Situation of speech: Cross-cultural pragmatics.
Conversational strategies are
culturally variable, i.e. they differ from country to country. Such
differences have to be considered in teaching foreign languages. The
examples of variations are:
direct negative answers to
questions vs. elusive negative answers to questions;
compliments are accepted vs.
compliments are rejected;
the speaker should inflate the
listener (Eastern countries) vs. the speaker is not expected to
inflate the listener (Western countries);
social rituals which require
various adjacency pairs;
turn taking: talking
simultaneously (Southern countries) vs. waiting for a pause to join
in the conversation (Northern countries).
the use of silence and
laughter as communicative signals.
The study of differences in
expectations based on cultural patterns of communication is part of a
broad area of investigation generally known as cross-cultural
pragmatics.
