exam questions

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Topic 7. Interpersonal politeness and power: face systems, communication styles, and linguistic strategies of effective communication Dr. Oksana Shkurska Dalhousie University

Agenda •  Students’ Facilitation •  Announcements •  Communication and power •  “Face” and “Facework” •  Communication and context: high- and low-context

cultures and Communication Styles •  Politeness and impoliteness •  Students’ presentation & Discussion

Communication & Power

Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

Foucault’s Ideas • Knowledge about the world is constructed by particular groups of people.

• It is delivered to others in such a way that it becomes universal truth for them.

• In such a way, people get power over others.

Communication and power • Participants of the communication process are rarely equal

• Privileged groups in social hierarchy “determine to the great extent the communication system of the entire society” (Orbe, 1998, p. 8).

• Power comes mostly from social institutions and the roles people play in them

• Whether you like it or not, you should follow the communication style assigned to you to succeed in society

Face and Facework • Face = a public self-image, an impression that people want to make on others in a particular social context or “your public identity” (Samovar, Porter & MacDaniel, 2013)

• A fear to “lose face” => Facework • Facework is “ a set of coordinated practices in which communicators build, maintain, protect, or threaten personal dignity, honor, and respect” (Domenici and Littlejohn)

Face and Facework All cultures are concerned with maintaining ‘the best face’

However

•  Face and Facework are different in various cultures •  Research on Face and Facework is based on the division

of cultures into individualistic and collectivistic   ê ê  a fear to lose one’s own face a fear to lose another

person’s face

Face and Facework Individualistic Cultures Collectivistic Cultures

•  A person’s face is connected with their own effort and does not depend on other people

•  Thinking for oneself and individual achievement are encouraged

•  Not a great need for social support è less concern with affecting other people’s faces

•  Direct and straightforward conversation style

•  “Confrontational and solution- oriented approaches to solving conflicts”

•  Silence is avoided

•  Belonging to a group is the main source of identity and status

•  “Conformity and maintaining

obligations” are important •  Stable, harmonious relationships

with in-group members are very important

•  “Extreme politeness” as a face- saving strategy

•  Conflicts should be avoided to save other people’s faces

•  Silence is encouraged

Based on Ting-Toomey & Kurogi (1998) and Rogers & Steinfatt (1999)

Communication Styles •  High-context versus Low-context cultures (Hall, 1976)

High-context Style Low-context Style

•  Most of the information is in the context and nonverbal signs (expressed implicitly)

•  Avoiding “threatening” the face of another person is extremely important

•  Indirectness and subtleness in communication

•  Extreme politeness •  Ambiguity and obscurity in

conversations •  What is not said may be more

important than what was said

•  Most of the information is delivered in words rather than nonverbal signs (expressed explicitly)

•  No or little concern about another person’s face

•  Directness in communication

•  Frank expression of reactions •  Clarity is highly valued

•  Clear and to the point conversation “leaves little for imagination”

Are you High-Context or Low-Context?

Let’s play a game!

Positive vs. Negative Politeness Each adult person has: • A need for independence and autonomy (negative face)

• Natural desire to have their actions approved and recognized (positive face) (Brown and Levinson, 1989).

Politeness Strategies Positive Politeness Strategies (face-saving for both)

Negative Politeness Strategies (face- threatening for the speaker)

Off-record Strategies (used to damage face indirectly using implied meaning that then can be denied by speaker)

•  Notice hearer’s wants

•  Exaggerate interest •  Seek agreement •  Avoid disagreement •  Joke •  Offer, promise •  Be optimistic •  Give (ask for)

reasons •  Give presents

•  Be conventionally indirect

•  Be pessimistic •  Apologize •  Impersonalize

•  Give hints •  Give association

clues •  Presuppose •  Understate •  Overstate •  Be ironic •  Be vague •  Be ambiguous •  Overgeneralize •  Use contradictions

Adapted from Culpeper (1996)

Impoliteness Strategies • are used to make the listener lose face • are used more often than politeness strategies • are used by the speaker in case of the dissatisfaction, annoyance, anger, and frustration

Impoliteness Strategies Impoliteness Strategies used to damage others’ positive face (natural desire to be included)

Impoliteness Strategies used to damage others’ negative face (a need for independence and autonomy)

•  Ignore, fail to attend to other’s interests, wants, needs, etc.

•  Exclude the other from activity •  Deny common ground or

association •  Be disinterested, unconcerned,

unsympathetic •  Avoid agreeing with the other •  Make the other feel uncomfortable •  Use taboo language: swear, be

abusive, etc.

•  Frighten •  Scorn or ridicule: emphasize own

power, do not take the other seriously

•  Invade the other’s space: literally (positioning closer than relationship permits) or metaphorically (asking for intimate information)

•  Personalize, use pronouns “I” and “You”

•  Hinder: physically (block passage), conversationally (deny turn, interrupt)

Adapted from Culpeper (1996)

Politeness and Political Correctness

Taboo Topics

Can you name some in your culture?

Taboo Topics 1.  Sex and sexuality (in many countries, especially, where

marriages are arranged and virginity is valued) 2.  Depression and mental illness (in countries with a high

suicide rate, e.g. in Japan) 3.  Money and finance (Canada, Britain, and France) 4.  Family (in some countries, e.g. males cannot ask other

males about their wives in Arab countries) 5.  Politics

•  Avoided in most countries, but acceptable in some European countries, e.g. France and the Netherlands

6. Religion

British vs. American Politeness •  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbu-eMcEF3s

Bibliography •  Brown, P. & Levinson, S.C. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in

Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. •  Culpeper, J. (1996). Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of

Pragmatics, 25, 349–367. •  Culpeper, J. (2005). Impoliteness and the weakest link. Journal of

Politeness Research, 1(1), 35–72. •  Jackson, J. (2012). The Routledge Handbook of Language and

Intercultural Communication. (Ed.). Routledge: London and New York. •  Paulston, C. B., Kiesling, S. F., & Rangel, E. S. (2012). The handbook of

intercultural discourse and communication. Malden, MA: Malden, MA : John Wiley & Sons.

•  Rogers, E. M., Steinfatt T.M. (1999). Intercultural communication. Prospect Heights, III: Waveland Press, Inc.

•  Samovar L.A, Porter, R.E. & McDaniel, E.R. (2013). Communication between cultures (8-th ed.). Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.

•  Ting-Toomey, S. & Kurogi, A. Facework Competence in Intercultural Conflict: An Updated Face- Negotiation Theory, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 22 (1998), 202.

Discussion

• What cultural values help to explain why face is more important in Asian societies than in the United States?