Discussion essay

Context of situation, context of culture

Structures of expectation

Contextualization cues, situated inferences

Pragmatic coherence

The co-operative principle

Participants’ roles and the co-construction of culture

Meaning as action

Context of situation, context of culture

in order to understand meaning, we must know the (‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’) in a specific context of situation.

Link words, beliefs, and mindsets to a larger context of culture.

Semantic meanings of verbal signs should be supplemented by the pragmatic meanings of verbal actions in context.

Structures of expectation

Socialization expectations in a given society.

Frames or schemata: general structures of expectations in people’s mind by their culture.

Cultural differences in these expectations

e.g. French/ American ‘greetings’

Meaning as action

Contextualization Cues, situated inferences

Words people exchange are linked to the situational and cultural context.

Example: ‘I need to get in there, can you open the door?’

Verbal + para-verbal + non-verbal = interpretation= Called ‘contextualization cues’

Contextualization cues are verbal, paraverbal and non-verbal signs that help speakers hint at or clarify or guide their listener’s interpretations of what is being said. (p.27)

Help listeners to achieve the situated inferences (the process of arriving to a conclusion)

Pragmatic coherence

Make words meaningful within the situational and cultural context.

Relates speaker to speaker within the larger cultural context of communication. (vs. semantic cohesion).

The co-operative principle

Expectations of speakers and hearers in informational exchanges (set of norms).

Four maxims expected in a conversation: quality, quantity, relation and manner.

Different cultural background= different interpretation.

Meaning as action

Participants’ roles and the co-construction of culture

Participants in verbal exchanges.

All speakers and hearers must carve out for themselves through what they say and the way they say it.

Roles participants can take: speaking for someone: animating words, principal, author.

Language use is a cultural act because its users co-construct the social roles that define them as members of a discourse community.

Kramsch, C. (2009) Language and Culture. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0194372145 (print)

Reference