The Study of Pragmatic Failure Caused by Chinese and Western Cultural Differences.docx

The Study of Pragmatic Failure Caused by Chinese and Western Cultural Differences.docx

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TheStudyofPragmaticFailureCausedbyChineseandWesternCulturalDifferences

SJ006-1

CHANGZHOUINSTITUTEOFTECHNOLOGY

毕业论文

题目：

TheStudyofPragmaticFailureCausedbyChineseandWesternCulturalDifferences

二级学院（直属学部）：

外国语学院

专业：

英语

班级：

09英二

学生姓名：

张怡

学号：

09070230

指导教师姓名：

陈婧

职称：

副教授

评阅教师姓名：

职称：

2013年5月

TheStudyofPragmaticFailureCausedbyChineseandWesternCulturalDifferences

by

ZhangYi

UndertheSupervisionof

Ms.ChenJing

Submittedinpartialfulfillment

Oftherequirementsforthedegreeof

BachelorofArts

SchoolofForeignLanguages

ChangzhouInstituteofTechnology

May2013

TableofContents

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………....i

Abstract&KeywordsinEnglish……………………………………………………..ii

Abstract&KeywordsinChinese…………………………………………………....iii

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...1

1.DiscussionofKeyTermsinthePaper……………………………………………...2

1.1.PragmaticFailure……………………………………………………………....2

1.2.CulturalDifferences…………………………………………………………...3

1.3.ABriefLiteratureReview……………………………………………………..3

2.ClassificationsofthePragmaticFailure…………………………………………....4

2.1.PragmalinguisticFailure……………………………………………………….4

2.2.SociopragmaticFailure………………………………………………………...6

2.3.PragmabehavioralFailure….…………………………………………………..8

3.PragmaticFailuresCausedbyCulturalDifferences……………………………....10

3.1.DifferentCustoms…………………………………………………………….10

3.2.DifferentThoughtPattern…………………………………………………….11

3.3.DifferentValuesandCodeofConduct……………………………………….12

4.CountermeasurestoPragmaticFailure………………………………………..…..14

4.1.SocialinguisticCompetenceEnhancement…………………………………...14

4.2.CulturalAwarenessStrengthening………………………………………...….15

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………....15

References……………………………………………………………………………17

Acknowledgements

Thisthesishasbeenbenefitedalotfromtheinsightsandassistancefrommanyauthorsandscholarswhosenameshavebeenlistedinthebibliography.

Firstofall,IwouldliketotakethisopportunitytoexpressmysinceregratitudetomysupervisorMs.ChenJingforhergenerousandpatientguidancetohelpmefinishmythesisandforherpatienceandcarefulnessinobservingeachdraftofmythesis.

Secondly,mysincerethanksalsogotomyroommatesandmyfriends,whogivemeprecioussuggestionsandgenerousassistancesallthetime.

Finally,mygratitudeisreservedtomyparentsfortheircare,encouragementandunderstandingthroughoutmywritingofthethesis.

i

Abstract:

Withtheglobalizationofeconomy,cross-culturalcommunicationisincreasingrapidlyinthewholeworldanditisbecominganimportantpartinourdailylife.Pragmaticfailuresfrequentlyannouncetheirpresenceincross-culturalcommunication,whichhasdrawntheattentionoflanguagelearnersandlinguists.Thisstudyhasbeenundertakentoanalyzethepragmaticfailureincross-culturalcommunicationsoastohaveafurtherunderstandingtowardstheculturaldifferences.Thepurposeofthisstudyistohelptheforeignlanguagelearnersandthepeoplewhoareinvolvedincross-culturalnegotiationsreducemisunderstandingsthatcausedbypragmaticfailures,toimprovetheirpragmaticcompetenceandtofacilitatetheircross-culturalcommunication.Apartfromintroductionandconclusion,thispaperconsistsoffourparts.Partoneisadiscussionofthekeytermsandparttwocentersaroundtheclassificationsofthepragmaticfailure.Partthreeanalyzesthepragmaticfailurecausedbyculturaldifferences,andpartfourprovidesthecountermeasurestoreducepragmaticfailure.

Keywords:

pragmaticfailure;culturaldifferences;cross-culturalcommunication

ii

摘要：

随着经济的全球化，跨文化交际在世界范围内迅速发展起来并成为人们生活的重要组成部分。

语用失误在跨文化交际中非常普遍，引起众多语言学习者及语言研究者的关注。

为了对文化差异有进一步的理解，本文将着重分析跨文化交际中的语用失误。

本文的主要目的是帮助语言学习者和身处跨文化交际中的人们减少因文化差异而导致的语用失误甚至是误解，提高他们的语用能力，促进跨文化交际。

除简介及结论外，本文由四个部分构成。

第一部分主要介绍文中所涉及的一些专业术语。

第二部分通过举例分析了跨文化交际中的三类语用失误，即语言语用失误和社交语用失误和行为语用失误。

第三部分讨论了造成跨文化交际语用失误的三个主要原因。

第四部分提供了一些避免跨文化交际语用失误的策略。

关键词：

语用失误；文化差异；跨文化交际

iii

Introduction

Nowadays,withtherapiddevelopmentofworldwidetransportationandcommunicationnetworks,themodernworldischaracterizedasaglobalvillage.Livinginthisglobalvillage,peopleallovertheworldkeepcontactwitheachother.Theysharenews,ideas,valuesandotherinformation.Therefore,cross-culturalcommunicationhasbecomeindispensabletoday.

Cross-culturalcommunicationreferstocommunicationbetweenpeoplefromdifferentculturalbackgrounds.However,therearesomecauseswhichleadtotheinterculturalmiscommunication,suchaslinguisticmistakesandpragmaticfailures.Butpragmaticfailuresareworsethanlinguisticmistakes.Theymaycauseuncomfortablefeelingsbetweenspeakersofdifferentculturalbackgrounds.JustasWolfson（1983:

62）pointsout,“Ininteractingwithforeigners,nativespeakerstendtoberathertolerantoferrorsinpronunciationorsyntax.Incontrast,violationsofrulesofspeakingareofteninterpretedasbadmanners,sincethenativespeakerisunlikelytobeawareofsociolinguisticrelativity.”Inaword,muchattentionshouldbepaidtotheinter-culturalcommunication.Onlybyunderstandingculturaldifferences,learningpragmaticfailures,strengtheningculturalawareness,andapplyingcommunicationstrategiesproperlycanwemakeasuccessfulcross-culturalcommunication.

Thispaperaimstomakeastudyofpragmaticfailuresincommunication,toanalyzethereasonswhypeoplemakesuchkindofpragmaticfailures,andtoprovidesomeeffectivemethodsforpeopletodevelopthecross-culturalcommunicativecompetence.Alsothispaperaimstohelppeoplehaveabasicknowledgeofpragmaticfailureandprovidesomestrategiestoimprovepeople’scompetenceincross-culturalcommunication.

1

Apartfromintroductionandconclusion,thispaperconsistsoffourparts.Partoneintroducessomebasicdefinitionsofthetermsinthisstudyandparttwofocusesonthethreetypesofpragmaticfailurewithfreshexamples.Partthreeanalyzesthepragmaticfailurescausedbyculturaldifferences,andpartfourprovidessomeeffectivemethodstoavoidpragmaticfailure.

1.DiscussionofKeyTermsinthePaper

Thissectionconsistsofthreeparts.Thedefinitionofpragmaticfailureisdiscussedfirst,followedbythediscussionoftheculturaldifferencesandabriefliteraturereview.

1.1PragmaticFailures

Incross-culturalcommunication,peoplefromdifferentculturesspeakthesamelanguage,buttheircommunicationmaybreakdownduetopragmaticdifferencesinwaysofthinking,rulesofspeaking,socialvalues,lexicalconnotationsandotherfactors.

PragmaticfailureisfirstproposedbyThomas（1983:

91）torefertotheinabilitywhatismeantbywhatissaid.Thomasusestheterm“failure”ratherthan“error”because,althoughgrammarcanbejudgedaccordingtoprescriptiverules,thenatureofpragmaticpatternsissuchthatitisimpossibletosaythatpragmaticforceofanutteranceiswrong（Thomas,1983:

648）.

AccordingtoProfessorHeZiran（1997:

57）,pragmaticfailureiscausedbythespeakerwhocan’tspeakappropriatelyinaspecificsituation,orcan’tuseEnglishaccustomedtothedifferentculturalcommunication,whichleadstothehearer’smisunderstandingofthespeaker’sintention.Leech（1983:

105）said“thetransferofthenormsofonecommunitytoanothermaywellleadtopragmaticfailure”.

2

Pragmaticfailures,whicharisewhenspeakerscan’tproduceappropriateutterancesorcan’treachproperlytoanutteranceorcontext,arequitecommonamongEnglishlearnersinChina.Pragmaticfailureisnotcausedbytheaspectofwronggrammar,orinappropriatesyntax,butmainlyduetotheunsuitablespeakingmanner,orspeakingatunsuitabletimeorfailuretokeepupwiththenativespeaker’sexpressivehabitandsoon.Itispragmaticfailurethatisanimportantsourceofcross-culturalcommunicationbreakdowns.Acompetentlanguageuser,especiallyforanon-nativeEnglishspeaker,shouldknowtherulesoflanguageuseandunderstandthecultureofthetargetlanguageinordertoavoidthepragmaticfailures.

1.2CulturalDifferences

AccordingtoZhuHongboandZhangLiang（2001:

73）,cultureisthetotalaccumulationofbeliefs,customs,values,behaviors,institutionsandcommunicationpatternsthatareshared,learnedandpasseddownthroughthegenerations.

Thecultureofeachsocietyisnotidentical,andpeopleinthesamesocietyaredistributedindifferentregions,dividedintodifferentgroups.Althoughthesepeopleliveinthesamesocialandnaturalenvironment,theirsocialactivitiesandrelationshipnetworksarefarfromeachother.Suchdifferenceleadsthemtohavedifferentunderstandingsoftheenvironmentandsocietyandformdifferentvaluesanddifferentrulesofbehavior.

Incross-culturalcommunication,culturaldifferenceinevitablycreatesbarrierstoeffectivecommunication,becausepeoplecomplywithdifferentsetsofnormsandrulesofsocialinteraction.Forexample,theChineseEnglishlearnersmaybequitefamiliarwiththeEnglishgrammaticalrules,buttheymayignorethefactthatthenativeEnglishspeakersrespondtocomplimentsandapologizedifferently,engageindifferentformsofpoliteinteraction,adoptdifferentwaysofmakingrequestsandsoon.

1.3ABriefLiteratureReview

Manyexpertsandscholarshomeandabroadhavemadesignificantresearchesintothefieldofpragmaticfailuresincommunication.

ThelogicianH.P.Grice’stheoryofconversationalimplicatureisthefoundationofmodernpragmatics.ButitisJennyThomasthatfirstproposesthenotionofpragmaticfailureinherCross-CulturalPragmaticFailurein1983,definingitas“theinabilitytounderstand.”（Thomas,1983:

93）

3

ComparedwithWes