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Rhon TeruelleClass #6 – October 22, 2012

CCT200: Intercultural CommunicationLanguage and Culture

Global Diasporas and Social Networking

Test #1 – Questions or Comments

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Language

• Language is a code.

• Meaning is conveyed symbolically.

• Symbols are units of meaning that are conventional and arbitrary.

• Words are symbols.

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“As the globalisation of business brings executives more frequently together, there is a growing realization that if we examine concepts and values, we can take almost nothing for granted. The word “contract” translates easily from language to language, but nationally it has many interpretations. To a Swiss, German, Scandinavian, American or British person it is something that has been signed in order to be adhered to. Signatures give it a sense of finality. But a Japanese regards a contract as a starting document to be rewritten and modified as circumstances require. A South American sees it as an ideal which is unlikely to be achieved, but which is signed to avoid argument” (Lewis 1996).

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Language Continued

The Structure of Language

• Language is rule governed.• These rules are the syntax and the grammar of

the language.• These rules have to do with what letters or

symbols can be combined with others to form words, and what words can be combined, and in what order, to form sentences.

• Sentence order can differ across cultures.• Plurals differ in the way they are formed in

various languages.• Languages “look” different.• Language structure affects what speakers focus

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Semantics

• Semantics is the study of meaning.• Denotative meaning is the conventional

meaning.• Connotative meaning is private and often

emotionally charged.• General semanticists suggest that words

are at various levels of abstraction.• General semanticists provide the following

devices to aid us in avoiding the dangers inherent in abstraction: dating; indexing; mental quotation marks.

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Pragmatics

• Pragmatics examines language as it is used in actual, everyday interactions.

• Speech acts – the specific goals we attempt to reach when using language.

• The coordinated management of meaning (CMM) helps us understand how to interpret a speech act.

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Language and Culture

• Sapir and Whorf suggest that language affects a culture’s behaviour and habits of thinking.

• The Sapir- Whorf hypothesis has two versions: linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity.

• Linguistic determinism suggests that our language determines the way we interpret the world.

• Linguistic relativity suggests that since language affects thought, speakers of different languages will perceive the world differently.

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Language and Culture Continued…

• Language also tells us about relationships.

• Language also tells us what we talk about.

• In sum, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that the way one culture sees the world may not be the same as the way another culture sees the world.

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Verbal Communication Styles

• Gudykunst and Ting-Toomey (1988) identify four distinct verbal communication styles.

• Direct vs. Indirect Style.• Elaborate vs. Succinct Style.• Personal vs. Contextual Style.• Instrumental vs. Affective Style.

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Linguistic Prejudice

• A major way that we make boundaries between our ethnic group and that of others is by our language.

• Van Dijk (1984) clusters prejudiced talk into four categories: they are different; they do not adapt themselves; they threaten our interests; they are involved in negative acts.

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Dr. Steven Vertovec

• Director of the Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen and Honorary Joint Professor of Sociology and Ethnology, University of Göttingen.

• His research interests surround globalization and transnational social formations, international migration, ethnic Diasporas and multiculturalism.

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Diasporas Good? Diasporas Bad?

• Vertovec, Steven. “Diasporas Good? Diasporas Bad?” Metropolis World Bulletin, pp. 5-8.

• Some agencies or government departments broadly see diasporas as good things to engage for various kinds of mutually beneficial activity; at the same time, others believe diasporas are potentially bad things that may do various kinds of harm to national societies.

• The word ‘diaspora’ derives from the ancient Greek diaspeiro, “to sow or scatter from one end to the other.”

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Remittances by Recent Immigrants• Statistics retrieved from:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080723/dq080723b-eng.htm.

• Roughly 4 in 10 immigrants who arrived in Canada during 2000/2001 sent money to family or friends abroad at least once during their first four years in the country.

• Over the entire period, about 41% of immigrants sent money home at least once. Within 6 to 24 months of landing, 23% of immigrants had sent remittances to their home country; within two to four years after landing, about 29% had done so.

• According to World Bank figures for 2004, remittances represent an important source of revenue for people in developing countries. They accounted for about 20% to 30% of gross domestic product (GDP) in countries such as Haiti, Lesotho and Jordan, and for about 10% to 19% in several others, such as Jamaica, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. .

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Questions or comments

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