Culture is leaving conversation analysis, but is it really gone? The analysis of culturalist performances in conversation
Abstract
This paper traces the ways in which culture has been integrated into linguistic research in the past 30 years. Recently, more and more authors seem to cautiously refrain from considering culture in their linguistic studies. One reason for this cautiousness may be found in cultural anthropology’s concerns on the deterministic effects of considering culture as a concept of research at all. This paper proposes a concept for precise descriptions of culture in interaction avoiding the risk of imposing culturalist interpretations from a researcher’s perspective. To this aim, approaches from ethno-methodology’s membership categorization analysis (MCA) are combined with Judith Butler’s assumptions on the performativity of discourse and interaction.
Full text article
References
Abu-Lughod, L. (1991) Writing against culture. In Fox, R. G. (Ed.) Restructuring Anthropology: Working in the Present. (137-162), Santa Fe, NM, UVK Verlagsgesellschaft.
Auer, P. & Kern, F. (2001) Three ways of analysing communication between East and West Germans as intercultural communication. In di Luzio, A., Günthner, S. & Orletti, F. (Eds.) Culture in Communication. (89-116), Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
Austin, J. L. (1962) How to do things with words. The William James Lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955, New York/Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Baumann, G. (1996) Contesting Culture. Discourses of Identity in Multi-Ethnic London, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Bergmann, J. (2010) Die kategoriale Herstellung von Ethnizität - Ethnomethodologische Überlegungen zur Ethnizitätsforschung. In Müller, M. & Zifonun, D. (Eds.) Ethnowissen. Soiologische Beiträge zu ethnischer Differenzierung und Migration. (156-169), Wiesbaden, VS Verlag.
Blum-Kulka, S., House, J. & Kasper, G. (Eds.) (1989) Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies, Norwood, N. J., Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1978) Universals in language usage: politeness phenomena. In Goody, E. (Ed.) Questions and Politeness. (56-289), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Brumann, C. (1999) Writing for culture: Why a successful concept should not be discarded. Current Anthropology, 40(S1), S1-S13.
Bühler, K. (1982 [1934]) Sprachtheorie. Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache, Stuttgart/New York.
Bührig, K. & Ten Thije, J. D. (Eds.) (2006) Beyond Misunderstanding. Linguistic Analyses of Intercultural Communication, Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, John Benjamins.
Busch, D. (2009) The notion of culture in linguistic research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 10(1), Art. 50, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901508
Busch, D. (2010) Shopping in hospitality: situational constructions of customer-vendor relationships among shopping tourists at a bazaar on the German-Polish border. Language and Intercultural Communication, 10(1), 72-89.
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York/ London, Routledge.
Butler, J. (1993) Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex", New York, Routledge.
Casmir, F. L. (1993) Third-Culture-Building: A Paradigm-Shift for International and Intercultural Communication. Communication Yearbook, 16, 407-428.
Cassirer, E. (1947) An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture, New Haven, Yale University Press.
Charlebois, J. (2006) Community of practice involvement obligations. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 12(2006), http://www.immi.se/intercultural
Chiang, S.-Y. (2009) Mutual understanding as a procedural achievement in intercultural interaction. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(3), 367-394.
Clyne, M. (1994) Inter-Cultural Communication at Work. Cultural Values in Discourse, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Condon, J. C. & Yousef, F. S. (1975) An Introduction to Intercultural Communication, Indianapolis/ New York, Bobbs-Merril.
Corder, S. & Meyerhoff, M. (2007) Communities of practice in the analysis of intercultural communication. In Kotthoff, H. & Spencer-Oatey, H. (Eds.) Handbook of Intercultural Communication. (441-461), Berlin/ New York, Mouton de Gruyter.
Day, D. (1994) Tang's dilemma and other problems: ethnification processes at some multicultural workplaces. Pragmatics, 4(3), 315-336.
Day, D. (2006) Ethnic and social groups and their linguistic categorization. In Bührig, K. & Ten Thije, J. D. (Eds.) Beyond Misunderstanding. Linguistic Analyses of Intercultural Communication. (218-244), Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, Benjamins.
Derrida, J. (1967) L'écriture et la différence, Paris, Éditions du Seuil.
Ehlich, K. & Rehbein, J. (1986) Muster und Institution, Frankfurt/Main, Peter Lang.
Ehlich, K. & Ten Thije, J. D. (2010) Linguistisch begründete Verfahren. In Weidemann, A., Straub, J. & Nothnagel, S. (Eds.) Wie lehrt man interkulturelle Kompetenz? Theorien, Methoden und Praxis in der Hochschulausbildung. Ein Handbuch. (265-283), Bielefeld, transcript-Verlag.
Fetzer, A. (2007) Non-acceptance in context. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(4), 493-520.
Foucault, M. (1984 [1969]) L'archéologie du savoir, Paris, Gallimard.
Garcia, C. (2009) Intra-lingual pragmatic variation in the performance of reprimanding. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(4), 443-472.
Garfinkel, H. (Ed.) (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall.
Georgieva, A. (2009) Communication strategies as vehicles of intercultural border crossing. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(3), 291-314.
Goddard, C. & Wierzbicka, A. (2004) Cultural scripts: What are they and what are they good for? Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(2), 153-166.
Goodenough, W. H. (1957) Cultural anthropology and linguistics. In Garvin, P. C. (Ed.) Report of the Seventh Annual Roundtable Meeting on Linguistics and Language Study. (167-173), Washington, DC, Georgetown University.
Grice, H. P. (1975) Logic and conversation. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. L. (Eds.) Syntax and Semantics. Vol 3: Speech Acts. (41-58), New York, Academic Press.
Gumperz, J. J. (1978) The conversational analysis of interethnic communication. In Ross, E. L. (Ed.) Interethnic Communication. (13-31), Athens, The University of Georgia Press.
Haas, H. (2009) Das interkulturelle Paradigma, Passau, Verlag Karl Stutz.
Habermas, J. (1983) Diskursethik: Notizen zu einem Begründungsprogramm. In Habermas, J. (Ed.) Moralbewußtsein und kommunikatives Handeln. Frankfurt/Main, Suhrkamp.
Hall, E. T. (1976) Beyond Culture, New York, Random House.
Hester, S. & Eglin, P. (Eds.) (1997) Culture in Action. Studies in Membership Categorization Analysis, Washington, DC, International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis & University Press of America.
Hinnenkamp, V. (1987) Foreigner talk, code-switching and the concept of trouble. In Knapp, K., Enninger, W. & Knapp-Potthoff, A. (Eds.) Analyzing Intercultural Communication. (137-180), Berlin/New York /Amsterdam, Mouton de Gruyter.
Hofstede, G. (1980) Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, Beverly Hills, CA., Sage.
House, J. (1997) Translation Quality Assessment. A Model Revisited, Tübingen, Narr.
Hu, A. (2006) Mehrsprachigkeit und Mehrkulturalität in autobiographischer Perspektive. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen (FLuL). Themenheft "Sprachdidaktik interkulturell", hg. v. Gnutzmann, C./Königs, F. G., 35, 183-200.
Hymes, D. H. (1964) Introduction: Towards ethnographies of communication: The analysis of communicative events. American Anthropologist, 66(6), 1-34.
Jakobson, R. & Halle, M. (1956) Fundamentals of language, 's-Gravenhage,, Mouton.
Jalbert, P. L. (Ed.) (1999) Media Studies: Ethnomethodological Approaches, Lanham/New York/Oxford, University Press of America.
Jayyusi, L. (1984) Categorization and the Moral Order, Boston, London, Melbourne, Henley, Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jiang, X. (2006) Cross-cultural pragmatic differences in US and Chinese press-conferences: The case of the North Korea nuclear crisis. Discourse & Society, 17(2), 237-257.
Kasper, G. (2004) Speech acts in (inter)action: Repeated questions. Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(1), 125-133.
Knapp, K., Enninger, W. & Knapp-Potthoff, A. (Eds.) (1987) Analyzing Intercultural Communication, Berlin/New York /Amsterdam, Mouton de Gruyter.
Koole, A. J. & Ten Thije, J. D. (1994) The Construction of Intercultural Discourse. Team Discussions of Educational Advisers, Amsterdam/Atlanta, Rodopi.
Leech, G. N. (1983) The Tact Maxim. In Leech, G. N. (Ed.) Principles of Pragmatics. (104-130), New York, Longman.
Lepper, G. (2000) Categories in Text and Talk: A Practical Introduction to Categorization Analysis, London, Sage.
Mauranen, A. (2009) Chunking in ELF: Expressions for managing interaction. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(2), 217-233.
Meeuwis, M. (1994) Leniency and testiness in intercultural communication: Remarks on ideology and context in interactional sociolinguistics. Pragmatics, 4(3), 391-408.
Moermann, M. (1988) Talking Culture. Ethnography and Conversation Analysis, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press.
Moosmüller, A. (2007) Interkulturelle Kommunikation aus ethnologischer Sicht. In Moosmüller, A. (Ed.) Interkulturelle Kommunikation - Konturen einer Disziplin. (13-49), Münster/München/New York/Berlin, Waxmann.
O'Driscoll, J. (2007) Brown & Levinson's face: How it can - and can't - help us to understand interaction across cultures. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(4), 463-492.
Pallotti, G. & Varcasia, C. (2008) Service telephone call openings: A comparative study on five European languages. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 17(2008), http://www.immi.se/intercultural
Phipps, A. M. (2007) Learning the Arts of Linguistic Survival: Languaging, Tourism, Life, Clevedon, Channel View Publ.
Poncini, G. (2002) Investigating discourse at business meetings with multicultural participation. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 40(4), 345-373.
Rehbein, J. (Ed.) (1985) Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Tübingen.
Rehbein, J. (2006) The cultural apparatus. Thoughts on the relationship between language, culture, and society. In Bührig, K. & Ten Thije, J. D. (Eds.) Beyond Misunderstanding. Linguistic Analyses of Intercultural Communication. (43-96), Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, Benjamins.
Roberts, C., SarangI, S. & MosS, B. (2004) Presentation of self and symptoms in primary care consultations involving patients from non-English speaking backgrounds. Communication & Medicine, 1(2), 159-169.
Sacks, H. (1974) On the Analysability of Stories by Children. In Turner, R. (Ed.) Ethnomethodology. Selected Readings. (216-323), Harmondsworth, Penguin.
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation. Vol. 1, Oxford, Blackwell.
Sarangi, S. (1994) Intercultural or not? Beyond celebration of cultural differences in miscommunication analysis. Pragmatics, (4:3), 409-427.
Saussure, F. D., BallY, C., Sechehaye, C. A. & Riedlinger, A. (1931) Cours de linguistique générale, Paris,, Payot.
Schutz, A. (1967) The Phenomenology of the Social World, [Evanston, Ill.], Northwestern University Press.
Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. B. K. (1981) Narrative, Literacy and Face in Interethnic Communication, Norwood, N. J., Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Searle, J. R. (1969) Speech Acts, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Seidlhofer, B. (2009) Accommodation and the idiom principle in English as a Lingua Franca. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(2), 195-215.
Spencer-Oatey, H. (Ed.) (2000) Culturally Speaking. Managing Rapport through Talk Across Cultures, London/New York, Continuum.
Spencer-Oatey, H. & Jiang, W. (2003) Explaining cross-cultural pragmatic findings: moving from politeness maxims to sociopragmatic interactional principles (SIPs). Journal of Pragmatics, 35(10-11), 1633-1650.
Stokoe, E. (2006) On ethnomethodology, feminism, and the analysis of categorial reference to gender in talk-in-interaction. The Sociological Review, 54(3), 467-494.
Stokoe, E. H. & Smithson, J. (2002) Gender and sexuality in talk-in-interaction: Considering conversation analytic perspectives. In McIlvenny, P. (Ed.) Talking Gender and Sexuality. (79-109), Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
Stolcke, V. (1995) Talking culture. New boundaries, new rhetorics of exclusion in Europe. Current Anthropology, 36(1), 1-24.
Ten Thije, J. D. (1997) Intercultural Communication in Team Discussions: Discursive Interculture and Training Objectives. In Knapp-Potthoff, A. & Liedke, M. (Eds.) Aspekte interkultureller Kommunikationsfähigkeit. (125-154), München, iudicium.
Van Dijk, T. A. (1977) Text and Context, London, Longman.
Wierzbicka, A. (1994) 'Cultural scripts': A semantic approach to cultural analysis and cross-cultural communication. In Bouton, L. F. & Kachru, Y. (Eds.) Pragmatics and Language Learning. (1-24), Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois.
Wierzbicka, A. (1998) German 'cultural scripts': Public signs as a key to social attitudes and cultural values. Discourse & Society, 9(2), 241-282.
Wierzbicka, A. (2006) Anglo scripts against 'putting pressure' on other people and their linguistic manifestations. In Goddard, C. (Ed.) Ethnopragmatics. Understanding Discourse in Cultural Context. (31-64), Berlin, de Gruyter.
Yang, P. (2007) Nonverbal affiliative phenomena in Mandarin Chinese conversation. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 15(2007), http://www.immi.se/intercultural
Authors
Copyright (c) 2015 Dominic Busch
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal provides immediate and free open access to all its content and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means readers are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as proper attribution is given. This policy is consistent with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.