Luận văn a cross cultural stydy of pauses and time fillers in some american and vietnamese films

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF PAUSES AND TIME-FLLLERS 1N SOME AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE FILMS Nghiên cứu giao văn hóa về việc sir dung cic quang ling và các yếu tổ khóa lấp trong một số bộ p

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSETY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSFGRADUATE STUDIES:

NGUYEN THI HONG NHUNG

A CROSS-CULIURAL STUDY OF PAUSES AND TIME-FLLLERS LN

SOME AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE FILMS

(Nghiên cứu giao văn hóa về việc sử dụng các quãng lặng và các yếu tố

Nam và Mỹ)

khúa lấp trong một số bộ phim V

MLA MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

COTE: 60 22 15,

HANOI- 2010

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF PAUSES AND TIME-FLLLERS

1N SOME AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE FILMS

(Nghiên cứu giao văn hóa về việc sir dung cic quang ling

và các yếu tổ khóa lấp trong một số bộ phim Việt Nam và Mỹ)

M.A MINOR THESIS

PIELD: ENGLISH LINGLUISTICS

CODE: 60 22 15 SUPERVISOR: Prof, Dr Nguyén Quang

HA NÓI - 2010

IL Scope of the study

TIT Aims of the study

Chapter 1 Theoretical preliminary

1.1, Language, culture and communication

1.2.1 Definitions and main differences

1.2.2 Entering high and low context sitnations

3.2 Findings and discussion 21

‘Table 3: Number of pauses and time-fillers (employee fo boss)

‘table 4: Duration of pauses and time-fillers (boss to employee)

‘Table 5: Duration of pausos and tirmo-Billors (enyployee to boss) Table 6; Duration of pauses and time-fllers (beireen colleugues) American findings:

Tat

Number of pauses and limne-fillors (heneeen colleagues) Table 8: Number of pauses and time fillers (bass to employee) Table 9: Number of pauses and time-tillers (eniployee io boss)

‘Table 10: Duration of pauses and time-fillers (benveen colleagues) Table 11: Duration of pauses and time-fillers (boss te employee)

‘Table 12: Duration of pauses and time-fillers (employee to boss)

PART A INFRODUCTION

L RATIONALE

At the beginning of the 21st century, it is beyond question that English has

become the dingua france, the language uscd for communication across territorial and

cultural borders Crystal (2003: 120) states that “Znglish has become a global language

because it has heen at the right place at the right time’ Tunglish is considered the

‘universal language and its contribution towards such fields as business, international commranications, entertainment, tourism, trade and technotogy, is undeniable’

People learning and using English are increasing dramatically in number

worldwide It can be sccn that, because of the heavy demand of cross-cultural interaction,

the development of telecommunications, and the appearance of communicative approaches in language teaching and leaming, the study of speech acis in

communication appears inevitable

‘The last few decades have witnessed a great change for the betier in the telalionship between Viel Nam and the US Many cross-cultural activities have been

performed between the American and the Victnamesc However, it is observed that, in

cross-cultural interaction, people tend to focus much more on linguistic factors than on cultural factors Por example, it is customary for the Vietnamese to extend such

preeting routines as ‘Bae/ ¢d/ che! anh/ mity dang lim gi day’, “Bác/ cũ chú: anh

mày đang ái đâu đẩy”, s0, when communicating with their Anglophone friends, they simply transfer their cultural practives inte “What are you doing?’ ox ‘Where are you

going?’ In the English-speaking cultures, such greeting routines are considerably

embrassing, especially in the initial meeting The lack of appropriateness in language

usc may lcad to misinterprctation, misunderstanding and miscommunication

Communication breakdown might very much be the case Therefore, the study of

Vietnamese- American cross-cultural differences in speech acts is obviously necessary

Silence/Pauses and time-fillers exist in all social interactions in any cullure They

are used to show respect, anger, hostility, disinterest, or any other emotions However,

when and how to use time-fillers or silence/pauses are not the same in different

Tanguages and cultures Therefore, the study of similarities and differences of using silencefpauses and time-illers in interaction would help not only for the success of American-Viemamese cross-cultural communication but also in communicative language teaching/lcarning,

U SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Alihough intvalinguistic (vocabulary, grammatical rales, phonetic rules ) and extralingnistic (facial expressions, postures, proximity ) factors, toa great extent, playa vitally important role in communication, they are beyond the scope of this study This study only focuses on pauses and time-fillers in some American and Viemamese films for the discovery of major similarities and differences between the two groups

‘This research is confined to studying only the factor of power [colleague to colkeague (exmal); bass lo employee (high lo low); and employes lo boss (low lo high)] that are readily manageable and lend themselves to quantitative analyses

Similar plots, characters and scenes that involve similar communicative events! siluations arc intentionally chosen for contrasti is,

OE AIMS OF THE STUDY

‘The aims of the study are:

= To investigate the use of silence/pauses anil time-fillers under the variables of power in

mualy

chosen situations in some American and Vietnamese films

- To find out major American- Vietnamese cross-cultural differences and similarities in

romarks, intcrprctations, comments and assumptions given in the study arc largely based

on data analysis with due reference to publications

‘The data were collected from four American and four Vietnamese socio- psychological Gtms The instrument to construc! validation is used lo tap individual assessment of social power (SP)

V DESIGN OF THLE SEUDY

The study consists of three parts:

Part I Introduction, which provides the rationale, scope, aims and methods of the sudy Part II Development, which consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 Theoretical prelininaries This chapter covers the rclationship

between language and culture, language and communication, cross-cultural communication, high-context and low-conlext culture, non-verbal communication and

paralanguage

Chapter 2 Silence/pauses and Time-filers This chapter reviews the issues relevant to the study including silence/ pauses and time-fillers Then the notions of

silence/ pause and time-filler definitions and usages are discussed

Chapter 3 Findings and Discussions ‘The strategies of using silence/pauses and

Iime-fillers entified and major cross-cullural differences and similarities discussed

Part THỊ, Conclusion, in which the main findings are reviewed, the implications for cross- culture interactions, the limitations of the study pointed out and suggestions for further

research ofTeredL

PART B DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1 Theoretical preliminaries

1.1 Language, culture and communication

1.1.1 Language and communication

By age four, most humans have developed an ability to communicate through oral language Tly age six or seven, most humans can coniprehend, as well as express,

written thoughts These unique abilities of comnmunicating through a native language clearly separate humans from all animals

in 1994, in Time magazine, an article appeared titled ‘ITow man began’ Within

that article was the following bold assertion:

“No single, essential difference separates human beings from other animals”

Yel, in what is obviously a contradiction to such 4 slalement, all evolutionists admit thal

commmanication via speech is uniquely human - so that it often is used as the singular,

and most important, dividing line between humans and animals

In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Revolution, Jones, Martin, and

Pilbcam (1999) concede that there arc no non-human languages, and then go on to

observe that langvage is an adaptation unique to humans, and yet the nature of its

uniqueness and ils biological basis are notoriously diMficull to define In his book, The

Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain, Terrance Deacon (1997)

notes:

Ja this context [ ], consider the case of human language It is one af the most

distinctive behavioral adaptations on the planet Languages evolved in only one

species, in only one way, without precedent, except in the most general

sense And the differences between languages and all other natural modes of

communicating are vast

Language is the development of the basic form of communication between human

‘beings, and in a sovicly And jusl as if is the basic form, if is also the most developed

We can not communicate in any real sense without language, other than through

gestures; we do communicate through some non-verbal forms like the visual aris - painting and sculpiue - and through danee, bul he culmination of true, articutale, communication is through language It could naturally take a number of forms It could

be unvamished, workaday prose, it could be poetry, it could be drama; but all of these

axe forms of languagz, written, spoken and read The way in which the language is being

used is making it pretty ‘hus, a successfid communicator must own a good command of language al first

1.1.2 Language and culture

Culture (fom the Latin cuitura stemming trom colere, meaning “to cultivate”) is

a term that has different meanings And, the word “culture” is most commonly used in three basic senscs:

«= oxeditonce of taste in the fins arts and humuritics, also known as high eniture

» an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning,

«the set of sharodl attitudes, valuss, goals and practices that characterizes an

institution, organization or group

(htp-/ten wikipedia orgAwiki/Culturettcite_note- I)

Of all aspects of culture, it is a fair guoss that language was the first to receive a highly developed form and that its essential perfection is a prerequisite to the dovelopment of culture as a whole

1.1.3 Cammunication

Communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to

another Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two

agents which share a repertoire of signs and semiotic ru!

All communication is cultural - it draws on ways we have Jeamed to speak and give nonverbal messages We do wol always communicate the saine way from day lo day, since factors like context, individual personality, and mood interact with the variety of

cultural influences we have intemalized that influence our choices Communication is

intcractive, sơ an important influence on iis cffectivensss is our relationship with others

‘The relationship between communication and culitre is a very oamplsx and

jntimale one, Firsl, cullures are created through communication; (eat is, communication

is the means of human interaction through which cultural characteristics - whether

customs, roles, rules, rituals, laws, or other pattems - are created and shared It is not so

auch that individuals sct out fo create a culture when they interact in relationships,

groups, organizations, or societies, but rather that cultures are a natural by-product of

social interaction Ta a sense, cullures are the “residue” of social communication

Without communication and communication media, it would be impossible to preserve and pass along cultural charactenstics ftom one place and time to another One can say,

therefore, that cultie is created, shaped, transmitted, and learned through

communication The reversc is also the casc; that is, communication practices arc largely

created, shaped, and transmitted by culture

To unde

mứ the implications of this communication-cullwe relationship, it is necessary to think in texms of ongoing communication processes rather than a single communication event For example, when a three-person group first meets, the members bring with them individual thought and behavioral pallens Gorn provious communication cxpericnecs and fiom other cultures of which they arc, or have becn, a part, As individuals start to engage in communication with the other members of this new group, hey begin lo crgale a set of shared experiences and ways of talking about them With any culture; communication shapes cultwe, and cultwe shapes

communteation

Cross-cultural communivation is a fick! of study thal looks at how people from ditfering cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to commmnication across cultures The study of cross-cultural communication is fast becoming a global rescareh arca

One factor that is believed to contribute to successful communication in general and cross-cultural communication in particular is commmmicative competence Commmicative compctenes is ø term in linguisties which rclexs lo ä langtmgz uscrs grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social

knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately The torm was ooined by

Hyrnes (1966), rzaoling against the perecived inadsquacy of Chomsky's distinetion

‘between competence and performance To address Chomsky's abstract notion of competence, ITymes undertook ethnographic exploration of communicative competence that included communicative form and function in integral relation to cach other The approach pioneered by Hymes is now known as the ethnography of communication

‘The notion of communicative compelence is one of the theories thal underlies the communicative approach to foreign language teaching, Canale and Swain (1980: 1-47) detine communicative competence in terms of four components:

1 Grammatical competence: including vocabulary, word formation, sentence formation, pronunciation, spclling and linguistic semantics,

2 Sociolinguistic competence: addressing the extent to which ufterances are

produced and understood appropriately in different sociolinguistic conlexts depending

on contextual factors such as status of participants, purposes of the interaction, and

‘norms or conventions of interaction;

3 Discourse competence: conazriing m of how to combine grammatical

forms and meanings to achicve a unificd spoken or written text in different gonres

4, Strategic competence: composed of mastery of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called inlo actual siluations or to sufficient competence in one or more of the other areas of communicative competence and to enhance the effectiveness of communication

A mmớr: Teoenl stzvoy oŸ communicative compatones by Bachrian (1990) divides il into the broad headings of “organizational competence," which inchudes both grammatical and discourse (or textual) competence, and pragmatic competence, which includes both sociolinguistic and illocutionary competence Through the influence of communicative language teaching, it has become widely accepted that communicative competence should be the goal of langnage education, cantral to good classroom practice The understanding of communicative competence has Leen influenced by the field of

‘pragmatics and the philosophy of language conceming speech acts

Research results from contrastive analysis of discourse and acts such as

compliment, apology indicale that appropriaten

sin a particular situation in onc culture may not become the same in another culture, So acquizing sociolinguistic norms

is actually acquiring the culture in which the language is used

Savignon (1997) adds that thor cxists the intorrelation among the four

components in increasing communicative competence

| Linguintic knowledge (verbal and non-verbal elements, pattems of elements in pasticular speech event, range of possible variants, meaning of variants in particular situations)

2 Interacting skills (perception of salient features in communicative situations; sclcction and interpretation of forms appropriate to specific situations, role and

relationship, norms of interaction and interpretation; strategies for achieving goals)

3 Cultural knowledge (social structure, values and aliitudss, cognitive map’schema, enculturation processes)

Nguyen Quang (2001: 68) states that communicative competence is the shared

ommpaoncrtts mentio

Despite the disagreement among scholars about its components, all rescarchers

postulate the existence of communicative competence

A popular cultural framework was proposed by Tall (1973, 1990), in which he states that all cultures can be situated in relation to one another through the styles in which they communicate In some cultures, such as these of North America and much of

Wesierm Europe, communication occars predominantly through cxpticil slaternents in

text and speech, and they are thus categorized as low-context cultures, In other cultures, such as Asia, much of the Middle East, Aftica, and South America, messages include other communicative cues such as body language and the usc of silence, and thus, known as high-context cultures, Essentially, high-context communication involves implying a message through that which is not uttered This includes the situation, behavior, and para-verbal curs as inlegral parts of the communiealed message Thess

terms such as “high-context and low-context culture”, “non-verbal commmmnication” and

“paralanguage” will be investigaled in the following sections

1.2 High-context culture vs, Low-context culture

1.2.1, Definitions and differences

High-context (HC) culture and the contrasting low-context (LC) culture arc

terms presented by Hall in his book Beyond Culture (1976) Hall states that HC

transactions fealure pre-programmed information that is in the receiver and in the selling, with only minimal infonmation in the transmitted message LC transactions are the reverse Most of the information must be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context

High-context culture refers to a culture's tendeney to usc high-context messages over low-context messages in routine communication ‘This choice of communication styles Iranstales into a cullure that will cater lowards in-groups;, an in-group being a group that has similar experiences and expectations, from which mferences are drawn Ina high-context culture, many things are left unsaid, letting the culture explain Words and word choice become very important in higher context communication, since a few words can communicate a complex message very cfitctively to an in-group (but less effectively outside that group), while in a lower context culture, the communicator needs

to be much more explicil and the value of a single word is less importanl

LC culture refers to a culture’s tendency to cater towards in-eroups Low context cultures, such as Germany or the United States make nmch less extensive use of such sintilar experiences and expectations lo communicate, Much more is explained through words or verbalization, instead of the context

Viet Nam and most Asian countries are classified as TIC cultures The U.S.A and Canada, along with Northcrn Europcan countrics, are classificd as LC This is, of comsc,

an oversimplification, Within 2 LC culture, welll find ourselves in high-context

situations and vice-versa Kor example, within a LC American culture communications

among family members arc generally HC heeause of the high level of shared experience, For our purposes, though, we will rely om the broad-brush definition,

erbally explicil commurieation,

« More internalized understandings of what is communicated

* Multiple cross-cutting ties and intersections with others

+ Long term relationships

+ Strong boundaries- who is accepted as belonging vs who is considered an

"ontsider"

«Knowledge is situational, relational

* Decisions and activities focus around personal thee-to-face relationships, often

around a central person who has authority,

For cxamples: Small religions congregations, « party with friends, family gathermys, expensive gourmet restaurants and aeighborhood restaurants with a regular clientele,

undergraduate on-campus friendships, regular pick-up games, hosting a friend in vour

home overnight

Different from a high-context culture, a low-context can be seen as:

* Rule oriented, people play by external rules

+ More knowledge is codified, public, extemal, and accessible

+ Sequencing, separation - of time, of space, of activities, of relationships

© More interpersonal connections of shorter duration

+ Knowledge is more often transferable

« ‘Task-centered Decisions and activities focus around what needs to be done, division of rzsponsibititics

For examples: large US airports, a chain supermarket, a cafeteria, a convenience store,

sports where rules are clearly laid out, a motel

While these terms are sometimes uscful in describing some aspects of a culture,

one can never say a culture is “high” or “low because societies all contain both modes

"High" and "low" are therefore less relevant as a description of a whale people, and

qwore uscful to deseribe and understand particular situations and cnvironrncts

1.2.2 High and low context situations

to pwaticipate in the meetings, However, if this is a small town, pertaps the peuple who sun the PTA alll know each other very well and have many overlapping interests, They may “agree” on what should be discussed or what should happen without ever really talking about it, they have unconscions, unexpressed vatnes that influence their decisions Other parents from outside may not understand how decisions arc actually being made, So the PIA is still low-context, but it has a high-context subgroup that is in tum pial of a high-conlext stall town sociely

When we enter a HC situation, it does not immediately become a LC culture just because we came in the door it is still a high-context culturs and we are just ignorant,

we can form relationships fairly soon, and because the important thing is accomplishing,

a task rather than fecling our way into a rcfationship)

Many researchers have found that people in high-context cultures tend to be more implicit in verbal codes, perceive highly verbal persons less attractive, tend to be nore reliant on and timed ino non-verbal communication, and expect lo have more none

verbal codes in communication.

12

1.3 Non-verbal communication

Communivation is the trmsfor of information, ideas and emotions from onz person to another, Most of us spend about 75 percent of our waking hours communicating our knowledge, thoughts, and ideas to others Ilowever, most of us fail

to realize that a grcat deal of our communication is of a non-verbal foum as opposed to the oral and written forms

‘The last decades have seen ä bemendous upsurge in research and popular interest

in the phenomena of nonverbal communication In its narrow and accurate sense, nonverbal behavior refers to actions as distinct fom speech It thus includes facial expressions, hand and arm gestures, postures positions, and various movements of the body or the legs and fect, It may also includs the way we wear our clothes or the silence

we keep, Therefore, we can say that silznoe/pauses are considered as one of non-verbal behaviors,

In his book, Nonverbal communication, Atbert Mebrabian (1972) states that nonverbal communication (NVC) is the act of imparting or interchanging thoughts, opinions, or information without the use of spoken words Nonverbal connnurication is used as a key variable to determine people's attitudes, values, and belicfs For cxample,

an observer watching a focus group will pay special attention to the nonverbal cuss of gtoup interaction, such as body language, facial expressions, and eye contact, ta identity group members! true feetings about an issue

in The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, nonverbal communication is defined

as communication without [he usc of spoken language

Many scholars indicate that NVC is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages NVC can be communicated through gestures and touch, by body languag: or posture, by facial expressions and eye contact NVC can be communicated through object communication such as clothing hairstyles or even architecture, symbols and inforgraphics, Speech contains nonverbal cloments known as paralanguage, including voice quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress

13

Dance is also regarded as a nonverbal communication Likewise, written texts have

nonverbal clanents such as handwriling style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use

of emoticons

A3 can be seen from many definitions shown above, paralanguage and body

Janguage arc considered as NVC, however, object language and cnvironmental

Janguage, which are very important and can not be denied in communication, have not

‘been clearly pointed oul by those researchers Therefore, the author prefers the definition

given by Nguyen Quang (2008)

NVC is all the constituents of communication which are not verbally coded, but

vocally andior nonvocally channeled It includes paralanguage (nonverbal-

vocal) suck ay: speed, volume, vocal flow, and extra-language (norverbal-

nonvocal) grouped into body language such as gestures, postures, facial expressions, object language such as clothes, jewellery, and environmental

language as conversational distance, setting

‘The proverb “Aletions speak louder shan words? underscores the importance of

The term ‘paralanguage” is sometimes used as a cover term for body language, which is not necessarily ticd to speech, and paralinguistic phenomena in speech The Jatter are phenomena that can be observed in speech but that do not belong to the arbitrary conventional code of language

Paralanguage is part of the nonverbal communication and convey cmotions and attitudes, It may not only be expressed consciously or unconsciously but also include

14

vocalizations such as hissing hnshing, and whistling, as well as speech modifications

such as quality of voicz or hesitations and spezd in tatking Some examples of

paralanguage are laughing, crying, whispering, snoring, sucking, sneezing, sighing, etc

Tone of voice plays a fundamental role in telephone interactions

According to Robbins and Langton (2001), Paralanguage is communication that gocs

beyond the specific spoken words it includes pitch, amplitude, rate, and voice quality of speech Paralanguage reminds us thal people convey their feelings not onily in what they

say, but also in how they say it

Literature has shown that it is possible to convey the full gamut of emotions in text

The real problem is that it takes a long time and a lot of talent to do this Consequently,

itis not that text does not have cmotional clucs, but it is so difficult to put them in To

that end, with text, paralinguistic clues are:

+ Faplieit: Tmolicans, cartoons, call-out descriptions

* Style: Typography, layout, color, location

« Implicit Rhetoric, rhythm, sound flex, vocabulary

15

CHAPTER LL SILENCE/PAUSES AND TIME-FILLERS

1.1 Sitence/ Pauscs

According to Clark (1996), pauses are powerful cues for what is happening in a

conversation To usc them as a basis for analyzing culturc-specific behavior, we

first have to check carefully what purposes pauses may serve in conversations and how the usage differs across cultures As we want to build a computational model for

American English and Vietnamese, those two cultures are of special interest

In the book of Conversational organization Interaction between speakers and

hearers, Charles Goodwin (1981) describes his research on gaze behavior and

sanipulation According to him, gaze is used fo manage turn taking and to signal

understanding or attentiveness If attention signals of the listener are missing, pauses arz

used by the speaker to tegain attention In this case the duration of the silence is

(a) pauses signal some word choices, and

(b) may reflect decisions at major canstitnent boundarios

In addition, a third function is the semantic decision-making The matter of content and the function of pauses for the speaker are examined, Until that point, the speaker is simply a language generator which pauses cithcr in the course of normal decision-making operations or because of disruptions in those operations, However

® Mediating variables: e.g changes inthe audience situation and predispositional

Tesponsivencss to listencrs, and

Another usage of pauses is described in the book Politeness: Some uriversals

in language use by Brown and Levinson (1987), where politeness strategies are

constituted as øm aspect of social inloraction ‘Tho authors describe sơme parallelisms in the linguistic construction of utterances with which people express themselves in different languages and cultures One motive of these parallels is isolated — politeness, They claim the existence of conversational structure sequences and wilh it the intentional usage of pauses for politeness purposes, Note that a oarefAlly located pause can onthe one hand mean acceptance and on the other hand refusal, In their cxamnpte (where A is aman, and W is his friond’s new bridg) the siloncs conveys

acceptance:

A: Do you sing?

W: (silence) A: Hooray! Give us a song Whereas silence can also be a polite refusal Hke in a sitnation, where A asks B for a favor and B falls into silence Thus, pauses can be used to express refusal or acceptance in a polite way But the interpretation of the pause remains a challenge to