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LANGUAGE AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

*Language vs. discourse * The components of language * Language and meaning * Language and perception * Cultural variations in language * Discourse: language and power * Multilingualism * Translation and interpretation * Translation and equivalence * Language politics and policies

 

Key words:

Bilinguals, consecutive and simultaneous interpretation, communication style (direct/indirect, elaborate/exact/succinct, personal/contextual, instrumental/affective) controversy, cross-cultural comparison of meaning, culture-specific (emic) and culture-general (etic) concepts, discourse, discursive units, equivalence (equivalency), high-context (low-context) communication, multilingualism, phonetics, pragmatics, semantics, semiotics, signs (signifiers and signifieds), syntactics (syntax), source and target text (language),

This lecture focuses on verbal aspects of intercultural communication. It also explores cultural variations of language. Then we’ll discuss the relationship between language and power, and finally examine multilingualism and translation.

 

Language Versus Discourse

 

French scholars introduced the distinction between what they called la langue, "language," and la parole, or "discourse."La langue refers to the whole system of language. For example, when we consider what is English, should we include the various forms of English spoken around the world? Do we include the different kinds of English that have been spoken in the past, such as Old English and Middle English? As you see, thinking about English is very complex indeed.

In contrast, la parole is language in use. We think about discourse by focusing on how language is actually used by particular communities of people, in particular contexts, for particular purposes. Because there are so many different ways of expressing the same idea, the selection of one approach over another is critical to the study of communication. The discursive practices of physicians and lawyers, for example, often make it difficult for those without medical or legal backgrounds to understand what professionals in the field are saying among themselves.

 

The Components of Language

 

Linguistics is just one of many ways to think about language. Linguists generally divide the study of language into four parts: semantics, syntactics (syntax), pragmatics, and phonetics. Each part highlights a different aspect of the way language works.

Semanticsis the study of meaning - that is, how words communicate the meaning we intend to get across in our communication. The emphasis in semantics is on the generation of meaning, focusing on a single word. For example, what is a chair? Do we define chair by its shape? Does a throne count as a chair? Do we define it by its function? If I sit on a table, does that make it a chair?

Syntactics (syntax) is the study of the structure, or grammar, of a language – the rules for combining words into meaningful sentences. One way to think of syntax is to consider how the order of the words in a sentence creates a particular meaning. Word order in the sentence "The red car smashed into the blue car" makes a big difference in the meaning of the sentence. "The blue car smashed into the red car" means something else entirely.

Pragmatics is the study of how meaning is constructed in relation to receivers, how language is actually used in particular contexts in language communities. For example, if someone said, "That's a lovely jacket," you might interpret it variously depending upon the intonation, your relationship with the speaker, and so on. The person might be mocking the jacket or flirting with you. Or the comment could simply be a compliment. The meaning does not come from the words or the word order alone.

Phonetics is the study of the sound system of language, how words are pronounced, which units of sounds (phonemes) are meaningful for a specific language, and which sounds are universal. Because different languages use different sounds, it is often difficult for non-native speakers to learn how to pronounce some sounds.

Russian, for example, has no equivalent for the voiced "th" sound (as in mother) or the unvoiced "th" sound (as in think) in English. Russian speakers often substitute similar sounds to pronounce English words with "th." – [z] or [s].

The Japanese language has a sound that is between the English "r" and "1." This makes it difficult for Japanese speakers to pronounce some English words, especially those in which the "r" and "1" sounds are both used – for example, the word gorilla.

The International Phonetic Alphabet(IPA) helps linguists transcribe the pronunciation of words in different languages. The IPA was developed in 1889 by linguists who realized that it was impossible to transcribe unfamiliar languages without a common notation system. It is based primarily on the Latin alphabet but has been modified over the years to accommodate sounds that weren't easily represented by the Latin alphabet.

 

Language and Meaning

 

Universal Dimensions of Meaning. Intercultural communication scholars are interested in many issues concerning the universality of language. They may look for aspects of structure or meaning that are the same in all languages. They may explore the rules of speaking and using language. The study of comparative linguistics helps us see the diversity of communication systems.

Intercultural communication scholars are also concerned with the role of translationand interpretation—that is, how people understand each other when they speak different languages. Because we cannot learn every language in the world, spoken now or in the past, we often rely on translators and interpreters to help us cross linguistic differences. What are the parameters of this mode of communication? How do we understand how this communication process works?

Finally, scholars are concerned with the power of language and the ways in which discourse may be used to oppress or hurt individuals or groups of people.

Language is based on a system of differences. Cat and hat, for example, sound different, and it is this difference that communicates the meaning. Many differences are arbitrary or cultural. For example, different languages classify colors in different ways. There are different devices to remember the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue,indigo, violet). In English it is Roy G. Biv, in Russian – it is “Kaждый охотник желает знать, где сидит фазан.” The system of difference in any language influences how we classify the entire world, including peoples and cultures. In short, language becomes a way of regulating societies through how we view the world.

Charles Osgood, a noted psychologist, spent many years investigating the cross-cultural universals of meanings. He found that there are similar dimensions of meaning in many language groups; people everywhere can reflect on a word and characterize meaning for that word according to its value, potency, and activity. On the basis of these three dimensions, Osgood developed the semantic differential –a way of measuring attitudes or affective meaning.

For example, we can measure the evaluative dimensionof meaning for the word abortion. (In other words, we can determine whether the word has a good or bad meaning for us.) We can also identify the potency dimensionof the word – whether it causes a strong or weak reaction. Finally, we can also determine the activity associations of a word. The activity dimensionof abortion, for example, might be "fast" or "slow." For women who have experienced abortion, it may seem a long, drawn-out experience.

Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Meaning is useful to understand these dimensions in making cross-cultural comparisons. For example, people in the United States tend to have a negative evaluation of Monday, the first day of the workweek, and a positive evaluation of Friday, whereas many Arabic speakers who are Muslims have a negative evaluation of Saturday, their first day of the week, after the holy day, Friday. By using this conceptual framework, we can measure people's responses to words such as leisure or work. Comparing the responses would help us understand cultural variations. It would also help us understand cultural expressions such as "Monday morning blues" or "T.G.I.F." [Thank God It’s Friday], which may not communicate the same meanings in other cultures.

As you think dialectically about intercultural communication messages, consider these various approaches to meaning. In part, this means that you will need to free yourself of the need to find the "true" meaning of a word, phrase, expression, or message. Think about the factors that contribute to producing meaning. Note the dialectical tensions between what is said, how it is said, when it is said, by whom it is said, and so on. Then consider how you synthesized and interpreted the meaning as you did.

 

Language and Perception

 

How much of our perception is shaped by the particular language we speak? Do English speakers see the world differently from Arabic speakers? Is there anything about the particular language we speak that shapes our perception of the world? These questions are at the heart of the "political correctness" debate today. We can answer these questions from two different points of view: the nominalist positionand the relativist position.

The Nominalist Position assumes that perception is not shaped by the particular language we speak. Language is simply an arbitrary "outer form of thought." Everyone has the same range of thoughts, which we express in different ways with different languages. According to this position, any thought can be expressed in any language, although some may take more or fewer words. Different languages do not mean that people have different thought processes or inhabit different perceptual worlds. A tree is an arbre in French and an arbol in Spanish, but we all perceive the tree in the same way.

The Relativist Position assumes that the particular language we speak, especially the structure of that language, determines our thinking and our perception of reality and important cultural patterns. This position is best represented by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. This hypothesis was proposed by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf. It is based on linguistic research they conducted in the 1930s and 1940s on Native American languages. They proposed that language is not just an "instrument for voicing ideas but is itself the shaper of ideas, the guide for the individual's mental activity" (Hoijer, 1994, p. 194). According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language defines our experience. For example, there are no possessives (his/her/our/your) in the Navajo language; we might conclude, therefore, that the Navajo think in a particular way about the concept of possession. Another example is the variation in verb forms in English and French. In English the Present Continuous verb form is used often. A student might say, "I am studying," A French speaker would use the simple present form, J'etudie (I study). The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that, because there is variation in this verb form, French and English speakers may think differently about movement or action.

Another frequently cited example is variation in color vocabulary. The Navajo use one word for blue and green, two words for two different colors of black, and one word for red; these four words form the vocabulary for primary colors in Navajo culture. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that English and Navajo speakers perceive colors differently. Other examples of variations in syntax and semantics reflect differences in perception. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has had tremendous influence on scholarly thinking about language and its impact on everyday communication. It questions the basic assumption that we all inhabit the same perceptual world, the same social reality.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Language Do groups with different language labels perceive the world in different ways? A familiar example is that. many men in the USA might identify someone's shirt as blue, whereas women viewing the same shirt might call it aqua or turquoise. Men and women in America both see the color distinctions, but men tend to use fewer words than women to distinguish colors.

Another example of cross-cultural research involves variations in verb forms. The Chinese language has no counterfactual (subjunctive II) verb form (illustrated by "If I had known, I would have gone, but I did not"). Researchers constructed stories using the counterfactual form and found that the Chinese respondents understood the concept of counterfactual and could answer questions appropriately even though this structure is not present in Chinese.

 

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