Pragmatic Failure in Crosscultu.docx

Pragmatic Failure in Crosscultu.docx

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PragmaticFailureinCrosscultu

淮北师范大学

2012届学士学位论文

PragmaticFailureinCross-culturalCommunication

学院、专业外国语、英语

研究方向应用语言学

学生姓名穆念

学号20080501082

指导教师姓名王红卫

指导教师职称讲师

PragmaticFailureinCross-culturalCommunication

Abstract:

Withtheglobalizationofeconomy,cross-culturalcommunicationisincreasingrapidlyinthewholeworld.Pragmaticfailureoftenoccursincross-culturalcommunication,whichleadstomisunderstandingsamongdifferentspeakerswithvariousethnicbackgrounds.Pragmaticfailureisoneofthemostimportantfactorswhichcontributetothefailureofcommunication.Onlybyunderstandingculturaldifferences,learningpragmaticfailures,strengtheningculturalawareness,andapplyingcommunicationstrategiesproperlycanwemakeasuccessfulcross-culturalcommunication.Thisstudyaimstodiscussandanalyzepragmaticfailureincross-culturalcommunication.Thethesisconsistsof5chapters.Thefirstchapterintroducessomebasicdefinitionsoftheterminologiesinthisstudy,suchasculture,pragmatics,pragmaticfailureandcross-culturalcommunication,etc.Italsobrieflyintroducesthepurposeofthestudy.Thesecondchapterdiscussesthetwotypesofpragmaticfailurewithfreshexamples,pragmalinguisticfailureandsociopragmaticfailure.Thethirdchapteranalyzessomemajorfactorscontributingtopragmaticfailureincross-culturalcommunication.ItmainlydiscussesdifferentthinkingpatternsandvaluesbetweenthewesternersandChinese.Thefourthchapterprovidessomeeffectivemethodsandpragmaticstrategiestoavoidpragmaticfailureandinterestingactivitiestodevelopstudents’culturalawarenessandpragmaticcompetence.Finally,aconclusionisgiventosummarizethewholestudy.

Keywords:

pragmaticfailure;cross-culturalcommunication;pragmaticcompetence;culturaldifference

跨文化交际中的语用失误

摘要：

随着经济全球化发展，跨文化交际在世界范围内迅速发展起来。

语用失误是众多引起交际失败的重要原因之一。

语用失误是经常发生在跨文化交际中的一种语言现象。

在进行交流时，它会给来自不同文化、不同民族背景的人们造成误解。

只有懂得不同文化之间的差异，了解语用失误，加强对文化意识的培养，恰当地运用交际策略，这样我们才能在跨文化交际中成功地进行进行顺利的交流互动。

本文将对跨文化交际中的语用失误进行讨论和分析，共由5个章节构成。

第一章主要讲的是研究背景，重点是介绍本文中所涉及的一些专业术语，比如说文化、语用学、跨文化交际和语用失误等，同时也简单的介绍了本文的写作意图。

第二章主要分析了跨文化交际中的两大语用失误，即语用语言失误和社交语用失误，并以日常生活中生动的例子进行了解释。

第三章讨论了造成跨文化交际失误的主要原因。

本章研究的重点主要是中西方不同的思维方式和价值观念。

第四章主要提供了一些避免语用失误的策略，和一些有效且有趣的方法来培养学生的文化意识和语用能力。

第五章是对整篇论文的小结。

关键词：

语用失误；跨文化交际；语用能力；文化背景差异

Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………I

1.Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….1

1.1ResearchBackground…………………………………………………………………...2

1.2ThePurposeofThisStudy………………………………………………………………1

2.TypesofPragmaticFailure………………………………………………………………….3

2.1PragmalinguisticFailure………………………………………………………………...3

2.1.1TheRealMeaningof“Doyouhavetime?

”………………………………………...3

2.1.2TheReplyof“Howareyou?

”………………………………………………………4

2.1.3TheUsageof“ofcourse”…………………………………………………………...4

2.1.4Slangs,andProverbs…………………………………………………………….….4

2.2SociopragmaticFailure………………………………………………………………….5

2.2.1OpeningaSafeTopicwithaForeigner……………………………………………..5

2.2.2Compliment……………………………………………………………………..…..6

2.2.3Farewell………………………………………………………………………….….6

2.2.4ExpressingGratitude………………………………………………………………..7

3.TheFactorsContributingtothePragmaticFailure……………………………………....…8

3.1DifferentThinkingPatterns……………………………………………………………..8

3.1.1DifferentMeansofExpressions…………………………………………..………...8

3.1.2DifferentWordOrder……………………………………………………..……..…8

3.1.3DifferentExpressionsofVoices……………………………………………..…..….8

3.2ThePragmaticRulesandCulturalInterferenceofMotherTongue……………………..8

3.3DifferentValues…………………………………………………………………..……..9

3.4WeakContextAwareness…………………………………………………………..……9

3.5DifferentNon-verbalBehaviors………………………………………………….…….10

4.TacticstoAvoidPragmaticFailureandDevelopCommunicativeCompetenceinCross-culturalCommunication……………………………………………….…………...….10

4.1TacticstoAvoidPragmaticFailure………………………………………………….....10

4.1.1Improvementofpragmaticcompetence…………………………………...………10

4.1.2TheApplianceofPragmaticStrategies…………………………………………....11

4.2TacticstoDevelopCommunicativeCompetence…………………………………...…11

4.2.1PragmaticKnowledgeandCulturalDifferences…………………………………..12

4.2.2DevelopingCommunicativeActivitiesandCreatingLanguageEnvironment…....12

5.Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………13

References…………………………………………………………….……………………....15

PragmaticFailureinCross-culturalCommunication

1.Introduction

1.1ResearchBackground

Beforewereallygetintotheresearch,let’slearnsomebasicconceptsofterminologies.

Thefirstquestioniswhatcultureis.Simplyput,cultureisasystemofmeaning.Thatistooabstractadefinitiontoreallyunderstand.Themostusualmeaningisthatculturereferstopeople’scustomsandbehaviors.Thereisaprobablythemostwidelyaccepteddefinitionofculture.

“Cultureisthetotalaccumulationofbeliefs,customs,values,behaviors,institutions,andcommunicationpatternsthatareshared,learnedandpasseddownthroughthegenerationsinanidentifiablegroupofpeople.”（Davis,2001:

24）

Simplyspeaking,pragmaticsisthestudyofrelationshipsbetweensymbolanditsusers.Itisthestudyofhowspeakersofalanguageusesentencestoeffectcommunication.Inotherwords,pragmaticsgenerallyreferstothestudyofnaturallanguageunderstanding,andespeciallythestudyofhowcontextinfluencestheinterpretationofmeanings.Thisbranchisdifferentfromotherlinguisticbranches,becauseinit“speakers”getinvolved.

Cross-culturalcommunicationreferstoexchangeactivitiesbetweenpeopleofdifferentculturalbackgrounds.In1991,PorterSamovarhasproposed,“Asakindofculturalinformationmustbeexplainedbyanotherculture,cross-culturalcommunicationoccurs.”（Samovar,1981:

41）Cross-culturalcommunicationisakindofcommonandlong-standingsocialphenomenon.Generallyitreferstothecommunicationactivitiesofnationalmembersofdifferentlanguagesandculturebackgrounds.

PragmaticfailureisproposedbyJennyThomas.Itisdefinedas“can’tunderstandtherealmeaningofwords”Pragmaticfailurecanbedividedintotwokinds,pragmalinguisticfailureandsociopragmaticfailure.（Thomas,1983:

91-112）Incross-culturalcommunication,becauseofthedifferentspeakingmannersofhowtopresentinformation,organizeargument,expresspoliteness,whatpeoplesaymaybeunsuitableforEnglishnativespeakers’habits,orpeoplemayjustapplytheirnativelanguagehabitsmechanicallytoEnglish.Undersuchcircumstances,it’seasytocausecommunicationfailure.Thatistheexplanationofpragmalinguisticfailure.WecanavoidorcorrectitthroughEnglishteaching,becausethiskindofpragmaticfailurestaysinlanguageitself.Asforsociopragmaticfailure,itiscausedbytheignoranceandlackofknowledgetobothsides’differentsocialvalues,andbehaviors,etc.Butthereisnoabsoluteboundarylinebetweenpragmalinguisticfailureandsociopragmaticfailure.

Intheentirehistoryofcommunication（传播学）,cross-culturalcommunicationisafairlyyoungfield.Fromthebeginninguntilnow,itisalsobuthalfacenturyofhistory.Thehistoryisdividedintofourstages.Inthefirststage（before1950）,E.T.Hallfirstputforwardtheword“interculturalcommunication”inhisbookTheSilentLanguagein1959.Thisstartstherealsystematicdevelopmentofcross-culturalcommunication.Inthesecondstage（1960-1969）,morecommunicationresearchersenteredthefield.Duringthisperiod,cross-culturalcommunicationbegantolaythefoundationintheacademicfield.R.T.Oliver’sCultureandCommunication（1962）andA.Smith’sCommunicationandCulture,thetwobooksaretherepresentatives.Inthethirdstage（1920-1979）,theworksofcross-culturalcommunicationhavemushroomed.Eachauthorseemedtohavedifferentideasoncross-culturalcommunication.ThemostimportantperiodicalTheInternationalJournalofRelationsisfirstissuedin1977.Inthefourthstage（from1980tonow）,theturmoilfinished.Entering1990s,cross-culturalcommunicationhasbecameamaturediscipline（陈国明，2009：

6-9）.

Therearemanyfactorscontributingtothedevelopmentofcross-culturalcommunication.Thefivemostimportantfactorsarethedevelopmentoftechnology,theglobalizationofeconomy,thewidespreadimmigration,thedevelopmentofmulticulturalism,andthedeemphasisofnation-state（陈国明，2009：

3-5）.

1.2ThePurposesofThisStudy

WithChina’saccessiontotheWTOandtheeconomicglobalization,thecommunicationbetweenChinaandtheworldbecomesmoreandmoreclosely.ManypeoplefindthattheyhaveagoodcommandofEnglishvocabulary,andacertainabilityoflistening,speaking,reading,andwriting.Butinconcretesituationsofcommunication,misunderstandingsoftenemerge,andevenaffectthenormalcommunicationseriously.Pragmaticfailureincross-culturalcommunicationcancausemisunderstandingsbetweennativespeakersandforeignlanguagespeakers,destroytheeffectivecommunication,andevenmaketheharmoniousinterpersonalcommunicationbecomenervous.Thisstudy’sgoalsaretodiscusssomecommonpragmaticfailuresindailycommunication,analyzethereasonswhypeoplemakesuchkindofpragmaticfailures,andprovidesomeeffectivemethodsforpeopletodevelopcross-culturalcommunicativecompetence,tobecomeawareofculturaldifferencesandtoovercomepragmaticfailures.Thestudyaimstoletthepeoplehaveabasicknowledgeofpragmaticfailureandprovidesomewaystoimprovepeople’scompetenceincross-culturalcommunication.

2.TypesofPragmaticFailure

2.1PragmalinguisticFailure

Aswehavementionedbefore,pragmalinguisticfailurereferstothespokenlanguagewhicharenotinaccordancewiththenativeEnglishspeakers’habits,and