Characteristics of the Characteristics of the Contemporary Contemporary English Phatic English Phatic

Communication StyleCommunication Style

Characteristics of the Characteristics of the Contemporary Contemporary English Phatic English Phatic

Communication StyleCommunication Style

Liliana SlavianovaLiliana SlavianovaUniversity of RuseUniversity of Ruse

Introduction• Aim: to define the cultural

characteristics of the phatic communication in English based on the theoretical platforms of Edward Hall and Geert Hofstede

The paper:• Defines key terms• Gives a brief overview of the two

theoretical models• Suggests parameters for

communication style analysis• Describes the characteristics of the

contemporary English communication style

communication• According to Craig Storti "is one of

the most common of all human behaviors...."

• Contrary to its simple definition, the process of communication is highly complex, multilayered and dynamic

communication• Depends on the perception,

interpretation and evaluation of a person's behavior which includes verbal versus non-verbal as well as consciously versus unconsciously sent messages

communication• the process of encoding and

decoding• highly dependent on a person's

cultural background which "determines the meanings attached to particular words and behaviour" (Adler 1997).

cultureNow there are hundreds of definitions.

• “a shared system of attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviour" (Gibson 2000).

• "a shared system of perceptions" (Martin Soley 2003). The latter indicates that culture plays a highly significant role in communication.

• The terms "intercultural communication" or "cross-cultural communication" apply when the sender and the receiver of a message are from different cultures

communication styles across cultures

• Differences in communication styles, determine how much of the meaning people encode into actual words.

Eduard Hall’s theory "context carries varying proportions

of the meaning." In other words, meaning that is not encoded into words by the message sender is supplied by context.

"low-context" communication

systems • people translate a large part of the

meaning into explicit code (Hall 1979). As a result, "the spoken word carries most of the meaning".

• People explicitly say what they want to convey without beating around the bush.

high-context communication

• a large part of the meaning lies in the physical context, which includes facial expressions, tone of voice and gestures.

• As a result, the message itself carries less information.

• People do not explicitly say what they want to convey. Instead, they beat around the bush until their interlocutor decodes the message correctly

Hofstede’ theory of national cultural

dimensions• Power Distance (PDI)• Individualism versus Collectivism

(IDV)• Masculinity versus Femininity

(MAS)• Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI)

Phatic communication• the nonreferential use of language

to share feelings or establish a mood of sociability rather than to communicate information or ideas

• ritualized formulas intended to attract the attention of the listener or prolong communication.

Emotional communication/emotive

communication• Unconscious

demonstration of emotions

• Spontaneous• Expressing both

positive and negative emotions

• conscious demonstration of emotions

• concern for people's sensitivities

• Social function

Parameters for communication style

analysis• distance / intimacy in communication• degree of formality / informality• subjective / objective - orientation• degree of imposition of the communicative

action• direct / indirect expression of communicative

intentions• orientation of emotions• level of expressiveness• degree of ritualization• wordiness / brevity.

British communication style

• distant (strict observance of the distance)• unimposing (communicative impact is minimized )• indirect or implicit (in terms of expressing

communicative intention )• cooperative (characterized by clear orientation

towards the interlocutor) • informal (symmetry and equality between

interlocutors)• personally-oriented (priority is on person, not

status )• friendly and polite (show friendliness and optimism

)

British communication style

• emotive (relative to the manner of expression of emotions and their communicative function)

• expressive (characterized by frequent use of superlative adjectives in many situations)

• hyperbolic (exaggeration of the qualities and characteristics)

• insincere (oriented largely to the form and not the content of the speech, which, in turn, leads to a difference in their semantic and pragmatic meaning)

• wordy (use of a wide variety of language tools )

Conclusions• People from different cultures have different

understandings of the interaction process and different communication styles

• culture and communication are therefore closely related

• one way of avoiding cross-cultural communication problems is having a better understanding of cross-cultural differences

Conclusions• Hall’s and Hofstede’s theoretical

models help to analyze the cultural dimensions of each culture and to outline its characteristics

• culture only exists by comparison • the achieved results refer to the English

communication style compared to the Bulgarian

Thank youfor your

attention!