A Preliminary Case Study of Pragmatic Failure in Cross—cultural Communication

Guan Chang

Abstract：For English majors， memorizing sentence structures or honing some basic abilities （listening， speaking， reading， and writing） is not the whole part of the study schedule. Pragmatics， a sub discipline of linguistics， is of great importance to English learners. And the combination of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication never fails to attract lots of attention. In this paper， the author has some discussions on pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication.

Key words：Pragmatics， cross-cultural， communication， failures

Introduction

A mounting number of Chinese are bestowed with the opportunity to communicate with foreigners for some causes， like foreign commerce and enjoyment， etc. Unfortunately， during the course of communication， things do not go as smooth as expected： the efficiency could be lowered and the outcome would be unsatisfactory or even disappointing. However， that some causes can be found out could be a remedy to this situation. Unauthentic expressions， poor oral English and misunderstandings of different cultures can be easily accounted as annoying barriers in unsuccessful communication. We all are supposed to have some sense of the unrealized failure to some extent.

Pragmalinguistic failure

①Phonetic failure

Born as Chinese， we are very familiar with the pronunciation of Chinese characters. Our dialect and Putonghua are called Chinese as a whole. However， when some of us are speaking Putonghua， the pronunciation of some characters and intonation is much the same way like their own dialect.

Example 1： Here is a sentence “Last night， I read a book called Thinker.”

People from Zhejiang may speak like “Last night， I read [led] a book called Thinker.” Those from Sichuan may speak like “Last [na： st] night， I read a book called Thinker.” Many people cannot pronounce “Thinker[θi?k?]” correctly， because “th” in English is pronounced as [θ] or [?] but they do not exist in Putonghua. But in English， we have to pay some attention to the intonation.

Example 2： Come on！ This expression is everywhere in our daily life， but different intonations differ a lot in meaning. If the stress is on “Come”， it is negative； if the stress falls on “on”， it means encouragement and something supportive.

②Lexical failure

Some groups of words are essential in any culture. The system of colour is highly developed in many cultures. But what is worth being pointed out is that the same colour has different meanings in different cultures.

Example 3： See red； in the red； The Scarlet Lette.

日出江花红胜火；万紫千红总是春。

In Chinese， red is a joyful colour. It can bring fortune and prosperity. By contrast， in western cultures， red means nothing but danger and horror. “See red” means “become angry”； “in the red” signals “in debt”.

The system of number in Chinese versatile. Characters like 百，千，万 mean “many”； specific number like 三 means “frequent”. However，一，二 usually represent accurate amounts. This system is not developed in English. Here is an example：

Example 4 ： win-win 双赢； leave nothing to be desired 十全十美。

In this example， we may find that the Chinese expressions are vivid and imaginable. On the contrary， the English version is mediocre and uninteresting.

③Grammatical failure

We all know that English differs from Chinese in grammatical structures， means of expressions and figures of speeches， which can lead to failure in Sino-foreign communication.

Example 5： His English speaks good. 他英语说得好。

Today the eatery eats beef. 今天食堂吃牛肉。

In example 5， we can easily find that these 2 English sentences are illogical for the subjects are false. But the Chinese expressions are acceptable and widely used in our life.

Causes

I. Misunderstandings of western cultures

We are living with Chinese cultural elements， hence Chinese culture rooting in our heart. When communicating with foreigners and facing their cultures， we cannot adapt to their cultures promptly. Also， we may not be willing to change our behaviors to satisfy them. Thus， some unhappy things， like conflicts and biases would arise. Directly， transactions could not be made or others would turn down your enquiry.

II. Poor language ability

According to the statistics from IELTS， average of Chinese get very low score in the speaking and writing sections on the worldwide scale. Usually， examiners explain this problem with words like illogical， strange intonation， so even these examiners could not understand what these candidates were expressing.

Poor English includes several parts. Verbally， poor speaking English and poor listening ability are undesirable when communicating with others. When writing e-mails or correspondences， narrow vocabulary and casual dictions cannot be well received. In the same way， wrongly used words and illogical sentences on paper would confuse your receivers.

Strategies

Nowadays， some officials in United Nations and people from the local government in some countries are appealing to Esperanto. But before it comes into being and proved to perform effectively and efficiently， we have no shortcuts and we need to improve our language ability.

Forming into the habit of English thinking is difficult but beneficial to us. For many of us， be it input or output， we cannot think in English directly， whereas we have some ideas and prepare them in Chinese and then translate them into English， which is a burden for brain.

To develop this habit， we should be more careful when reading books and watching programs. Pondering over what we have inputted is necessary if we are determined to improve our English.

When we express our ideas， try to think in English instead of Chinese. Day by day， our language ability can be upgraded.

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