Slide 1
Intercultural Communication
in Contexts
Third Edition
Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama
Arizona State University
CHAPTER
6
McGraw-Hill
Language and Intercultural
Communication
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 2
Chapter Summary
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The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically
Cultural Variations in Language
Discourse: Language and Power
Moving Between Languages
Language and Identity
Language Politics and Policies
Language and Globalization
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 3
The Study of Language:
Thinking Dialectically
• Language Versus Discourse
1. La langue (language) - the entire
language system, including various forms
such as pidgin and creole.
2. La parole (discourse) - how language is
actively used by particular communities
of people, in particular contexts, for
particular purposes.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 4
The Study of Language:
Thinking Dialectically
• Components of Language
– Semantics
– Syntactics
– Pragmatics
– Phonetics
– International Phonetic Alphabet
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 5
The Study of Language:
Thinking Dialectically
• Language and Meaning:
What language issues are universal?
– The power of language
– Systems of difference influence how we
classify the world.
– Expressions may not communicate the same
meanings in different cultures.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 6
The Study of Language:
Thinking Dialectically
• Language and Meaning:
What language issues are universal?
– Osgood’s semantic differential:
- Evaluative dimension
- Potency dimension
- Activity dimension
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 7
The Study of Language:
Thinking Dialectically
• Language and Perception:
– The nominalist position: Perception is not shaped
by the particular language we speak.
– The relativist position (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis):
The particular language we speak determines our
thinking and perception of reality.
– The qualified relativist position: Language is a
tool rather than a mirror of perception.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 8
Cultural Variations in
Language
• Communication Style (verbal and nonverbal):
– Tonal coloring or the metamessage
contextualizes how listeners accept and
interpret verbal messages.
– Some cultural groups prefer high-context
communication over low-context
communication styles.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 9
Cultural Variations in
Language
• Other Dimensions of Communication Style:
– Direct/Indirect
– Elaborate/Exact/Succinct
– Personal/Contextual
– Instrumental/Affective
• People communicate differently in different
speech communities and contexts.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 10
Discourse: Language and
Power
• Co-cultural communication
– Language in use depends on social relations as
well as contexts.
– Orbe: Groups with the most power consciously
or unconsciously develop communication
systems that support their perceptions of the
world, in which groups without power must
also function.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 11
Discourse: Language and
Power
• Orbe’s Co-cultural communication
strategies:
McGraw-Hill
Nonassertive
separation
Nonassertive
accommodation
Nonassertive
assimilation
Assertive
separation
Assertive
accommodation
Assertive
assimilation
Aggressive
separation
Aggressive
accommodation
Aggressive
assimilation
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 12
Discourse: Language and
Power
• Semiotics - how different discursive units
communicate meaning
– Semiosis is the process of producing meaning.
– Meaning is constructed through the
interpretation of signs.
– Signifiers are culturally constructed, arbitrary
words or symbols we use to refer to something
else, the signified.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 13
Discourse: Language and
Power
• Discourse and Social Structure:
Societies are structured so that individuals
occupy specific social positions.
• Power and labels:
The use of labels, as signifiers,
acknowledges particular aspects of our
social identity.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 14
Moving Between Languages
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McGraw-Hill
Multilingualism
- A bilingual person speaks two
languages.
- People who speak more than two
languages are multilingual.
- Interlanguage is a kind of
communication that emerges when
speakers of one language are speaking in
another language.
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 15
Moving Between Languages
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McGraw-Hill
Translation and Interpretation
- Translation refers to the process of
producing a written text (the target text)
that refers to something said or written
in another language (the source text).
- Interpretation refers to the process of
verbally expressing what is said or
written in another language.
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 16
Moving Between Languages
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Translation and Interpretation (cont.)
- Languages differ in their flexibility of
expression for different topics, which
makes accuracy in translation, or
equivalency, even more difficult.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 17
Language and Identity
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Code switching refers to the phenomenon of
changing languages, dialects, or accents.
–- to accommodate other speakers
–- to avoid accommodating others
–- to express another aspect of their cultural identity
Code switching can take on important political
meaning.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 18
Language Politics and Policies
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Language policies are laws or customs
that determine which language is spoken
where and when.
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They are embedded in the politics of class,
culture, ethnicity, and economics--not
language quality.
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 19
Language and Globalization
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McGraw-Hill
Rapid changes are occurring in the
languages spoken and learned in the
world.
The dream of a common international
language or lingua franca has long
marked Western ways of thinking.
Today, the dominance of English raises
important issues for intercultural
communication.
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.