exam questions

Intercultural Communication

Topic 5. Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

Dr. Oksana Shkurska Dalhousie University

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

ò  Discussion on values (students’ facilitation)

ò  Follow-up activity

ò  What is a conceptual approach?

ò  Word frequencies and cultures

ò  Linguistic and conceptual universals

ò  Values in political speeches (activity)

ò  Students’ presentation & Discussion

Italian-Swiss Breakdown ò  Your group is interested in being hired as consultants to the

management of the Italian company. You have been asked to diagnose its problems with the Swiss partners and to recommend a plan for solving them. Specifically, the management wants you to answer the following questions:

ò  1. What do you think the real problem is and why?

ò  2. What solution(s) would you propose and why?

ò  3. How would you implement your plan?

ò  4. What reasons would you give for doing it this way?

Present your ideas in class.

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

Anna Wierzbicka, a Polish Linguist, Professor Australian National University in Canberra

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

“language is a symbolic guide to culture”

(Sapir, 1949 as cited in Wierzbicka, 1997)

“Words represent concepts encoded by culture”

(Wierzbicka, 1997, p. 13)

Language and Thought

ò Differences among languages cause differences in the thought of their speakers

(Wierzbicka, 1997)

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

Conceptual analysis of “words embodied into collocations, idioms,

grammatical structures”, etc. helps to understand cultural “values, attitudes

and expectations”. (Wierzbicka, 1997, p.16)

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

1. Analysis of the words that do not have equivalents in other languages

- non-equivalent words (Compare: fingers, thumbs, toes – only one word “palets” in Russian)

- cultural realia (duplex, townhouse, CPP, SIN, king - size bed, etc. in English)

- honorific forms

Compare: “you” (English) “tu” and “vous” (French) “ty” and “vy” (Russian)

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

2.  Analysis of the word frequency in languages to find the key words, as all the words have different frequency in different languages.

Compare:

English dictionaries Russian dictionary

homeland (5) rodina (172)

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

Compare:

English dictionaries (2) Russian dictionaries (1)

fool (43/21) durak (122)

stupid (25/9) glupyj (99)

stupidly (2/4) glupo (34)

idiot (4/1) idiot (29)

(Wierzbicka, 1997, p. 12)

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

Compare:

English dictionaries (2) Russian dictionaries (1)

terribly (18/9) uzhasno (70)

awfully (10/7) strashno (159)

horribly (2/1)

(Wierzbicka, 1997, p. 12)

Conclusion

The same words represent different conceptual categories/ cultural values in different cultures and become “key words” in particular cultures only

These words

-occur frequently in dictionaries, collocations, idiomatic expressions, grammatical structures, proverbs/sayings, popular songs, book titles, etc.

-are frequently used in the “particular semantic domain”, e.g. emotions, moral judgments, etc. (Wierzbicka, 1997, p. 16)

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

Russian “dusha”- (English roughly, “soul”)

Dusha bolit (compare English: “aching heart”, not “aching soul”)

Po dushe (roughly, “My soul likes it”)

V dushu nikto ne zaglyanet (Roughly, “Nobody would look into my soul”. Compare: “Nobody would look into my heart”)

V dushe pokoya net (Roughly, “There is no peace in my soul”; English: “I do not have peace in my heart”)

Zadushevnyi (adj.) razgovor (Roughly, “soul-to-soul talk”; English: “heart-to-heart talk”)

Dusha v dushu (Roughly, “soul in soul”; English: “in harmony” – about people)

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

Russian “dusha”- (English roughly, “soul”)

Lezt’ v dushu (Eng. “break into my heart”)

Dusha na raspashku (Eng. “too open heart”)

Vlozhyt’ dushu (Eng. “put heart (and soul) into something”)

Izlit’ dushu (Eng. “pour heart out”)

Malodushnyi (Eng. “chicken-hearted”

Molod dushoy (Eng. “young at heart”)

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

However, Russian “dusha” (“soul”) ≠ English “heart”

Compare:

He doesn’t have the heart to write a complaint letter. ≠ He doesn’t have a soul (meaning: He is very cruel).

She has eaten her heart out crying. ≠ She has eaten her soul… (it doesn’t make sense as ‘soul’ is spiritual).

A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Communication

In Russian: soul and body (opposition)

In English: mind and body (opposition)

Conclusion:

ò  Different world views in two cultures

Russian English

Moral judgments are based on feelings and emotions

Moral judgments are based on rationalism and practicality

Linguistic and Conceptual Universals

ò  Substantives: I, YOU, SOMEONE/PERSON, SOMETHING/THING, PEOPLE, BODY

ò  Determiners: THIS, THE SAME, OTHER ò  Quantifiers: ONE, TWO, SOME, ALL, MANY/MUCH ò  Attributes: GOOD, BAD, BIG, SMALL ò  Mental predicates: THINK, KNOW, WANT, FEEL, SEE, HEAR ò  Speech: SAY, WORD, TRUE ò  Actions, events, and movement: DO, HAPPEN, MOVE ò  Life and death: LIVE/ALIVE, DIE

Linguistic and Conceptual Universals

ò  Logical concepts: NOT, MAYBE, CAN, BECAUSE, IF... WOULD (counterfactual)

ò  Time: WHEN, NOW, AFTER, BEFORE, A LONG TIME, A SHORT TIME, FOR SOME TIME

ò  Space: WHERE/PLACE, HERE, UNDER, ABOVE, FAR, NEAR; SIDE, INSIDE

ò  Intensifier, augmentor: VERY, MORE ò  Taxonomy, partonomy: KIND OF, PART OF ò  Similarity: LIKE

ò  Existence: (alienable) POSSESSION: THERE IS, HAVE (Wierzbicka, 1997, p. 26)

References

ò  Palmer, G. B., & Sharifian, F. (2007). Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

ò  Wierzbicka, A. (1997). Understanding cultures through their key words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese. New York : Oxford University Press.

ò  Wierzbicka, A. (2006). English: Meaning and Culture. New York : Oxford University Press.

Discussion

In her study, Wierzbicka (1997) gives a word “family” as an example of a concept that has different meanings in different languages and cultures. What does this concept mean to you as a representative of your culture? Discuss in small groups.