Competing communicative styles and crosstalk
A multi-feature analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2853112 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeff Connor‐linton (Georgetown University, corresponding author), Jeff Connor-Linton |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 25-56 |
| Publication date | 1999-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language in Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0047404599001025 |
| OpenAlex | W2145384618 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 12 |
The explanatory model of cross-cultural miscommunication, or crosstalk, is extended here through a multi-feature, multi-dimensional analysis of Soviet and American speakers' discourse in two three-hour audio/video “spacebridge” meetings. The study demonstrates that variation between speakers' uses of co-occurring sets of lexical and syntactic features can contribute to crosstalk. Crosstalk is shown to be functionally motivated by interlocutors' different constructions of the speech-event context and norms of interpretation.A factor analysis of lexical and syntactic features in spacebridge participants' discourse identifies two main dimensions of stylistic variation; use of the sets of co-occurring features that constitute these dimensions are interpreted as performing different discourse functions, and thereby indexing different aspects of the speech-event context. Soviet floor turns that exhibit the greatest stylistic divergence from American stylistic behavior and expectations are shown to correlate with communicative breakdowns in the spacebridges, and thereby to contribute to crosstalk. The analysis suggests that, at some level, stylistic contextualization cues are quantitatively “analyzed” in real time by discourse participants, and it demonstrates some of the explanatory potential of quantitative modeling of complex indexical processes such as stylistic accommodation, divergence, and opposition. I wish to thank Doug Biber, Elinor Ochs, and Barbara Johnstone for invaluable feedback on this study
Contextualization · Epistemology · Explanatory model · Indexicality · Interpretation (philosophy) · Linguistics · Sociology · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology
Language and disadvantage
Conversational Style
Properties of Spoken and Written Language
Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments
Planned and Unplanned Discourse
The pronominal pragmatics of nuclear war discourse
Adverbial stance types in English
Computer Corpora in English Language Research
Pronominal selection and ideological conflict
Aggravated correction and disagreement in children's conversations
How children start arguments
The interactional accomplishment of discrimination in South Africa
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2006 - 2013 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |