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.

Application of cross-cultural cognitive pragmatic analysis to translation education

Translation is cross-cultural activity existing between two different language signs. In the process of translating, translators can not get out of the influence of cultural elements. From the angle of cross-cultural pragmatic contrasting, the author makes analysis of the problems of difference existing between the volume of information borne or transmitted between two different language signs in the process of translating under the influence of cultural elements, and points out that to study these problems, translators must consider a series of problems about cross-cultural cognitive context. This article also makes cross-cultural pragmatic contrastive analysis in world view difference, register difference, imaginative difference and metaphor difference. The author introduces the method of cross-cultural pragmatic contrastive analysis and suggests taking a series of measures to improve translation education.

Cross-cultural pragmatics: compliments and compliment responses in English and Chinese

Language and culture are distinctly interdependent;one reflects the other.In cross-cultural communications,it is critical for language users to use and understand the language appropriately in a certain socio-cultural context.This paper aims to compare the similarities and differences of compliments and compliment responses in English and Chinese from the cross-cultural pragmatic perspective.The implications for teaching are also discussed so as to bridge the gap caused by cultural differences and minimize the occurrence of potential cross-cultural pragmatic failures.

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 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.

Cross-cultural Pragmatic Analysis on Speech Act

The theory of speech acts tells us that when words are uttered,they perform three different kinds of speech acts.But cross-cultural communication raises a question that the same locutionary acts may perform different illocutionary acts and perlocutionary acts,and in order to achieve the same illocutionary acts and perlocutionary acts,people with different native languages may employ different locutionary acts to avoid the pragmatic failure.This paper aims to illustrate the differences on greeting,requesting,and rejecting between Chinese and Americans,focus on the cultural factors in language and cross-cultural communication,and using the fundamental cross-cultural theories to analyze the distinctions,such as Austin’s Speech Act Theory,Brown and Levinson Face Theory,Edward T Hall’s High-Context and Low-Context Communication,and Hofestede’s Value Dimensions.Finally,it tells the English learners to focus on the cultural difference in the cross-cultural communication to achieve the successful 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.

Communicative Ability and Cross-cultural Competence in China＇s English Teaching

Traditional grammar-translation ：method in China＇s English teaching has long been putting emphasis on the teaching of linguistic knowledge. It is no doubt that it has got many achievements. However, it has produced many bad byproducts as well. For instance, it may produce some students who are good in grammatical achievements but lacking in responding to the actual situation. Therefore linguistic knowledge is not the whole field that English teaching should touch upon. Inducing from two instances, this article presents the importance of communicative ability and cross-cultural competence in China＇s English teaching, together with proper solutions.

The Cultivation of Cross-cultural Communication Ability for Students of the High Vocational Tourism College in Sino- foreign Education Cooperation

In recent years, with rapid development of Sino-foreign cooperation in higher vocational colleges, it puts forward higher requirements for students＇ English comprehensive ability. According to the characteristics of higher vocational colleges of tourism, as well as the author＇ s own teaching experience, this paper elaborates the characteristics of English teaching in the Sino-foreign cooperative education, and the ways to cultivate and improve cross-cultural communication ability for students in tourism colleges.

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.

A Study of Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failures in Tourism Interpretation

In the tourism interpretation,guide interpreter incompetent in cross-cultural pragmatic awareness and ability happensto make various cross-cultural pragmatic failures,which would result in misunderstandings or even failures in communication.Thephenomenon of cross-cultural pragmatic failures in the tourism interpretation from two subdivisions:pragmalinguistic failure andsociopragmatic failure would be discussed from the interdisciplinary perspective,aiming to the promotion of the quality of tourisminterpretation and the advancement of the cross-cultural communication between China and the west.

Reflection on Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure

In cross-cultural communication,we often encounter several problems resulted from cross-cultural pragmatic failure.The reason for this phenomenon is that,as communicators,people often ignore the existence of pragmatic differences in social contact and human relations between Chinese and other foreign languages,and we are often confused about when,where,how,what and to whom we should speak.In this paper,I will try to discuss cross-cultural pragmatic failure,pragmatic differences between Chinese and the native speakers of English and what we should pay attention to in our ESL teaching.

Cross-cultural Pragmatics within Speech Act:Refusal in Chinese and American Culture

This essay concentrates on the differences in one cross-cultural pragmatics within one speech acts-refusal in both Chinese culture and American culture.Some background theories are introduced at the beginning,followed by specific pragmatics situations of refusal.At the end of the essay,some concepts of cross-cultural pragmatics speech acts teaching are also discussed.

A Pragmatics Analysis on Cross-cultural Business Negotiation——Based on Canton Fair Cases

Accurate and appropriate pragmatics strategies play a significant role in cross-cultural business negotiation between exhibitors and buyers.Through the analysis of cross-cultural business negotiation dialogue between exhibitors and buyers in Canton Fair Cases,pragmatics strategies,on the basis of Cooperative Principle,Politeness Principle and Face Theory,can be obtained as follows.When negotiating over product,although Cooperative Principle is expected to be followed,exhibitors are more likely to break it and thus buyers are supposed to identify the authenticity of exhibitors'presentations.When negotiating over quote,both ex-hibitors and buyers are more likely to flout Cooperative Principle under some circumstances and therefore they should follow Politeness Principle and care of the other's face for win-win cooperation.

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.

Reflection on the Competence of Cross-Cultural Communication in English Teaching

It is indisputable fact that language cannot be separated from its culture.That's why the competence of cross-culture communication weighs highly in language learning from the perspective of sociolinguistics.More care has been given to the infiltration of cross-culture communication in teaching language.Under the guidance of theoretical comparisons,some suggestions will be given on how to combine this competence with daily language teaching in hope of improving language learners' integrative language ability.

The Application of Pragmatic Presupposition in Developing Critical Thinking of Writing

This study aims to explore whether developing critical thinking ability from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition can help non-English majors improve their writing achievements.This empirical study employs tests as the instruments.126 non-English majors from a key university of Shandong Province participate in the study.The results of the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test indicate that most subjects(95%)have inadequate or limited critical thinking ability,which leads to digression,repetitive and lengthy description,and unconvincing arguments,as well as illogical or incoherent structures in writing.After a ten-week teaching instruction from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition,students in experimental group improve their writing achievements,indicating that the instruction of critical thinking ability from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition may have certain effects on their writing performance.The study will promote the application of pragmatic presupposition to writing teaching and offer some implications for the teaching of English writing.

Survey of High School English Teachers＇ Pragmatic Failure

According to the principals of the Course Standard of English for Ordinary Senior Schools, published by China Education Ministry in 2001, the general goal of English curriculum on the basic education stage is to foster the students＇ cross-cultural awareness, which is to develop their cross-cultural communicative competence. To achieve this goal, most of all, teachers of English at high school must have a good command of cross-cultural pragmatic competence. By looking through papers in various periodicals and the Internet, the writer finds that most of the studies have coped with pragmatic failures of ESL students but few of ESL teachers＇. Therefore, this thesis studies the present situation --- how much do schoolteachers of English know about pragmatics？ What about their cross-cultural communicative competence？ Can they communicate with the native speakers fluently and appropriately？ What are the most serious problems among them in pragmatics？ What can be done to solve the problems？ With all the questions, this research has collected considerable firsthand data and information. Only after the basic situations are known overall, can actions be taken to solve the problems existing in everyday ESL teaching. So this research is necessary and urgent for the present basic English pedagogy. However, since the present writer＇s ability and research conditions are limited, it is not possible to make a wider investigation in many places. Therefore, the district --- Bameng League, Inner Mongolia, China, is selected as the basic range of the survey, the situation of which is believed to be able to represent the basic educational ones in the poor and remote districts in the north and the west of China where education is more backward. The questionnaire consists of two parts： a table of individual information and a test paper. The former investigates informants＇ basic information, including the items of name, age, sex, teaching age, title of the technical post, degree, academic career, college or university that they graduated from, working unit, grades for teaching and the others. The latter is the test paper cited from He Ziran and Yan Zhuang （1986）, that is, Chinese Students＇Pragmatic Failure in English Communication --- Survey of the Pragmatic Difference between Chinese and English. And it contains 48 items, with items of pragmalinguistic and socio-pragmatic competence mixedly arranged. 120 of the questionnaire copies were handed out and 86 are collected, but only 64 are collected. The survey covers over 10 high schools in all the 7 banners of Bameng League, including two autonomous region-class key schools and five other league-class key schools. After the investigation, the present writer carefully corrects, marks, arranges, summarizes and analyzes the questionnaire, and obtains plenty of firsthand data and information. Then some conclusions have been drawn based on the data analysis. The result of the survey shows that linguistic competence is not equal to pragmatic competence, that ESL high school English teachers may use English rather fluently, without many mistakes in vocabulary and grammar,but it does not necessarily mean that they can use the target language appropriately to communicate with native speakers without pragmatic failures, and that the informants＇ knowledge of pragmatics and their pragmatic competence are rather poor. As a result, improving their knowledge and competence in pragmatics becomes a very necessary and urgent task to develop the quality of ELT in basic educational stages. In order to solve the above problems, the writer makes some suggestions as follows： （1） Pragmatics should be required as an essential course for the English majors in colleges and universities, especially in normal colleges and universities; （2） In-service high school English teachers must study courses of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication; （3） In some poor and remote districts, if educational conditions don＇t permit, textbooks of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication must be handed out to the high school English teachers who can study by themselves, then tests are regularly held for them and certificates will be given to those who have passed the tests; （4） In some developed districts, if conditions permit, English teachers can be sent abroad to English-speaking countries for further education in order to have a good command of the English language in the authentic contexts; （5） Modern multiple medias, such as VCD or DVD videos, TV or radio programs, the Internet, should be widely and frequently applied to training teachers; （6） More native language teachers and experts from English-speaking countries must be invited to high schools to train teachers of English.

Analysis of Pragmatic Failures and Strategies for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Cross-cultural communication has become an essential course for international students.As foreign students have different cultural backgrounds and languages,pragmatic failures are inevitable for them when communicating in Chinese,thus resulting in unpleasant communication.In order to effectively reduce pragmatic failures,it is necessary to analyze the problems that arise in the process of teaching Chinese as a foreign language and determine the causes.This research is separated into three aspects.Firstly,with the support of the theory of pragmatics and by analyzing the life and learning of foreign students,it can be appreciated that the pragmatic failures of foreign students in using Chinese for communication are very much detailed in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language[1].Secondly,after arranging and analyzing these corpora,the reasons for the pragmatic failures of foreign students are determined.Finally,aiming at the causes of pragmatic failures,corresponding countermeasures and teaching suggestions are proposed.The conclusion drawn from this research is that pragmatic failures occur due to various factors,some of which are essential factors that cannot be changed.This requires effort from both Chinese language teachers and students in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language to lessen the occurrence of pragmatic failures.

“两个结合”视野下的中华古体诗词创作研究

语言是文化传承核心性的载体。当下社会中存在的语用能力降低问题,不仅阻碍有效信息的交流,长此以往也将会影响民族文化传承,不利于中华民族现代文明的建设。推进中华古体诗词创作,在摹习经典诗词作品的过程中,将新词融入传统文学形式,能够为解决“词穷”问题提供有益借鉴。在“两个结合”的视野下研究中华古体诗词的当代价值、创作机理、发展动力,会获得许多新的发现。优秀的诗词作品是声音、形象、意蕴的完美结合,体现出汉字特有的声、韵、调,是汉语的“母语境界”的集中彰显。中国传统文论“修辞立其诚”的命题,厘清了达此境界的路径,但未能解决其动力性的问题,而马克思的“实践”理论提供了答案。当代古体诗词创作中将新语入诗词,是把当下时代的“热词”放入格律熔炉中加以“淬火”。这一重要的语词“实践”,推动了当代汉语的发展,在网络用语带来强力冲击、数字虚拟写作方兴未艾等的背景下显得格外重要。