Ethnopragmatics: Understanding Discourse in Cultural Context (Applications of Cognitive Linguistics [Acl]) (Applications of Cognitive Linguistics [acl], 3)

The studies in this volume show how speech practices can be understood from a culture-internal perspective, in terms of values, norms and beliefs of the speech communities concerned. Focusing on examples from many different cultural locations, the contributing authors ask not only: 'What is distinctive about these particular ways of speaking?', but also: 'Why - from their own point of view - do the people concerned speak in these particular ways? What sense does it make to them?'. The ethnopragmatic approach stands in opposition to the culture-external universalist pragmatics represented by neo-Gricean pragmatics and politeness theory. Using "cultural scripts" and semantic explications - techniques developed over 20 years work in cross-cultural semantics by Anna Wierzbicka and colleagues - the authors examine a wide range of phenomena, including: speech acts, terms of address, phraseological patterns, jocular irony, facial expressions, interactional routines, discourse particles, expressive derivation, and emotionality. The authors and languages are: Anna Wierzbicka (English), Cliff Goddard (Australian English), Jock Wong (Singapore English), Zhengdao Ye (Chinese), Catherine Travis (Colombian Spanish), Rie Hasada (Japanese) and Felix Ameka (Ewe). Taken together, these studies demonstrate both the profound "cultural shaping" of speech practices, and the power and subtlety of new methods and techniques of a semantically grounded ethnopragmatics. The book will appeal not only to linguists and anthropologists, but to all scholars and students with an interest in language, communication and culture. Using Cultural Scripts And Semantic Explications, The Authors Show How Speech Practices Can Be Contextualised And Understood In Terms Of The Values, Norms And Beliefs Of Speakers Themselves. These Studies Cover A Gamut Of Culturally Shaped Ways Of Speaking From Settings Around The World - Australia, China, Colombia, Ghana, Japan, And Singapore. The Book Also Serves As An Introduction To Powerful New Techniques For Pragmatic Analysis Which Have Emerged From 20 Years Of Cross-linguistic Semantic Research.--jacket. 1. Ethnopragmatics : A New Paradigm / Cliff Goddard -- 2. Anglo Scripts Against Putting Pressure On Other People And Their Linguistic Manifestations / Anna Wierzbicka -- 3. Lift Your Game Martina! : Deadpan Jocular Irony And The Ethnopragmatics Of Australian English / Cliff Goddard -- 4. Social Hierarchy In The Speech Culture Of Singapore / Jock Onn Wong -- 5. Why The Inscrutable Chinese Face? : Emotionality And Facial Expression In Chinese / Zhengdao Ye -- 6. Cultural Scripts : Glimpses Into The Japanese Emotion World / Rie Hasada -- 7. The Communicative Realisation Of Confianza And Calor Humano In Colombian Spanish / Catherine E. Travis. Edited By Cliff Goddard. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. List of contributors List of tables Acknowledgements 1. Ethnopragmatics: a new paradigm 2. Anglo scripts against “putting pressure” on other people and their linguistic manifestations 3. “Lift your game Martina!”: deadpan jocular irony and the ethnopragmatics of Australian English 4. Social hierarchy in the “speech culture” of Singapore 5. Why the “inscrutable” Chinese face? Emotionality and facial expression in Chinese 6. Cultural scripts: glimpses into the Japanese emotion world 7. The communicative realisation of confianza and calor humano in Colombian Spanish 8. “When I die, don’t cry”: the ethnopragmatics of “gratitude” in West African languages Author index General index Review text: "With this book, Cliff Goddard has overseen the production of a new milestone in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to meaning. ... The approach is unique in research on pragmatics and culture - nowhere else do we find these kinds of explicit statements of cultural values in a desscriptive metalanguage whose degree of formalism rivals that of predicate calculus, and whose units are as close to directly expressible in [any) natural language as we can get."N. J. Enfield in: Intercultural Pragmatics 4-3/2007 "This is a very readable and accessible book."Lilia Moronovschi in: Linguist List 18.365 Using cultural scripts and semantic explications, the authors show how speech practices can be contextualised and understood in terms of the values, norms and beliefs of speakers themselves. These fascinating studies cover a gamut of culturally shaped ways of speaking from settings around the world - Australia, China, Colombia, Ghana, Japan, and Singapore. The book also serves as an introduction to powerful new techniques for pragmatic analysis which have emerged from 20 years of cross-linguistic semantic research. Key features: The book presents case studies from a diverse range of languages