A Cognitive Study on Politeness Intention Processing and Its Association with Pragmatic Failure in Cross-Cultural Communication

Although a large number of studies have focused on various aspects of politeness,very little is known about how politeness intention is activated cognitively during verbal communication.The present study aims to explore the cognitive mechanism of politeness intention processing,and how it is related to pragmatic failure during cross-cultural communication.Using 30 Chinese EFL university students who were instructed to finish a probe word judgment task with 96 virtual scenarios,the results indicate that within both mono-and cross-cultural contexts,the response time in the experimental scenarios was significantly slower than that of the filler scenarios.This suggests that politeness intention was activated while understanding the surface meaning of the conversation;however,the EFL learners could not completely avoid the negative transfer of their native politeness conventions when they were comprehending the conversational intention of the target language.Furthermore,no significant differences in response time were found between the groups with high and low English pragmatic competence,illustrating that transferring the pragmatic rules and principles into cross-cultural communication skills was more cognitively demanding.Overall,this study adds to the literature on politeness research and provides some implications for foreign language pragmatic instructions.

Stability of connected and automated vehicles platoon considering communications failures

As a form of a future traffic system,a connected and automated vehicle(CAV)platoon is a typical nonlinear physical system.CAVs can communicate with each other and exchange information.However,communication failures can change the platoon system status.To characterize this change,a dynamic topology-based car-following model and its generalized form are proposed in this work.Then,a stability analysis method is explored.Finally,taking the dynamic cooperative intelligent driver model(DC-IDM)for example,a series of numerical simulations is conducted to analyze the platoon stability in different communication topology scenarios.The results show that the communication failures reduce the stability,but information from vehicles that are farther ahead and the use of a larger desired time headway can improve stability.Moreover,the critical ratio of communication failures required to ensure stability for different driving parameters is studied in this work.

A Chinese Multi-Specialty Delphi Consensus to Optimize RAASi Usage and Hyperkalaemia Management in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease and Heart Failure

Objective Variations are present in common clinical practices regarding best practice in managing hyperkalaemia(HK),there is therefore a need to establish a multi-specialty approach to optimal renin angiotension-aldosterone system inhibitors(RAASi)usage and HK management in patients with chronic kidney disease(CKD)&heart failure(HF).This study aimed to establish a multi-speciality approach to the optimal use of RAASi and the management of HK in patients with CKD and HF.Methods A steering expert group of cardiology and nephrology experts across China were convened to discuss challenges to HK management through a nominal group technique.The group then created a list of 41 statements for a consensus questionnaire,which was distributed for a further survey in extended panel group of cardiologists and nephrologists across China.Consensus was assessed using a modified Delphi technique,with agreement defined as"strong"(≥75%and<90%)and"very strong"(≥90%).The steering group,data collection,and analysis were aided by an independent facilitator.Results A total of 150 responses from 21 provinces across China were recruited in the survey.Respondents were comprised of an even split(n=75,50%)between cardiologists and nephrologists.All 41 statements achieved the 75%consensus agreement threshold,of which 27 statements attained very strong consensus(≥90%agreement)and 14 attained strong consensus(agreement between 75%and 90%).Conclusion Based on the agreement levels from respondents,the steering group agreed a set of recommendations intended to improve patient outcomes in the use of RAASi therapy and HK management in China.

Unified Smith Predictor Based H_∞ Wide-Area Damping Controller to Improve the Control Resiliency to Communication Failure

Inter-area low frequency oscillation in power system is one of the major problems for bulk power transmission through weak tie lines.Use of wide-area signal is more effective than the local area signal in damping out the inter-area oscillations.Wide area measurement system(WAMS)is convenient to transmit the wide area signal through the communication channel to the remote location.Communication failure is one of the disastrous phenomena in a communication channel.In this paper,a dual input single output(DISO)Hm controller is designed to build the control resiliency by employing two highest observability ranking wide area signals with respect to the critical damping inter-area mode.The proposed controller can provide sufficient damping to the system and also the system remains stabilized if one of the wide-area signals is lost.The time delay is an unwanted phenomenon that degrades the performance of the controllers.The unified Smith predictor approach is used to design a Hm controller to handle the time delay.Kundur's two-area and IEEE-39 bus test systems are considered to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller.From the simulation results,it is verified that,the proposed controller provides excellent damping performance at normal communication and improves the controller resiliency to counteract the communication failure.

A study on pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication

Through analyzing and comparing the anecdotes of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication from the aspects of lexicon, syntax and discourse, some pragmatic strategies are suggested in intercultural communication. To improve learners＇ cultural awareness and communicative competence, a cultural-linguistic approach in foreign language teaching should be adopted.

A Study on Pragmatic Failures in Nonverbal Communication in Intercultural Communicative Context

In the intercultural communication, people often ignore the nonverbal behavior when they talk to others. With the raid progress of modern traffic and tools of communication, people’s contacts have become increasingly frequent with different regions and countries. The research on pragmatic failures in nonverbal communication allows people to understand its nature and eliminate some unnecessary misunderstanding. This paper aims at finding out the root causes about pragmatic failures in nonverbal communication in the intercultural communication, and providing several sensible recommendations.

A Study of Pragmatic Failures in Cross-Cultural Communication

This paper focuses on pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication and explores the difficult meanings in cross-cultural pragmatics. Through exploring the differences in address, greeting, politeness and other cross-cultural aspects, the author explains the cross-cultural basis for pragmatics. The author first explains certain concepts, including culture, pragmatics, pragmatic failures and cross-cultural communication, and then illustrates some pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication and discusses the causes of these failures. Finally, she gives some suggestions on improving competence in cross-cultural communication. This thesis is intended to remind English learners of the importance of learning cultures of English-speaking countries and facilitate cross-cultural communication.

Pragmatic Failure in Sino-western Cross-cultural Communication and Implications for Improving Chinese EFL Learners' Communication Competence

Due to the social and cultural differences,people from different countries would always encounter pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication,which may lead to the breakdown of communication.In light of Thomas'(1983) classification of pragmatic failure,this article firstly analyzes the types of pragmatic failure in Sinowestern cross-cultural communication and their underlying factors.Then,the article tries to explore the strategies for avoiding such pragmatic failures and improving Chinese EFL(English as a Foreign Language) learners' communication competence from the perspective of English instruction.In Sino-western cross-cultural communication,there are mainly two types of pragmatic failure:pragmalinguistic failure and socio-pragmatic failure.Cultural difference and negative transfer of the mother language are the major factors for pragmatic failure.In English teaching,teachers should arouse students' cross-cultural awareness,effectively combine cultural instruction with language teaching,carry out extra-curricular cross-cultural communication activities,and develop students' good habit of leaning English.

The complexity of prognosis communication in heart failure: Patient and cardiologists’ preferences in the outpatient clinical setting

Background: The determination of prognosis in heart failure (HF) has focused primarily on the identification of potential biological and physiological markers and not on communication. High morbidity and mortality rates suggest that patients require prognostic information to assist in life planning. This study examined the preferences of both patients with HF and cardiologists for prognosis communication in the outpatient clinical setting, with the aim of guiding practitioners in undertaking prognosis conversations. Methods: Using qualitative descriptive techniques informed by a grounded theory approach, 32 patients with HF and 9 cardiologists from outpatient settings in Ontario, Canada were interviewed to identify convergent preferences for prognosis communication. Strategies to enhance methodological rigor were employed. Results: Individualized, context-specific prognosis communication between patients and cardiologists was preferred. Two main themes and ten related attributes were identified to describe convergent preferences;1) Set the Stage for Prognosis Communication, and 2) Map the HF route. Attributes reflected the complex, dynamic, interactive and iterative nature of prognosis communication preferences. Conclusions: Prognosis communication occurs within a complex, adaptive healthcare system. While specific preferences exist, changing contextual elements within and outside of the system create conditions that require cardiologists to adjust their approach to individual patients. Patients with HF and cardiologists each have preferences that affect their willingness and ability to engage in dyadic HF-specific prognosis communication. Findings have relevance for the implementation of any efforts, including HF guidelines, aimed at improving prognosis communication. Our findings, informed by a complexity science approach, offer an innovative and robust alternative to traditional linear approaches to prognosis communication.

Socio-pragmatic Failure of Chinese Non-English Majors in Intercultural Communication

Chinese non-English majors often make many socio-pragmatic mistakes due to their ignorance of English-Chinese cultural backgrounds and pragmatic customs, which exerts a negative impact on their intercultural communications. This paper studies the social pragmatic failure that non-English majors usually make in requests, compliments, apologies, etc., aiming to explore the causes of social pragmatic failure from the aspects of economic background, thinking mode, negative pragmatic transfer, and so on. In addition, a series of corresponding methods are also suggested to reduce social pragmatic failures for non-English majors, so that they can improve their intercultural communication abilities.

Intercultural Communication Failure： A Case Study

The paper makes a case study of the intercultural communication failure, which is caused by the presence of stereotypes and preconceptions. It analyzes the communication problems with Hyme＇s SPEAKING framework. From the analysis, it is concluded, that individuals who hope to carry out effective intercultural interaction must learn to understand the expectations and preconceptions of those they want to talk with.

The Necessity of Cultural Elements in ESL Teaching --Through the Analysis of the Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Communication

It is undeniable that it is difficult for Chinese English learners to communicate competently in English with native English speakers. Compared with the grammar mistakes, the pragmalinguistic failures and sociopragmatic failures are subtle and have received less attention from Chinese English learners. Misunderstanding caused by cross-cultural pragmatic differences is the source of cross-cultural communication breakdown and therefore much more attention should be paid to our communication. The article concerns the failures occurred in cross-cultural communication to show the importance of cross-cultural awareness in the successful communication.

Research of Socio-Pragmatic Failures in Cross-Cultural Communication

Dozens of studies on socio-pragmatic failures carried out over the past 20 years have yielded rich on this research subject. The paper makes a specific illustration on the reasons of the socio-pragmatic failures that English learners encounter in crosscultural communication. It also analyzes all the possible factors which might cause miscomprehension in cross-cultural communication. The goal is to explore some effective approaches to handle these socio-pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication.

A Study of Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Communication

Nowadays cross-cultural communication plays a more and more important role.It is obvious that English teachers' respon? sibility is to cultivate the students' communicative ability in English teaching. But in communicationmany students have various kinds of problems of pragmatic failure. This article will focus on the study of pragmatic failure in term of verbal communication fail? ure, which mainly includes two kinds of pragmatic failures;one is pragmalinguistic failure and the other is sociopragmatic failure.

Cause Analysis of Sociopragmatic Failure in Intercultural Communication

With the rapid development of science and globalization,communication between people is becoming more and more convenient and flexible.However,communication breakdown still occurs occasionally in the process of intercultural communication.Pragmatics failure is one of the main causes of the bias in intercultural communication.Based on the Jenny Thomas’theory,pragmatic failure is divided into pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure,the former is defined as the lack of pragmatic knowledge,while the latter affects more fundamentally the effect of intercultural communication as sociopragmatic failure is caused by the differences in cultural dimensions,ways of thinking,value orientation between speakers.By cognizing and understanding the main causes of pragmatic failures,intercultural speakers could avoid misunderstanding between different cultures and promote their intercultural communicative competence,in order to achieve an effective result of intercultural communication.

The Study of Pragmatic Failure:From the Perspective of Cultural Differences between China and Britain

The intercultural pragmatics is a field that is concerned broadly in recent years. Cultural difference is an essential factor that caused the pragmatic failure. It is an inevitable fact that Chinese and British have different language habit because of different cultural backgrounds. As a result, pragmatic failure has an effect on the access to information and cause communication misunderstanding even influence communication going with a swing. This thesis tries to analyze the pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication from the perspective of cultural differences, find the reason and put forward the measures that can solve this problem.

A Cognitive Perspective on the Safety Communication Factors That Affect Worker Behavior

Communication is vital for construction safety, but how it influences unsafe behavior in the work-place remains unclear. This study aims to explore the relationships between communication, cognitive failure, and unsafe behaviors in order to clarify those mechanics. We defined communication as management input, worker cognitive failure as process, and actual behaviors as management output. We collected data from three Chinese steel construction crews and utilized experience/behavior sampling and questionnaire surveys to collect project information. Bivariate statistical analyses were conducted to explain how communication affected unsafe behavior. The results showed that, rather than communication frequency, management communication style was significantly related to worker cognitive failure;specifically, communication style was related to perception of convenience and self-capacity, which could be upstream factors explaining unsafe behavior at the construction jobsite. This research provided statistical evidence supporting the hypothesized association among safety communication, cognitive failure, and behavior, bridging the missing gaps of previous research. Nonetheless, readers should interpret the results cautiously because of the limitations listed as follows. First, sample size is relatively small. In addition, crew turnover may mediate the relationship between communication and safe behaviors therefore, the impact of communication on cognitive failure can be blurred and a longitudinal study on specific crews working on the same job site could be used to evaluate it. Third, future research should focus on communication style, as it directly relates to the human cognitions that affect unsafe behavior at construction sites.

Analysis of Pragmatic Failure and College English Teaching

This article uses a lot of evidences to expose the pragmatic failures in people＇s inter-cultural communication, and analyses the types and causes of these pragmatic failures. Hence it puts forward several methods of college English teaching to help our students get rid of such pragmatic failures.

Utilization of Data Communication according to the IEC61850 Standard for Nuclear Power Plant Electrical Equipment Testing

This paper deals with an integration of directly measured electrical parameters with data acquired by data communication from protections and terminals into an advanced monitoring system. Based on the periodic test, the authors of this paper present the possibility of an extended evaluation and more accurate analysis of transient and failure events. For periodical testing, as implemented during the commissioning of power plants in the Czech Republic, a monitoring system of electrical equipment has been used, to record the courses of important electrical parameters and thus, proving the proper functioning of complex technological systems in various operation modes. Data from monitoring system were used to prove the successful results of the test or as a base data for further analysis of failures. The monitoring system has proved itself as a very useful device also when recording unexpected failure events, the cause of which was very quickly and accurately detected by the follow-up analysis. Initially, only the voltage and current data from measuring transformers, analogue transducers and contact relays were used as input data for the monitoring system. After the implementation of new digital protection technology and controlling terminals with inner data recorder, the data from digital devices could be also utilized for the monitoring system.

Probing into the Sino-American Cross-National Marriage Failures:An Intercultural Perspective

With China’s opening to the outside world, Chinese people’s attitude toward marriage has been undergoing great changes. Cross National marriages(CNMs) emerge as a result of economic development, social progress, cultural exchanges and freedom of marriage. However, according to statistics, CNMs are not always successful and satisfactory as they look: the divorce rate is reported to be on the increase. The paper studies several Sino American CNM cases which ended in failure from an intercultural perspective, and on that bases it points out that it is not cultural differences but people’s attitudes toward cultural differences that lead to the breakdown of the CNMs. In this paper, ethnocentrism is specially discussed as a major barrier to successful intercultural communication. And suggestions such as developing empathy, learning about cultural adaptation are offered to improve the quality of the CNMs and the competence of intercultural communication.