1、Pragmatic Analysis of Problems in Cross-cultural Communication:Communication is daily occurrence between peoples from different cultural background. With increasing contact between countries, a better understanding of people between different cultures is of greatimportance.Judging the other from ano

2、ther culture by ones owncultural norms and standard is bound to result in miscommunication even though both parties are well intentioned. Because of some complex factors, all kinds of problems may appear in this process. People begin to pay more attention to this field. We should find where the obst

3、acle is. In order to make the communication successful, we should also find the way to solve the problems. The paper attempts to find out factors of the problems in cross-cultural communication, and then to explore problems in cross-cultural communication, such as address, greetings, compliments and

4、 thanks, so on and so forth.1 IntroductionWhen people from different cultures communicate with each other, come forth all kinds of problems, which mayresult from the difference in culture, society, environment, and psychology, etc, or may result from condition factors. People from different culture

5、has their own speech norm or habit, e.g. how to begin and keep a conversation, how to arrange information, how to join speech, etc. The manner of speech is formed gradually in the self-development and daily life, which is difficult to change. Even when people learn another language, they incline to

6、keeping their own speech norm. People automatically obey their own habit without pondering. In cross-cultural communication, people usually interpret the other side s meaning by their own speech manner. It will result in the misunderstanding of the other sidesspeech. The two sides of conversation ar

7、e difficult to find the differences of the manner of speech consciously, and take measures to avoid communicational obstacle and shock.The cross-cultural communication process is related to culture criterion and langue criterion. The differences of two criterions in different cultures are the major

8、factors that block the cross-cultural communication.Which pragmatic false people will make in the cross-cultural communication? This is the unavoidablequestion for people to answer during the study of cross-cultural communicational pragmatics.2 Influential Factors of the Problems in the Cross-cultur

9、al communication2.1IdeologyThe first major aspect of culture which we will consider is history and worldview. This is the most familiar way of looking at cultures, by studying their histories and the common worldviews which arise out of these histories.The consciousness of long, continuous history f

10、orms part of the worldview of most Asians. This is sometimes called upon in discourse as explanation or justification for moving more slowly, for not rushing to conclusions, or for taking a longer perspective on future development. In contrast, the westerner is more likely to de-emphasize his or her

11、 own ancient historical heritage dating from Ancient Greece or before. The westerner is more likely to emphasize the need for quickness in concluding negotiations, the need to bring about economic, political, or social changes, and the n eed to “keep up” with the world changes.2.2Value System2.2.1On

12、eness vs. Dividedness between Man and Nature The Chinese traditional notion is that man and nature are oneness. The Chinese obey the natural law and worship nature. Guiding by this notion, the Chinese pay more attention to collective, generality, integration, and sensorial intuition. While the Weste

13、rners divide the universe into two different parts, that is, man and nature are separate. The self-awareness of original sin drives the Westerners to conquer the nature unflaggingly in order to atone and become oneness of God and human beings.2.2.2Group vs. Individualism OrientationGroup orientation

14、 is the inevitable direction of Chinese traditional notion of oneness between nature and man. Chinese people lay more emphasis on family, society, and nation than on the individual. People should do everything according to his social status. Meanwhile, Chinese people consider what others think, whic

15、h leadsto the situation that the Chinese consider reputation as an important thing, which makes the Chinese habit of not offending other people and saying good words to other people.Chinese people depend on each other and cooperate with each other. For one hand, Chinese people are humble and cautiou

16、s and strict to collective and patriotisms. Whenh e achieves great success, he owes it to the collective, circumstances and other people s help. For another, group orientation makes people short of go-aheadism and competitive spirit.On the contrast, Westerners, especially Americans, adore individual

17、ism. We can easily find how important “individual ” is in America in view of seeing how many words begin with the affix” self - ”.Westerners like to develop a new style or a new method of ones own. They seek self-enjoyment and free development. They advocate competition.2.2.3Being vs. DoingChinese p

18、eople obey natural law and seek stabilityinstead of seeking changes. They dont like running a risk, for it will break the stability. Western culture begins with the conquest of nature. They believe that the “being ” of Chinese people is a kind of“pessimism ”.2.2.4Differences in time useIn some degre

19、e, the Chinese are the masters of time, while the Westerners are the slaves of time. The Chinese control their time and asbitsium, e.g. they change the original time order. In their daily life, they are low-pressure, which may represent that they have a lot of time. In the contrast, the Westerners u

20、sually find themselves short of time. In western countries, nobody can escape the control of monochromic time. In fact, time weaves the web of life.2.3 Psychological Factors2.3.1 Language AcquisitionChildren develop their language or communicational capacity in different circumstances. As result, ch

21、ildren develop his own norm and style of communication.2.3.2 Communication and its normCommunication is a process of exchanging information, and is an activity of coding and decoding. Whenp eople have a conversation with other people with different cultural background, they unavoidably use his own n

22、orm to evaluate and understand others speech, which probably leads to misunderstandings and communication failure.3 Problems in Cross-culture Communication3.1 AddressEvery language has its own address system and norm.Calling name is the common address style for many langue community including Chines

23、e and English. However, China has a more complex address system. The Chinese used to sticking to non-equal system, which represents the power tendency. Westerners would like equal system, which represents equal tendency.At times, some different terms of address can be equally misleading for both Chi

24、nese learners of English and English learners of Chinese. In China, “Tongzhi ” was once used for all people irrespective of sex, position or material status, while in English-speaking countries “Mr.” “Mrs. ” “Miss” “Ms.”would be appropriate in similar situations.The extension of kinship terms is ano

25、ther feature ofChinese culture. Chinese usually use kinship terms to call their family or relatives, e.g. “大姐、二哥、三弟” , even call the friends and the strangers. It is unwonted in western countries. Terms such as“uncle, aunt, grandpa,and granny ” are used as honorific titles for senior people or stran

26、gers, as in “Granny Li ” and “Uncle Zhang ”. Native speakers of English would be puzzled if they are addressed in this way by people outside the immediatefamily. Similarly, the use of respectful titles-Chairman Hu, Premier Li, Director Sun-to indicatepeople sinfluential status is typical of Chinese

27、culture. Such practice, however, is less common in English-speaking culture.3.2GreetingsAlthough the greeting is one of the simplest human communications, both countries have different methods of greeting each other. People use greetings by principle of reciprocity. When A greets B, B should greet A

28、 as well. People usually choose one proper greeting to greet different people they meet on different occasions. For example, People in English-speaking countries greet a new acquaintance with “How do you do?”, while when they greet an old friend, they usually say “How are you?”, and they both answer

29、 “Fine, thank you. ” Differently, a Chinese usually say “Ninhao” or “Nihao ” to a friend or a new acquaintance whether they meet for the first time or anytime in the day.It is common for Western people to comment on the weather as a means of greeting. British people in particular like doing this, pe

30、rhaps because it is a veryimpersonal topic which fits in well their desire for privacy, and also because the weather is rather changeable and thus can be interesting. They comment on the weather in a very large number of different ways, and can be seen from the examples given below:(1) “Lovely day,

31、isn t it? ”(2) “It s ever so cold today, isnt it? ”Another noticeable difference between two systems is that most Chinese people tend to greet acquaintances with “Have you eaten? ” or “Where are you heading for? ” Obviously, if we greet the native speakers of English in this way, it will certainly c

32、ause misunderstanding.(A New Concise Course On Linguistics For Students of EnglishP133) 3.3Compliments and ThanksWec an also see the cultural differences in view of the ways people express gratitude and compliment. People in the West tend to verbalize their gratitude and compliments more than Chines

33、e people, and the westerners tend to accept thanks and compliments more directly and frankly than Chinese do.In western culture, it is very common to compliment oth er s appearance and belongings. Nearly everybody could compliment other people. The appearances of women are always complimented. In th

34、e contrast, if people compliment a womans appearance in China, we may think that it is not proper.When a native English speaker expresses to us hisgratitude, a Chinese speaker may feel embarrassed and would sometimes say “no, no ” to decline whatever expressions of gratitude. However, English speake

35、rs, in the similar situation, would say something like“Im glad to hearit ” or “Im glad to be of help” to acknowledge andaccept the thanks. To native speakers of Chinese, expressions like “Not at all ” or “It s nothing ” which are sometimes used by Englishmen to turn down thanks may sometimes lead to

36、 misunderstanding.As well, when a native Chinese speaker hear compliments like “You have a cute outfit ” or “”You look so beautiful today ”, he or she may also feel embarrassed. He will use “no” emphatically to express his modesty and show that he does not deserve it. Unlike Chinese, English speakin

37、g people will accept the compliment by a positive response like “Thank you”, for they believe that the compliment is sincere, it is not expressions of pride or impoliteness and that the praise is not unworthy achievement. Therefore, they think it is inappropriate to show false humility, or pretended

38、 modesty.3.4ApologyThe westerners use apology more frequently and more widely than Chinese speakers. For example, the Americans will apologize for offending other people no matter whether he is on purpose or unconscious. For the Americans, apology is a necessary part of daily life.3.5Privacy and Tab

39、oosThere are some areas of privacy and taboos where our culture differs from the western culture. As the saying goes “A mans home is his castle ”, the western people place a high value on privacy. It is not appropriate for us to ask questions about personal information like age, family background, o

40、r questions on personal activities. Moreover, we should be careful to avoid expressions related to sexual intercourse, some organ of human body, four-letter words and racism etc.The idea of privacy is rather new in China, while people still have fresh memory of the time when they had little personal

41、 space. There have been times when consumer goodswere in very short supply and people in line had to stand very close to one another to prevent others from jumping the queue. People tried to cut into a queue because that was the only way to make sure one could get ones shareor to get things done soo

42、ner. As a result, people have got used to standing close to the one before them, even when it comes to banking. They may not be interested in knowing other people s PINs, but their being too close poses a threat to those who want more space for peace of mind.“Personal space ” is one of the cultural

43、differences that people first notice when dealing with individuals from other cultures. Westerners prefer more distance than Chinese do.Chinese people do not make themselves so private.Chinese people often mention such things as age, and they are not so sensitive to that as westerners do.3.6Invitati

44、onInvitation is the common activity in every society or in every community. However, it is quite different how to send invitationand how to respond. Each community has itsown social criterion and expectation. That is why there are usually muffs when people from different culturalbackground invite ea

45、ch other.In western countries, invitation is an important social activity, which has an experimental purpose, that is, to hold parties, to make friends, etc. All kinds of people, from friends and relatives to strangers, can be invited, regardless of class, social status, profession, and sex.In China

46、, invitation is usually sent between friends and relatives. We can say that the invitation between Chinese people aims at talking about the past and revive the friendship. It is centered on feeling. Of course, in modern society experimental invitation has been becoming popular. However, when Chinese

47、 person is invited, he will invite the host for one time, which represents his indebtedness. It is unwonted in western countries.As well, Chinese has another habit of self-invitation that you can call somebody at any time, and you can have a meal with the host. However, in the western countries it i

48、s a taboo. Even though the relatives want to call for him, they should tell him beforehand. If you call somebody without informing beforehand, you will be considered as impinge on his privacy.Due to different habits and different invitation style, the newcomers from China to the US are puzzled by th

49、e American invitation.3.7Color WordsFor people all over the world the colors are the same, but this does not necessarily follow that people speaking different languages divide the color spectrum in the same way or use terms that designate the same range of hue. Some languages have only two color ter

50、ms: black and white. The semantic range of the terms is something like “dark ” and “light ”. If a language has three color systems, the third term is invariably red, a term that may include yellow orange but that has a focal point very close to the “red” of EnglishIn addition to the fact that differ

51、ent languages may have different divisions of color, different language entail different color related association. For example, in English “green ” is associated with” greenhorn ” asa person without training or experiences.3.8Culture-based idioms, proverbs and metaphorsDifferent languages may refle

52、ct different cultures and different cultures entail different language expression.more compared with “fire face turned red with anger.4 ConclusionWe are fully aware thatIdioms, proverbs and sayings and metaphors in different languages, derived from different origins, also demonstrate cultural differ

53、ences, Different languages may have different idioms owing to different living environment, social conventions and literature tradition etc. For example, since English people view dog as human being s best friend, we can find more English expressions with dog than in Chinese.Lucky dog: a lucky personClever dog: a clever boy or smart ladLead a dog s life: to live an exhausted and unhappy lifeEvery d