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1、淮北师范大学 2012届学士学位论文Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Communication学 院、专业 外国语、英语 研 究 方 向 应用语言学 英语语言学、英国/美国/（英语国家选一个）文学、翻译理论与实践、应用语言学、英国/美国/（英语国家选一个）文化学 生 姓 名 穆念 学 号 20080501082 指导教师姓名 王红卫 指导教师职称 讲师 2012 年 3 月10 日Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural CommunicationAbstract: With the globalization of eco
2、nomy, cross-cultural communication is increasing rapidly in the whole world. Pragmatic failure often occurs in cross-cultural communication, which leads to misunderstandings among different speakers with various ethnic backgrounds. Pragmatic failure is one of the most important factors which contrib
3、ute to the failure of communication. Only by understanding cultural differences, learning pragmatic failures, strengthening cultural awareness, and applying communication strategies properly can we make a successful cross-cultural communication. This study aims to discuss and analyze pragmatic failu
4、re in cross-cultural communication. The thesis consists of 5 chapters. The first chapter introduces some basic definitions of the terminologies in this study, such as culture, pragmatics, pragmatic failure and cross-cultural communication, etc. It also briefly introduces the purpose of the study. Th
5、e second chapter discusses the two types of pragmatic failure with fresh examples, pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. The third chapter analyzes some major factors contributing to pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication. It mainly discusses different thinking patterns and
6、 values between the westerners and Chinese. The fourth chapter provides some effective methods and pragmatic strategies to avoid pragmatic failure and interesting activities to develop students cultural awareness and pragmatic competence. Finally, a conclusion is given to summarize the whole study.K
7、ey words: pragmatic failure; cross-cultural communication; pragmatic competence; cultural difference跨文化交际中的语用失误摘要：随着经济全球化发展，跨文化交际在世界范围内迅速发展起来。语用失误是众多引起交际失败的重要原因之一。语用失误是经常发生在跨文化交际中的一种语言现象。在进行交流时，它会给来自不同文化、不同民族背景的人们造成误解。只有懂得不同文化之间的差异，了解语用失误，加强对文化意识的培养，恰当地运用交际策略，这样我们才能在跨文化交际中成功地进行进行顺利的交流互动。本文将对跨文化交际中的语
8、用失误进行讨论和分析，共由5个章节构成。第一章主要讲的是研究背景，重点是介绍本文中所涉及的一些专业术语，比如说文化、语用学、跨文化交际和语用失误等，同时也简单的介绍了本文的写作意图。第二章主要分析了跨文化交际中的两大语用失误，即语用语言失误和社交语用失误，并以日常生活中生动的例子进行了解释。第三章讨论了造成跨文化交际失误的主要原因。本章研究的重点主要是中西方不同的思维方式和价值观念。第四章主要提供了一些避免语用失误的策略，和一些有效且有趣的方法来培养学生的文化意识和语用能力。第五章是对整篇论文的小结。关键词： 语用失误；跨文化交际；语用能力；文化背景差异 ContentsAbstractI1.
9、 Introduction.1 1.1 Research Background.2 1.2 The Purpose of This Study12. Types of Pragmatic Failure.3 2.1 Pragmalinguistic Failure.3 2.1.1 The Real Meaning of “Do you have time?”.3 2.1.2 The Reply of “How are you?”4 2.1.3 The Usage of “of course”.4 2.1.4 Slangs, and Proverbs.4 2.2 Sociopragmatic F
10、ailure.5 2.2.1 Opening a Safe Topic with a Foreigner.5 2.2.2 Compliment.6 2.2.3 Farewell.6 2.2.4 Expressing Gratitude.73. The Factors Contributing to the Pragmatic Failure.8 3.1 Different Thinking Patterns.8 3.1.1 Different Means of Expressions.8 3.1.2 Different Word Order .8 3.1.3 Different Express
11、ions of Voices.8 3.2 The Pragmatic Rules and Cultural Interference of Mother Tongue.8 3.3 Different Values.9 3.4 Weak Context Awareness.9 3.5 Different Non-verbal Behaviors.104. Tactics to Avoid Pragmatic Failure and Develop Communicative Competence in Cross-cultural Communication.10 4.1 Tactics to
12、Avoid Pragmatic Failure.10 4.1.1 Improvement of pragmatic competence.10 4.1.2 The Appliance of Pragmatic Strategies.11 4.2 Tactics to Develop Communicative Competence.11 4.2.1 Pragmatic Knowledge and Cultural Differences.12 4.2.2 Developing Communicative Activities and Creating Language Environment.
13、125. Conclusion13References.15Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Communication1. Introduction1.1 Research BackgroundBefore we really get into the research, lets learn some basic concepts of terminologies.The first question is what culture is. Simply put, culture is a system of meaning. That is too
14、abstract a definition to really understand. The most usual meaning is that culture refers to peoples customs and behaviors. There is a probably the most widely accepted definition of culture.“Culture is the total accumulation of beliefs, customs, values, behaviors, institutions, and communication pa
15、tterns that are shared, learned and passed down through the generations in an identifiable group of people.”(Davis, 2001: 24)Simply speaking, pragmatics is the study of relationships between symbol and its users. It is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect communication. In
16、 other words, pragmatics generally refers to the study of natural language understanding, and especially the study of how context influences the interpretation of meanings. This branch is different from other linguistic branches, because in it “speakers” get involved.Cross- cultural communication re
17、fers to exchange activities between people of different cultural backgrounds. In 1991, Porter Samovar has proposed, “As a kind of cultural information must be explained by another culture, cross-cultural communication occurs.” (Samovar, 1981:41) Cross-cultural communication is a kind of common and l
18、ong-standing social phenomenon. Generally it refers to the communication activities of national members of different languages and culture backgrounds.Pragmatic failure is proposed by Jenny Thomas. It is defined as “cant understand the real meaning of words” Pragmatic failure can be divided into two
19、 kinds, pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. (Thomas, 1983: 91-112) In cross-cultural communication, because of the different speaking manners of how to present information, organize argument, express politeness, what people say may be unsuitable for English native speakers habits, o
20、r people may just apply their native language habits mechanically to English. Under such circumstances, its easy to cause communication failure. That is the explanation of pragmalinguistic failure. We can avoid or correct it through English teaching, because this kind of pragmatic failure stays in l
21、anguage itself. As for sociopragmatic failure, it is caused by the ignorance and lack of knowledge to both sides different social values, and behaviors, etc. But there is no absolute boundary line between pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. In the entire history of communication(传播学
22、), cross-cultural communication is a fairly young field. From the beginning until now, it is also but half a century of history. The history is divided into four stages. In the first stage(before 1950), E.T. Hall first put forward the word “intercultural communication” in his book The Silent Languag
23、e in 1959. This starts the real systematic development of cross-cultural communication. In the second stage (1960-1969), more communication researchers entered the field. During this period, cross-cultural communication began to lay the foundation in the academic field. R.T. Olivers Culture and Comm
24、unication (1962) and A. Smiths Communication and Culture, the two books are the representatives. In the third stage (1920-1979), the works of cross-cultural communication have mushroomed. Each author seemed to have different ideas on cross-cultural communication. The most important periodical The In
25、ternational Journal of Relations is first issued in 1977. In the fourth stage (from 1980 to now), the turmoil finished. Entering 1990s, cross-cultural communication has became a mature discipline (陈国明，2009：6-9). There are many factors contributing to the development of cross-cultural communication.
26、The five most important factors are the development of technology, the globalization of economy, the widespread immigration, the development of multiculturalism, and the deemphasis of nation-state ( 陈国明，2009：3-5).1.2 The Purposes of This StudyWith Chinas accession to the WTO and the economic globali
27、zation, the communication between China and the world becomes more and more closely. Many people find that they have a good command of English vocabulary, and a certain ability of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. But in concrete situations of communication, misunderstandings often emerge,
28、and even affect the normal communication seriously. Pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication can cause misunderstandings between native speakers and foreign language speakers, destroy the effective communication, and even make the harmonious interpersonal communication become nervous. This
29、studys goals are to discuss some common pragmatic failures in daily communication, analyze the reasons why people make such kind of pragmatic failures, and provide some effective methods for people to develop cross-cultural communicative competence, to become aware of cultural differences and to ove
30、rcome pragmatic failures. The study aims to let the people have a basic knowledge of pragmatic failure and provide some ways to improve peoples competence in cross-cultural communication. 2. Types of Pragmatic Failure2.1 Pragmalinguistic Failure As we have mentioned before, pragmalinguistic failure
31、refers to the spoken language which are not in accordance with the native English speakers habits, and the misuse of expressions applying mother tongue mechanically into English. More specifically, pragmalinguistic failure refers to that people in the communication choose the inaccurate language exp
32、ressions according to context, which violate the pragmatic principles. The common pragmalinguistic failure includes the following kinds: 1) inconformity to the idiomaticity of the native English speakers, and the misuse of English expressions; 2) knowing the right expressions of English, but applyin
33、g mother tongue meaning and structure to English; 3) the Chinese words being equal to English words; 4) understanding the literal meaning, but failing to find out the real intention of the people; 5) the same structure can be used in different situation, etc (戈林，2011:74). This kind of failure remain
34、s at the level of language itself. It can be corrected and avoided by means of teaching. Here we are going to discuss some common pragmalinguistic failures in cross-cultural communication.2.1.1 The Real Meaning of “Do you have time?”Imagine that you were a Chinese in a New Yorks street, and you just
35、 came down from the bus, a female was following you. Suddenly, she caught up with you, and asked “Do you have time?” Maybe you would be surprised and frightened, because in your country or in your cultural awareness, a girl or a woman who is greeting you “Do you have time? (你有时间吗？)” in the public pl
36、aces, you may infer that she was a prostitute. You probably would walk away quickly and give her no answer with a disdainful expression, and she may look at you strangely and confusedly. This is a kind of common phenomenon occurs in our daily cross-communication. People just interpret the sentences
37、foreigners speaking to them literally and comprehend them in their thinking patterns. The real meaning of this short sentence is “What time is it?” There is another greeting word which may lead to the similar situation. “Hello” is a frequently-used greeting in the daily life. But the greeting someti
38、mes is not suitable in some cases. For example, if a female on the street keeps saying “Hello”, maybe she is a prostitute. So, the two examples indicate that when we are in cross-cultural communication, we dont translate the sentences literally and try to catch the deeper meaning culturally.2.1.2 Th
39、e Reply of “How are you?”Maybe this is the most used sentence by Chinese students, no matter he or she is in a primary school, junior school, or senior school. Almost every student in China knows the reply of the greeting sentence. That is “Im fine (Fine). Thank you. And you?” But if you are really
40、in a bad mood or in a bad situation, are you going to answer the question with the same answer? There is a cold joke to explain. Once there was a Chinese in America. One day, he had an overturn accident in the snow. American police came to help him and asked him “How are you?” Do you know his answer
41、? Yes! He answered the police “Im fine. Thank you.” So the police left him in the broken car, and finally he died in desperation. Its not funny or humorous. This is a good example to show that we dont have an effective way to learn English both in classes and in concrete situations. There are some o
42、ther answers to the greeting. If you are ill, you can just tell you parents or teacher “No, Im ill.” or “No, I have a headache.” You dont have to follow the fixed model. You can just answer the question according to your own situations and experiences.2.1.3 The Usage of “of course”If someone asks yo
43、u “Could I borrow your eraser?” You probably will answer “Of course” or “Certainly” But in the following example, you will see that sometimes it is not a very good answer. Imagine a foreigner, pointing to an white and tall hall, asks you “Is that Great Wall Hotel?” if your answer is “Of course”, you
44、 may enrage him. In English, “of course” to some extent has the meaning of “self-evident” So under such circumstances, your answer maybe seem unnatural with scorn to the foreigner. On the contrary, the foreigner may think that he just asked a stupid question that everyone knows except him. Therefore
45、, misunderstandings emerge (姚丽萍，2007：31) . So this example tells us that we cant use the same reply to different questions. Maybe the answer “Yes, it is.” is better to the question.2.1.4 Slangs and ProverbsEvery culture has its own history and social backgrounds. So there are so many proverbs and slangs that other people cant understand, such as ” One Chinese is a dragon, three Chinese is a worm.” in China, and “You have itching ears.” in English. There are numerous slangs and proverbs in both Chinese daily life and western life. For example, American