Alle Publikationen
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2017
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(2017): A tale of two processes. On Joseph Henrich’s the secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter. In: Philosophical Psychology 30 (6), S. 832-848. DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2017.1299857
Abstract: We situate Henrich’s book in the larger research tradition of which it is a part and show how he presents a wide array of recent psychological, physiological, and neurological data as supporting the view that two related but distinct processes have shaped human nature and made us unique: cumulative cultural evolution and culture-driven genetic evolution. We briefly sketch out several ways philosophers might fruitfully engage with this view and note some implications it may have for current philosophic debates in moral and political theory and over the nature of extended cognition. We end by noting how Henrich’s view of the source of cultural design and innovation, and the prominence of place he gives to the extended process of cultural evolution, cuts against a cluster of broad but common views about human minds, recasting putative bugs as features and indicating that many of the distinctive features of our individual minds evolved to allow them to be effective cogs in the larger, more productive cultural machine.
2013
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(2013): Chinese requests. In comparison to American and Japanese requests and with reference to the “East-West divide”. In: Journal of Pragmatics 55, S. 140-161. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2013.05.012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.05.012 Abstract: This paper reports an empirical investigation of Chinese requests using Hill et al's (1986) methodology. The study has yielded the following findings. (1) Chinese requests seem to be determined by Brown and Levinson's notions of power and distance, as are Japanese and American English requests as reported in Hill et al., (2) Chinese requests may not be as direct as has been argued in the literature. We view these findings as evidence for Brown and Levinson's universal theory of politeness but against the claim that East and West are fundamentally different in their respective politeness systems (cf. Chen, 2010 and Leech, 2007).
Keywords: American English, Anfrage, Anfragenforschung, Bitte, Brown and Levinson's model, Chinese, Disziplin, East-West divide, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, (In)directness, Japanese, Kultur, Kulturdifferenz, Kulturelle Normen, kulturrelativ, kulturspezifisch, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Linguistik, Politeness, Request, Soziale Angemessenheit, Speech Act, Sprachgebrauch, Sprechakt 2012
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(2012): Appropriate behaviour across varieties of English. In: Journal of Pragmatics 44 (9), S. 1022-1037. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2011.09.015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.09.015 Abstract: Corpus evidence is presented which suggests that from a first-order perspective ‘appropriateness’ and ‘inappropriateness’ are more salient notions than ‘politeness’ and ‘impoliteness’ or ‘rudeness’. It is then argued that norms of appropriate verbal behaviour in a community can be established empirically by employing experimental methods. Production questionnaire data may not reflect what participants would actually say in real life, but reveal what guides their expectations, perception and performance in a given social situation. It is shown that small talk between strangers at a party is governed by diverging norms in different national varieties of English, viz. American English, Irish English and English English. It is further shown that gender and age differences exist within a national variety and that norms of appropriate verbal behaviour seem to be subject to age-grading.
Keywords: Alter, Approriateness, Disziplin, English English, Experimental data, Gender, Gender and age variation, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Im/politeness, Impoliteness, Inappropriateness, Irish English and American English, Kultur, Kulturdifferenz, Kulturelle Normen, kulturrelativ, kulturspezifisch, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Linguistik, Politeness, Small talk, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sprachgebrauch, Unangemessenheit, Unhöflichkeit, Variational pragmatics 2011
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(2011): Culture-specific concepts of politeness. Indirectness and politeness in English, Hebrew and Korean requests. In: Intercultural Pragmatics 8 (3). DOI: 10.1515/iprg.2011.018
Abstract: Pragmatic clarity and politeness have been the two major factors in pragmatic competence rules since Grice (1975). Clarity and politeness have been claimed as complementary elements (Lakoff 1973) and politeness as the motivation for indirectness in requests (Searle 1975, 1979; Gordon and Lakoff 1975; Lakoff 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1989, 1990; Leech 1983; Brown and Levinson 1978, 1987). However, highly indirect strategies, e. g., hints, may also be perceived as lacking in politeness because of a lack of concern for pragmatic clarity (Blum-Kulka 1987). In order to compare indirectness and politeness scales in Korean, Hebrew, and English and to re-examine the link between indirectness and politeness cross-culturally, this study uses the theoretical and methodological framework of Blum-Kulka (1987) and Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper (1989). The study results show that neither non-conventional indirectness nor some strategies of conventional indirectness imply politeness in Korean and imply, in agreement with Yu (2002), that politeness is differently perceived cross-culturally. In particular, the results of the study show that the conventional indirect strategies such as Strong Hints, Mild Hints, and Suggestory Formulae in the nine request categories are not significantly correlated with politeness in Korean and that Performatives (Austin 1962) and Want Statements are perceived as direct but polite strategies in Korean. These results support that the degree and the concepts of politeness in Korean, Hebrew, and English are significantly different.
2010
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(2010): “Just tell us what to do”. Southern African face and its relevance to intercultural communication. In: Journal of Pragmatics 42 (8), S. 2158-2171. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.017 Abstract: This paper contributes to the debate on the precise nature of face as a universal phenomenon, and the cultural variability within it. Specifically, we bring the 'Southern' perspective to the debate by discussing the previously neglected African dimension. Recent scholarship suggests that the concept of face and the notion of self in traditional African culture may have more in common with Eastern collectivist cultures than with Anglo-American culture. We examine the interactional management of an encounter between a Zimbabwean English speaker and British English speakers in a community singing group. We argue that, while face needs may be universally relevant in such a situation, the way in which they are oriented to in interaction depends on cultural understandings of which aspects of face are paramount in particular circumstances. Since these assumptions are deep-seated and invisible they are not easily open to explicit negotiation and hence can lead to misinterpretation. By conducting an ethnographic study of the communicative event and combining it with a detailed examination of the co-construction of meaning in this interaction, we show how the participants' contributions can be related to differing - and potentially conflicting - interpretation frameworks. These frameworks are informed by culture-specific notions of appropriate self-presentation.
1989
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Blum-Kulka, Shoshana; Kasper, Gabriele; House, Juliane (Hg.) (1989): Cross-cultural pragmatics. Requests and apologies. Norwood NJ: Ablex Publ (Advances in discourse processes)
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