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Intercultural Communication

Intercultural Communication. Lecture 3 Interpersonal politeness and power. Face Strategies and Systems. Language is ambiguous One way we reduce ambiguity is to make assumptions about the people we are talking to and our relationship with them ‘Face’ The paradox of face Face strategies

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Intercultural Communication

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  1. Intercultural Communication Lecture 3 Interpersonal politeness and power

  2. Face Strategies and Systems • Language is ambiguous • One way we reduce ambiguity is to make assumptions about the people we are talking to and our relationship with them • ‘Face’ • The paradox of face • Face strategies • Face systems

  3. Politeness and Face • Popular Meanings • Face: mian zi, min ji, mentsu, chae myon • Concept of honour • Politeness: Being ‘nice’, following certain ‘rules’ of social conduct (‘li’_ • Popular ideas of politeness and face are usually governed by expectations about ‘scripts’ and adjacency pairs

  4. Face and Politeness • Linguistic meaning • Face • the negotiated public image mutually granted each other by participants in communication • Politeness • How we signal our relationship with and feelings towards those we are communicating with in our language use

  5. Is this polite? • ‘Ms. Cheung, I wonder if you could please get back to me on this matter at your earliest convenience…’

  6. Is this polite?

  7. Is this polite? • A: Hello. • B: Hi Rodney. Can you guess who this is?

  8. Is this ‘polite’ • ‘Wow, you look awful today! Is there anything wrong? • To you best friend? • To your boss?

  9. My Mother in England

  10. The Paradox of Face

  11. The Paradox of Face • We want people to like us • We want people to respect us • Respect and intimacy are expressed in different ways • Different groups may have different ways of expressing intimacy and respect

  12. Two kinds of face • Negative face (desire for autonomy, personal space,freedom from imposition, freedom of action) • THE SHIELD • Positive face (desire for self-image to be acknowledged and approved of) • THE SPEAR • Each are addressed with specific formsof ‘facework’

  13. Two kinds of face • Negative face (desire for autonomy, personal space,freedom from imposition, freedom of action) • Positive face (desire for self-image to be acknowledged and approved of) • Each are addressed with specific formsof face work

  14. Two Kinds of Face Strategies • Involvement • ‘Solidarity’ • Showing ‘closeness’ or solidarity • using first name, expressing interest, claiming common point of view, using informal language

  15. Two Kinds of Face Strategy • Independence • Showing ‘respect’ • using titles, not making assumptions, apologizing, using formal language

  16. Independence and Involvement • In any interaction we usually use both independence and involvement strategies • The problem is deciding how and when to use these strategies • Based on • who we are talking to • why we are talking to them

  17. Face Systems • Face systems are based on three different aspects of the situation • Power (+P power difference, -P no power difference) • Distance (+D distant, -D close) • Weight of Imposition (how important topic is for speakers, +W important, -W not very important) • Values exist on a scale (not absolute)

  18. Deference Face System • -P, +D • symmetrical (equal) • participants see themselves as at same social level • distant • both would use mostly independence strategies

  19. Solidarity Face System • -P, -D • symmetrical • close • both participants likely to use more involvement strategies

  20. Hierarchical Face System • +P, +/-D • asymmetrical (unequal) • asymmetrical face strategies • higher uses more involvement • lower uses more independence

  21. Deference Speaker<-----------------Independence--------------->Speaker Solidarity Speaker<--Involvement-->Speaker Hierarchical Speaker (involvement) Speaker (independence)

  22. Communication problems • The calculation of the appropriate face strategies is usually based on a calculation of power • ‘When two participants differ in their assessment of face strategies it will tend to be perceived as a difference in power’

  23. Conflicting Strategies/Mixed up systems • Two businessmen meeting for the first time • Mr R: (reading Mr. Wong’s business card which says Wong Hon Fai) Hi, Hon Fai. I’m Bill Richardson. My friends call me Bill. • Mr W: How do you do Mr. Richardson. • Mr. Wong thinks: That guy is acting too familiar, who does he think he is? • expects deference system, hears hierarchical system • Mr. R. thinks: This guy doesn’t want to be my friend. He’s not very nice. • expects solidarity system, hears deference system

  24. Task Watch the video and discuss how participants’ choice of face strategies leads to miscommunication

  25. Face and Culture • Kinship • Concept of ‘self’ • In-group/Out-group relationships • Gemeinshaft and Gesellschaft

  26. Kinship • Hierarchy • Collectivistic relationships • Love and duty • Honesty and harmony

  27. ‘Face’ and ‘Self’ • differences in assumptions about the ‘self’ • Individualism and collectivism • Body-Self-Person

  28. Ingroup-Outgroup Relationships • ‘Nei’ and ‘Wai’ • How strong are group boundaries • How permanent are groups • Group identification

  29. Gemeinshaft and Gesellshaft • Community and society • Gemeinshaft • Traditional, organic, based on kinship bonds, shared history, common traditions • Gesellshaft • Contractual, rational, instrumental, based on rules and laws

  30. Chinese conceptions of face • Face not seen to belong to self alone, but also to group (family) • Politeness strategies characterized by self-denigration and respect (negative politeness (li) • Heavily encoded in the language

  31. Two kinds of Chinese Face (Mao 1994) • Mianzi (prestige, reputation, either earned or ascribed) • Lian (respect for a person’s underlying moral character) • Morality defined as subordinating one’s own face wants to those of the group

  32. Mianzi vs. Lian • Losing mianzi • loss of one’s reputation because of failure or misfortune • Losing lian • loss of one’s moral standing in the community • Lian more important than mianzi • Mianzi can have negative connotations (being overly concerned with self-image) • to gain mianzi at the expense of lian in the end will cost one both (Mao 1994)

  33. Mianzi vs. Lian • Possible to lose Mianzi but gain lian • Example: J.J. Chan • Courageous Disc-Jockey Give AIDS Campaign a Friendly Spin • A 25-year old local disc-jockey suffering from AIDS is sharing his story to help educate the public about the disease. • J J Chan’s family is proof that AIDS is no hindrance to a happy home life, even after its youngest member got the killer virus four years ago. • "I told my family, thinking that they might throw me out. But on the contrary, my sister and brother encouraged me. They told me I had not committed a crime and it was just a kind of illness." • Isn’t he worried that his television appearance could cause people to stare at him in the streets? • "No. Just let them stare. I want to educate the next generation. Today’s youngsters are very promiscuous," he says, adding that promoting sex education is not enough.

  34. Researching interdiscourse communication • Exploring the ‘interaction order’ • What is the basis of power? • What is the basis of intimacy? • What are the default face systems/strategies for different situations? • What is the potential for miscommunication?

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