Cross-Cultural Pragmatics

The Semantics of Human Interaction

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2865579
AutoresJames A Matisoff, A Wierzbicka (0000-0002-6074-7865)
Ano1996
Volume72
Fascículo3
Páginas624
Data de publicação1996-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoREVIEW
PeriódicoLanguage (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0097-8507 • E-ISSN: 1535-0665
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/416282
OpenAlexW2066352394
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas1

This book challenges the approaches to human interaction based on supposedly universal 'maxims of conversation' and 'principles of politeness,' which fly in the face of reality as experienced by millions of people crossing language boundaries (refugees, immigrants, etc.) and which cannot help in the practical tasks of cross-cultural communication and education. In contrast to such approaches, this book is both theoretical and practical: it shows that in different societies, norms of human interaction are different and reflect different cultural attitudes and values; and it offers a framework within which different cultural norms and different ways of speaking can be effectively explored, explained, and taught. The book discusses data from a wide range of languages and it shows that the meanings expressed in human interaction and the different 'cultural scripts' prevailing in different speech communities can be clearly and intelligibly described and compared by using a 'natural semantic metalanguage,' based on empirically established universal human concepts. As the book shows, this metalanguage can be used as a basis for teaching successful cross-cultural communication, including the teaching of languages in a cultural context

Cross-cultural · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition