论文总字数：35325字

摘 要

在全球经济发展之下，跨国交流越来越频繁。由于各个国家的语言，文化思维等都有不同，导致在跨文化商务交际中必然会出现语用失误，这些语用失误不仅造成交流障碍，甚至导致交际失败。因此，研究跨文化商务交际下的语用失误及其应对策略有着非常重要的意义。本文将从称呼语，问候语，赞美语，致谢语，特有的民族文化用语入手，将语用失误分为语用语言失误和社交语言失误，从词汇，语法，文化等层面分析跨文化商务交际下的语用失误成因，并提出语用应对策略，旨在一定程度上帮助人们解决跨文化交际中的语用失误问题，提高跨文化交际能力。

关键词：跨文化商务交际；语用失误；应对策略

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 Researches on pragmatic failure 1

2.2 Researches on cross-cultural business communication 2

3. Main Types of Pragmatic Failures 4

3.1 In salutations 4

3.2 In greetings 5

3.3 In compliments 5

3.4 In thanks 6

3.5 Unique terms of national culture 7

4. Causes of Pragmatic Failures in Cross-cultural Business Communication 7

4.1 On Lexical level 7

4.2 On Grammatical level 9

4.3 On Cultural level 9

5. Pragmatic Corresponding Strategies in Cross-cultural Business Communication 10

5.1 Better understanding of language and culture 11

5.2 Better understanding of context 11

5.3 Better awareness of nonverbal communication 13

6. Conclusion 14

1. Introduction

Cross-cultural business communication means that people put cross-cultural interaction in a business environment, where people communicate with language and share culture via business activities. In cross-cultural communication, people unconsciously carry social expectations corresponding to their own culture and guide their words and thoughts with the cultural norms and values of their own nation. What’s more, they substitute the behavioral pattern of object culture for the behavioral pattern of their own culture, and use it as a standard to make judgments for the words, deeds and thoughts of others, resulting in an unconscious carry of pragmatic transfer. Here come the pragmatic failures especially when people use objective language to deliver communication. Those pragmatic failures are revealed at all levels of language and in all aspects of language use.

In addition, cultures have their own features reflected in lifestyle, values, mode of thinking, time orientation and social norms. People lack sensitivity to these differences in cross-cultural business interaction. Due to the influence of national thinking and cultural habits, it is easy to bring their own culture into cross-cultural business communication situations, resulting in cultural collisions and cultural conflicts.

Based on the assortments of pragmatic failures and researches on cross-cultural business communication, this paper focuses on analyzing the causes and problems of pragmatic failures in intercultural business communication and raise the corresponding strategies to help reduce and avoid culture conflicts, resulting in the development of business consciousness in multilateral culture between partners.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Researches on pragmatic failure

In 1983, British linguist Jenny Thomas first proposed the concept of pragmatic failure which was referred to the failure of people to achieve perfect communicative result in verbal communication. He pointed out that pragmatic failure occurs so as the language meanings perceived by speakers are different from what they want to express or what should be perceived by listeners(Tomas 96). Anna Wierzbica and Moron de Gruter regarded pragmatics as a part of semantics. Their study shows that language analyses and researches are not only the study of language, but also the direction of pragmatics including pragmatic failure(Anna and Moron 110). Linguist Deborah Tannen is also interested in cross-cultural communication. Through the analysis of eight different levels of intercultural communication hindered and speech communication related to culture, Tannen explains how the two sides of communication express their attitudes through discussion and demonstration and different cultures have different communicator Types (Deborah 59). Gumperz"s discussion of cross-cultural communication failures is mainly embodied in the analysis of discourse strategies. Meanwhile, Gumperz shows us how human verbal communication develops and what factors restrict human communication, which plays an important part in study of pragmatic failures (Gumperz 256).

Since Jenny Thomas put forward “cultural pragmatic failures“ (Thomas 66), a number of domestic scholars have conducted in-depth research on them. Due to the limited space of this paper, here mentioned only some representative ones. He Ziran considers that pragmatic failures are related to the practical use of language. They are mistakes when people speak inappropriately, or failures when people unable to achieve ideal communication effect due to unhabitual expression and unsuitable ways of speaking(He 78). Cui Ning considers that Chinese students in universities are influenced by Chinese language, and some pragmatic failures occur in vocabulary selection(Cui 132). Yang Junting studied pragmatic failures from the aspect of translation and pointed out the corresponding translation strategies(Yang 343).

2.2 Researches on cross-cultural business communication

2.2.1. Studies on the fundamentals that should be observed in business interaction

Long Xiaoyun studies the features of business language and the use of politeness principle among business people (Long 24). Liu Shaofang and Guo Lei discuss the pragmatic principles and pragmatic characteristics of Business English from a pragmatic perspective(Liu and Guo 146 ). Li Zhitao points out that the politeness principle has better explanatory energy than the cooperative principle, which can explain the phenomenon of politeness and politeness in wording(Li 133 ).

2.2.2. Cross-cultural comparison of business communication

Liu Xiaoyun explores the impact of idioms on cross-cultural business communication(Liu 85). When conducting international exchanges, we should advisably use Chinese and Western idioms to effectively promote business activities. Zhang Jing and Sang Xiaolei argue that intercultural communication has a certain impact on the success or failure of business communication(Zhang and Sang 66). Zhao Ping argues that in intercultural business communication, language and psychological culture of various nationalities should be concerned so as to promote the normal and smooth progress of business communication(Zhao 57). Pan Hong points out that translation is a cross-cultural communicative act. Translators should adopt necessary coherence methods and strategies to create a new context for the target readers and achieve text coherence(Pan 74 ).

2.2.3. Study of non-linguistic factors in business communication

Wang Yongqiang searches body language in business communication from a cross-cultural angle and he studies four ways of body language communication that affect cross-cultural business communication: expressions, gestures, eyes and body contact (Wang 166). From these four aspects, he analyses the significance of body language culture in business interaction. Jiang Zhen’s brief talk about the use of body language which combines the knowledge of cross-cultural interaction, analyzed the meaning and features of body language. What is more, it analyzed the cultural similarities and differences between countries and regions, as well as different nationalities and body languages, which has momentous application significance for cross-cultural business communication.

3. Main Types of Pragmatic Failure

Thomas considered that pragmatic failure is “unable to understand the meaning by oral speaking”(Thomas 96). He Ziran defined pragmatic failures as “mistakes that people fail to achieve to have a perfect communicative result in oral communication”(He 225). Gui Shichun pointed out on pragmatic failures that discourse communication often depends not only on whether a sentence meets the syntactic criteria or whether it has formal meaning, but also on whether the speaker’s speech meets the specific communicative occasion, that is, the felicity of language (Gui 117). In general, pragmatic failures can be classified into pragma-linguistic failure and socio-pragmatic failures. We can distinguish these two failures in following forms of expression.

3.1In salutations

As to address，Chinese tend to have a distinct order of dignity and inferiority, while Westerners show more concern to the equality and intimacy of both sides. In China, people must call the person who is older than themselves “grandpa”, “grandma”, “uncle”, “aunt” etc. respectfully. In Anglo-American culture, no matter the superiority or inferiority, the elder or the younger, they can call their names directly. The closer the relationship is, the more fluent they are to call their names unhesitatingly. In the west, the elder sometimes name the young “Son” to show kindness. But in Chinese culture, calling a person “Son” is regarded an insult to them. In British and American culture, primary and secondary school students usually call their teacher “Miss”, “Mr.” plus surname, or “Sir”, “Miss”, “Madam”. In universities, they usually use “academic or professional title” plus family name, such as “Professor Clark”. In China, school children greet their teachers by surname Teacher. In English, if you say “Hello, Teacher” directly, it’s a joke. When I was in Korea, an American professor was very interesting. I usually greeted him by his name. One day, when I said “hello, teacher” directly, he answered “hello, students”, which impressed me deeply.

3.2 In greetings

When Westerners meet each other, greetings are usually “Good morning / afternoon / evening!”, “How are you?” and “Nice to meet you.” People with close relationships can also greet each other with “Hello” or “Hi”. In China, “Where are you going?” or “What are you doing?” are also common greetings. The purpose of asking is not to know the truth. In English culture, it is often interpreted as a personal privacy issue, and it is impolite to ask such questions. Chinese people often ask each other such questions in their first greeting: “How old are you?”, “How is your marriage?” “Where are you working now?” and even “What is your salary?”. In China, it is a courtesy to show mutual concern by asking the above questions. But Westerners believe that such questions belong to privacy of individual. British and American talk more about objective things when they meet and greet each other. In Chinese culture, people often greet each other in following way: “We have not seen each other for a long time, you are getting fat again.” or “You’re thin again. You should look for your body.” These are regarded as concerns for each other. But Westerners are embarrassed to hear “You are fat” or “You are so thin” even if they know each other. They think it is rude.

3.3 In compliments

Chinese people always pay attention to implicitness and restraint, which results in being modest about praise; the British people will accept praise calmly, which is a kind of courtesy. For example, when facing the praise “You have a wonderful meeting today!” Chinese response is generally “Not good, not good, far from it.” In Britain culture, such response will be understood as the other person thinks he is lying, which is a refutation of his praise. In this case, it would be appropriate to say “Thank you” in response to the Praise from English people. In Chinese culture, humility is regarded as a virtue. In western countries, when people receive compliments, they are happy to show thanks and accept it. In fact, the west are more willing to praise their partners in front of others, while Chinese think it is boastful and immodest. Because of the cultural diversities between Chinese and the west, we believe that western people are too confident and lack of modesty. When westerners hear Chinese people deny their praise, it is possible that Chinese people are considered as dishonest and thus have unpleasant feelings. In western culture, academic reports are believed to be realistic instead of being praised as excellent, wonderful or perfect ones. Therefore, students’ enthusiastic praise and compliment are a little overdone. The appropriate expression should be “I appreciate the lecture “or “That’s an interesting lecture”.

3.4 In thanks

Westerners often say “Thank you” to their friends or family, whether for a big issue or a small one. They express their gratitude frequently and naturally. In Chinese, people say “Thank you” only when they are helped by others. Because of this, the west feel that the Chinese are not polite enough. In response to thanks, the Chinese often politely say, “No thanks, it’s my duty.” (You’re welcome, that’s what I should do.) Westerners will say “It’s my pleasure.”. The west may feel Chinese response seems to imply that the speaker is out of obligation instead of willingness. In order to express their sincerity and enthusiasm, Chinese prefer to invite the guests repeatedly several times, even to the point of compulsion. As for the invited guests, in order to show their demeanor, the invitation can be accepted only after given repeatedly from the host. The west does not demand others, otherwise it is regarded as interfering with each other’s freedom. Because of such cultural difference between China and the west, misunderstanding is easy to occur: Chinese guests will easily turn down the absolute party because they feel that the foreign host is not enthusiastic or sincere; and foreign hosts will feel very embarrassed because they are easily refused.

3.5 Unique terms of national culture

It is difficult to translate the unique national cultural phenomena, such as the unique names of a nation, of a place, of historical events, system, catchwords and allusions, etc. For example, dragon, as a totem of China, symbolizes nobility and bravery in many favorable words and tales. So Chinese call themselves descendants of the dragon. However, in Western countries, dragons are endowed with the symbol of atrocity and evil. For instance, in the west, when poor tenants see rent-collecting landladies, they will secretly say, “The old woman is a real dragon.”. Don’t mistake it for a compliment. Actually, it means: That old woman is really fierce. Here is one more example. It’s hard for us Chinese to imagine buying food, drinks and other daily household items in a drugstore, since “a drugstore” in Chinese is a particular place in which medicine or drugs are sold. However, in the west, a drugstore may be part of a supermarket where common commodity like food or drink can be bought. if his or her west business partner bother him or her to buy a drink in a drugstore.

4. Causes of Pragmatic Failure in Cross-cultural Business Communication

Business communication is a vital part of networking communication. Both sides of communication use language all the time, the proper use of which will immediately affect the success of communication. Cross-cultural business communication has its own development in the global cultural environment. The multi-cultural characteristics of cross-cultural business communication make people’s speech communication present multi-level and multi-directional characteristics. Improving the capacity of cross-cultural communication is the prerequisite to make sure the successful accomplishment of cross-cultural business communication. However, the diversities of time, occasion, atmosphere and so on put pragmatic failures in such business environment. Here are reasons of pragmatic failure according to lexical, grammatical and cultural level.

4.1 On lexical level

There are few equivalents in each language of absolute same meanings. Firstly, some words have special cultural connotations in one language, but not in another language. For example, in Chinese culture, “bamboo” is compared as one of the four gentlemen. It has always been loved and appreciated by Chinese people for its characteristic of restraint and uprightness. It has become a vivid portrayal of the virtues of modesty, dignity and uprightness respected by Chinese people. However, in Western culture, “bamboo” does not have this metaphorical meaning, but is only used to express a plant name. Therefore, in business communication with foreigners, if you praise your Chinese partner using bamboo, it will leave a good impression. However, in western country, it has no meaning.

Secondly, some words have similarities in literal sense, but have diversities in emotional aspects. Taking the word “ambition” in cross-cultural business communication as an example, the corresponding word in Chinese is “ambition”. However, from the emotional point of view, “ambition” is more commendatory and more inclined to support and appreciate the describing object; while “ambition” is transmitted in Chinese. In Chinese culture, the term is often used to describe people who are excessively greedy for power, fame and wealth.

Thirdly, Different cultures have different taboos. Pragmatic differences should be paid attention to when some advertisements and trademarks are introduced into foreign markets in intercultural business communication. Favorable or positive connotations of the advertisements and trademarks in domestic culture may be understood derogatively in foreign culture. For example, when “Golden Chicken” (a brand of shoe polish) is translated into English as “cock”, export is bound to fail since “cock”, a dirty word, is a taboo in English. A famous Chinese brand of battery, “White Elephant”, was once unknown in the international market when it was translated as “white elephant”, because “white elephant” is the meaning of “large, useless and cumbersome” in English. “Red Star” furniture and “Fangfang” shampoo, if literally translated as “red” or “fangfang”, are not attractive to Western consumers because “red” means dangerous and violent in Western culture; “Fang” means long and sharp teeth in English. Therefore, when exploring the international market of products, we must consider the influence of linguistic connotations psychologically on consumers from different cultural backgrounds.

4.2 On grammatical level

Grammatical knowledge is helpful to the smooth development of communication, but people unconsciously copy the grammatical rules of their mother tongue into the second language leading to the negative transfer of grammar which leads to pragmatic failures. A typical example is the wrong answers to English tag questions. For example, in a business negotiation, when the foreign side found that Chinese side had changed the schedule without a notice, They might extend their complaint to the Chinese receptionist, “So you did not know that beforehand, did you ?”. The possible reply from Chinese would be “Yes, I didn’t know.” In Chinese understanding, the receptionist wasn’t not informed of the change. However, in English, “yes” indicates a positive response. This led to the misunderstanding that the Chinese receptionist knew the change in the schedule beforehand but didn’t inform the foreign party of it in time. If the receptionist answered “No, I did not.” according to the English expression habits, there will be less pragmatic misunderstanding. For another example, when the westerners ask “Is Welcome (supermarket name) open on Sundays?”, the Chinese answer is “Of course”. The answer will have controversial meaning in different cultures. In Chinese culture, “Of course” is used to stress the positive tone. However, the English listener would understand it as: “Only a fool would ask such a question.” The results are predictable. Here comes the last case, in China, one of the ways for government to manage enterprises is to assess the level of enterprises according to their management status and scale, such as “first-class enterprises of the state” and “second-class enterprises of the state”, but there is no such concept in the United States. If the Chinese side simply interpret such concepts as “first-class enterprises” and “second-class enterprises”, it is difficult for the English party to understand what to express and may cause misunderstanding. “Second-class enterprises” may be understood as bad enterprises. So, in cross-cultural negotiation, the matter of words and sentences must be paid attention to in order to reduce pragmatic failures.

4.3 On cultural level

Culture is a word with rich concepts. Essentially, culture is gradually formed and shared by a group of people in social activities. As a result, culture has national and regional characteristics. In intercultural business communication, if one party only takes the norms of its own culture and social norms as the criteria for understanding and evaluating the other party’s behavior and standards, he or she will generate pragmatic failures. For example, a white-collar worker in a foreign-funded company found his foreign colleague look pale and sick. He asked with great concern: “Are you sick?” In Chinese custom, it is very common. But in English culture, such question may frighten the listener. Care and sympathy for the health of others should be euphemistic and sincere. For example, “You seem rather tired, are you OK?” or “You look a bit pale. Are you feeling all right?” After this question, if the listener has no relevant expression, it’s better to be wise and turn the topic aside immediately. In Chinese culture, issues related money can usually be asked directly. But in the western world, it’s not advisable to ask a person such question straight-forward. If it is necessary to be known, , you have to knock around. What’s more, In English, the phrase “I hear what you say” can be expressed as “I can not agree and do not want to talk it anymore.” If you can"t understand the underlying meaning in business communication, the communicator who uses English as a foreign language may misunderstand it as “He accepts my point of view.

5. Pragmatic Reply Strategy in Cross-cultural Business Communication

To sum up, due to the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and values, pragmatic failures often occur in cross-cultural business communication, which leads to communication failure. Practice has proved that people with rich knowledge of the object cultural background have fewer pragmatic failures in cross-cultural business communication and are more likely to succeed in communication. If business communicators pay more attention to the study of pragmatic knowledge, they can improve their language application and intercultural communication capacity. So how to effectively avoid social pragmatic failures and unpleasant situations in business communication from multi-cultural environment?

5.1 Better understanding of between language and culture

Every culture gives specific meanings to languages. Languages of different countries represent and reflect the specific meaning and connections of culture, and also represent different concepts or referents. For example, in Western culture, dogs are known as human friends: A lucky dog, love me love my dog and top dog. The above statement reflects the love of dogs by Westerners. However, the feeling of dog by Chinese is different. Although people now keep dogs as pets, dogs are sometimes associated with derogatory words in Chinese language and culture, such as wolf heart and dog lung, fox friends, dog fighting, etc. Another example is that when Chinese see “moon”, they often associate it with famous literary phrases such as “thinking twice about Mid-Autumn Festival” and “bright Moonlight before bed”. But Americans often associate “moon” with astronauts, spaceships and so on.

There is another example, For example, when you greet foreign businessmen at airports, maybe you will say “Oh You look so tired. Let me do a favour, and help you with your luggage.”Actually, this kind of action will make your business partner surprised or even unhappy, let alone let others take their baggage for themselves. These mistakes lie in the neglect of cultural differences. Such greetings can lead Westerners think you look them as “physically weak”. In the Western society which advocates independence, we are proud to do our own thing and shame to accept help from others too much. On this occasion, the appropriate expression is “How was your trip?” “Did you enjoy your trip?”Therefore, understanding the language and culture differences does favour to a fluent business communication.

5.2 Better understanding of context

Effective business communication includes the dependence on understanding language expression and understanding context. Intercultural communication is divided into strong context culture and weak context culture. The communicative feature of strong communicative context culture is that words express implicitly and answer each other"s questions indirectly. The communicative feature of culture in weak communicative context is to express and answer questions directly. Strong context culture, such as Oriental Language information, is contained in the communicative context, urging communicators to try to understand the communicative content through context. Weak communicative context culture, such as Westerners’ language information, is in speech expression. All communicators can obtain relevant information directly from each other"s language expression. Oriental culture belongs to the culture of strong social environment, and its language expression is tactful and implicit. Western culture belongs to the culture of weak social environment. Language expression is direct and undisguised. The two cultures are completely different. When communicators of two different cultural backgrounds engage in business communication, different cultures need different ways of communication, different strategies of communication, different pragmatic strategies and different ways of communication. Different modes of exchange can cause obstructions and problems in cross-cultural communication. Understanding the different cultural patterns and exchange modes between countries is the basis for effective cross-cultural communication. Here is a dialogue as an example:

Chinese: I’ m going to New Orleans this weekend. (I hope she can offer me a ride to the airport.)

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