1. Based on Kachru and Smith, Chapter 1 and G. Tucker Childs, in The 5-Minute Linguist

2. ROAD MAP  Now that we’ve:  defined and identified global languages,  briefly outlined the history of English,  described the factors that led to the prominence of English as a global language, and  seen several varieties of English from around the world,...

3. ROAD MAP (cont’d)  And after having taken a side trip to explore our linguistic heritages,...

4. In this week’s readings and lectures, we will...  Review some facts about languages and dialects, and  Explore some concepts that will help us better analyze what contributes to successful and less successful communication across cultures,  Even when everyone is speaking the same language, i.e., ENGLISH

5. Languages and Dialects: Some things to remember  Everyone who speaks a language speaks a dialect;  A language can be seen as a group of dialects;  Dialects can be geographic – Texan, Boston, SoCal  Dialects can be social – “My Fair Lady”  Dialects can be political – “… an army and a navy”  Dialect differences are usually minor  Pronunciation  Grammar  Vocabulary  “Language” and “dialect” are loaded terms

6. Critical Concepts Forming the Basis for This Course  Types of Information: conceptual, indexical, interactional-management  Speech Acts, Implicature, the Cooperative Principle  Conversation Analysis: Turns, Exchanges, Turn Relevance Places, Adjacency Pairs  Politeness and Positive and Negative Face  Context: Setting, Participants, Ends, Acts, Key, Instrumentalities, Norms, Genres

7. Types of Information  Conceptual information: purely factual content of linguistic signals.  Indexical information: information about the speaker / writer.  Interactional-management information: information that allows participants to initiate, participate in and terminate interactions.

8. Interactional-Management Information:  What we know about day-to-day interactions: ◦ How to open conversations ◦ How to hold the floor ◦ When and how to take & yield the floor ◦ How to stay on topic and to change topics ◦ How to close a conversation

9. Conversation Analysis – Tools to analyze interactional-management information  Conversational floor – the ‘shared space’ in which a conversation takes place; participants in a conversation share the conversational floor.  Turn: the distribution of talk across participants; the stretch of speech of a single speaker bounded by the speech of another speaker.  Turn1: - A : How did you like Avatar?  Turn 2: - B: I thought it was great!

10. Conversation Analysis (cont’d) Exchange: Two or more sequential turns. For example, Exchange 1: A: Could you put this letter in the mailbox for my on your way out? B: Sure. Exchange 2: A: Could I ask you a favor? B: Sure, what is it? A: Could you put this letter in the mailbox for me on your way out? B: Sure.

11. Conversation Analysis (cont’d)  Adjacency pair: Two successive utterances or turns by different speakers, where the second is of a type required or expected by the first.  In the previous example, the exchange between A and B constitutes an adjacency pair (question and answer)  Greeting -> Greeting  Apology -> Minimalization  Thanks -> Acknowledgement  Etc.

12. Conversation Analysis (cont’d)  Turn relevance point (TRP) – the potential boundary that marks where a turn could end, marked by one or more of the following:  Phrase final intonation  Grammar  Eye contact  Body movement  Etc.

13. Conversation Analysis (cont’d)  Repair – the conversational work required when a conversationalist fails to respond with the expected turn type  Example: when a speaker fails to respond to a question with an answer  Overlaps – occasions when a second speaker begins before the first speaker has finished  Back-channeling – vocalizations by the listener relinquishing the floor to the current speaker  ‘uh-huh’  ‘yeah’  Etc.

14. Indexical Information: Presenting One’s Self  Politeness Principle (Lakoff 1973) ◦ Don’t impose.  Pardon me.  I hope I’m not bothering you, but …. ◦ Give options.  Would you mind …?  Could you possibly …?  May I ask you to …? ◦ Make your receiver feel good.  That color really looks good on you.  I like your new tattoo.  “Little white lies”

15. Indexical information (cont’d)  “Face” ( Brown & Levinson 1978): the public self image that every adult tries to project.  Positive face: the desire of every person to be desirable to at least some others; the positive consistent self- image or 'personality' claimed by interactants.  Negative face: the desire of every person to have his/her actions be unimpeded by others; the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, rights to non- distraction—i.e., the freedom of action and freedom from imposition.

16. Politeness and Face  The specific nature of face varies from society to society, e.g.:  Roles of parents and adult children  Notions of privacy in the home, workspace  The precise way of indicating respect for face may be culture specific, e.g.:  Offer of a drink and initial refusal  Refusal of an invitation  Etc.

17. Speech Acts  The acts we perform when uttering sentences  1 955 – John Austin’s William James Lectures at Harvard (How to Do Things With Words, 1962) ◦ An utterance can constitute an act:  I promise I’ll be there on time.  I apologize for the way I acted.

18. Austin’s Criteria for Speech Acts The sentence must contain a Performative Verb – a verb that under specified conditions when uttered, constitutes the performance of an act, e.g., ‘I promise you that I won’t be late.’  Must be in the present tense ◦ *I promised that I wouldn’t be late.  Must have a first person subject ◦ *He promises that he won’t be late.  “I hereby” test ◦ I hereby promise that I won’t be late.

19. Felicity conditions – conditions that must be met for the utterance to constitute a valid act  The person and circumstances must be appropriate:  “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”  The act must be executed completely and correctly be all participant:  “I bet you SJSU will beat Hawai’i.”  The participants must have the appropriate intentions:  “ I congratulate you for your good fortune.”

20. Expanding the Notion of Speech Acts  1969 – John Searle’s Speech Acts: all utterances,, not just those containing performative verbs, constitute speech acts, thus distinguishing between:  Explicit Speech Acts:  “I hereby christen thee ‘The Good Ship Lollipop.’”  “I sentence you to life in prison.”  Implicit Speech Acts:  (I declare that) “I ran into Bill and Tony at the movies last night.”  (I ask) “What time did you get in?”  ( request that you) “Please pass the hot sauce.”

21. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts  Direct: an utterance whose linguistic form matches its communicative purpose, e.g., ◦ Form = statement, Purpose = declaration  ‘An amoeba is a one-celled animal.’ ◦ Form= interrogative, Purpose = question  ‘What’s your name?’ ◦ Form = imperative, Purpose = order  ‘Turn on the lights.  Indirect: an utterance whose linguistic form does not match it communicative purpose, e.g., ◦ Form = question, intent = request  ‘Is that the phone?’ ◦ Form = statement, intent = question  ‘I wonder why you would say such a thing.’

22. How we understand indirect speech acts: Conversational Implicature  To interpret indirect speech acts, we rely on implicature, our ability to understand the speaker’s intention in uttering something e.g.,  A: Is that the phone?  Implicature: A wants me to answer the phone.  B: I’m in the bathroom.  Implicature: B wants me to know that B can’t answer the phone.

23. How we make implicatures: The Cooperative Principle  Purpose: To describe in a systematic and consistent way how implicature works in conversation (H. P. Grice)  “In conversations, participants cooperate with each other.” (Wow! What does this mean????)

24. Operationalizing the Cooperative Principle: Conversational Maxims  Quantity – contribution should be as informative as required  Quality – contribution should not be false  Relation – contribution should be relevant  Manner – contribution should be direct Assumptions 1) We don’t adhere to them strictly. 2) We interpret what we hear as if it conforms to them. 3) Where a maxim is violated, we draw implicatures.

25. Violations of Maxims:  Quantity ◦ Letter of reference:  “Bob speaks perfect English; he doesn’t smoke in the office; and I have never heard him use foul language.”  Quality ◦ “Reno is the capital of Nevada, isn’t it?” ◦ “Yes, and London is the capital of New Jersey”

26. Violations of Maxims:  Relation  “What time is it?”  “Well, the paper’s already come.”  Manner  “Let’s stop and get something to eat.”  “OK, but not at M-c-D-o-n-a-l-d-s.”

27. Violations of the Maxims  " Uncle Charlie is coming over for dinner." "Better lock up the liquor.“  "Do you know where Kendall moved?" "Somewhere on the east coast.“  "How was your blind date?" "He had a nice pair of shoes.“  “Spencer is sure he'll get that job." “Yeah. And my pet turtle is sure it will win the Kentucky Derby."

28. Context  Observation: The forms that social interactions take and the meanings they embody are dependent on the context in which they are uttered: ◦ Setting: Where does the interaction take place? ◦ Participants: Who’s involved? ◦ Ends / goals: What’s the purpose of the interaction? ◦ Acts: What speech acts are employed? ◦ Key: What’s the mood / tenor of the interaction? ◦ Instrumentalities: What modes of interaction are employed (e.g., phone, text message, face-to face, etc.) ◦ Norms: What is the norm in this culture for this type of interaction? ◦ Genre: What kinds of genres are found in this type of interaction

29. Activity  Kachru and Smith, Pages 28-29