Communicating Across Cultures — Notes
Table of Contents
Lecture 1: Why and How do We Communicate
Readings
Enfield, “Relationship Thinking. Agency, Enchrony and Human Sociality,” 2013
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Introduction - the Basics.
Part 2: Defining the Discipline
Part 3: Pragmatics vs Sociolinguistics
Lecture 2: Communication - A joint effort
Readings
Goffman, 1979, Footing (sections II-VII)
Sidnell 2000, Storytelling and male peer groups in Guyana
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Working together to make sense of interactional behavior?
Part 2: Managing turns at talk
Part 3: Roles and Relationships
Part 4: Putting Talk in Context
Lecture 3: Non-Verbal Behaviors in Interaction
Readings
Matsumoto & Hwang. 2014. Nonverbal communication. The messages of emotion, action,
space, and silence.
Basso, Keith. 1970. Silence in Western Apache Culture.
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Types of non-verbal behaviors
Part 2: Norms of non-verbal behavior
Lecture 4: Affirmative Acts
Readings
Al-Khawaldeh & Zegarac 201, Thanking in Jordan and Britain
Arevalo and Garcia-Gomez 2013, Compliments online
Lecture Notes
Part 0: Speech Acts (Recap)
Part 1: Speech Acts from a cross-cultural perspective
Part 2: Compliments
Part 3: Thanking
Lecture 5: Challenging Acts
Readings
Wannaruk 2008, Pragmatic transfer in Thai EFL refusals
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, Vasquez 2011, Complaints on TripAdvisor (English)
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Refusals
Part 2: Complaints
Part 3: Pragmatic transfer
Lecture 6: Cross-Cultural Norms of Impoliteness
Readings
Tetreault, Chantal 2014, Arabic-French teenagers politeness
Ameka 2020, “I sh.t in your mouth: Areal invectives in West Africa”
Lecture Notes
Part 0: Politeness (Recap)
Part 1: Impoliteness
Part 2: Politeness norms and how they change
Part 3: Swearing and cursing
Lecture 7: How universal are these concepts?
Readings
Ide 2005, how and why do honorifics signify politeness
Rosaldo 1982, Ilongot speech acts
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Critiques of “The Classics”
Part 2: Academic Perspectives on Language and Culture
Lecture 8: Routines and Rituals
Readings
Duranti 1992, Samoan ceremonial greetings
Yahya-Othman 1995, Impoliteness in Swahili greetings
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Ritual
Part 2: Greeting and Leave-Taking
Lecture 9: Everyday Negotiations
Readings
Ladegaard 2011, negotiation style, speech accommodations, and small talk in Sino-Western
business negotiation
Film: Kusters, Annelies. 2015. Ishaare. Gestures and Signs in Mumbai
Lecture Notes: (not seen live)
Part 1: Small Talk
2
, Part 2: Business Negotiation
Part 3: Conflict Management
Lecture 10: Professional (Mis)Communication
Readings
Manning, Paul. 2012. Semiotics of Drink and Drinking
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Service Encounters
Part 2: Healthcare
Part 3: Education
Lecture 11: Learning to Communicate
Readings
Paugh. 2005. Multilingual play: Children’s codeswitching, role play, and agency in Dominica,
West Indies.
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Children and Play
Part 2: Metapragmatics and Ideologies
Lecture 12: Intercultural Communicative Competence
Readings
Ibrahim, “Virtual exchange: What are students signing up for?”
Louis, “Google Translation headphones: You can order a meal but they won’t help you
understand the Culture”
Lecture Notes
Part 1: Intercultural Communicative Competence
Part 2: Communicating across Cultures - Full Circle
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, Lecture 1: Why and How do We Communicate
Readings
Enfield, “Relationship Thinking. Agency, Enchrony and Human
Sociality,” 2013
⇒ The most important concepts out of the reading are written down below.
Code-In-Context
Code: “refers to any system of symbolic units that is conventionalized in a historical
community and learned by children, through which form-meaning maps are built are identical
in language acquisition, e.g. words, grammar rules, hand gestures and other bodily
movements.”
→ must be considered in its context
Individualized society
(de Waal, Tyack)
“individualized, longitudinal type of society”
→ biological fact that in all cultures, society is made up of bodily distinct, physically mobile,
individual mortals who are not telepathic and whose interactions must thereby be managed
by semiotic means.
dyadic relationships: means can be used for predicted outcome
longitudinal societies: long term and/or multi-generational relationships
Relationship.grounded society (Enfield)
→ altering of individualized society
every member presents common set of problems of social life
language → maintenance of social relations
Locus: communicative interactions
Relationship: set of rights and duties applying to interaction between members of a dyad.
Rights: “If it is your right to do something, then you will not be held accountable for doing it;
people will not be justifiably surprised when you do it.”
Duty: “One will be held accountable for not doing something, people will be justifiably
surprised or disposed to sanction if you do not do it.”
Changes of status: in small (e.g. conversation) and big time spans (e.g. lifetime)
Interplay: cooperation (e.g. trust, compassion, common identity) vs competition (e.g. social
distinction, deception)
⇒ Types of relationships → define social statuses and identities → rights and duties →
define components of social structures and society as a whole
⇒ Interactions constitute relationships.
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