自考00838语言与文化串讲9

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自考00838语言与文化串讲9

Speaking styles

Since English is learned not only to receive and produce written messages In English but to provide and seek information encoded in oral English as well, Chinese learners of English are expected to master both the oral and written forms of the language. Oral language in manners of production. The speaker has available to him the whole range of body language( voice qualities, facial expressions, postures, gestures, etc.) so his speech must be interpreted in relation to body language that accompanies his speech.

  The syntax of spoken language is typically much less structured than that of written language:

  In spoken language the speaker is often less explicit that the writer.

  In spoken language heavily premodified noun phrases are rare. And there is a stong tendency to structure short chunks of speech so that only one predicate is attached to one subject.

  In spoken language it is quite common to find what is called topic-comment structure.

  In spoken language passives are rare.

  In conversations about the immediate environment, the speaker can rely on the environment

  In speech the speaker may replace or refine expressions as he goes along

  The speaker typically uses a lot of rather generalized vocabulary.

  The speaker frequently repeats the same syntactic form several times over.

  The speaker may produce a large number of “fillers”, “well” etc.

These are major features of oral English that distinguish it from written English.

It included: frozen: used by public orators, for example, astatesman delivering a public speech about politics or a clergyman about religious affairs.

          Formal: for audiences too large for effective interchange with the speaker, as lectures by college professors, or scholarly talks at academic conference.

          Consultative: for conducting most business matters, but not among close friends. Such conversations tends to be more or less spontaneous.

           Casual: for conversations between close friends, colleagues or classmates about topics that are not serious.

           Intimate: used among family members or very close friends. Intimate language is completely spontaneous with hardly any restraint.

The style one chooses for one’s speech depends on a number of factors, including:

One’s interlocutors: who one’s interlocutors are and how one is related to them.

The topic: other things being equal, one tends to be more formal when talking about serious topics than about serious topics than about causal topics.

The setting or environment: other things being equal, one tends to be more formal in public places than where there is no eaversdropper.

Topics for consideration

Chapter 9 Culture in Varieties of English

Regional dialects: American English has New England dialect, southern dialect, New York dialect, General American, among others. Each have their own linguistic feature that cannot be found or are rarely found in the English language spoken in Great Britain or any other English speaking countries.

The pronunciation difference between AmE and BrE:

when it occurs before[ns], as in “glance/france/chance”

when it occurs before[nt]or [nd], as in “can’t / advantage/command/demand”

when it occurs before the word final [s][sp][st]or [sk], as in “pass/class/grasp/last/ask”

when it occurs before (si) or (f), as in “path/half/craft”

Wh  in AmE pronounce [hw], and [w] in BrE

Er   in AmE pronounce [e:r], and [a:] in BrE

Lexical differences between American and british English are not limited to spelling. When referring to the same objects or concepts, the Americans and Englishmen may use different words.

American and british English are to varieties of the english language. They are of equal status and influence each other. The differences between them are mainly phonological and lexical in nature. Although there are grammatical difference as well, they are not so salient as phonological and lexical in nature. Although there are grammatical differences as well, they are not so salient as phonological and lexical differences and therefore they will not be discussed here.

Registers

English advertising

It is included:

advertising is nonpersonal. It assumes that the general public rather than some individuals are the potential readers.

Advertising aims at conveying information about products, service or ideas are available

Advertising is meant to persuade people to buy what is advertised.

Advertisement appears in newspapers, magazines, over radio or television.

   Advertisement English differs from other varieties of English in many ways. It has for, example, phonetic, lexical, grammatical and semantic feature that are rarely found in most of the other varieties of the English language.

  English and Chinese advertising differ in what can be advertised. In English medicines cannot be advertised. In most, if not all, of English speaking countries most medicines are sold according to doctor’s prescriptions. Without doctor’s prescriptions people can buy only some ordinary medicine. But we can buy many kinds of medicines in chinese’s medicine stores without prescriptions. And in English speaking countries, prostitution is legal. They can advertise by the media. In English speaking countries domestic service is frequently advertised.

Brand names

Brand names are an important part of the products in advertisement. As we all now, English brand names can by their designers or manufactures. Chinese is same. A large portion of brand names in English advertising are newly invented words or coinages,

Another distinctive feature of English brand names is that many of them sound exotic, being words borrowed from other cultures. In china brand names of exotic flavour are also popular. Some English brand names seem to be a great shock to people, especially the serious Chinese people. For example, crocodile(shirt.) in contrast, the Chinese designers and manufactures often adopt brand names that create pleasant images in people’s mind. Such as “春兰”“竹叶青”。Many Chinese products bear place brand names. For example: “北京”“上海”. Some brand names are neutral or positive in meaning in Chinese culture but pejorative in English culture. “白象牌电池/蝙蝠牌电扇”. 

Lexical and syntactic features

Westerners like to seek novelty, originality and creativeness. So in English advertisements we can find many new words that are coined to cater to this taste.

 In English and Chinese advertising one can find declarative, imperative and interrogative sentences. However, generally, imperative and interrogative sentences appear more frequently in Englsih than in Chinese.

  We know that imperatives and interrogatives are normally used in conversations. The audience or readers will feel that they are directly spoken to if they come across advertisements that contain many imperatives and interrogatives. In contrast, Chinese advertising makes use of less imperatives and interrogatives. The folling Chinese advertisements consist of only declarative sentences. Westner like simple and ordinary sentences.

Newspaper reporting

Most of people believe that the primary function of newspapers and magazines if to inform or report new.

Common: news items in the two languages normally have the headline, the lead and the story or body. The news item is usually arranged in columns. The news item is kept brief to save space.

Differences:

they differ in what are normally reported. In English, newspapers and magazines developments of science and technology, and political, economic, educational, and cultural achievements are reported. Interested of the dark side of the socielty. In china what appears in newspapers and magazines includes normally internations affairs, administrative activities, and political, economic, educational, fairs, administrative activities, and political, economic, educational fairs, administrative activities, and political, economic, educational, and etc.

some news reported in English spoken people with a light tone, but a serious, formal tone in Chinese.

The headling of the English news report is a incomplete sentence. But in Chinese, many expressions in the chinese news report are rarely

In the English item the computer, computer can called her, she, but in Chinese, news item is written in a matter-of-fact tone.

The paragraphs in both countries reports are kept short. English contain only one sentence each. While in Chinese, new report half of the paragraphs consist of only one sentence each.

The sentences in the English news report contain 17.3 words in average.

English for science and technology

 English for science and technology, often shortened as EST, is different from other varieties of English in that it is used to discuss topics about science and technology.

technical terms

many technical terms in English are loan words from Greek or Latin

another group of technical terms of Greco-Roman origin are derived from Greco-Roman mythology.

The influenced of Greco-Roman civilization upon the English language is also reflected in many English derivatives in which a word forming element comes from Greek or Latin.

There are also technical terms derived from personal names. Many scientific discoveries or inventions are named after their discoverers or inventions.

Of course, there are technical terms from English as well. Normally, these terms had been used in other varieties of English before they became technical terms. But when used in EST, they often convey meanings different from what they express when used in other varieties of English.

Grammatical features

There are a large member of passive sentences in EST.

Another feature is the removal of the first person pronoun “I” adds greatly to apparently, the removal  of the first person pronoun “I” adds greatly to the impersonal, objective tone of the passive sentences.

Another salient grammatical feature of EST is the frequent occurrence of nominalization which refers to a grammatical process of forming nouns from other word classes, especially verbs.

English in legal documents

Legal documents refer to laws, agreements, contracts, guarantees, etc. these documents are often concerned with the rights and obligations of the persons involved. Therefore the intended meaning is normally expressed clearly and exactly, leaving no room for ambiguity and lawyers who are quite familiar with legal documents. And the language used in documents, the readability is not a serious concern.

  In legal documents learned words are used frequently. A great many of them are from Latin. The ancient Romans contributed greatly to law making.

  English speaking countries have a long legal tradition and legal documents are relatively stable. So in legal tradition and legal documents are relatively stable. We can find many archaic words that are used rarely in other varieties of English, as hereby, therein, hereafter, whereof.

  This sentence can slao illustrate the fact that personal pronouns are used thinly in legal documents. To avoid ambiguity, full nouns rather than pronouns are preferred.. there is no personal pronouns referring to them. 

Topic for consideration

Chapter 10. Nonverbal Communication( oral communication is not simply a matter of speaking and hearing. It included the nonvobal communication systems. Including kinesics or body language, eye contact, phonemics or physical proximity between interlocutors, artifacts or clothing and ornamentation kinesthetics or touching, olfactory dimension or body odour, etc. )

Fundamental concepts of nonverbal communication

the definition of nonverbal messages

it’s concept including:

nonverbal communication is communication in which words or speech sounds are not used.

Nonverbal communication conveys meaning;

Nonverbal communication involves such nonverbal dimensions as facial expressions, touch, time, gestures, smell, eye behavious.

Nonverbal communication is a discipline studying nonverbal behavior in communication.

Nonverbal communication is a process of communication by means of nonverbal behaviours.

Nonverbal communication may convey messages alone or is used in combination with verbal behaviours to convey menaing.

Nonverbal communication occurs in a given situation or context and is interpreted in relation to that situation or context.

functions of nonverbal messages

nonverbal communication can convey messages alone, and in many situations it is used in combination with verbal behaviours to convey meaning. It is useful, therefore, to examine the functions of nonverbal messages in relation to verbal message in relation to verbal relation to verbal messages in communication. The six functions of nonverbal messages to be presented in the following paragraphs are complementing, contradicting, repeating, regulating, accenting, and substituting.

Complementing: some nonverbal messages are consistent with accompanying verbal messages, but add to or strengthen or clarify the meaning of the verbal message.

  Contradicting: some nonverbal messages may contradict the verbal ones.

  Repeating: nonverbal messages which serve the function of repeating the verbal messages are ones that could stand alone if the verbal messages were not present.

  Regulating: communication involves more than one participant and nonverbal behaviours are often used to regulate the cooperative communication

  Accenting: nonverbal messages can be used to accent or emphasize distinct points in verbal messages. Pausing before saying something tends to make what will be said next appear more important to the other person.

  Substituting: substitution occurs when nonverbal messages rather than verbal messages are sent.

nonverbal communication and culture

 as verbal language is strongly influenced by culture, nonverbal communication systems are shaped by culture. In each culture, perhaps, a unique body language system can be found. Ignoring nonverbal communication or body language, one may commit serious errors with undesirable consequences. A learner of English as a second or foreign language is supposed to learn several communication systems, for  in oral communication they co-occur. Learning nonverbal communication systems may not be so easy. The learnability of the items in the target nonverbal communications systems varies according to the type of contrast they are in with paring the learner’s target nonverbal communications systems, which he or she intends to learn or is learning .one can find the contrasts as follows:

  transfer: when an item in the target nonverbal communication systems corresponds in both form and meaning to an item in the native nonverbal communication system, the learner can simply transfer the item in his or her native non-communication systems to the target ones.

  Underdifferentiation: an item in the native nonverbal communication systems has no corresponding item in the target body language systems. Learner of the target body language has to avoid using that item when interacting with the native user of that system.

  Reassociation: when an item in the target body language corresponds in meaning but not in form to an item in the native nonverbal communication systems, the learner has to associate the meaning to a different form.

  Reinterpretation: an item in the target nonverbal communication systems is similar but not identical to an item in the native nonverbal communication systems. There are similarities and differences as well in meaning anduse between the two partially corresponding items.

  Overdifferentiations: an entirely new item in the target nonverbal communication systems, which bears little, if any, similarity to the native communication systems, must be learned .

   Conflict: an item in the native nonverbal communication systems is familiar or identical in form to an item I the target nonverbal communication systems. But if the item is positive in meaning in one culture but pejorative in the other, it conveys conflicting meanings in the two cultures.

Kinesics or body language(body language is not language in the strict sense of the word “language”, it refers to, in fact, such meaning representing devices as facial expressions and eye behaviours, gestures and postures. Some scholars treat body language as an equivalent to nonverbal communication.)

Facial expressions and eye behaviours

Many people and scholars have claimed that facial expressions and eye behaviours are probably the most significant areas of the body for communicating nonverbal messages, especially, attitudes and emotion. The major reason that the facial area is so important in human communication is because it is almost always visible during face to face interaction. Four basic facial management techniques have been discovered and discussed, which will be presented below:

Intensifying: in communication very often we need to respond to the expectations from the people around us and to exaggerate our facial behaviours to meet these expectations.

Deintensifying: in some situations we deintensity or deemphasize our facial behaviours to maintain favourable social relations.

Neutralizing: on some occasions we try to avoid showing any emotion.

Masking: we frequently replace felt emotions with emotions thought to be more appropriate. Through masking we try to hide wuch emotions as jealousy, disappointment, bitterness. Etc.

To sum up, we manipulate our facial expressions to achieve the desired results.

Eye behaviours are often considered the most important in the human communication process. With out eyes we can love, hate, attack, or insult our fellow human beings without uttering a word. Much of the attitudinal or emotional information is conveyed by eye behaviours.

Eye behavious have three qualities or characteristics. First one is Saliency. The second quality of eye behaviours is arousal. The third characters of eye behaviours is involvement, which means that eye behaviours are involved in human interaction.

Gestures: ( gestures are an important part of the body language system. In the following paragraphs some English gestures will be presented in several categories and cross-cultural comparison of English and hcinese gestures will be made.)

It can be classified into five categories: emblems, illustrators, regulators, affect displays, and adapters.

  Emblems(象征): they are physical acts that can fully take the place of spoken words. They have following characteristics:

they have direct verbal translation, usually consisting of one or two words

they are known by most of all of a group, class, subculture of culture

they are generally used with intent to send a specific message to a receiver.

They are received by an individual who realizes both the meaning and the intent of the emblems.

They have the sender taking responsibility for having sent the message.

          Illustrators (说明): gestures that are closely linked with language and that help to illustrate the spoken words are illustrators. Illustratos can not stand alone and have meaning.

Regulators(调整): they are gestures or body movements that help us to intereact with another individual or to regulate our conversations with him or her. They included head nods, hand gestures, shift in posture and many other forms of body movements.

Affect displays: they involve primarily facial expressions, but also include postures, they way he or she walks, limb movements, and other behaviours that provide information about the emotional states or moods of a person. Affect displays are usually unintentional, but often we are aware of them.

Adapters: adapters are highly unintentional behaviours . they are usually responses to boredom or stress-producing situations or responses closely related to negative feelings towards ourselves or someone else. Adapters are the remains of behaviours that we learned then we were children. Many commonly seen behaviours may actually be adapter.

Of the five categories of gestures emblems are perhaps the most important category, for emblems are intentional behaviours with widely agreed meaning in a society. And there might be cross-culture differences in them. Some English gestures reflect christinaity. Westerners, including both priests and ordinary people, are often seen to draw a cross by touching the forehead, breast and shoulders to invoke the blessing of Christ, when they are shocked, sad or in trouble. Some English gestures mirror the English alphabet.

Posture(the way in which one hold oneself, can also convey communicative messages. And we communicate with our postures in many ways.)

Inclusive VS noninclusive:

Postures that fall into this category involve acts or position of a group that either include or block out other people.

Face-to-face vs paralles body orientations:

This category refers to primarily the postural relationship between two people during a conversation. Two people can talk with each other while facing each other or sitting or standing side by side.either of the two orientations call tell a lot about the relationship between the tow.

Congruence vs incongruence

This contrast refers to whether the two persons imitate or share a similar posture. If they imitate of share a similar posture, they are showing congruent body positions, which may indicate agreement, equality and liking between them. If there is marked difference in posture, the tow are engaged in incongruent body positions. Which may indicate disagreement or that the two are of different social status.the higher status person, on the other hand, usually maintains a more formal posture with forward leans, more muscle tension, and straightened spine.

 Our posture is most effective at reflecting our gender.

 Generally speaking, English speakers’, especially the americans’ postures are more casual than Chinese speakers’.

Territoriality(领域) and proxemics（空间关系）

Human beings have a strong sense of territory which refers to semi-fixed or fixed space whose owner can move in and out of it freely. It is claimed and defended against invasion from others. Furthermore, the claims are normally respected by others.

  Primary territory: the space that exclusively belongs to its owner is referred to as primary territory. One’w own room at home, personal offices, father’s chair, mother’s kitchen

Secondary territory:

  Secondary territory is usually not central to the daily activities of the owner. It is not under their exclusive control. However, these territories are generally associated with a particular person or a group. Unlike primary territories, secondary territories are more likely to be invaded, for their perceived owners do not use and controlthem with the same frequency as they do primary territories.

  Public territory: are open to anyone and are seldom under constant control of any person or group. They are, however, subject to temporary ownership and are often defended as personal property.

  English speakers, brought up in individualistic culture, have strong sense of privacy, they protect their own privacy and respect other people’s including children’s privacy as well.

  While territory is seen as a fixed or semi-fixed area of space, personal space refers to the invisible, portable space that surrounds us. Firstly, personal space is invisible. Secondly, personal space is portable.

  The intimate zone: this distance zone ranges from touching to 18 inches. It is usually reserved for the very few special people in our lives. Spouse, intimate family members, very close friends are the only ones that we voluntarily allow to get into this zone for any length of time. Even though in crowded elevators or long waiting lines we have to allow strangers to come into our intimate one

  The casual-personal zone: this zone ranges from 18 inches to about four feet. This distance is used during conversations with close friends or interactions with relatives.

  The socio-consultative zone: this zone ranges from 4 feet to 8feet. This region of personal space is often the distance at which Americans discuss business, or discuss academic topics.

  The public zone:

  This zone ranges from 8 feet to the limits of one’s vision and hearing. An instructor communicates with his or her students at this distance when delivering lectures and public orators communicate with their audience at this distance when delivering a speech. Culture is one of the major factors influencing personal space.

Kinesthetic dimensions

Kinesthetic or touching will be discussed in a broader sense in this section, including bodily contact. How and where people touch others and when and where bodily contact is involved are sometimes the most misunderstood aspect of nonverbal communication.

  Touch falls into five different categories which will be presented below

  Functional-professional touch: this is actually impersonal touch.

  Socio-polite touch: when socio-polite touch is used, we touch one another as more than mere “objects”. Rather we acknowledge the other as a social role and are willing to show politeness to him or her.

  Friendship-warmth touch: friendship-warmth touching is a primary means by which we let others know that we appreciate them as unique beings, individuals. When this form of touch is used we touch one another as more than objects or social roles.

  Love-intimacy touch: it includes different types or touch, such as kissing, stroking the face or hair of another person. This category of touch behaviours will make one uncomfortable if one does not want to commit oneself to the responsibilities of a love-intimacy relationship.

  Of the five categories of touching behaviours, socio polite and friendship-warmth touch are more relevant than others to learners of English as a foreign language and it is also the area where cross-cultural differences play a part.

Dress and artifacts

The way people dress communicates a great deal of information about them. Very often one can tell a person’s profession, personality, socioeconomic status, educational level and many other things according to the way he or she dresses himself or herself. Scholars have proposed several answers to the question why we dress the way we do. One reason is for comfort and protection form the weather. Concealment is the second function of dress. When our dress serves this function, it communicates ours status, economic level, social class, morality, educational background, trustworthiness, level of sophistication, level success, etc.

 Personal artifacts may include jewelry, glasses, watches, hats, purses and briefcases and they can send as much information about us as our dresses. Personal artifacts are so deeply involved in our lives that they become part of us.

  Personal artifacts are usually used to display the sociocultureal information about their wearers. They serve roughly the same function as dress. In English speaking countries , middle-aged or elderly women use more artifacts than girls or young women, the opposite in Chinese.

Olfactory dimensions(嗅觉度)：in literature about nonverbal communication, the sense of smell or the act of smelling is often referred to as olfaction. The smells or odours around us are referred to as olfaction messages. In English speaking countries natural body odour, especially smell of perspiration is thought to be undesirable. Many English speakers view the smell of perfume, lotions, creams, and powders as acceptable or even necessary. However, many Chinese speakers complain that the smell of perfume form many foreigners irritates the nose.

Times: time is very imports to our life. Firstly, our daily activities are time scheduled. Secondly, our oral language clearly makes time an overriding force. Moreover, it actually rules our daily activites.

Scholars on chronemics believe that human beings have three time orientations.

  Psychological time orientation(心理时间)：this orientation refers to how people feel, think, or perceive time and how it influences their daily communication and lives. Through the study of psychological time three psychological orientations have emerged: the past, present, and future.

  The past-oriented society: places high regard on the past, the reliving of past events and chrishing past happenings. It tends to apply past events to similar new situations. Its has respect for the elderly and listens to what they have to say bout the past. It use the past to shape the present.

  The present-oriented society includes group like Spanish Americans, Latin Americans, and some Americans. They live every much for the present. Present-oriented culture does not respect elderly persons as much as past-oriented.

  The future-oriented society: is the one that directs people’s attention to the future. Most Americans are future-oriented. They believe that “tomorrow is just around the corner, get prepared” future-oriented people believe that tomorrow will bring them more than what they have now.

  Cultural time orientation: this orientation deals with the way cultures perceive and use time. They are technical, formal and informal time systems.

  Technical time is not closely related with interperonsal communication. It refers to precise, scientific measurements of time counted in ordered, logical sequences. It is impersonal and nonemotional. Such as space traveling.

Formal time: is the way in which a culture keeps track of time. For example: we keep track of days, months, years and so on. It is not so scientific as technical time. But it is precise.

  Informal time: of the cultural time orientations the most difficult to understand and learn is the informal time. This type of time can vary greatly from culture. It is the casual time employed by a culture.

   Eight levels of duration can exist in the English informal time system: immediate, very short, short, neutral, long, very long, terribly long, and forever

  Punctuality is not a form of informal time, but it is often sued in the informal sense.

Topics for consideration

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