Intercultural Communication Week 13 Intercultural Communication

Language & Culture Pinker says language is a “window into human nature.” How does this align with the IC text? What’s the relationship between language and culture? Name one or two of the distinctive features of human language. What are some of the diverse functions of language? Link between language and saving/future vs. futureless languages http://video- subtitle.tedcdn.com/talk/podcast/2012G/None/KeithChen_2012G-480p-zh- cn.mp4 (start at 0:50 and stop around 7:00) Language and Culture http://video- subtitle.tedcdn.com/talk/podcast/2005G/None/StevenPinker_2005G-480p-zh- cn.mp4 (stop around 2:13)

Language & Culture Linguists say an indigenous language dies every two weeks. With that death comes the death of a people’s way of thinking, living, and relation, their traditions, way of folklore, legacies, and centuries of irreplaceable knowledge and wisdom. Language frames our perceptions and interpretations of everyday events Meaning is acquired through words or phrases via the values systems of our culture (competition, harmony, love is a battlefield) Language labels or the naming process shows what important or unimportant in our sociocultural lives; it stretches the imagination to think of what is possible and what is going on in other cultures.

Human Language: Distinctive Features What is language? p. 141 Multilayered rules of language – think of the “onion” metaphor Arbitrariness - people attach meanings to words, therefore it’s a subjective system that we create to communicate, reach out to each other, to bond, and to satisfy human survival needs Abstractness - engage in hypothetical thinking; experiential context and cultural context p. 143; creates both friction and clarification Meaning-Centeredness - discourse meaning (denotative and connotative); communicative meaning (intention or goal); relational meaning (distance and intimacy); situational meaning (physical and social context); conventional meaning (coordination between verbal message usage and expectations of norms) p.144 Creativity - potential to transform our language systems into many ways of communicating and expressing ourselves; “hacking and a healing instrument” p.145

Understanding Multiple Language Rules Phonological rules refer to accepted procedures for combining phonemes - basic sound units of a word; accent- the inflection or tone of voice that is unique to each individual Morphological rules refers to how combinations of different sounds make up a meaningful word or part of a word (newcomer) Syntactic rules refers to how words are sequenced together in accordance with the grammatical practices; English uses explicit subject pronouns Semantic rules are concerned with the features of meaning we attach to words; denotative and connotative meaning p.150 Pragmatic rules refer to the contextual rules that govern language usage in a particular culture; concerned with the cultural expectations of how, when, where, with whom, and under what situational conditions certain verbal expressions are preferred, prohibited, or prescribed in a speech community p. 152

Understanding Diverse Language Functions Individualism (I, me, my goal)/Collectivism (we, our goal) value index Cultural worldview worldviews - our larger philosophical outlook or ways of perceiving the world, how this outlook affects our thinking and reasoning patterns; Americans(absolutely)/ Japanese(maybe) linear worldview - rational thinking based on an objective reality (Table 6.1) inductive reasoning - U.S. reasoning process deductive reasoning - European reasoning process relational worldview - reflects a holistic reasoning pattern; Chinese avoid using polarized ends to comprehend the nature of the universe (Table 6.1)

Understanding Diverse Language Functions (cont.) Cognitive formation - grammatical structure shapes and makes up, to a degree, one’s thought process; language, thinking, and culture are all part of a mindset system p. 155 Social reality - perceive and simultaneously judge others’ proper or improper behaviors via their use of habitual linguistic symbols; Group identity - code-switching p.159; group solidarity examples p.160; language struggle is a sociopolitical one or who are the dominant power holders Globalization of language and group identity function of language http://video- subtitle.tedcdn.com/talk/podcast/2010X/None/PatriciaRyan_2010X-480p-zh-cn.mp4 (begin at 1:00 and stop at around 6:00) Social change - new word creation; biased language limits us(Poll 6.1), while it can also set us free when we are willing to mindfully change our language habits and preconceived biased ideas; two new trends: language borrowing and slang or jargon of music being included in everyday vocabulary p.162

Multimedia Introduction to the diversity of African languages http://video- subtitle.tedcdn.com/talk/podcast/2013/None/SakiMafundikwa_2013-480p-zh- cn.mp4 (begin at 1:00 and stop around 4:52) http://video-subtitle.tedcdn.com/talk/podcast/2012G/None/AmyCuddy_2012G- 480p-zh-cn.mp4 (USE WITH CHAPTER 7 and 8)

Week 14 Assignments Ch. 7 Verbal & Ch. 8 Nonverbal Communication chapter excerpts Read the following pages: p.169, Table 7.1,7.2, p.172 (stop before Low- context and High-context Communication Examples) p.175-182 (stop before Intercultural Conversation Process...) p.188-194 (stop before Intercultural Toolkit) p.203-p.214, You only need to read any boldfaced type(stop before Boundary Regulations)