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LANGUAGE -14
VARIETIES OF
ENGLISH:
Conversational
Interaction
Readings:
Kachru & Smith, Ch. 8
Talk Shows from Around the
World
Note the similarities and differences in such
conversational features as turn-taking, back-
channeling, simultaneous talk, gestures, eye-gaze,
etc. among the talk shows in …
Japanese
Thai
Mexican
Philippino
Vietnamese
Chinese
The Structure of Conversation
in Outer and Expanding Circle
Contexts
Required Concepts
Interactive acts – how the interaction is managed
Speech acts – what is being conveyed or negotiated
between participants
Crosscultural Differences
Speech acts
Cooperative principle
Politeness
Interactive Acts
Turn-taking: the pattern of conversation in which one
person speaks, then another
Normally in SAE one person speaks at a time
End of talk is signaled by
Intonation, expressions like ‘you know,’ gesture, lengthening of final
syllable, stressed syllable, etc.
Floor: the right to begin to talk
Has some duration
Is topic-related
Specific devices to gain or hold the floow and to control the
topic
Backchanneling: cues that signal attention and
encourage the speaker to continue
Simultaneous Talk: talk by more than one person over
an extended period
Crosscultural Differences -
Turns
‘Turn’ refers to the opportunity to assume the
role of speaker and what is said by the
speaker
In some speech communities (e.g., Hindi,
Japanese, Middle East, Eastern Europe) the one-
speaker-at-a-time rule doesn’t apply
Crosscultural Differences –
Floor
‘Floor’ refers to the right to make a first statement
during a conversation
A: Did you hear the news?
B: What?
A: Bill is back in town!
Who is/are controlling attention in conversation
Who is/are controlling the topic of conversation
Who is/are the central figure[s] in the conversation
Crosscultural Differences –
Floor
In SAE
Men are more successful in initiating and maintaining topics
and tend to demand the floor more frequently
In India
Older participants have the right to initiate conversation,
maintain the floow and yield the floor
In traditional Western Europe
Children are admonished to be seen, not heard
In many other cultures
Only older males initiate, maintain and control the floor
Crosscultural Differences –
Backchannel
The frequency and duration of backchannnelling
behavior varies from culture to culture
Japanese speakers Use more frequent backchannel
cues and the cues are of longer duration
Speakers of languages that are socialized in the
patterns of providing frequent and longer
backchannel cues may use the same strategy in
English
This may be disconcerting to the Inner circle English
speaker
Crosscultural Differences –
Simultaneous Talk
‘Simultaneous talk’ is normally considered rude in
Inner Circle speech communities
Rhythmic coordination –patterning of speech and
non-verbal body movements
Sync talk – overlapping speech & synchronized
head nods, both postures
High involvement style vs. high considerateness
style
FitzGerald’s 6 Styles of
Interaction
Institutional/exacting (Northern and Western Europe)
Individual autonomy, non-imposition, brevity, explicitness,
linearity, goal oriented
Spontaneous/argumentative (Eastern Europe)
Sincerity, spontaneity, closeness, blunt, direct
Involved/expressive (Southern Europe, Latin
America)
Warmth, emotion, expressive, concern with according
positive face to others, affective and contextual, tolerates
overlap, collaborative rather than competitive
FitzGerald’s 6 Styles of
Interaction
Elaborate/dramatic (Middle Eastern)
Harmonious relations, positive face, affective contextual
style stressing form over content, sweeping
(over)generalizations, expressive metaphors
Bureaucratic/contextualized (South Asian)
Harmonious relations, positive face, affective contextual
style stressing form over content, formal bureaucratic
language, inductive organization
Succinct/subdued (East & Southeast Asian)
Harmony, modesty, conformity, positive face, masking
negative emotions, status oriented, deferential
How do FitzGerald’s six styles of interaction accord
with the distinction seen in the video “Culturally
Speaking: High Context - Low Context”?
Maori:
R: Tikitiki, well we’re across the river from there and
N: ae.
R: If we wanted to go to Tikitiki we had to go right around to
Ruatoria. And that was in winter.
N: in winter eh.
Malay:
Eh Mala, where on earth you went ah? I searching, searching all
over the place for you – no sign til one o’clock, so I pun got hungry,
I went for makan.
Implications for
Crosscultural Conversations
It is difficult to train people to change their
patterns of synchronized, harmonious
conversational interaction.
But it is possible to
Sensitize people to observe and minimize conditions
that lead to a sense of discomfort in verbal interactions.
Accommodate different rhetorical strategies in
crosscultural communication
Speech Acts
By uttering a string of meaningful sounds, we
perform not only the act of speaking, but also a
variety of acts such as informing, questioning,
ordering, etc., via the act of speaking.
Open the door!
Why are you frowning?
Would you mind closing the door?
The formula for finding the area of a circle is Πr².
Speech Acts
There is no set of speech acts and no set of strategies
for performing speech acts such that all languages and
cultures share them
Example: saugandh khaanaa – Hindi for ‘to swear’
Doesn’t carry negative meanings
Can swear by anything valuable
‘…and Ramu,’ she cried desperately, ‘I have enough of
quarrelling all the time. In the name of our holy
mother, can’t you leave me alone!’
Speech Acts
Speech acts are interpretable only in the context
of a society or culture
Indian languages: Elders may bless a child instead of
saying ‘thank you’ for rendering a service.
Taiwanese Mandarin: uses a more direct strategy for
making requests than SAE
Igbo: Silence is the appropriate way to express
sympathy to the bereaved following a death.
The Cooperative Principle &
Implicature:
A. "Is that the phone?"
"I'm in the tub."
B. "Uncle Charlie is coming over for dinner."
"Better lock up the liquor."
C. "Do you know where Bill moved?"
"Somewhere on the east coast."
D."How was your blind date?"
"He had a nice pair of shoes."
E. "Professor Smith is sure he'll get tenure."
"And my pet turtle is sure it will win the
Kentucky Derby."
Grice’s Cooperative Principle
Quality -
"Reno is the capital of Nevada, isn't it?"
"Yeah, and London is the capital of New Jersey."
Relation -
"What time is it?"
"Well, the paper's already come."
Manner -
"Let's stop and get something to eat."
"OK, but not at M-c-D-o-n-a-l-d-s."
Practice
What maxim is violated? What is the implicature
raised?