statement Complaint

Request Protest
Command Conclusion
Code model of communication

What is communication?
Informative intentions
"what S is trying to
communicate"
Communicative intentions
"that S is trying to
communicate"
The inferential model of communication

(For now... We'll complicate this more throughout the course)
The inferential model of communication
“I need coffee”
▪ By necessity, language cannot reference all aspects of a shared reality.

▪ Linguistic utterances are only cues to an interpretation.
▪ Speakers rely on listeners’ inferential abilities to complete the content of
their communicated thoughts.
▪ Listeners know that and take this communicative intention of the speaker
into account when interpreting their utterances.
Communication is approximate
Why do we communicate?
1. Requesting
I want you to do something (to help me)
2. Informing
I want you to know something (to help you)
3. Sharing
Main motives for
I want you to feel something (for us to share) communication
(Tomasello 2008:84-88)
4. I acknowledge you exist

▪ studying human relationships means looking at human interaction
▪ studying human interaction means looking at relationship
Understanding relationships is key to understanding communication

What is culture?
“Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the

English language."
(Williams 2014:84)
“Culture now explains everything: from political instability in Haiti to

ethnic war in the Balkans, from labor difficulties on the shop floors
of Mexican maquiladoras to racial tensions in British schools and
the difficulties of New York’s welfare recipients in the job market."
(Trouillot 2002:37-8)
The anthropological “culture concept”
1. Human behavior is patterned.

2. Those patterns are learned.
Avoids seeing cultures as closed, bounded things.

1. National cultures
2. “Western culture” vs. “non-Western culture”
How is communication cultural?
❑ meaning involves inference making

❑ inferences are contextual
❑ interpreting context is cultural
The Yes-People
Think about while watching:

▪ What is the language in this video? What is the communication?
▪ Why are the characters in this film communicating?
▪ Where is the culture? Do you identify forms of communication that are
particularly Icelandic? Are there other kinds of cultures/communities of
practice affecting the kinds of meaning here? Do some of these interactions
seem universal?
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTkL825NQM (0:18-3:18)
Discuss with your neighbor (3 minutes)
▪ What is the language in this video? What is the communication?

▪ Why are the characters in this film communicating?
▪ Where is the culture? Do you identify forms of communication that are
particularly Icelandic? Are there other kinds of cultures/communities of
practice affecting the kinds of meaning here? Do some of these interactions
seem universal?
week 1. Central questions
How (and why) we communicate a. What is cross-cultural pragmatics?
b. What is intercultural communication?
1. Starting from the beginning c. What is the difference?
d. Why study communication across cultures?
e. What are the pitfalls of communicating
across cultures?
f. What are the advantages of communicating
across cultures?
Cross-cultural pragmatics
Pragmatics = Cross-cultural pragmatics =

✓ the study of language in context ✓ pragmatics across language-
✓ focus on conversational inference cultures
three aspects of meaning making and inference:

❑ context shaping meaning
❑language shaping context
❑ common ground week 2
Intercultural communication
“Intercultural communication, as a field of inquiry, is concerned with how

people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds interact with each
other, and what impact such interactions have on group relations, as well as
individuals’ identity, attitudes, and behaviour”
(Zhu Hua 2013:1)
cross-cultural pragmatics
L1 L1 L1 L1
intercultural communication
L1 L2
Why study communication in culture?
“An understanding of intercultural communication is crucially

related to an understanding of the ways in which the spoken and
written word may be interpreted differentially, depending on the
context. The message received is not always the one intended by
the speaker or writer. [...] an understanding of how [pragmatic and
sociocultural] principles interact in a given language, and in
intercultural communication, is crucial to the development of
mutual understanding in the global world.”
(Bowe, Martin & Manns 2014:1)

Potential Pitfalls
Negative stereotyping
1. Single dimension contrast
US THEM 2. Problem for communication
3. “We” are right, “they” do it wrong
4. Applies to all group members
Example: Shaking Hands in Norway
Positive and negative stereotyping
Positive stereotyping
solidarity fallacy
US THEM common ground on single
dimension
Negative stereotyping US THEM

2. Problem for communication
Positive and negative stereotyping
Positive stereotyping
lumping fallacy
US THEM grouping together two other groups
Negative stereotyping THEM THEM

2. Problem for communication
Practicing pragmatics
But why?
▪ Understanding human interaction

▪ Finding language usage patterns
▪ Analyzing recurrences systematically
▪ Recognizing differences (and similarities!)
▪ Explaining meaning-making
▪ Anticipating communicative behavior
How (and why) we communicate a. What is sociolinguistics?
b. What is pragmatics?
1. Starting from the beginning c. What is the difference?
d. What about other disciplines?
Selected sociolinguistics terms / concepts
linguistic
speech acts accommodation
relativity
cooperation
stereotype backchanneling
principle
conversational
essentialism politeness
maxims
speech
inference face
community
communicative community of face threatening

competence practice act
Sociolinguistics (as you learned it last year)
The study of the relationship between language and society.

Accounting for how language is used in a community.
❑ norms and choices

❑ process of social practice and variation
❑ language use in (societal) context
Pragmatics
The study of language use in context/interaction. Accounting

how language users produce and understand meaning in
context.
❑ inferences and constraints

❑ process of meaning-making
❑ language use in (local) context
pragmatic
aspects
It’s about us! sociocultural
(and us) aspects
discourse cultural
speech community community community
community of practice
pragmatics
sociology anthropology
ethnography of
sociolinguistics
speaking
Questions?
1. Starting from the beginning

▪ code model of communication
▪ inference model of communication
▪ main motives for communicating
▪ relationship-thinking (Enfield 2013)
▪ Culture and context

▪ cross-cultural vs intercultural communication
▪ pitfalls and advantages
▪ sociolinguistics = society, community level
▪ pragmatics = individual level
▪ selected sociolinguistics concepts
Next week: Communication as a Joint Effort
Literature
▪ Goffman, Erving. 1979. Footing (only sections II-VII). Semiotica
25(1-2): 1-30. [link] (14 pages)
▪ Sidnell, Jack. 2000. Primus inter pares: Storytelling and male peer
groups in an Indo-Guyanese rumshop. American Ethnologist
27(1):72-99. [link] (17 pages)
Cultures
Week 2
Janet Connor
Discover the world at Leiden University

Questions from last week?
§ Structure of the course
§ How (and why) we communicate

- Starting from the beginning: Language, Communication, Culture
- Defining the discipline
- Pragmatics vs sociolingusitics
§ Enfield chapter

Couse Questions
Essential question: How do people manage their mutual understanding in

(intercultural) interaction?
§ To formulate an answer to this question, we need to consider several

smaller questions first:
- What is communication?
- How is communication organized?
- How do participants attribute meaning to interactional behavior cross-culturally?
- What role does culture play in attributing meaning to (inter)action?

Communication: a joint effort a. What is common ground?
b. How do joint activities relate to common
1. Working together to make sense of ground?
interactional behavior c. What role does coordination play?
2. Managing turns at talk
d. Experiment!
3. Roles and relationships
4. Putting talk in context e. How is this affected in intercultural
communication?

Inferential model of communication
Figure 0.2 from Silverstein 2023

What is common ground?
“Two people's common ground is, in effect, the sum of their mutual,
common, or joint knowledge, beliefs, and suppositions.”
(Clark 1996:93)
Communal common ground =

related to membership of cultural communities
Personal common ground =

related to people’s direct personal experience with each other

Common ground?
The shared basis is not necessarily openly addressed, rather participants

assume that what they themselves notice, experience, see, hear, etc. is also
noticeable/available to others.
q You only know what you yourself know.

q You can only assume or believe others also to know this.
Based on individual information, leading to assumed common information

How do everyday joint activities relate to common ground?
I believe she also

Joint activity: I believe I’m in a
believes I’m in a
grocery shopping business transaction
business transaction
with her.
with her.
Participants rely on their common

Includes: ground for the interpretation of
§ specifying items to buy
their actions and their joint actions
§ identifying the price to be paid
§ payment itself accumulate common ground
§ transfer of goods between them!

What role does coordination play?
"in conversation [...] there is coordination between what speakers mean and
what addressees understand them to mean"
(Clark 1996:12)

Coordination and Language
My pear tree is shrinking, so I called my new gardener, James, this morning.
I called my new gardener, James, this morning.
I called James this morning.
Negative correlation between

I called him this morning.
size of common ground and
length of utterance
I called.

An experiment DIRECTOR MATCHER
TIMER

coordination, common ground

Coordination of knowledge, beliefs and language
Personal
common ground
+
Communal
common ground

Size of Common Ground vs. Length of Utterance

Backchannelling and coordination

How is this affected in intercultural communication?
"when we are communicating with people who are

very different from us, it is very difficult to know how
to draw inferences about what they mean, and so it is
impossible to depend on shared knowledge and
background for confidence in our interpretations."
(Scollon and Scollon 1995:22)
§ lack of common ground complicates inference making

§ participants assume mutual cooperation
§ more explicit efforts of coordination
§ coordination strategies might be different
[Note that this is not about different cultures, but about lack of common ground more generally]

Communication: a joint effort a. How do interlocutors know when (not) to
take turn?
1. Working together to make sense of b. What qualifies as an appropriate response?
interactional behavior c. How to signal misunderstanding?
4. Putting talk in context

Transcript conventions
These are some of the most common transcription conventions (based on Jefferson 2004)
[text start overlap

text] end overlap (not always indicated)
(0.3) pause in milliseconds
(.) short pause (single beat, 'clap of hands')
<text> relatively lower speech rate
>text< relatively higher speech rate
TEXT relatively louder volume
°text° relatively softer volume
te::xt lengthening of sound (in this case 'e')
text emphasis on underlined sound/syllable
↑ sharp increase in pitch
↓ sharp decrease in pitch

How do interlocutors know when (not) to take turn?
place of turn-taking ('where')
1. turn-constructional unit
utterance that is prosodically,
grammatically, pragmatically complete
2. transition relevant place

place where another participant could
take over

What qualifies as an appropriate response?
An important organization structure is the adjacency pair:
first pair part

second pair part
The second pair part can also change the meaning of what has been said before.
Silverstein (2023:7)
How to signal misunderstanding?
§ nonverbal behavior
§ primary interjection
"huh", "he", "uh"
§ secondary interjection
"sorry", "excuse me", "again"
§ question word
"who", "what", "how", "where"
§ repeating the trouble source

§ paraphrasing the trouble
source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm_klOMto4o

Communication: a joint effort a. What roles are involved in interaction?
• speaker = production format
1. Working together to make sense of • hearer = participation framework
interactional behavior b. What is footing?
2. Managing turns at talk c. What is triadic communication?

What roles are involved in interaction?
“The common dyadic model of speaker-hearer specifies sometimes

too many, sometimes too few, sometimes the wrong participants.”
(Hymes 1974:54 as quoted in Goffman 1982:16)

Interaction is dynamic, so are participant roles

“Interaction is
dynamic, so
are participant
roles.”
Shifting activity, role,
relation, responsibility, tone
= changing footing
“Was that a long
enough break?”
“Did you see the

Barbie move?”
Janet

In interaction with others, participants
constantly change their (interpersonal)
alignment and stance, reflecting a
change in the relevant frame of
reference. Footing
These changes are noticeable to others
through changes in linguistic and/or
non-verbal behavior.

Participant roles – the speaker
Principal
“someone whose position is
established by the words
that are spoken, someone Author
whose beliefs have been
told, someone who has “someone who has
committed himself to what selected the sentiments Animator
the words say” that are being expressed
“the talking machine, a body
and the words in which engaged in acoustic activity, or,
they are encoded” if you will, an individual active
in the role of utterance
production”

Production format principal author animator
“Was that a long enough break?”
“Interaction is dynamic, so
Goffman,
? are participant roles.” Goffman previous CAC
lecturers,
Janet
Janet
“Did you see the Barbie

movie?

Participant roles – the hearer
HEARER
RATIFIED UNRATIFIED
[PARTICIPANTS] [BYSTANDERS]
ADDRESSED UNADDRESSED OVERHEARER EAVESDROPPER

(= GOAL) (= AUDITOR) (= UNINTENTIONAL) (= INTENTIONAL)

dyadic communication = a message
moves from the source immediately
Triadic to the target (i.e. only two parties
involved)
communication
Oftentimes interaction involves a
third party, an intermediary of sorts,
either on the speaker’s or hearer’s
‘end’ of the interaction.

Speech event - lawsuit
My client wants to extend

his gratitude for the court’s
decision in the matter of
his alleged dangerous
driving. Social and cultural norms regarding
who may speak (and to whom)
influence the unfolding of the
speech event as well as the roles
participants perform.
Lawyer
Defendant

dyadic communication
Principal Addressee
(+author) (=ratified participant)
(+animator) (=goal/target)
triadic communication (speaker-focused)
client lawyer judge/jury

[principal] [author] [target]
[animator]

Speech event –
family fight in Isabelle Allende’s House of Spirits
Tell my husband that

dinner is ready.
Husband
Wife
Housekeeper

dyadic communication
Principal Addressee
(+author) (=ratified participant)
(+animator) (=goal/target)
triadic communication (hearer-focused)
wife housekeeper husband

[principal] [addressed] [overhearer?
[author] eavesdropper?]
[animator] [+target]

Putting on a performance / taking on a role

week 2.
Communication: a joint effort
Central questions
1. Working together to make sense of a. How does context shape meaning?
interactional behavior b. How can language shape context?
c. How do participants use/create context?
4. Putting talk in context d. How does context relate to participant roles
and relationships?

How does context shape meaning?
"Communication never occurs in a vacuum […] we cannot communicate without a

social and situational context."
(Stadler 2018:2)
I've got a
flat tire
request to request for

fix the tire a lift
informing turning down the
about delay request for a lift

How does language shape context?

How do participants use/create context?
§ (old) friend
§ surprise meet
§ positive experience
He::y!
He:llo:?
Hello.Hi!
(low
(high
pitch,
pitch,
rising
rising
intonation;
intonation,
slow,
(low pitch, falling intonation)
lengthening) § stranger
§ unexpected/unwanted meet
§ confused experience
§ acquaintance
§ (un)expected/unwanted meet
§ negative experience

How does context relate to participant roles and
relationships?

Egalitarianism: Collective Storytelling
(Sidnell 2000:79)
Hierarchy: Challenging claims to knowlege
(Sidnell 2000:84)
Summing Up: How is communication organized?
§ Speakers rely on common ground to make inferences and understand what

is being communicated.
§ Turn-taking in interaction is governed by social conventions that allow
someone to know when it is their turn to speak, and how they should
respond.
§ In interaction with others, participants constantly change their
(interpersonal) alignment and stance. These changes are called changes in
footing.
§ Participants use language to invoke and create context

Questions?
1. Working together to make sense of interaction

§ common ground
§ cooperation & coordination

§ adjacency pair
§ repair

§ production format (speaker)
§ participation framework (hearer)
§ triadic communication

Next week: Speech Acts, Part 1: Affirmative Acts
Readings
§ Al-Khawaldeh, Nisreen Naji and Vladimir Zegarac. 2013. Cross-cultural
variation of politeness orientation & speech act perception.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature
2(3):231-239. [link] (8 pages)
§ Maíz-Arévalo, Carmen and Antonio García-Gómez. 2013. “You look
teriffic!” Social evaluation and relationships in online compliments.
Discourse Studies 15(6):735-760. [link] (20 pages)

Cultures
Week 3
Dr. Janet Connor

1. Working together to make sense of interaction

▪ common ground
▪ coordination

▪ turn constructional unit (TCU) & transition relevant place (TRP)
▪ adjacency pair

▪ production format (speaker)
▪ participation framework (hearer)
▪ triadic communication

Theme 2.
The Classics: Speech
Acts, Politeness, and
Pronouns
Central questions
week 3.
a. What is a speech act?
Affirmative acts
b. What are explicit and implicit performatives?
c. How does language perform acts?
0. Speech acts – a recap
d. What is the difference between a direct and
1. Speech acts from a cross-cultural
indirect illocutionary act?
perspective
2. Compliments e. What are joint speech acts?
3. Thanking
What is a speech act?
How do we use language to perform acts; change the world as well as people in it?
(as opposed to the traditional idea that language is used to report on the world around us – to state things, not do things with language)
Performatives
Performing a particular act by performing an utterance.
Utterances can describe the world,

Or they can change the world.
The second type are performatives. requesting, inviting,
congratulating, promising,
apologizing, warning,
some are explicit performatives commanding, issuing, advising,
encouraging, betting,
most are implicit performatives pronouncing, swearing, etc.
Explicit performatives
CHARACTERISTICS
- I hereby fire you. ❑ (hereby)
- I hereby order you to stay. ❑ 1st person pronoun
- I hereby name this ship the Waterfall ❑ present tense
❑ declarative sentence
- I hereby declare you husband and wife
❑ performative verb
- I hereby announce the birth of my nephew
In performing the act of saying this (the locutionary act), the actual act that is
named in the utterance (the illocutionary act) is performed.
Implicit performatives
Even if an utterance does not name the act it intends to perform, it still does
perform a certain act.
* = NOT THE SAME ACT AS BEFORE!

- You’re fired!
- I would like for you to stay. These utterances do no longer
- *Now the ship is called the Waterfall. perform the act of naming or
- *I pronounced you husband and wife pronouncing; they are now
acts of stating something. The
- (*)My nephew was born last week.
illocutionary force has
changed.
How does language perform acts?
Each utterance generally completes three acts at the same time:
1. locutionary act
the ‘act of saying’
2. illocutionary act
the ‘act performed in saying’ something: the act S intended to perform by means of
performing the locutionary act
3. perlocutionary act
the effect achieved by the speech act
Intended effect?
Oh, look I’ve never seen

so many jellyfish!
within S’s
control
locution - [saying ‘oh, look I’ve never seen so many jellyfish!’]

illocution - [I want to direct your attention: look at the beautiful jellyfish / let’s go see]
perlocution - (intended:) make H happy, enthusiastic, appreciative, go with S
(actual:) make H terrified, H running away screaming outside
S’s control
Compliment or
Complaint?
‘You look quite pale’

‘Your have a very big head.’
Direct and indirect ‘You’ve gained weight over summer.’
illocutionary acts ‘Where is your coat rack?’

‘Do you have a vacuum cleaner?’
‘Did you put kale in the lasagna?’
‘When are you going to the gym?’
Explicit and Implicit Performatives,
Direct and Indirect Illocutionary Acts
❑ I hereby fire you.
❑ You’re fired!
❑ You’re being let go.
❑ Our collaboration has come to an
end.
❑ We're here to talk about your future.
❑ Your position here at Deckers is no
longer available.
❑ I am here to tell you about your
options.
❑ “So although I wish I were here with
better news (.) the fact is (.) that you
and I are sitting here today because
(.) eh this will be your last week of
employment (.) at this company.”
Yes, why are
you asking?
direct acts indirect acts
“Give me the keys!” “You have the keys, right?”
▪ imperatives are canonically used ▪ interrogatives are canonically used

to perform commands to perform questions
▪ illocutionary force of the literal ▪ illocutionary force of the literal
utterance is a command utterance is a question
▪ intended illocutionary act is to ▪ intended illocutionary act is to
perform a command perform a command
mismatch between form and force

canonical form-force pairing
Am I a speech act?
What are joint speech acts?
Especially directive speech acts (i.e. S wants H to do something) require some

form of uptake, be it acceptance or rejection of the proposed act.
Examples: requests – questions – suggestions – invitations – offers – proposals
A: Can you give me a ride to the station?

B: ......
A: Well? A: Can you give me a ride to the station?
B:..... B: Yes / No
A: Did you hear me?
B: ....
“Battles of politeness”
A: Please, have a cookie.

B: Thanks! A: this person
is really rude!
Even if you understand what people are saying, you might not understand
what they mean, simply because you have a different frame of reference.
“Battles of politeness”

B: Thanks! A: this person
is really rude!

B: Oh no, that’s okay.
A: Please you must take a cookie.
A/B: this
B: Really, I’m fine. person is A certain type of uptake is
A: I baked them this morning. really rude! expected and thus deemed
B: Thank you, I’ll have one. appropriate or polite behavior.
Affirmative acts a. Why study speech acts cross-culturally?
b. What is the CCSARP project?
0. Speech acts – a recap c. How are speech acts performed differently?
perspective
2. Compliments
3. Thanking
Why study speech acts cross-culturally?
One locutionary act (i.e. utterance) can result in multiple interpretations

Cross-cultural difficulties
▪ Complete misrecognition of the

intended illocutionary act.
▪ Recognition of canonical
illocutionary force, but not the
specific intended illocutionary act.
Over-reliance on the locutionary act -

the literal utterance - in (re)constructing
the intended meaning and act this
person is attempting to perform.
Why study speech acts cross-culturally?
REQUEST REQUEST
Why speech acts?

❑ Doing things through speaking is universal (although wait for Lecture 8...)
❑ Speech acts are relatively easy to isolate and, hence, compare cross-culturally
What is the CCSARP project?
Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Pattern project
❑ native speakers realization of apologies and requests

❑ cross-linguistic similarities and differences
❑ native vs non-native similarities and differences
Languages studied:
Australian English Canadian French Hebrew
400 speakers per language:
American English Danish Russian
200 native speakers
British English German 200 non-native speakers
How universal is this study?
Discourse completion task
REQUEST
APOLOGY
Cross-cultural realization of apologies
“By apologizing, the speaker recognizes the fact that a violation of a social norm has
been committed and admits to the fact that s/he is at least partially involved in its
cause. Hence, by their very nature, apologies involve loss of face for the speaker and
support for the hearer”
(Ohlstain & Blum-Kulka 1984:206)
pre-conditions for an apology

- an act has occurred
- A believes the act has offended B
- A takes some responsibility for the act
(Holmes 1990:161)
Two basic strategies
1. use an explicit, routinized, formulaic expression of regret (i.e. use a performative verb)
[in English:] “ I apologize”, “Excuse me”, “I’m sorry”
2. use an utterance that refers to one or more of the pre-conditions

a) S explaining the cause for the act “Traffic is always so heavy in the morning”
b) S’s responsibility for the act “It’s my fault/mistake”
c) S’s willingness to offer repairs for the act “I’ll pay for the damage” / “I’ll see what I can do”
d) S’s promise of forbearance “This won’t happen again”
the "apology speech act set"

How are speech acts performed differently?
observation 1:
in English more intensifiers are
used when apologizing to
(close) friends compared to
Polish and Russian (low
Distance)
How are speech acts performed differently?
observation 2:
▪ in Polish and Russian
(much) more intensification
is used when apologizing to
strangers (high Distance)
compared to friends (low D)
▪ in English the level of
intensification is almost the
same as with friends
degree of violation /
cultural level
seriousness of offence Americans vs South Africans
arriving late
role and relationship

contextual level parent-child vs brother-sister
Birthday party vs. weekly family
dinner
social distance
strangers vs friends
individual level
personal tendency to apologize power
strangers vs friends
Affirmative acts a. What is a compliment?
b. When are compliments used and what for?
0. Speech acts – a recap c. How are compliments performed?
d. How to respond to a compliment?
perspective
2. Compliments
3. Thanking
What is a compliment?
"A compliment is typically defined as a positive assessment of an action,

accomplishment, characteristic, possession or skill for which the coparticipant
can take credit"
(Golato 2013:361)
"[. . .] explicitly or implicitly attribute credit to someone other than the

speaker, usually the person addressed, for some ‘‘good’’ (possession,
characteristic, skill, etc.) which is positively valued by the speaker and the
hearer"
(Holmes, 1986: 485, qtd in Maíz-Arévalo & García-Gómez 2013:737)
A compliment is a positive, evaluative, remarkably formulaic, speech act

When are compliments used and what for?
appearance possession skill / ability personality

How are compliments performed?
(reference to)
assessment response
the assessable
English compliment formulae:
(Maíz-Arévalo & García-Gómez 2013:738)

▪ appreciatory sounds (/interjections) oh, aah, mmm

▪ positive evaluative adjectives nice, good, pretty
▪ positive evaluative verbs love, like, adore
▪ speaker-focused (~mental process; affective fact) I love your shoes

▪ hearer-focused (~relational process; fact) You look great
▪ object-focused (~referential) Nice shoes!
"Spanish users seem much more prone

▪ appreciatory sounds (/interjections) to encoding their evaluation of the
▪ positive evaluative adjectives addressee(s) as an outburst of emotion
by means of exclamative sentences."
▪ positive evaluative verbs (MA&GG 2013:754)
▪ speaker-focused (~mental process; affective) "English users usually opt for more
objective evaluations and advocate the
▪ hearer-focused (~relational process; fact) use of declarative sentences, encoding
▪ object-focused (~referential) their evaluations as unquestionable
truths."
(MA&GG 2013:754)
"in German, […] verbs are either missing entirely, or else are neutral ones, such as sein ‘to be’,
haben ‘to have’ […]Further, it can be noted that German compliments lack first person pronouns,
such as ich ‘I’ and wir ‘we’. Put differently, German compliments are typically not designed in
terms of the likes and dislikes of the speaker, but instead are rather “neutral” or “referential” in
nature.
(Golato 2013:364; see also MA&GG 2013:738)
How to respond to a compliment?
Acceptance Acceptance
o appreciation tokens well thank you o appreciation tokens Thanks, yes
o agreements I liked her too o agreements I think it's lovely too
o downgrading It's not too bad is it
Rejections o return compliment
o disagreements do you really think so?
Rejection
Self-praise avoidance o disagreement I'm afraid I don't like it much
o praise downgraders o question accuracy Is beautiful the right word?
- agreement That's beautiful – Isn’t it pretty? o challenge sincerity You don't really mean that
- disagreement Good shot – Not very solid though
o Referent shift Deflecting/evading
- reassignment You're a very good rower – o shift credit my mother made it
These are very easy to row
o informative comment I got it from the new bakery
- return You sound real nice –
Yeah, you sound real good too o ignore
o request reassurance Do you really think so?
(Pomerantz 1978) (Holmes 1988; 1995)

How to respond to a compliment?
(Schneider & Schneider 2000:74)

Appropriate uptake?
Affirmative acts a. What is thanking?
b. Why is gratitude expressed?
0. Speech acts – a recap c. When is gratitude expressed?
d. How is gratitude expressed?
perspective
2. Compliments e. How to respond to thanking?
3. Thanking
What is thanking?
"Expressing thanking is greatly valued in Arab cultural groups as it plays an

important role in establishing and maintaining on-going social reciprocity
and good relationships between interlocutors which are very important to
these groups' members (Samarah, 2010). […] the point of exchanging thanks
is the acceptance of the speaker within a social group, rather than the making
of offers as tokens of gratitude (which, consequently, should not be taken
literally)."
(Al-Khawaldeh & Zegarac 2013:232)
"expressing thanks in most English speaking cultures seldom involves

establishing social reciprocity or indebtedness though it is common in all daily
situations. […] thanking in the English culture is the fulfilment of a social
expectation"
(Al-Khawaldeh & Zegarac 2013:231)
Why is gratitude expressed?
show appreciation for the a matter of common decency

helpfulness / kindness of and manners (English)
others (English)
reflection of the personal failure to show appreciation

image; establishing and has negative consequences
maintaining a good social (Jordanian Arabic)
relationship (Jordanian Arabic)
When is gratitude expressed?
English:
▪ all services/efforts require giving thanks ('balancing out costs')
▪ closer relationship results in more specific or detailed form of giving thanks
Jordanian Arabic:
▪ close relationships do not require giving thanks
▪ expected services do not require giving thanks
the "thanking speech act set"
How is gratitude expressed?
speech act formulae thank you, I'm grateful
possibly combined with efforts to express:

o (contextual) information I lost my wallet and now here you are
o agreement indeed money is a most valuable thing
o desire/offer to compensate is there anything I can do for you?
o praise for the other you are an angel
o personal feelings I was quite desperate
o common values this is how we do things for each other
o compliment it is beautiful
o surprise I didn't expect this
o indebtedness I owe you something
o apology we already kept you too long
(based on Garcia 2016:29-34; Peruvian Spanish)
How is gratitude expressed?
Jordanian Arabic English

preference for complex direct and preference for formulaic
indirect thanking expressions expressions of gratitude
Important role for NVBs:

❑ handshake
❑ paralanguage
❑ smiling
❑ kissing
❑ eye contact
How to respond to thanking?
"thanks implying the indebtedness of the recipient of the benefit closely

resemble apologies where the speaker actually recognizes his indebtedness
to his interlocutor”
(Coulmas 1981:79)
A successful thanking episode is a

collaboration between speaker and
hearer a joint speech act!
Thanking responders:
acknowledging yes, hm(-hm), OK, all right,
thanking thank you, thank you too
deflecting don't mention it, that's okay, it's nothing, no problem
accepting you're welcome, sure, my pleasure, of course
nothing silence
(based on Talla Sando Auafe 2007; Cameroonian English)

Try it out! Ask the person next to you:
▪ how do they formulate a thanking? (i.e. verbal elements)

▪ how do they perform a thanking? (i.e. non-verbal elements)
▪ when do they use a thanking?
▪ when do they not use a thanking, but have they noticed others doing
so?
▪ are there contextual factors that influence the form/performance of the
thanking?
▪ what is/are appropriate way(s) of responding to a thanking?
▪ what do they notice learners of the language do ‘wrong’? (i.e. in an
unexpected way)
Based on the responses, try to figure out the criteria for a ‘good’ thanking
or a ‘good’ compliment in the language you are most comfortable in. If
your partner speaks a different language or belongs to a different cultural
group, what differences are there?
Questions?
1. Speech acts – recap

▪ performatives
▪ locution, illocution, perlocution
▪ direct and indirect speech acts
▪ felicity conditions
2. Speech acts from a cross-cultural perspective

▪ CCSARP project
▪ discourse completion task
▪ speech act set
▪ joint speech act
3. Compliments
4. Thanking
Next topic
Week 4. Challenging acts
One article about refusals:

Pragmatic transfer in Thai EFL refusals (Wannaruk 2008)
AND one article about complaints:

(i) Complaints on TripAdvisor (Vazquez 2010; EN)
(ii) Negative reviews on Tripadvisor (Cenni & Goethals 2017; DU, EN, IT)
Cultures
Week 4
Dr. Janet Connor

Questions?
1. Speech acts – recap
2. Speech acts from a cross-cultural perspective
3. Compliments
§ Al-Khawaldeh & Zegarac. 2013. Thanking in Jordan
4. Thanking
§ Arevalo & Garcia-Gomez. 2013. Compliments online.

Challenging acts a. What is a refusal?
b. How are refusals performed? (2 case
1. Refusals studies)
2. Complaints c. How are refusals shaped by relationships?
3. Pragmatic transfer
d. How are refusals different per speech act?

What is a refusal?
"Refusals are speech acts that function as a response to another act such as a
request, an offer, an invitation and a suggestion. It is a face-threatening act
and requires a high level of pragmatic competence because it tends to risk the
interlocutor’s positive or negative face."
(Chang 2009:478)
clarity politeness

How are refusals performed?

Thai – American English (Wannaruk 2008)
invitation suggestion
offer request
Different speech act sets!

Thai – American English (Wannaruk 2008)
invitation
direct refusal:
- no (NE)
- I can't (NT)
Explanation:
- I have to work
- I don't like movies

Argentinian Spanish (García 2007)
head act supporting act

"the minimal unit(s) which can "unit(s) external to the [refusal]
realize a [refusal]; the core of which modify its impact by either
the [refusal] sequence" aggravating or mitigating its force"
(Blum-Kulka et al 1989-275-5, qtd in (Blum-Kulka et al 1989-275-5, qtd in Garcia

Garcia 2007:552) 2007:552)

Head and supporting acts
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry, I can’t.
I have to get home to feed my cat.
I can't today because I have to get home to feed my cat. Can we go tomorrow
instead?

The method here was role-play instead of discourse completion tasks:
Your birthday is this

Saturday. You meet
a friend on the
street and invite
them to your party. You cannot go.
? ?
actor 2
actor
1

2 stages:
v refusal of the
initial invitation
v refusal of the
insistence
grounder ≈ explanation

2 stages:
v refusal of the
initial invitation
v refusal of the
insistence
grounder ≈ explanation

Relationships
Would you be
my research
assistant next
semester? Can you help me
with my English
homework?
professor
Can you help me

move this
weekend?
high school
student
friend

How are refusals shaped by relationships?
Recall Brown & Levinson's formula for determining politeness strategies:

degree of face threat = D(istance) + P(ower) + I(mposition)
§ specific explanation § direct "no" § direct "no"

§ negative ability § explanation § explanation
§ positive feeling § regret § regret
§ regret / apology § gratitude § gratitude
§ alternative § future acceptance § future acceptance
high school
advisor friend student

Refusing different speech acts
I’m having a
birthday party on I can drive you to
Saturday, and I The Hague the day
hope you can of the train strikes.
come.
I think if you rewrote

the methods section
of your paper it Can you help me
would make more move on Saturday?
sense.

How are refusals different per speech act?
invitation suggestion offer request

§ explanation
§ explanation
§ regret § explanation § explanation
§ alternative
§ gratitude § positive feeling § regret
§ negative ability
§ positive feeling § negative ability § alternative
§ positive feeling
§ gratitude § negative ability
§ no § future acceptance

Challenging acts a. What is a complaint?
b. How are complaints performed?
1. Refusals § face-to-face
2. Complaints
§ CMC
a. How is CMC different from face-to-face?

What is a complaint?
"an illocutionary act in which the speaker (the complainer) expresses his/her
disapproval, negative feelings etc. towards the state of affairs described in the
proposition (the complainable) and for which he/she holds the hearer (the
complainee) responsible, either directly or indirectly."
(Trosberg 1995:311-312)
negative evaluation expectation responsibility

How are complaints performed?
face-to-face
head acts
1. no explicit reproach (i.e. hints)

2. expression of annoyance or disapproval, implying H is responsible
a) annoyance "you know I'm allergic to cats!"
b) consequences "Now I'll be sneezing all day and mess up my job interview!"
3. accusation, implying H is guilty

1. indirect accusation "Look what I found in the kitchen, your dirty clothes"
2. direct accusation "You just threw all your dirty clothes in the kitchen"
4. blame
1. modified blame "you could have said that you had so much to do"
2. explicit condemnation of the action "you never clean up, I'm done with it"
3. explicit condemnation of the person "you're a true nightmare to live with"
Trosberg (1995)

face-to-face
positive remark
I really enjoy your [praise]
company, but I
cannot afford to
keep feeding you
but
negative remark
[complaint]

CMC
Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is often considered a hybrid

medium, showing characteristics of both written and spoken language.
English
§ 37/100 included a positive statement (often marked by 'but' or 'one thing')
§ 32/100 referred to expectations explicitly
§ co-occuring speech acts: recommendations, warnings, advice, suggestions
§ 11/100 addressed the hotel owners
§ explicit complaint devices are very common
(Vazquez 2011)

CMC
(warnings, advice, intentions, suggestions)

(credibility of author, practical information)
(reference to action taken at hotel)
(comments about the author's review)
v English written reviews are slightly more elaborate

v English written reviews include more positive comments
v Dutch written reviews do not target the hotel owners
(Cenni & Goethals 2017)

How is CMC different from face-to-face?
"this place is horrible, dust and

"you know I'm hairs everywhere, I've never
allergic to cats!" seen anything so nasty! RUN!!"
direct complaint indirect complaint
q in face-to face complaints the social q in CMC the complainee is often not
relationship is under (potential) stress (personally) known
q complainee = addressed q complainee = unaddressed
q complainant is vulnerable q complainant is not vulnerable
q implicitness and delicacy in utterances q explicit complaint devices are common

Does our definition still work?
"an illocutionary act in which the speaker (the complainer) expresses his/her
disapproval, negative feelings etc. towards the state of affairs described in the
proposition (the complainable) and for which he/she holds the hearer (the
complainee) responsible, either directly or indirectly."
(Trosberg 1995:311-312)
negative evaluation expectation responsibility

More CMC complaints

Challenging acts a. What is pragmatic transfer?
b. What is pragmatic failure?
1. Refusals c. What is pragmalinguistic transfer?
2. Complaints
d. What is sociopragmatic transfer?
e. How does pragmatic transfer affect
intercultural communication?

“pragmatic universals”
All competent language users have access to a universal set of inferencing

tools, allowing them to produce and comprehend linguistic behavior in
context.
q (assumption of) common ground

q inviting and deriving inferences
q using contextualization cues
q relevance of language variety
q relevance of lexical and grammatical form

What is pragmatic transfer?
“[…]influence exerted by learners’

kn
at i c
ow
pragmatic knowledge of languages
gm
le d
pra
ge
and cultures other than L2 in their
comprehension, production and
learning of L2 pragmatic
L1 L2 information”
(Kasper 1992:207)

What is pragmatic failure?
“[Chelsea] is another cook”

“[Chelsea] is another biscuit”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QRqOndbzw
Conventionalized expressions involve a fixed form-function mapping that is

not as easily inferred, but rather learned. An expression can be
conventionalized between two people, a family, a club, a social category, a
language/culture, etc.

What is pragmatic failure?
“I reserve the term exclusively for misunderstandings that arise […] from an
inability to recognize the force of the speaker’s utterance when the speaker
intended that this particular hearer should recognize it”
(Thomas 1983:94)
That's certainly They're impressed!

an original idea. [compliment]
[criticism]

What is pragmalinguistic transfer?
“the process whereby the illocutionary force or politeness value assigned to

particular linguistic material in L1 influences learners’ perception and
production of form-function mappings in L2”
(Kasper 1992:209)
Some examples – illocutionary force Some examples – politeness value
q Can you do X? [REQUEST] q adding ‘please’

q would you be a doll and do X [REQUEST] q adding ‘thank you’
q Do X [REQUEST] q using appropriate address forms (Mevrouw dr. vs.
q I can’t do X [REQUEST] Dr/Miss/Mrs/Ms)
q X is not done yet [REQUEST] q minimizing imposition (‘just’, ‘only’, ‘a bit’)
q X is the case [REQUEST] q emphasizing solidarity (‘we’, complimenting)
q emphasizing autonomy (apologizing, distancing)

What phrase do you use to ask this question?
English
How old are you?
§ adverb of manner
§ ‘old’
§ copula mutations
§ personal pronoun DU Hoe oud ben je / bent u?
how old are you
§ adverb of quantity
FR Tu as quel âge?
§ ‘age’ / ‘year’
you are what age
§ interrogative adjective Quel âge avez-vous?
§ 2sg inflection what age have you
§ T/V SP ¿Cuántos años tienes?
how.many years you.have
RU Сколько тебе лет?

how.many you year

Sociopragmatic transfer
“[process whereby] the social perceptions underlying language users’

interpretation and performance of linguistic action in L2 are influenced by
their assessment of subjectively equivalent L1 contexts.”
(Kasper 1992:209)
Some examples:
q use of address terms

q topics of talk
q language / code choice
q loudness, expressiveness, engagement
q being truthful
q being on time

In what social context is this an appropriate question?
How old are you?
Can you ask this question… Can you ask this question…
(relationship) (setting / situation)
qto your friend? qas part of a doctor’s examination?

qto a fellow student? qas part of a survey?
qto a friend’s parent? qas part of a job interview?
qto your lecturer? qon a first date?
qto your doctor? qin a seminar?
qto your boss? qat the grocery store?

sociopragmatic pragmalinguistic
the social conditions placed on linguistic resources to express
language in use; appropriate particular illocutions; typical
language use / behavior form-intention patterning
to your friend to your friend’s parent
- same age, no restrictions - older age, restrictions How old are you?
- no special circumstances - special circumstances
- no introduction - introduction / account
- no politeness forms - politeness forms
- simple question - complex question(s)

How does pragmatic transfer affect intercultural communication?
positive transfer = negative transfer =

generalizing pragmatic generalizing pragmatic knowledge
knowledge from L1 to a L2 from L1 to a L2 setting, resulting
setting, resulting in (accidental) in inappropriate / marked
appropriate / unmarked behavior behavior
Transfer does not automatically result in communicative breakdown!

Pragmatic transfer can serve as a cue to contextualize an interaction to accommodate
for limited pragmatic knowledge.

Questions?
1. Refusals
§ responsive act
§ head act / supporting act
2. Complaints
§ CMC
§ direct / indirect complaints
§ pragmatic transfer
§ pragmatic failure
§ pragmalinguistic transfer
§ sociopragmatic transfer
§ positive and negative transfer

Next week: Non-verbal Behaviors
Matsumoto, David & Hyi-Sung Hwang. 2014. Nonverbal communication.

The messages of emotion, action, space, and silence. In: Jane Jackson
(ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural
Communication (pp. 130-147). London and New York: Routledge.
[Available on the course reading shelf in Wijnhaven library]
Basso, Keith. 1970. “To Give up on Words”: Silence in Western Apache

Culture. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 26(3): 231-230.

Cultures
Week 5
Dr. Janet Connor

1. Refusals
▪ responsive act
▪ head act / supporting act
2. Complaints
▪ CMC
▪ direct / indirect complaints
▪ pragmatic transfer
▪ pragmatic failure
▪ pragmalinguistic transfer
▪ sociopragmatic transfer
▪ positive and negative transfer

Interpreting non-verbal behaviors a. What is non-verbal communication?
b. What role does non-verbal communication
1. Types of non-verbal behaviors play in interaction?
2. Norms of non-verbal behavior c. What types of non-verbal behaviors are
there?

What is non-verbal communication?
“all the behaviors that occur during communication that do not involve
verbal* language”
(Matsumoto & Hwang 2014:130)
“all those non-verbal* stimuli in a communication setting that are generated

by both the source and his or her use of the environment and that have
potential message value for the source or receiver.”
(Samovar et al 2010:246)
*sign languages complicate this definition
Non-verbal behaviors as a complement or replacement of language

What role does non-verbal behavior play in interaction?
Statistics show that when meeting

new people the impact is:
7% from what we actually say

38% The quality of our voice
grammar and overall confidence
55% The way we dress, act and walk
through the door

Mehrabian’s myth
7%-38%-55% Rule:
7% words
38%
55%
paralanguage (tone)
body language
] 93% non-verbal
▪2 experiments
BUT ▪Word & sound
▪Word, sound & facial expression

What types of non-verbal behaviors are there?
paralanguage
kinesics
“Nonverbal communication occurs when a
message is decoded (or interpreted) as having
oculesics
some meaning, regardless of the sender’s intent”
(Hickson et al. 2004:11-12)
proxemics
haptics

paralanguage
Not what you say,
but how you say it
kinesics
oculesics ▪ tone of voice

▪ intonation
proxemics ▪ pitch
▪ speech rate
▪ use of silence
haptics
▪ volume

Paralanguage and Social Categories
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister UK, 1979-1990

“Emblems are an important part of any cultural language

paralanguage because they allow for communication across distances
when voices cannot be readily heard, or when speech is
not allowed or wise”
kinesics (Matsumoto & Hwang 2014:138)
oculesics
❑ convey verbal meaning

proxemics ❑ no speech necessary
❑ culture specific
haptics ❑ universal set of emblematic
gestures might develop
(hello, goodbye, welcome, go, yes,
no)

1. 2 performers read the card, don’t show
it to others in your group
Emblem 2. without saying anything, perform what
is on the card so that those around you
Activity can see
3. let the others tell you what they think
you meant to convey
4. does their interpretation match what it
says on the card?
David Matsumoto & Hyisung C. Hwang 2013. Cultural similarities and differences in emblematic
gestures. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 37:1-27

paralanguage “Speech illustrators” are movements that are directly

tied to speech, and illustrate or highlight what is being
said.”
kinesics
oculesics
1. Kinetographic (speaker’s movement)

proxemics 2. Spatial (objects or bodies moving)
3. Pictographic (referent shape)
4. Ideographic/Methaphoric(thought process)
haptics 5. Deictic (pointing)
6. Batons (emphasis)

Ideographic / Metaphoric Gestures (thought process)
▪ Solve this algebra word problem:
After a seven-day harvest, a potato farmer notices that his rate of gathering potatoes
increased steadily from 35 bushels/day to 77 bushels/day. How many bushels of
potatoes did the farmer collect during the seven-day harvest?
(from Alibali et al. 1999)

Batons (emphasis)
US President Barack Obama, 2013 State of the Union Address

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKwE2EGsfMk

Cultural differences in illustrative gestures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX_g8I1JYg4

Practice
▪ Pay attention to the gestures, note them down and we’ll categorize them—
are they emblematic or illustrative?
▪ What kinds of illustrative gestures are they?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5_ccmHk_TY&ab_channel=BigBangTheory

paralanguage
kinesics
oculesics
proxemics
haptics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecDH5uqsKLA

Influences:
▪ haptics
▪ oculesics
▪ kinesics

Interpreting non-verbal behaviors a. How do NVBs affect intercultural
communication?
1. Types of non-verbal behaviors b. Are emotions universally expressed and
2. Norms of non-verbal behavior recognized?
c. How can silence be meaningful?

How do NVBs affect intercultural communication?
❑Recognizing the (in)appropriateness of a particular behavior can be

challenging.
❑Interpretation of NVB is based on cultural and contextual factors.
❑potential source for misunderstanding and miscommunication
❑ potential misattribution of intent or character

Cultural recognition of emotional vocalization
Two-culture approach Target

British speakers (UK) 6 “basic emotions”
Himba speakers (Namibia) 3 additional emotions
Di sa A. Sa uter et al. 2010. Cros s-cultural recognition of basic nonverbal emotional vocalizations. PNAS 107(6): 2408-2412.

Vocalizations of emotions
- achievement
- amusement
- anger
British English
- disgust
- fear
- relief
- sadness Himba
- sensual pleasure
- surprise


Are emotions universally recognized?
7 universal facial expressions of emotion
1) happy 5) disgust
2) surprise 6) anger
universality studies
3) sadness 7) contempt
4) fear

Are emotions universally recognized?
6 ways of managing expression of emotion
1) no modification 4) concealed
2) exaggerated (amplification) 5) neutralized
3) minimized (deamplification) 6) qualified (combination)
cultural display rules


Preliterate cultures
“test the hypothesis that members of a

preliterate culture [...] will identify the same
emotion concepts with the same faces as South Fore, Papua New Guinea
members of literate Western and Eastern
cultures.”
(Ekman & Friesen 1971:125)
Materials
6 emotions:
- 1 story happiness, sadness, anger,
- 1 correct photograph surprise disgust, fear
- 2 incorrect photographs

Preliterate cultures
South Fore, Papua New Guinea
Story - Fear
She is sitting in her house all alone, and there is no one else in the village. There is no
knife, axe, or bow and arrow in the house. A wild pig is standing in the door of the
house, and the woman is looking at the pig and is very afraid of it. The pig has been
standing in the doorway for a few minutes, and the person is looking at it very afraid,
and the pig won't move away from the door, and she is afraid the pig will bite her.

Criticism of universality studies
“Emotions are not recognized, but perceived [...] the presumed universal
pattern of emotion perception appears to be linguistically relative”
(Gendron et al. 2014:260)
crying, smiling,
looking, frowning,
pouting, smelling
❑ 36 photographs of facial
expressions of emotion
❑ free sort: sort the faces by
feelings so that each person in a
given pile is experiencing the
same emotion
❑ describe the piles you made

How can silence be meaningful?
“Although the form of silence is always the same, the function of a specific act of
silence—that is, its interpretation by and effect upon other people—will vary
according to the social context in which it occurs.”
(Basso 1970:215)
1. conversational silence (~noticeable absence of expected speech)

2. textual silence (~silence due to reading or reciting a text; intentional)
3. situational silence (~observing normative silence in particular place or event)
"In order to interpret silence, we always need a context, in which are involved two or
more people who interact with each other in one way or another. […] There are
basically three types of silence, all of which may be timed: conversational, textual, and
situational."
(Kurzon 2012:1-2)

Silence among Western Apache
6 Situations:
1. Meeting Strangers
2. Courting
3. Children coming home from boarding school
4. Getting cussed out
5. Being with people who are sad
6. “Being with someone for whom they sing”
“To sum up and reiterate: keeping silent among the Western Apache is a
response to uncertainty and unpredictability in social relations.”
(Basso 1970:227)

1. Go through the following situations.
Would you be silent in them? If not,
how would you react to someone who
Silence was.
1. Meeting new people
2. With a crush
3. If someone insults you
4. With someone who’s sad (stranger vs.
friend)
2. Can you think of other situations
where you would be silent?

Perceiving Silence, Quiet, and Noise
▪ “The silent American Indian”

▪ “The rushed, talkative White man”
▪ “The silent Finn”

▪ “The noisy immigrants”
▪ “The quiet gentrifiers”

Questions?
1. Types of non-verbal behavior

▪ non-verbal communication
▪ 5 main types
▪ emblems & illustrators
2. Norms of non-verbal behavior

▪ emotions
▪ universality studies (+criticism)
▪ silence
Readings
▪ Matsumoto & Hwang
▪ Basso

Next week: Cross-cultural norms of (im)politeness
Tretault, Chantal. 2015. Use of hashek among Arabic-French Teenagers
Ameka. 2020. Cursing/swearing in West Africa

Cultures
Week 6
Dr. Janet Connor

1. Types of non-verbal behavior

▪ non-verbal communication
▪ 5 main types
▪ emblems & illustrators
2. Norms of non-verbal behavior

▪ emotions
▪ universality studies (+criticism)
▪ silence
- Readings
▪ Matsumoto & Hwang
▪ Basso
Cross-cultural norms of a. What is politeness?
(im)politeness b. What is face?
▪ positive face
0. Politeness – a recap ▪ negative face
1. Impoliteness c. Is face universal?
2. Swearing and cursing
d. What is group face?
3. Politeness norms and how they change
e. What are politeness strategies?
f. How do (in)directness and politeness
relate?
What is politeness? "Despite the variety of studies which
focus on linguistic politeness […] the field
still lacks an agreed definition of what
‘politeness’ is."
(Bargiela-Chiappini 2003:1464)
pragmatic view of politeness: focuses on how language is used to promote social harmony
focuses on social norms that prescribe a certain behavior in

social normative view of
certain contexts; politeness constitutes behavior in
politeness:
congruence with those norms
focuses on the negotiative work employed to establish and
discursive view of politeness: apply then-current norms of interactions; emphasizes
politeness is dynamic and situated
focuses on the interpersonal relations rather than individuals
relational view of politeness:
'performing politeness'; face is central to this approach
focuses on how regular co-occurrence of particular linguistic
frame-based view of politeness: expressions and particular contexts of use create a perception
(or implicature) of politeness
What is face?
The public self-image that every member wants to claim for themselves.
"it is in general in every participant's best

interest to maintain each others' face"
(Brown &Levinson 1987:61)
❖communication always concerns face

❖face only "exists" in interaction
❖face is interactionally realized
positive face negative face
"the want of every member "the want of every 'competent
that his wants be desirable to adult member' that his actions
at least some others" be unimpeded by others"
the want to be liked, admired, the want to be autonomous,

approved of, understood, independent, left alone, not
appreciated, etc. imposed on, etc.
(Brown & Levinson 1987:62)
Is face universal?
"while the content of face will differ in

different cultures (what the exact limits are
to personal territories, and what the publicly
relevant content of personality consists in),
we are assuming that the mutual knowledge
of members’ public self-image or face, and
the social necessity to orient oneself to it in
Criticism of B&L
interaction, are universal."
(Brown and Levinson 1987:61-62) ❑too Anglophone

❑politeness is not just
volition, but also
includes discernment
❑group vs individual face
What is group face?
"we shall suggest that the notion of face, while useful as a heuristic device, should be
further sub-classified into ‘individual face’ and ‘group face’. Individual face refers to the
individual’s desire to attend to his/her personal needs and to place his/her public-self
image above those of others. Group face, on the other hand, refers to the individual’s
desire to behave in conformity with culturally expected norms of behavior that are
institutionalized and sanctioned by society."
(Nwoye 1992:313)
interdependent conception of self =

self is defined by the person's relations with others in
specific contexts; emphasis on involvement
independent conception of self =

self is defined by unique traits and characteristics of
the autonomous individual; emphasis on independence
(cf. Cheng 2003:6; Markus and Kitayama 1991, 1994)

What are politeness strategies?
(Brown & Levinson 1975:67; 75)

How do (in)directness and politeness relate?
Hebrew English
most Hints Hints

indirect
most 1. query preparatory Could you clean up the kitchen? 1. query preparatory Could you clean up the kitchen?
polite 2. hedged performatives I would like to ask you to clean 2. mild hints we don't want mice to move in
3. performatives I'm asking you to clean the kitchen 3. strong hints you left the kitchen in a mess
4. mild hints we don't want mice to move in 4. hedged performatives I would like to ask you to clean
5. strong hints you left the kitchen in a mess 5. suggestory formula how about cleaning up?
6. suggestory formula how about cleaning up? 6. performatives I'm asking you to clean the kitchen
7. obligation statement you'll have to clean the kitchen 7. want statements I would like you to clean the kitchen
8. want statement I would like you to clean the kitchen 8. obligation statements you'll have to clean the kitchen
9. mood derivable clean up the kitchen 9. mood derivable clean up the kitchen
(Blum-Kulka 1987)
Cross-cultural norms of a. What is impoliteness?
(im)politeness b. How is impoliteness expressed cross-
culturally?
0. Politeness – a recap c. How can (perceived) impoliteness impede
1. Impoliteness (intercultural) communication?
3. Politeness norms and how they change
What is impoliteness?
“Impoliteness is behaviour that is face-aggrevating in a particular context”

(Locher & Bousfield 2008:3)
“[…] impoliteness, communicative strategies designed to attack face, and thereby

cause social conflict and disharmony [...]”
(Culpeper et al. 2003: 1546)
“[...] verbal impoliteness [is] linguistic behaviour assessed by the hearer as

threatening her or his face or social identity, and infringing the norms of
appropriate behaviour that prevail in particular context and among particular
interlocutors, whether intentionally or not”
(Holmes et al 2008: 196)
“impoliteness constitutes the communication of intentionally gratuitous

and conflictive verbal face-threatening acts which are purposefully
delivered:
i. unmitigated, in contexts where mitigation is required

ii. with deliberate aggression […] to heighten the face damage inflicted
Furthermore, for impoliteness to be considered successful impoliteness, the

intention of the speaker to ‘offend’ must be understood by those in a
receiver role.”
(Bousfield 2008:72)
Impoliteness is not "failed politeness", but serves a separate

specific goal-oriented purpose
❑H's face / self-image is under threat

❑social norms and rights are broken
❑the behavior has emotional consequences
❑the behavior is intentionally impolite (S)
❑the behavior is recognizable as such (H)
How is impoliteness expressed cross-culturally?
personalized
negative vocatives ❑snubbing, dismissing what someone says/does
"you bastard" ❑dissociating from the other
(e.g. denying association or common ground, moving away)
personalized ❑ being uninterested, unconcerned, unsympathetic

negative assertions ❑ using inappropriate identity markers
"you're so pathetic" (e.g. using a surname in a close relationship, nicknames in distant rel.)
❑seek disagreement / avoid agreement
personalized ❑use taboo words (e.g. swearing, profane language)
negative reference ❑threaten or frighten the other
"your disgusting hands" ❑condescend, scorn or ridicule, show contempt
(e.g. by emphasizing relative power)
personalized 3sg/pl ❑explicitly associating the other with a negative aspect
negative reference (personalizing the remark, using 'I' and 'you')
(within earshot)
"the dumb bitch(es)"
(Bousfield 2008:101-118)
How can (perceived) impoliteness impede (intercultural)
communication?
"Lunch time, I saw her immediately after I went to the cafeteria. I told her ideas for some
activities for our class. I intended to collect some suggestions from my classmates by telling
them the activities ahead of the schedule. I was shocked at her answer. She rejected the
ideas loudly with a tone of ordering in front of all the people in the cafeteria. Despite
explaining to her softly and humbly, she rejected them more disrespectfully than before,
paying no attention to my good manner. I was greatly annoyed because my classmates all
respected me and I had never come across situations like that before. I began to think
about all that I had done and what I should do in the future. I felt very puzzled."
(Diary entry Chinese undergraduate student)
❑ rejection of the ideas

❑value of student to classmates is challenged
How can (perceived) impoliteness impede (intercultural)
communication?
“Gutentag, ich bin

“Und ich bin Frau possible participant conclusions
Michael Clyne aus
Helmer”
Australien” ▪ first names are (not) required /
expected / appropriate
▪ not respecting the greeting
routine is impolite / improper /
inappropriate
▪ not reciprocating the extended
greeting is impolite / improper /
inappropriate
possible participant assumptions

▪ informality and egalitarianism
(Australia)
▪ formality and hierarchy
(Germany)
Cross-cultural norms of a. What is swearing?
(im)politeness b. What is cursing?
c. How do swearing and cursing relate to
0. Politeness – a recap (im)politeness?
1. Impoliteness d. Why should we study ‘bad’ language?
3. Politeness norms and how they changes
What is swearing?
"Swearing is the use of taboo language with the purpose of expressing the
speaker’s emotional state and communicating that information to listeners"
(Jay & Janschewitz 2008:268)
That f*cking
sh*tface of a
defender! ❑ Swearing is not an infrequent act
❑ Mostly swearing is conversational
❑ Commonly used for emphasis
❑ Social situation informs interpretation
❑ Social relationship informs interpretation
❑ Swearing can be polite, impolite, or neither
What is cursing?
The English term(s) do

not necessarily have
obvious equivalents in
other languages
(Ameka 2020:125)
How does swearing and cursing relate to (im)politeness?
"swearing is not necessarily impolite,

inasmuch as offensive language is
often used within the boundaries of
what is considered situationally
appropriate in discourse; further,
some instances of swearing are
neither polite nor impolite."
(Jay & Janschewitz 2008:268)
❑setting / location
❑relationship
Swearing as marker of solidarity
expletive
complaint
insult
(Daly 2004:951-2)
Intercultural Experiment! (based on Jay & Janschewitz 2008)
Actually, 2 experiments:
▪ My first language/the language I am ▪ My first language/the language I am

most comfortable speaking is English: most comfortable speaking is a
language other than English:
Why should we study ‘bad’ language?
"Swearing and cursing never does just

“happen” […] it is based in context." why?
(Storch & Nassenstein 2020:4)
violation of social norms social consequences re-establishing order

Why should we study ‘bad’ language?
❑"de-tabooization" of swear words in informal context impacts the

pragmatics of the expression
❑'proper' swearing (and its interpretation) requires a deep understanding of

contextual, social, and relational factors influencing the (in)appropriateness
of the behavior
❑swearing is an emotive expression, which is often combined with particular

non-verbal behaviors (or is itself a semi-verbal behavior)
❑conceptualization and terminology is generally based on English, which

does not always apply to other languages and contexts
Cross-cultural norms of Transculturality
(im)politeness a. What is interlanguage pragmatics?
b. What is intercultural pragmatics?
0. Politeness – a recap c. What is an interculture?
1. Impoliteness
d. What is transculturality?
3. Politeness norms and how they change e. What effect does transculturality have on
(politeness) norms? (hashek)
Mock impoliteness
a. What is mock-impoliteness?
b. How do (mock-)(im)politeness strategies
contribute to relationship building?
L1 L1 L1 L1
cross-cultural pragmatics
Focuses on the rules and norms associated with a particular language,
comparing interaction in one language with interaction in another language
(special interest in speech acts and politeness)
L1/L2 L2
Intercultural
pragmatics
special interest in co-construction of
“investigates the speech production and meaning and blending of norms
comprehension of interlocutors who
represent different cultures and languages,
and use a common language (lingua franca)
for communication”
(Kecskes 2017:400)
The communicative process is
a blend of the (individual)
pragmatic norms of each of
the participants as well as L1 L2
elements co-constructed by
the participants in the process
of the ongoing interaction.
individual prior experiences
(Kecskes 2014; 2017)
situational (ongoing) experience

pragmatic
Transculturality L1
L1(*)/L2 L2
L1(*))/L2
when cultures combine within one

individual, one social group, often in a “teeangers combine cultural and linguistic
migration/diaspora context
referents in their communicative styles in ways
that both deconstruct and reimagine the
ideological underpinnings of their multiple
social identities”
(Tetreault 2015:286-7)
individual prior experiences
situational (ongoing) experience

Hashek
Parents (Algeria) Teenagers (French cités)
❖ “code-specific genre” (Garrett 2005) ❖ inserted into in French

❖ conventionalized self-corrective to ❖ self-corrective equivalent to “I’m
create polite deference for an teasing,” ”I’m joking,” to facilitate face-
interlocutor threats, challenge behavioral norms of
❖ allows speakers to politely mention le respect
threatening topics ❖ other-corrective used to both uphold
❖ mitigate face-threatening utterances and subvert le respect
“The term’s usefulness for facilitating face threatening actions among French-
speaking teenagers is dependent upon its discursive life in Arabic and polite usage
by native Arabic-speaking parents. Hashek therefore retains some meaning as a
speech act by virtue of its status as an Arabic term, but shifts in pragmatic force
when imported into teenaged French-language interactions.”
(Tetreault 2015:297)
What is mock (im)politeness?
mock impoliteness involves evaluations of talk or conduct that are potentially

open to evaluation as impolite, but that are negated as such based on the
social context of the ongoing interaction
"successful mock impoliteness"

= recognized and accepted as
not intended to cause harm by
at least two participants in
interaction (here A and B)
(Zhao 2020:51)
How do people distinguish mock (im)politeness from real
(im)politeness?
similar locution: different illocution: different perlocution:

conventional impoliteness the socially conventionalized the intended effect is
formulae such as taboo negative evaluation of the affiliative rather than
words, swear words, impolite formulae is negated aggravating; whether this
personalized negative in mock impoliteness: the is established is derivable
references, or vocatives, impolite illocutionary force from the hearer's uptake /
insults, accusations no longer applies response
Mock impoliteness strongly relies on common ground: all participants have to be able to
recognize relevant contextualization cues to recognize what is said as being non-serious
(and all need to assume all assume this is the case). In determining the illocutionary force,
non-verbal behaviors play an important part.
How do people distinguish mock (im)politeness from real
(im)politeness?
IFID –
illocutionary force
indicating device
(“I’m joking”)
Self-corrective, sharing
responsibility
Other-correction: rejecting speaker attempts at mock
impoliteness
BUT: Still not a “traditional” use

of hashek AND challenging
norms of who can confer
Paralinguistic cues and
respect other NVBs
How does mock-impoliteness contribute to relationship
building?
Olja (O), host of reality show

Sergej (S), new contestant
insult
Sergej is new in the group. Normally a stranger or guest would be treated with regard or respect. The immediate
insult (line 3) by the host invites Sergej to partake in the in-group social norms of the TV show; the laughter is a sign
of affiliation (and acceptance on his part). A mock-impolite move can thus establish a (close) relationship as well as
group membership.
(Furman 2013:252)
And in transcultural situations?
“Innovative uses of Hashek do not just constitute ‘being rude’ or impolite, but
rather foreground teenaged forms of solidarity and intimacy in ways that
reconfigure norms for le respect in peer settings. Hashek usage thus appears
to provide a way for Arab French teeangers to mediate between adherence
to ‘traditional’ models for social relationships and new ones.”
(Tetreault 2015:298)
Questions?
0. Politeness – recap 3. Swearing

▪ positive and negative face ▪ emotive interjection
▪ group face ▪ relation to (im)politeness
▪ quality / relational / social identity face ▪ propositional vs nonpropositional
▪ politeness strategies ▪ relevance of study
▪ politic behavior
1. Impoliteness
▪ intentional and conflictive
▪ conventionally impolite formulae
2. Politeness norms and how they

change
▪ intercultural pragmatics
▪ transculturality
▪ mock (im)politeness
▪ (im)politeness and relationship building
Next topic
Week 7. Pronouns and Honorifics
▪ Ide. 2005. How and why honorifics signify politeness

▪ Askey. 2010. When to use du and Sie – make a similar chart for the language
you speak
Cultures
Week 7
Dr. Janet Connor

0. Politeness – recap 3. Swearing

§ positive and negative face § emotive interjection
§ group face § relation to (im)politeness
§ quality / relational / social identity face § relevance of study
§ politeness strategies
Tretault, Chantal. 2015. Use of hashek among
Arabic-French Teenagers
1. Impoliteness Ameka. 2020. Cursing/swearing in West Africa
§ intentional and conflictive
§ conventionally impolite formulae
2. Norms and how they change

§ intercultural pragmatics
§ transculturality
§ mock (im)politeness
§ (im)politeness and relationship building

week 7. Central themes
Pronouns and Honorifics a. What is the T-V distinction?
b. Power and Solidarity
1. T-V distinction c. Critiques of Power and Solidarity
2. Address terms and Honorifics
d. T-V outside of Europe: Symmetrical and
Asymmetrical
e. T-V in Europe
f. Pronouns and Politics
g. T-V and Emotion

What is the T-V distinction?
Language T-form V-form
Latin tu vos
French tu vous
Dutch jij u
Early Modern English thou you
German du Sie
Catalan tu/vosaltres (vós), vostè/vostès
Estonian sina teie
Turkish sen siz
Tamil nī nīr – nīṅkaḷ
Indonesian kamu/kalian Anda/Anda sekalian
Nepali (tã) – timī tapāī
Greek esi esis
Nama saáko saátù

Power and Solidarity
(Brown and Gilman 1960, 258)

Brown & Gilman’s History of T-V
Western Roman Emperor Eastern Roman Emperor

Critiques of Power & Solidarity
“But though it has spawned an important body of scholarship,

Brown and Gilman’s model tends to deal poorly with
sociocultural context, interpreting alternations in in address
as the outputs of abstract psychological essences (power,
distance, solidarity) that serve as their inputs…”
(Fleming 2023, 44; see also Silverstein 2003, 204-6)
European T-V systems work quite differently from many other languages
T-V Outside of Europe 1: Kinship in Santali
“How are you

(2nd person
dual), daughter-
in-law?”
“We (1st person
dual exclusive)
are fine, thanks.”

Kinship and Symmetrical T-T/V-V
Mijikenda (eastern Africa):
(McGivney 1993, 29)
About respect, not power.

Address in Mijkenda
T-T V-V
T-T
V-V
V-V
V-V
T-T

T-V Outside of Europe 2: Fractal Hierarchies
T-V in Yemsa (Fleming 2023, adapted from Yilma 1992)

Europe: Personal Relationships and “stranger sociality”

Symmetrical V to Symmetrical T
Romper el turrón (Mexican Spanish)
Bruderschaft (Austria)
Tu ou Vous? (French)

LA Times
https://williamalexander.com/images/GuidetoVousTu.pdf

Pronouns and Politics
English Quakers (T-T)
Soviet factories (V-V)
Swedish du-reform (T-T)

T-V and emotion
Monsieur, vous êtes un
connard!
Monsieur, you (V) are an
*sshole!
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

Colombian Spanish (López López 2020, 231-2)
§ The change from tú to usted to express anger or a strong disapproval
§ The change from tú to usted to demonstrate or convey authority
§ The change from tú to usted (portrayed by middle-class individuals)…to “spice
up the conversation”

Central themes
week 7. a. What are address terms?
Pronouns and honorifics b. Address terms cross- and inter-culturally
c. What are honorifics?
1. T-V distinction d. How do honorifics relate to T-V?
2. Address terms and Honorifics
e. How do honorifics relate to politeness?
f. What is wakimae?

What are address forms?
Words and phrases used to reference an addressee
In most languages forms of address concentrate on three word classes:
§ Pronoun
- T/V
§ Verb
- e.g. Viens/Venez (‘come’)
§ Noun
- names, kindship terms, titles, etc.
(Braun 1988)

Names cross-culturally: Russian
Given Name +Patronymic + Yuri Andreievich Zhivago Official settings and

Surname documents
Title + Surname Doctor Zhivago Offcial/Professional

Contexts
Given Name + Patroynimc Yuri Andreievich Formal

(Like Mr. Zhivago in English)
Given Name Yuri Colleagues, Not very

common
Nickname Yura Friends
Diminutive Nickname Yurochka Close family

Intercultural Naming Practices: Burmese Migrants in
Thailand
Sawatdi kha nu chue dek ying

khwan mai prakot namsakun
kha.
Hello, my name is Miss Khwan
Without-a-Surname.
(Sudcharoen n.d.)

What are honorifics?
A grammatical form that encodes relative rank or social position

(Levinson 1984, 90)
3 kinds of honorifics:
§ Addressee: who is being addressed?

§ Referent: who is the utterance about?
§ Bystander: who is overhearing the utterance?

How do honorifics relate to T-V?
T or V pronouns are a kind of

referent honorific, where the
referent also happens to be the
addressee.
S=Speaker, A=Addresse, N=Non-participant

Addressee and referent honorifics in Korean
§ irɯmɯl mal haessoe.

name speech do.
She said her name.
§ soenghamɯl malssɯm hash:yoessoe.

name.HON speech.HON do-HON.
She said her name (reference honorific).
§ soenghamɯl malssɯm hash:yoe=yo.

name.HON-ACC speech.HON do-HON=HON.
She said her name (addressee and reference hon)

Addressee Honorific Speech Levels in Javanese
Did you take that much rice?

Krama 1 menapa nandalem mundhut sekul semanten
2 menapa panjenengan mendhet sekul semanten
Madya 3 napa sampeyan mendhet sekul semonten
4 napa sampeyan njupuk sega semonten
Ngoko 5 apa sliramu mundhut sega semono
6 apa kowe njupuk sega semono
question you take rice that much
(Errington 1988, 90-91)

Bystander honorifics in Dyiribal (Australia)
Avoidance style, or "mother-in-law language” (Jalŋuy), which is a set of lexical items

substituted in the presence of:
• opposite-sex parents-in-law
• opposite-sex children-in-law
• opposite-sex cross-cousins
(Dixon 1980, 61)

How do honorifics relate to politeness?
Brown and Levinson: Politeness is about speaker’s creaYve use of language

and face-maintaining strategies toward the addressee
Cannot adequately explain honorifics:

“No Japanese could imagine that our language could get along without
honorifics. Even a simple proposiYonal sentence requires the choice between
honorific or non-honorific predicate forms.”
(Ide 2005, 57)
From what perspec8ve do we explain linguis8c phenomenon like

honorifics?

What is wakimae?
§ “social norms according to which people are expected to behave in order to

be appropriate in the society they live”
(Ide 1992, 298)
§ Mistakes are linguistically incorrect, not just situationally inappropriate
§ NOT about speaker intention, but about complying to social norms

Questions?
1. T-V distinction
a. What is the T-V distinction?
c. Critiques of Power and Solidarity
d. T-V outside of Europe: Symmetrical and Asymmetrical
e. T-V in Europe
g. T-V and Emotion
2. Address terms and honorifics
a. What are address terms?
b. Address terms cross- and inter-culturally
d. How do honorifics relate to T-V?
f. What is wakimae?

Next topic: Wrapping up The Classics
Week 8. How universal are these concepts?
Reading
§ Ilongot speech acts (Rosaldo)
Bring questions about speech acts, politeness, and pronouns/honorifics!

Cultures
Week 8
Janet Connor

1. T-V distinction
a. What is the T-V distinction? Ide, Sachiko. 2005. How and why honorifics can signify
dignity and elegance.
Askey, Dale. 2010 When to use du and Sie.
c. Critiques of Power and Solidarity
d. T-V outside of Europe: Symmetrical and
Asymmetrical
e. T-V in Europe
g. T-V and Emotion
2. Address terms and honorifics
a. What are address terms?
b. Address terms cross- and inter-culturally
d. How do honorifics relate to T-V?
f. What is wakimae?

week 8.
How universal are these
concepts? Central themes
a. Speech Acts
1. Critiques of “The Classics” b. Politeness and honorifics
2. Academic perspectives on language and
c. Linguistic relativity
culture
3. Practice
* The key terms for this week include

reviewing Grice’s cooperative principle. We
will not cover that in the lecture, and you will
not be expected to know it on the exam.

Review: Speech Act Theory
§ Austin: language changes the world through limited, ritualized, and

conventionalized acts
- “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
- “I name this ship the Queen Elizabeth.”
- ”I bet you 10 euros that it will rain tomorrow.”
§ Searle and followers: more interested in psychological interpretation of

speech acts (based on intention, belief, sincerity)
- Proposes 5 universal categories: assertives, directives, commissives, expressives,
declarations
Austin and Searle both see speech acts as

something special because they assume
the norm in language is propositions
(descriptions of the world, not actions on
the world)
Example: Promising
Promising is a commissive speech act whose illocutionary force is that the
speaker promises to do a future action to the benefit of a hearer. By
promising, the speaker commits to doing this future action.
(Searle 1969)

Promising in Côte d’Ivoire
“A few weeks before an important ceremony at the Abidjan base of

the NGO I work with, I went to an Ivorian friend’s house to hand him
an invitation to the ceremony and the reception afterwards.
When I did so, he said, ‘I shall be there.’
However, in the course of the following conversation, he mentioned
that on the day of the ceremony he would be six hundred
kilometers away from the capital on an important government
mission.
When I pointed this out to him by saying something like, ‘So then
you won’t be able to be there for the ceremony,’ his answer was, ‘I
shall be there. I’ll do everything to be there.’ He never came.”
(Egner 2006:444)

Promising in Ghana (Koma)
“Cahill recounts how one day she drove three and a half hours to
take a man and his wife to another village. When she left them
there, the man said he would come the next morning to thank her.
He did not come.”
(Egner 2006:445, based on Cahill 1995)
Is it still a promise if it isn’t true?

Speech Acts among the Ilongot
“Where we incline, I think, to
regard linguistic learning as a
matter of acquiring phrases that
identify and describe, Illongots
would often claim that children
learn to speak by learning tuydek
[commands]…Tuydek, then, were
seen as the exemplary act of
speech”
(Rosaldo 1982:209)
Ilongot territory,
Luzon, Philippines

What is the most basic unit of langauge use?
Propositions!
Commands!
Western Ilongot
philosopher
/linguist

Commissives and Expressives
§ Examples in English: promises, threats, wishes, compliments, complaints,

apologies, congratulations, refusals
§ But few examples in Ilongot?

- Ilongots have different notions of personhood
- Blame not related to disappointment with another’s failure to perform as hoped

Western vs Ilongot forms of personhood
"The West": Ilongot:

language users as language users relational,
autonomous, rational, based on energy, movement,
strategic entities and responsibility

Directives in Ilongot
tuydek (commands) bēge (requests)
raw (go and) ‘aa (to give, to hand)

durut (hurry and)…
§ Not a more indirect, less
§ call for activity marked by hierarchical command, but about
interruption/movement the quality of moment
§ Imperatives in which addressee is
§ appeal to social hierarchies and not expected to work for inactive
expectations of unequally speaker
distributed knowledge § Goal of securing addressee’s
§ finite, easily realized tasks welfare or winning their
cooperation with a person who
seeks help

Ilongot metalinguistic classifications
1. Acting upon the world without demanding interlocutor response

Norms of sameness and autonomy
2. Relation, hierarchy presupposed, and utterances demand uptake

Relationships defined by hierarchy
Depend upon ongoing patterns of cooperation and care
What does this mean for politeness?

Politeness and wakimae in Japanese
§ Wakimae: “social norms according to which people are expected to behave

in order to be appropriate in the society they live”
(Ide 1992, 298)
§ Mistakes are linguistically incorrect, not just situationally inappropriate
§ NOT about speaker intention, but about complying to social norms

Cultural Categorizations (Hall 1966)
Japanese English
§ Context in which utterance § Context in which utterance

is made must be taken into is made less important
account

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Whorfian) Linguistic Relativity
1. Sapir and Whorf never co-published anything

2. Neither person ever framed their work in the scientific terms of a hypothesis
Language
Language Thought
Culture Thought
“‘Strong’ Sapir-Whorf”
Contemporary understandings of linguistic relativity

in linguistic anthropology

Grammatical and semantic systems, not words
§ Time and space
§ Basic color terms
§ Honorifics
§ Evidentials
§ Kinds of speech acts
Did you know Italians have 200 words for pasta?
https://www.tumblr.com/tulunnguaq/184788107203/did-you-know-the-italians-have-200-different

Language - Culture
“The differences between Ilongot tuydek and comparable English

directive acts are indissociable from our respective ways of
thinking about labor, language, human skill, and human action,
and such social facts as ‘sameness,’ hierarchy, cooperation, and
prestige.”
(Rosaldo 1982:228)

How universal are these a. Western perspectives
concepts? b. Postcolonial pragmatics
c. Emic vs etic
1. Critiques of “The Classics” d. centrism vs centricity
e. Pitfalls of "authenticity”
culture
3. Practice

Western perspectives
Most traditional approaches of pragmatics reflect the western perspective of

language : language users as autonomous, rational, strategic entities.
The imagination of hidden universalism
q unique q strategic
q independent q cooperative
q rational

Western perspectives
Pragmatics, or linguistics more generally, can be argued to show

"eurocentrism" on three levels:
1. Theoretical concepts and constructs

e.g. face, (im)politeness, swearing, self, culture, respect, (standard) language, T-V
2. Research material and methodology

e.g. focus on western languages, structured interviews, anonymity, authorship
3. Otherization in theory and research

e.g. using western languages as 'norm' instead of a balanced comparison

Eurocentrism
"The problem is not that the West

defines realities for the West. The
issue here is that the West defines
realities for the rest."
(Miike 2014:113)

Essential(ist) assumptions
“The West” “The rest”

§ Written lgs and cultures § Oral lgs and cultures
§ Individual-based priorities § Group-based priorities
§ Mono-identity and monolingualism § Multi-identity and multilingualism
§ Home-used is official language § Home-used and official language
An oversimplifcation in both cases!

Attempts to describe postcolonial
interaction in its own rights, on its
own terms, free of the conceptual
Postcolonial pragmatics constraints of monolingual,
monocultural pragmatic analytic
frameworks.
(Anchimbe & Janney 2020)

Etic approach Emic approach
o outsider's perspective o insider's perspective
o understanding in terms of concepts o understanding in terms of concepts
from the outside ('academia') from the community
o central perspective is that of the o central perspective is that of
(external) observer community members themselves

Centrism vs centricity
Eurocentrism as a universalist ideology is an ethnocentric approach to non-

Western worlds and people of non-Western heritage, while Eurocentricity as a
particularist position is a legitimate culture-centric approach to cultural Europe
and people of European descent.
centrism = universalizing
"All human cultures must be centered,
in fact, subject of their own realities”
(Asante 2010:49)
centricity = particularizing

Pitfalls of “authenticity”
Turning towards centricity can bring the assumption that there is one
authentic explanation for how communication works in a particular context
or culture
Important to pay attention to partialness and situatedness of every

perspective

week 8.
How universal are these
concepts?
Mock exam question – full question and answer
1. Critiques of “The Classics” key will be in the mock exam, coming soon
culture
3. Practice

Questions?
End of Theme 2. The Classics: Speech Acts and Politeness
1. Critiques of “The Classics”
a. Cooperative Principle
b. Speech Acts
c. Politeness
d. Linguistic relativity
2. Academic Perspectives on Language and Culture

a. Western perspectives
b. Postcolonial pragmatics
c. Emic vs etic
d. Afrocentricity
e. Asiacentricity
f. centrism vs centricity
g. Pitfalls of "authenticity”

Next topic: Interaction Rituals
Week 9. Routines and Rituals
Reading
• Frake, Charles O. 1964. How to Ask for a Drink in Subanun. American
Anthropologist 66(6): 127-132.
What is a drinking ritual like for you? List the different stages and be
ready to share it next week. Non-alcoholic drinking rituals (e.g. coffee/tea)
are also acceptable!
• Irvine, Judith. 1989. Strategies of Status Manipulation in the Wolof

Greeting. In: Richard Bauman and Joel Sherzer (eds.) Explorations in the
ethnography of speaking (pp. 167-191). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

Cultures
Week 9
Dr. Janet Connor

Question: What are politeness formulae?
Eet
please excuse me smakkelijk!
Met nice to meet

vriendelijke you
groet,
Expressions and conventions used to show politeness. Sometimes also called

politeness markers

Questions from last time?
End of Theme 2. The Classics: Speech Acts and Politeness
1. Critiques of “The Classics”
a. Speech Acts
b. Politeness
c. Linguistic relativity
2. Academic Perspectives on Language and Culture

a. Western perspectives
b. Postcolonial pragmatics
c. Emic vs etic
d. centrism vs centricity
e. Pitfalls of "authenticity”

Theme 3: Interaction as Ritual
Central themes
week 8. a. What is a ritual?
Rituals and routines b. What is the social?
c. From sacred to everyday interaction rituals
1. Rituals d. What do rituals do?
2. Greeting and leave-taking
e. What is a conversational routine?
f. How is an interaction ritual organized?
g. What do rituals have to do with speech
acts?

What is the social?
The Social
Society is more than the sum of its individuals and yet only exists within and through individuals

So, what is ritual?
ritual
action representation
(doing) (belief/thinking)

Example: Magic
“In magic we have officers, actions and
representations: we call a person who
accomplishes magical actions a magician, even if
he is not a professional; magical representations
are those ideas and beliefs which correspond to
magical actions; as for those actions, with regard
to which we have defined the other elements of
magic, we shall call them magical rites…
In the first place, magic and magical rites, as a
whole, are traditional facts. Actions which are
never repeated cannot be called magical. If the
whole community does not believe in the efficacy
of a group of actions, they cannot be magical. The
form of the ritual is eminently transmissible and
this is sanctioned by public opinion. It follows from
this that strictly individual actions, such as the
private superstitions of gamblers, cannot be
called magical.”
(Mauss 2001[1950]:23)

From sacred and magical to everyday rituals
“Ritual is a perfunctory, conventionalized
act through which an individual portrays
his respect and regard for some object of
ultimate value or to its stand-in.
…In contemporary society rituals
performed to stand-ins for supernatural
entities are everywhere in decay, as are
extensive ceremonial agendas involving
long strings of obligatory rites. What
remains are brief rituals one individual
performs for and to another, attesting to
civility and good will on the performer’s
part and to the recipients’ possession of a
small patrimony of sacredness. What
remains, in brief, are interpersonal rituals.”
(Goffman 1971:62-63)

“To stay in one’s room away from the
place where the party is given, or away
from where the practitioner attends his
client, is to stay away from where
reality is being performed. The world,
in truth, is a wedding.”
(Goffman 1959:35-36)
Hi! Hi!
Interaction Hello!
Rituals
How individuals mutually
recognize each other as
social beings, belonging
to the same group
through the “correct”
performance of the same
rituals

Ritual and Imitation
§ Goffman also inspired by animal behavior studies
action representation
(doing) (thinking)

“[…] highly conventionalized
Conversational prepatterned expressions
routines whose occurrence is tied to
more or less standardized
communication situations”
(Coulmas 1981:2-3)

Conversational routines
how are you have a good

please help evening
yourself today?
look how big nice to meet

you've grown! you

Imitation and Improvisation
"As similar speech situations recur,

speakers make use of similar and
sometimes identical expressions,
which have proved to be functionally
appropriate. Thus, competent
language use is always characterized
by an equilibrium between the novel
and the familiar. In every society
there are standardized
communication situations in which its
members react in an automatic
manner."
(Coulmas 1981:2)

How are interaction rituals organized?
How does this

work at a party
in The Hague?
Frake (1964:129)
Photo Kai Henry
Photo Kathrine Sund-Henriksen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4AFET8b7e8

What are the stages of a drinking ritual you take part in?
§ Who initiates? How do they do so?

§ What topics can you talk about throughout the ritual? Are they always the
same, or is there a progression?
§ How does the drinking ritual end?

What do rituals have to do with speech acts?
“Suppose, for example, I see a vessel on the stocks, walk up and smash the
bottle hung at the stem, proclaim ‘I name this ship the Mr Stalin’ and for good
measure kick away the chocks: but the trouble is, I was not the person chosen
to name it.”
(J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, cited in Bourdieu 1991:107)
Authority created through Social Magic

Rituals create Social Magic
Rites of Legitimation / Rites of Institution (Bourdieu 1991)
§ Marriages
§ Circumcisions
§ Investiture (inauguration, coronation, etc.)
§ University entrance exams
§ Graduations
Rite of Speech
Institution Act
All rites of institution involve speech acts

Social Magic and Efficacious Language
“[T]he legitimate representative
(e.g. the authorized spokesperson)
is an object of guaranteed belief,
certified as correct. He lives up in
reality to his appearance, he really
is what everyone believes him to be
because his reality – whether
priest, teacher or minister – is
based not on his personal
conviction or pretension (always
liable to be rebuffed and snubbed:
What’s his game? Who does he
think he is? etc.) but rather on the
collective belief, guaranteed by the
institution and made concrete
through qualifications and symbols
like stripes, uniforms and other
attributes.”
(Bourdieu 1991:125-6)

Rituals and routines a. Greetings as access rituals
b. What is a greeting?
1. Types of routines c. Why do we use greetings?
d. Cross-cultural greetings
d. What is leave-taking?
e. How do you initiate leave-taking?
f. Cross-cultural leave-taking

Greetings as “access rituals”
“[G]reetings mark a transition to a condition of increased access…”

(Goffman 1971:79)

What is a greeting?
6 criteria for identifying greetings

not all language varieties
have 'greeting exclusive'
1. near-boundary occurrence
expressions (e.g. 'hi',
2. establishment of a shared perceptual field 'ciao')
3. adjacency pair format
4. relative predictability of form and content
5. implicit establishment of a spatio-temporal
unit of interaction
6. identification of the interlocutor as a many expressions used in
distinct being worth recognizing greetings are not exclusive
to that speech activity (e.g.
'how are you doing')
(Duranti 1997:67)

Greeting stages in American English
1) summons-answer sequence § ringtone
§ hello//yes/this is Kim
2) identification / recognition § this is Jamie

sequence § oh hey
3) greeting sequence § hi
§ hi
4) 'how are you' sequence § how are you?

§ fine, and you?
5) opening topic § are you at the office today?
(Schegloff 1986:117-118)

R = receiver; C= caller
(Schegloff 1986:115)

phone conversation
Germany
§ how are you?

phone conversation Iran
§ How are you?

§ How is the family?

Greeting Stages in Wolof
(Irvine 1989, 171)

Why do we use greetings?
§ Phatic communication
§ Essential to social relationships
§ Invitation to a social relationship
§ Delimitation of identities
§ Attempt at reducing anxiety
§ Affirmation of relationship
§ Manipulation of relative status...

Wolof Nobles and Griots
Pape Demba “Paco” Samb, a griot today,

photo by Evedawn99
c. 1904, Casas-Rodríguez Collection

Wolof greetings
Does who initiates

really not matter in
English?
(Irvine 1989, 188)

Cow greetings (Cornips 2022)
mmmm

What is leave-taking?
"People from different cultures have different ways of breaking contact with
each other. In small close-knit societies in which continuing relations among
individuals are taken for granted, people may not need an elaborate form of
leave-taking. In urban America, however, people generally need to reassure
each other that the break in social contact is only temporary - that they are
still acquainted and will resume contact at some time in the future"
(Clark and French 1981:4)
summarize content of justify ending of the express pleasure about

current contact current contact each other
indicate continuity by
wish each other well goodbye
planning future contact

Cross-cultural leave-taking
Phone calls
1) topic termination
2) leave-taking [incl. good bye]
3) contact termination
(Clark & French 1981:3; ex. Schegloff and Sacks 1973:307)

Cross-cultural leave-taking
Johnson: we're gonna see if we conclusion of conversation

can't uh tie in our plans confirming conclusion
a little better.
closing topic (=pre-closing)
Baldwin: Okay / / fine. (1) confirming topic closing
Johnson: Alright? closing conversation

Baldwin: Right. (1) confirming conversation closing
Johnson: Okay boy, (2) "leave-taking moves"

Baldwin: Okay
Johnson: Bye//bye farewell expression
Baldwin: G'night. (2) farewell expression
(Schegloff & Sacks 1973:307) (3) hanging up the phone

Cross-cultural leave-taking what about face-to-face
interactions?
topic termination
leave-taking (l. 4-8)

- prayer (l.4)
- thanking (l.5)
- regards (l.7)
- well wish (l.8)
farewell exchange
(l.9-11)
(Mahzari 2019:157)
Iraqi and Jordanian Arabic Omani Arabic

- topic termination + social warmth - topic termination + conventional denial
expression ('it’s still early') - topic termination insistence +
- goodbye exchange acknowledgment
(Gorgis and Al-Quran 2005) - goodbye exchange (Emery 2000)

How do you initiate a leave-taking (with friends)?
If you are the person leaving:

§ Do you just say "goodbye" or "I'm leaving" or is there something else you
have to say (first)?
§ Can you leave without saying anything?
If you want the other person to leave:

§ Can you tell someone directly to leave?
§ Is there another strategy?

Questions?
1. Ritual and Routine
a. What is a ritual?
b. What makes the social?
c. From sacred to everyday interaction rituals
d. Ritual and Imitation
e. What is a conversational routine?
f. What do rituals have to do with speech acts?

a. Greetings as access rituals
b. What is a greeting?
c. Why do we use greetings?
d. Cross-cultural greetings
e. NVBs and Greetings
d. What is leave-taking?
e. How do you initiate leave-taking?
f. Cross-cultural leave-taking

Next topic
Week 10. Professional (mis)communication
Manning, Paul. 2012. Semiotics of Drink and Drinking (ch 2: Coffee, pp. 35–59).
London: Bloomsbury.

Cultures
Week 10
Janet Connor

Mock Exam
§ Mock exam now posted on Brightspace

§ An example of the kinds of questions, not the exam length
§ Mock exam answer key will be posted soon

1. Ritual and Routine § Cross-cultural greetings

§ What is a ritual? § What is leave-taking?
§ What makes the social? § How do you initiate leave-taking?
§ From sacred to everyday interaction § Cross-cultural leave-taking
rituals
§ What do rituals do?
§ What is a conversational routine?
§ What do rituals have to do with speech
acts?

§ Greetings as access rituals
§ What is a greeting?
§ Why do we use greetings?

week 10 Central themes
Professional a. How are service encounters different from
(Mis)Communications "ordinary conversations"?
b. What is a coffee order?
1. Service encounters c. How is ordering coffee a ritual? Social
2. Healthcare magic?
3. Interpreters d. What are different methodological
approaches to studying service encounters
(and by extension) other interactional
genres?
e. Complicating culture
f. Service encounters cross-culturally

How are service encounters different from "ordinary
conversations"?
Ordinary conversation:
1. cooperative principle
2. equal distribution of “speaker rights” expressed through an emphasis on
turn-taking and...a “reciprocal interchange of ideas”
3. spontaneity and informality of the exchanges
4. “non-businesslikeness”
(Burke 1993:91, in Manning 2012:48)
"[I]n service transactions the customer is only equal to all the other
customers: there is no corresponding sense of equality for the server."
(Manning 2012:51)
Example: Ordering Paint (Silverstein 2003:198)

Service encounters generally or particularly?
§ Pragmatics tends to think of "service transactions" as one thing

§ BUT, most businesses implicitly imagine their interactions as different
How would you order these different things? Would it be exactly the
same kind of interaction? Would you use different expressions, forms of
address, etc?

What is a coffee order?
Technical domain
Service encounter
correct reference
customer anxieties about
expert speakers mastery of barista register
(prestige)
expert hearers
customer-server
object-expert relationship
relationship

How is ordering coffee a routine?
"[I]n almost all contemporary service transactions, a basic understanding

seems to prevail: that all candidates for service will be treated 'the same' or
'equally', none being favoured or disfavoured over the others...All things
considered, this ethic provides a very effective formula for the routinization
and processing of services."
(Goffman 1983:14)

How is ordering coffee at Starbucks a sociotechnical ritual?

Ordering coffee as Social Magic

Methodological Approaches
“How ‘talk’ is imagined is part of what ‘talk’ is as an empirical object, the

phenomenon cannot be understood based only on what can be found on a
transcript, no matter how detailed.”
(Manning 2012:37)
metapragmatic discourse (talk about talk) as an object of analysis

Complicating "Culture"
Thinking cross-cultural communication beyond national cultures

We can also study service encounters from a more
traditional cross-cultural pragmatic perspective

Professional a. Power imbalances
(Mis)Communications b. Intercultural challenges
- Different interactional norms
1. Service encounters - Culturally specific understandings of
2. Healthcare health and the body
3. Interpreters

Studies of Power in Healthcare Communication
General Communicative Discourse Genres Naming and Value

Phenomena
spoken vs written
posing questions Lexicalization of diseases
doctor - patient as things
interruptions
medical professional – medical Naming systems
technical language professional between lab scientists
and clinicians
delivering “bad news” euphemism, technical
language, “ordinary”
language
narratives/stories
“illness language” vs
“disease language”
patient experience vs scientific
abstract

Professional and other societal power imbalances (West 1984:93)

Intercultural challenges: interactional norms (Roberts 2007:250-1)
Consultation frame
- doctor inquires about
health issue
- patient describes issue
- doctors solves issue
Excerpt shows an attempt at

patient-centeredness (line 2)
– deemed failed by both P
and D (line 20/21)

Culturally specific understandings of health and the body
Focus in medical anthropology:
§ how the body is conceptualized

§ what is considered healthy
§ cause of disease and appropriate response
§ presentation of symptoms (e.g. factual, emotional, psychological)
§ expression of pain and appropriate response
Linguists shift focus to discursive and

interactional aspects of a consultation

White, standard English-speaking patient
(Roberts 2007:252)
M= mom / D = doctor
§ patient-centered
§ symptom-oriented
(“He has conjunctivitis”)
§ epistemic stance
(agentive + deferential)

Patient and doctor both of South Asian origin
(Roberts 2007:254)
P = patient/ D = doctor
§ patient-centered
§ experience-oriented
(“I can’t cope”)
§ affective stance

Different schemas
“Doctors may make judgements about patients based on a style of self-

reporting that does not meet the doctor’s expectations. Patients become
labelled as “difficult” or “passive” and these labels become social facts.”
(Roberts 2007:255)
Contextualization cues signal relevant background information to use in utterance

interpretation. Since “human’s interpretation of utterances is constrained largely by the
discourse conventions of their speech community”, how do you know your interpretation
is indeed shared by your interlocutor?
Assumed common ground is individual knowledge!

Professional
(Mis)Communications a. What is do interpreters do?
b. Language brokers
1. Service encounters c. Medical
2. Healthcare
d. Court
3. Interpreters

Interpeting?
Doctors are always acting as interpreters
Symptoms Disease
But when medical interpretation more

commonly refers to intercultural interactions

What do interpreters do?
An interpreter as
vmessage converter
vmessage clarifier
I'm afraid we
vcultural informant / mediator cannot agree
proposal
denied
we'll receive at this time
response later
LEC 2
we'll
kaolu
think it kaolu
over
Chinese delegation visiting a

British engineering company

Informal Interpreters (Language Brokers)
“In most medical settings, more informal interpreters are used than professional ones,
including staff in the hospital or clinic and family and friends of the patients.”
(Roberts 2007:247)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVTvW6-s4nc
Medical Interpreters (Davidson 2000)
Preventing doctor-
patient greeting
Who’s running this interaction?

Why?

Request for translation
Doctor and Interpreter

aware of problem,
while Patient is not
“The linguistic data…points

strongly away from a conclusion
that interpreters are acting as
‘advocates’ or ‘ambassadors’ for
interpreted patients, abut are
rather acting, at least in party, as
informational gatekeepers who
keep the interview ‘on track’ and
the physician on schedule.”
(Davidson 2000:400)

Court interpreters (Karrebæk 2023)
A court interpreter’s job:

“mediating communication between non- Danish speakers and the
court...precisely, that is to say without changing, adding, or omitting
anything, and as far as possible in the speaker’s own words”
Guidelines for Court Interpreters in Denmark (cited in Karrebæk 2023)

How court works
(Karrebæk 2023, 84)

Who’s running this interaction?
Why?

Your turn!
What is another profession with specific forms of communication and

interaction rituals that make it distinct from "ordinary conversation"?
How does communication in this profession work?
Are you aware of any cross-cultural differences that might lead to
miscommunication?

Questions?
1. Service Interactions 2. Healthcare
a. How are service encounters a. Power imbalances
different from "ordinary b. Intercultural challenges
conversations"?
- Culturally specific understandings
c. How is ordering coffee a ritual? of health and the body
Social magic?
d. What are different methodological 3. Interpreters
approaches to studying service a. What do interpreters do?
encounters (and by extension) b. Language brokers
other interactional genres? c. Medical
e. Complicating culture d. Court

Next Week: Learning to Communicate
Paugh. 2005. Multilingual play: Children’s code-switching, role play, and

agency in Dominica, West Indies. Language in Society 34:63–86. [link]
(24 pages)

Cultures
Week 11
Dr. Janet Connor

1. Service Interactions 2. Healthcare
a. How are service encounters a. Power imbalances
different from "ordinary b. Intercultural challenges
conversations"?
- Culturally specific understandings
c. How is ordering coffee a ritual? of health and the body
Social magic?
d. What are different methodological 3. Interpreters
approaches to studying service a. What do interpreters do?
encounters (and by extension) b. Language brokers
other interactional genres? c. Medical
e. Complicating culture d. Court
week 11
Learning to Communicate
1. Children and Play

2. Learning as Adults
3. Metapragmatics and Ideologies
Central themes
a. What can children teach us about communication in context?
b. Adult-child socialization
c. Why study play?
d. Child-to-child socialization to role- and place-appropriate language use
What can children teach us?
▪ Adults aren't the only ones to create and reproduce cultural beliefs
▪ Children are not only imitating adults, they are also creating their own
cultural forms
Language Socialization
"children are socialized THROUGH language as they are socialized to USE

language"
(Paugh 2005:65)
1. The process of acquiring language is deeply affected by the process of

becoming a competent member of society.
2. The process of becoming a competent member of society is realized to a
large extent through language.
(Ochs and Schieffelin 2001[1984]:264)
Tend to focus on adult-

child interaction
Are language socialization practices universal?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/science/parentese-babies-global-language.html
Parent-Child socialization cross-culturally How would
Goffman analyze
White Middle-Class, United States Kaluli, Papua New Guinea this?
Mom Mom
• Mother (/parent) talks to infant

• Motherese / Parentese
• Meaning/intention attributed to baby's • Infants not appropriate conversation
utterances partners (so no baby talk to infants)
• Infant seen as competent • Mother speaks for infant (triadic
communicative partner with sense of communication)
self • Infant expected to accommodate to
• Accommodating situation to the child wider social group
(Ochs and Schieffelin 2001[1984], Schieffelin 1990)
Imitation?
Input-output model Samoan children
sau
Come
‘aumai
Come
"[C]hildrens’ linguistic repertoire is not a simple reflection of what they do or do

not hear in their surroundings, but rather that children are taking an active role in
constructing language that is most useful to their needs and appropriate to
their social status."
(Ochs and Schieffelin 1995:87-88)
Child-child socialization
▪ Can affect how children acquire

grammar (Demuth 1992)
▪ Where children experiment with

and challenge adult norms of
role- and place-appropriate
language use
Why study play?
"Peer play offers a prime context for such cultural and linguistic learning,
exploration, and socialization...Yet children's play is not simply a process of
imitating others or passively developing into an adult end state; rather, it
offers a context within which children can actively explore power dynamics,
social rules, identities, and roles normally not accessible to them in everyday
life, when they are subordinate to adults..."
(Paugh 2005:65)
Dominican Adults' Language Ideologies
Patwa English
• Forbid children from • Associated more with

speaking it formal contexts (school,
• Better for emotionally church, village
expressive speech acts meetings)
(gossiping, arguing,
joking, cursing,
teasing, assessing
others)
• Lullabies, babytalk,
discipline, scolding
Dominican Children's Language Ideologies
Patwa English
• Language of adults • most interactions

• Directing, evaluating,
criticizing peer speech
• Asserting dominance
over other children –
autonomy and
authority
Indexicality (review from Sociolinguistics)
Through play, children learn and play with, the ways language indexes
particular kinds of people, places, and practices.
Negotiation and Play
Paugh (2005:75)
Negotiation and Play among Finnish-English Children
Halmari and Smith (1994:432)

Halmari and Smith (1994:433)
Practice for Yourself
Norwegian pre-school children speak English when they play:

https://www.nrk.no/mr/barn-pa-gnist-barnehage-i-alesund-pratar-engelsk-
nar-dei-leikar-1.15529357
1. What is the function of English for these children? Who are they speaking
English to? What are the topics they’re covering?
2. Why might Norwegian kids speak English when they're playing?
Transcultural Children in Migration Contexts
(e.g. Moroccan-Spanish)
Children must
negotiate between
two (potentially
conflicting) norms,
home and school
García-Sánchez (2010:533)
week 11

Central themes
a. What is communicative competence?
b. How do we learn communicative competence?
c. The native speaker problem
What is communicative competence?
In any given social context a communicative competent member of a

community has acquired:
❖knowledge of what is "appropriate"

❖ability to behave oneself "appropriately"
❖skills to successfully reach one's goal
❖skills to navigate social relationships
native speaker problem

How do we learn communcative competence?
Why do BAIS students clap at the end of lectures? How did you learn to do
this?
Consider:
- Applause at the end of lectures is not something that all Leiden University
BA students do.
- Most students in Semester 1 courses are new first-year students, so it would
be difficult to be socialized into this by more advanced students (relatively
“native” speakers).
the native speaker problem
1) impossible target and consequently inevitable failure (Byram 1997)

2) the notion of native speaker is an idealized and outdated myth (Kramsch 1998;
Leung 2005)
Example: Speaking Dutch at Leiden University
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2022/09/dutch-people-should-stop-politely-switching-to-english
week 11

Central themes
a. What is metapragmatic discourse?
b. How do we study metapragmatics?
c. What are language ideologies?
d. How do ideologies differ from attitudes?
e. How do language ideologies emerge through interaction?
Metapragmatic Discourse
▪ Talk about what language does

- Describing the "correct way" of using language ("I before E except after C."),
- Specifying under which conditions a specific kind of communication are, or should
be, used ("You should never tell a dirty joke at a funeral,” “Say thank you to your
grandmother.,” "Don't speak that language at school.")
▪ Reported Speech
- Citation
- Play
- Parody
What can metapragmatic discourses be about?
• Language as a whole
- “Language is what separates humans from other species”
• Particular languages
- “French is such a romantic language!”
• Particular linguistic structures
- “Spanish is complicated as it has two forms of the verb ‘to be.’”
• Language use
- “Never end a sentence with a preposition”
• The people who employ specific languages or usages
- “People who say ‘ain’t’ are ignorant.”
- “People who live in the United States should speak English.”
- “Women are more talkative than men.”
Metapragmatic discourse – an example
(Niedzielski & Preston 2009:151)

Metapragmatic discourse – an example
(Niedzielski & Preston 2009:153-154)

Another example (not “explicit” discourse)
How to study metapragmatics
“we should be interested not only in (a) what goes on (language), but also in (b)
how people react to what goes on (they are persuaded, they are put off, etc.) and
in (c) what people say goes on (talk concerning language). It will not do to dismiss
these secondary and tertiary modes of conduct merely as sources of error.”
(Hoenigswald 1966:20, qtd in Niedzielski & Preston 2009:146)
(a) what goes on

(language use)
(b) what people do in response (c) what people say goes on

(actions, practices) (metapragmatic discourses)
Metapragmatic description of your own language use
▪ What different languages/varieties do you speak throughout the day?

▪ In what contexts, for what kinds of participant roles, do you use one variety
instead of another?
Example:
English 1 – at university (classes, meetings)
English 2 – at home
Dutch – at university (while eating lunch)
Mix of Dutch/English – out with friends
...
Language Ideologies
“ideologies about language, or linguistic ideologies, are any sets of beliefs

about language articulated by the users as a rationalization or justification of
perceived language structure and use”
(Silverstein 1979:193)
“the cultural system of ideas about social and linguistic relationships, together
with their loading of moral and political interests”
(Irvine 1989:255)
Ideologies vs. Attitudes
▪ Ideology is “a partial view of the world, incomplete because there are

other ways of viewing it; but also partial in the sense of (politically)
interested, coming from a specifiable subject position with a point of view
and projects for social action...if ‘ideology’ is incomplete, positioned, and
politically interested, then it offers an alternative to the term ‘culture,’
which may suggest homogeneity and completeness, and does not
necessarily entail anything about social position, power, or politics.”
(Irvine 2021:5)
▪ Attitudes are individual, psychological evaluative reactions

(Dragojevic et al. 2021)
Ideologies about the languages you use
Why is English that language of instruction at BAIS, a BA program in The

Netherlands?
But why?
Questions?
1. Children and Play c. The native speaker problem
a. What can children teach us about 3. Metapragmatics and Ideologies
communication in context? a. What is metapragmatic discourse?
b. Adult-child socialization b. How do we study metapragmatics?
c. Why study play? c. What are language ideologies?
d. Child-to-child socialization to role- d. How do ideologies differ from
and place-appropriate language use attitudes?
- Patwa-English e. How do language ideologies emerge
- Moroccan Arabic-Spanish through interaction?
- Norwegian-English
a. What is communicative competence?
b. How do we learn communicative
competence?
Next Week: Putting Things into Practice
Required viewing:
▪ Kusters, Annelies. 2015. Ishaare. Gestures and Signs in Mumbai.
Come with questions about Lectures 1-11!

Cultures
Week 12

Questions from last week
§ Don't worry about language ideologies for the exam, but you will be
expected to know about metapragmatic discourses

How does language perform acts?
Each utterance generally completes three acts at the same time:

LEC 3
1. locutionary act
the ‘act of saying’
2. illocutionary act
the ‘act performed in saying’ something: the act S intended to perform by means of
performing the locutionary act
3. perlocutionary act
the effect achieved by the speech act Will you water my
plants while I’m on
vacation?

Head and supporting acts
head act supporting act

"the minimal unit(s) which can "unit(s) external to the [refusal]
realize a [refusal]; the core of which modify its impact by either LEC 4
the [refusal] sequence" aggravating or mitigating its force"
(Blum-Kulka et al 1989-275-5, qtd in (Blum-Kulka et al 1989-275-5, qtd in Garcia

Garcia 2007:552) 2007:552)
1. I’m sorry.
2. I’m sorry, I can’t.
3. I have to get home to feed my cat.
4. I can't today because I have to get home to feed my cat. Can
we go tomorrow instead?

What is pragmatic transfer?
LEC 4
“[…]influence exerted by learners’

kn
at i c
ow
pragmatic knowledge of languages
gm
le d
pra
ge
and cultures other than L2 in their
comprehension, production and
learning of L2 pragmatic
L1 L2 information”
(Kasper 1992:207)

Pragmalinguistic transfer
What phrase do you use to ask this question? LEC 4
English
How old are you?
§ adverb of manner
§ ‘old’
§ copula mutations
§ personal pronoun DU Hoe oud ben je / bent u?
how old are you
§ adverb of quantity
FR Tu as quel âge?
§ ‘age’ / ‘year’
you have what age
§ interrogative adjective Quel âge avez-vous?
§ 2sg inflection what age have you
§ T/V SP ¿Cuántos años tienes?
how.many years you.have
RU Сколько тебе лет?

how.many you year

Sociopragmatic transfer
In what social context is this an appropriate question? LEC 4
How old are you?
Can you ask this question… Can you ask this question…
(relationship) (setting / situation)
qto your friend? qas part of a doctor’s examination?

qto a fellow student? qas part of a survey?
qto a friend’s parent? qas part of a job interview?
qto your lecturer? qon a first date?
qto your doctor? qin a seminar?
qto your boss? qat the grocery store?

Is there a difference between swearing and cursing?
LEC 6
The English term(s) do

not necessarily have
obvious equivalents in
other languages
(Ameka 2020:125)

Putting Things into Practice a. how is communication cultural?
b. the problem of culture in interaction
1. Communicating across Cultures – full c. intercultural pragmatics and linguistic
circle anthropology – two solutions
2. Exam info
d. questions of intercultural communication

How is communication cultural?
q meaning involves inference making

q inferences are contextual LEC 1
q context is cultural
"there is no escape or time out from interaction's sequential, contextual

demands”
(Enfield 2013:9)

Context and Inference-Making

“unintended errors in meaning may arise
because people with entirely different
backgrounds are unable to understand one
another accurately.”
(Samovar and Porter 1991: 21)
The “problem” of
culture in interaction
q language use and behavior intertwined with
people’s cultural values and norms
q cultural differences in norms and expectations
cause problems in intercultural
communication
q cultural differences are a bigger
problem/challenge than linguistic differences

Handling miscommunications

“individual ‘cultures’ are seen as unified and
homogeneous entities, and, by extension,
communicative difficulties are invariably
explained in terms of cross-cultural
differences.”
(Sarangi 1994:410)
The problem of
“culture” in interaction
q essentialist perspective of culture
q culture as explanation for linguistic problem
q individual + situational specifics are ignored
q risk of “analytical stereotyping”:
???

The anthropological “culture concept”
1. Human behavior is patterned.

2. Those patterns are learned.
Avoids seeing cultures as closed, bounded things. How do we account for

1. National cultures shared patterns of
behavior without falling
2. “Western culture” vs. “non-Western culture” into traps of
stereotyping?

Gestures in India vs. the Netherlands

Gestures vs. Signs

Intercultural pragmatics
societal conditions and norms

(“cultural”)
“[...] communication is driven by
the interplay of cooperation
required by societal conditions and prior personal experience
egocentrism rooted in prior (“individual”)
experience of the individual.”
(Kecskes 2011:10)
ongoing interaction
(“situational”)

And how we study it
“we should be interested not only in (a) what goes on (language), but also in (b)
how people react to what goes on (they are persuaded, they are put off, etc.) and
in (c) what people say goes on (talk concerning language). It will not do to dismiss
these secondary and tertiary modes of conduct merely as sources of error.”
(Hoenigswald 1966:20, qtd in Niedzielski & Preston 2009:146)
(a) what goes on

(language use)
(b) what people do in response (c) what people say goes on

(actions, practices) (metapragmatic discourses)

Cultural-Individual-Situational?

Central questions to understand (intercultural) communication
1. How do people make their cultural

common ground, contextualization cues, address terms,
group memberships relevant in politeness markers, etc.
interaction?
2. How does language use in interaction

common ground, contextualization cues, address terms,
(re)construct cultural group politeness markers, cooperation, small talk, etc.
membership?
3. How does cultural group membership

culture concept, language ideologies, misunderstanding
influence language use and mutual and miscommunication, sociopragmatic transfer, etc.
understanding in interaction?

Pragmatics is the study of language use
in context:
q what people do with words

q how it actually works for them
q why they do it like that
Full circle
q which norms guide their behavior
q what shared beliefs are invoked and
created
q emic explanations (from within the group)

and etic explanations (from outside,
frequently researchers)

week 12.
Putting Things into Practice
1. Communicating across Cultures – full

circle
2. Exam info

Accessing the Exam
§ Exam will be visible on Brightspace

Wednesday 20 December, 9:00-12:00
§ Available in pdf and Word formats
§ If you can’t see the exam at 9:00, refresh!
§ Submit your exam as a pdf. Make sure to
sign the page declaring this is your work!
§ Multiple submissions until 12:00 are
allowed.
§ Exam designed to last 2hrs (2.5 hrs with
extra time), but you have 3 hours to
submit in case of technical difficulties.
§ At 12:00 exactly, the exam and
submission portal will disappear.
§ If you have a question during the exam,
post it to the discussion board. DO NOT
email me or tutorial lecturers.

An online exam is a privilege! Don’t ruin it
You are allowed to: You are NOT allowed to:
v Consult lecture and tutorial slides, v Use any websites aside from
readings, and your own notes Brightspace and University Library
v Use definitions from the lecture slides
(but in that case, reference them v Use ChatGPT or any other AI
vE.g. (Lecture 1, slide 10) v Discuss the exam with anyone (leave
your phone in another room!)
Doing any of the above is fraud. If we

suspect you have done any of these
things, your exam will be reported to the
Board of Examiners for further
investigation.

Answering open exam questions
Answer the whole question and nothing but the question!
§ longer is not necessarily better

§ randomly including terms that come to mind but are irrelevant will not give you more
points (it could lead to a reduction of points)
§ you do not have to write a full paragraph; lists, arrows, visualizations are allowed as long
as they help answer the question
§ answer as if you were explaining it to someone not enrolled in this course
- provide necessary definitions
- point out what you want with an example, how it’s relevant to your answer (i.e. don’t just give the
example, but discuss it as well)
- be sure to complete your full line of reasoning, don’t leave part of the argument implicit; we can only
give points for what is on the paper not for what you ‘might have meant’ but did not mention

What do I (not) need to know?
You should be able to You are not asked to
v recognize names in combination with

terms/theories v recognize or give names by
themselves without added context
v explain and compare main terms,
theories, and concepts v reproduce specific case studies as
discussed in the lectures or readings
v present an analysis of an example (although you should be familiar with them)
(either your own or one provided in the exam,
like what you’ve seen in the readings) v read or find additional academic texts
explain, motivate, compare, illustrate, lists, quotes, names, footnotes, etc.

describe, discuss, etc.
Questions don't always have only 1 right answer – it's about how you apply course concepts to
think about examples
Practice
A and B meet on the street and have this interaction. What kind of interaction ritual does
this represent? Provide a definition of the kind of ritual in your own words.

Practice
The interaction ritual is split into four stages, as separated by the horizontal lines.
What happens in each stage?

Practice
This example comes from an academic article, where the author reports that one of
her research informants/interlocutors told her that the initiator of this interaction
ritual must always be the person of lower social status. Is that an example of an
emic or etic metapragmatic discourse? Why?

Practice
Imagine you are advising a monolingual English speaker who has never met a Wolof
speaker about how to participate in this kind of interaction when they travel to
Senegal. What elements would you warn this person to watch out for to avoid
negative pragmatic transfer?
*tawaatu/tawaatul are
slightly more formal ways
of saying feebaru/feebarul

Want to learn more about language and communication?
Two thematic seminars next semester:
1. Human Rights & Language (Fridays, 11:15-13:00)

2. The Linguistic Lens: How Language Influences our Perception of the
World (Wednesdays, 13:15-15:00)

Questions?
Full circle
§ communication as cultural
§ problem of culture in interaction
§ intercultural pragmatics and linguistic anthropology – two solutions
§ questions of intercultural communication
Exam technicalities, format, strategy
I have stopped checking the Google Form. If you have pressing

questions and cannot find the answer elsewhere, I will be available
by email until 17:00 on Friday 15 December.

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Communicating across

*all information is available on Brightspace

Drs. Lisa Wolring

Carol Kerolos LLM Dr. Aleksandra Plazinic

"How do people manage their understanding in (intercultural)

▪ Identify and describe examples of how culture shapes communication;

❑ to recognize how extraordinary the ordinary is

“Open deuren intrappen”

The lectures are organized in three parts:

1. Aspects of interaction 3. Interaction rituals

2. The classics: speech acts,

❑ Tuesdays 17:15-19:00 in Wijnhaven 201

NOTE: All lectures will be recorded, but the recordings will

The tutorials will be used to

Tutorial grade (50%) Final exam (50%)

Sidnell (2000) Basso (1970) Rosaldo (1982)

▪ The only terms you will be expected to be able to define

1. Ask during the lectures

For personal circumstances, email bais.stuco@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

A system of signs (what Enfield calls “semiotic”)

“Language” (as an ideal thing)

Sender noise Receiver

message signal signal message

“I need coffee” Statement Complaint

Code model of communication

The inferential model of communication

▪ By necessity, language cannot reference all aspects of a shared reality.

4. I acknowledge you exist

Understanding relationships is key to understanding communication

“Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the

“Culture now explains everything: from political instability in Haiti to

1. Human behavior is patterned.

Avoids seeing cultures as closed, bounded things.

❑ meaning involves inference making

Think about while watching:

▪ What is the language in this video? What is the communication?

Pragmatics = Cross-cultural pragmatics =

three aspects of meaning making and inference:

“Intercultural communication, as a field of inquiry, is concerned with how

“An understanding of intercultural communication is crucially

(Bowe, Martin & Manns 2014:1)

Negative stereotyping US THEM

Negative stereotyping THEM THEM

▪ Understanding human interaction

communicative community of face threatening

The study of the relationship between language and society.

❑ norms and choices

The study of language use in context/interaction. Accounting

❑ inferences and constraints

It’s about us! sociocultural

(and us) aspects

1. Starting from the beginning

2. Defining the discipline

Discover the world at Leiden University

§ Structure of the course

§ How (and why) we communicate

Discover the world at Leiden University

Essential question: How do people manage their mutual understanding in

§ To formulate an answer to this question, we need to consider several

Discover the world at Leiden University

Discover the world at Leiden University

Figure 0.2 from Silverstein 2023

Discover the world at Leiden University

Communal common ground =