Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introducing the field
- 2 Setting up the project
- 3 Speech acts in inter-cultural discourse
- 4 Variation in communication patterns and inter-cultural communication breakdown in oral discourse
- 5 Written discourse across cultures
- 6 Towards a linguistics of inter-cultural communication
- 7 Some theoretical and practical implications
- Appendix 1 Non-key informants
- Appendix 2 Index of informants' pseudonyms, ages, and ethnolinguistic background
- Appendix 3 Two long transcriptions
- References
- Index of text transcriptions
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
4 - Variation in communication patterns and inter-cultural communication breakdown in oral discourse
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introducing the field
- 2 Setting up the project
- 3 Speech acts in inter-cultural discourse
- 4 Variation in communication patterns and inter-cultural communication breakdown in oral discourse
- 5 Written discourse across cultures
- 6 Towards a linguistics of inter-cultural communication
- 7 Some theoretical and practical implications
- Appendix 1 Non-key informants
- Appendix 2 Index of informants' pseudonyms, ages, and ethnolinguistic background
- Appendix 3 Two long transcriptions
- References
- Index of text transcriptions
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
Summary
Opening remarks
This chapter discusses cultural variation in communicative behaviour in a broader context than does Chapter 3. The focus is now on turn-taking, relating to the interactions as a whole. The notion of communication breakdown will be considered with examples of different inter-cultural dyads, all of whom are responding, in their own way, to the power structures of a multicultural Australian workplace. Cultural differences in coping with communication breakdown will also be explored. The notion of broad areal communication styles will be canvassed, with some ethnolinguistic groups at the centre and others on the periphery.
It will be apparent from Chapter 3 that emerging patterns of cultural variation are represented not only in individual ethnolinguistic groups, but across groups from the same parts of the world. In this chapter I will endeavour here to describe the overall tendencies that cluster together. The tendencies in communicative behaviour will be considered in relation to the notion of a ‘centre’ and a ‘periphery’. There may be other styles represented in our corpus which cannot be examined because of their scant representation in the data. On the basis of a rather limited and very diverse sample, it will not be possible to say much about individual cultures. (This is something that remains a priority for subsequent research.) Any cultural tendencies need to be seen as applying to this corpus and situation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Inter-cultural Communication at WorkCultural Values in Discourse, pp. 90 - 159Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995