Diagnostic Clarification

you do realize yours doesn't have to be about angry, right?
you decide what you want to focus on.you can take anything from your do's and don'ts and make some kind of test/diagnostic to get at the underlying system.

and i'm leaving the design up to your creative genius. i know you each have enough brain power in your groups to do this well. i anticipate being amazed. (:

some comments about today's presentations (:

hey, you guys did a nice job. i was proud on the whole. sorry the a/v equipment was a pia-welcome to my world (but i wish i could have prevented it for your sakes.)

For equatorial guinea, affection between men was a good point we should talk about more for all the cultures and our own. smiling too much as an indication of insincerity i thought was a wonderful insight and one i want to learn more about. also the provocative 'bird fluttering' hug. . . now we need some evidence.(: since EG is so isolated and has such a motley history, i'd really like to hear how you came by this informant and how he got here and why. it seems so mysterious and interesting--i've Never met anyone from there before. which i can't say about most countries! and what was the undrunk glass of wine about???? you have got to enlighten us! i loved how polished your presentation 'speeches' (for lack of a better word) were for each of your group members-that's the advantage of the preparing the CD ahead of time and you really used it well. you also really packed your information in to the specified time restrictions and that was excellent as well.

For Bangladesh, you seem to have a mature and knowledgeable informant. and your technology as far as the video was really nice too. (: i had a terrible time understanding his accent through the sound system of the room though, so it would be helpful to have more of that in writing (or recapped by one of you in speaking on your final presentation cd). i liked his observation/admonition about calling your friend's mother "Auntie" rather than using her name. that's a really nice way to deal with the respect/intimacy dimension in relationships like that and i can see how Americans could be really abrasive by not recognizing and adopting that behavior. i wondered as he answered questions if he wasn't suffering from so much exposure to western culture that he doesn't see the differences as sharply as he might have earlier in his life. of course the influence of the British in his country too would have a great impact on his perspective which in some ways might actually distort his perspective, but i have to think some more about this. next time i'd like to see a lot more of your group members and less of your informant (just pithy poignant quotes, possible with closed captions included (: ). On the whole though, you did a great job!


Malaysia, several very helpful insights. pretend that sex does not exist. (: we've all probably got family members somewhere on the family tree who act like that. i also can't say i'm wholy opposed to the placing of the teacher right under parents and God in the food chain. :) the significance of not leaving food on your plate was really counterintuitive to me,and is the kind of thing you'd really need someone to point out to you if you're American. it was a very nice touch doing the soundbites in the powerpoint. head touching was an interesting point and might be a good one for your diagnostic. how often do we actually touch other people's heads? in what contexts? clips from TV and film might be helpful. someone you are very very close to you might touch to pull something out of their hair or brush a loose strand away, much more acceptable among girls than guys, and it would be interesting to look into how often it is done between girls and guys who are not dating and how everyone feels about that. the fact that she had to make the point about head touching means there must be stuff we do that is not coming to my mind but which has obviously emerged often enough for it to be reportable. i'll talk about what framing is and isn't in a separate posting. on the whole, fine work. (:

Zambia, your informant seems great--really astute and articulate. i'm guessing that his youth helps him to have the contrasts still fairly clear in his mind. i think the older your informant is, if their age is proportionate to their experience outside their own culture, the harder it gets to recall the time when the new customs really struck you as 'foreign' and inscrutable. i liked that you were visible in the interview video too, not just the informant.
--i was also very interested in his point about how the wealthiest brother takes care of everyone else. i had several encounters with people from other parts of Africa that seemed to be operating under this rule too and i'd like to know more about it. remind me in class and i'll tell you some of the stories. also i have a zambian outfit i should remember to wear one day. that has a good story too. i was also interested by your/his point about sarcasm and (was it Angela?) how some of us can't imagine communicating without it! but we could use more information on this. what constitutes sarcasm? is there really Never a place for it? i can't really imagine a culture that doesn't use it at all. . . there must be domains and relationships where it is normative. this might be good for your delving-deeper-diagnostic (:

Guidelines for Developing Your Own Diagnostic

In debriefing your interviews as a group, you need to come up with an aspect of that culture that you want to do some kind of empirical diagnostic for, which will involve some American guinea pigs, and then your informant in your second interview.

For example, your literature and/or informant may have said, don’t display anger. Well, displays of anger can be extremely relative to the culture and to the individual.

1) So you could find 5 or 10 still photos or video clips that display what you would interpret as displays of anger (and some you wouldn’t ) and
2) Show them to about 5 people (per each group member) and ask them what emotion/affective stance you think the figures in the photos/videos are expressing. If you can find samples from members of your target culture to include in your diagnostic that would be more excellent. (Lebanese people looking mad to you, etc)
3) After asking what emotion they think is being displayed, ask them what concrete clues in the photo (etc) they judged to be evidence of the affective stance they attributed to the nonverbal behavior.
4) Then take that same diagnostic to your informant in your second interview and ask them to do the same rating task (obviously without first telling them what the Americans you surveyed concluded).
5) Write up what you've been able to determine about the system of the target culture based on your findings
6) Include this in your final presentation

Critiquing the Do’s and Don’ts

Analyze each cultural suggestion in your do’s and don’ts and point out what details are missing that you need in order to figure out the underlying system of the culture as I have done with some of the examples I posted on the blog.

These criticisms should lead you to an area that you’d like to probe further into by developing some kind of diagnostic that would help you determine what contextualization cues help members of your target culture to determine what choice of form for a given function they will choose in various contexts with various other participants.

Interview Questions for Your Informants

(first posted 10/2/08 7:017)

Everyone in your group needs to contribute at least 5 or 6 good questions for your group to use with your informant
[ ] Identify which questions were yours. [ ] If you e-mail them to me before your interview I will try to give you some feedback in advance, but that’s totally optional.

You are designing questions that will help you to figure out the ‘grammar’ of their culture by targeting the components of interaction that we have covered in class so far. The list of terms I’m giving you for review, the stuff on the blog, the stuff in the readings are all good fodder for your questions and should be well represented. You obviously can't ask questions about every term or interactional function we've looked at, but make sure all of your questions are substantive and in include as much as you can in your 5 or 6 questions each.

Following are some examples of stuff you may want to ask about:


Don’t waste any of your questions on random stuff like how spicy their food is, etc—talks about cuisine will eat up your time and add little or nothing to your project. If you talk about eating what you want to know is interactional- who sits where? Where is the seat of honor? Who eats first? Who serves whom? Do you pray or say something before you all start eating? Can you talk at the table? Can you leave the table when you want? Can you talk with your mouthful? Clink your silverware? Smack? Burp? Praise the cook, criticize the food, leave food on your plate or eat every grain of rice (a grain of rice, the Japanese will remind you, takes a whole year to grow!) How do invitations to dinner work, how do you know when someone else is treating, who should treat-in some cases the older person is supposed to treat everyone else, etc.
You want to find out what kinds of actions and semiotics are viewed as respectful, friendly, kind, humble, offputting, etc—the positive and negative face strategies and face threatening acts that an American would not be prepared for.

Greetings. Introductions, e.g, when are you obligated to introduce someone and when should you NOT? In Asia an introduction comes with an obligation on the part of the people you are introducing. In some cases it is polite not to make an introduction so as not to impose such obligations on people.
Address terms for various people inside and outside of one’s family (Mr. Johnson, Todd, Professor, Dad, Grandpa)
Pronouns of power and solidarity- do you have different words for you and I the way Spanish and Japanese do? (tu/usted, boku/watashi/ore, etc.)
Compliments-what should you never compliment? When is a compliment rude?
Complaints, apologies, challenges, arguments, invitations, praise, explanations. . .
What is a lie? Have you ever felt lied to by an American? Has an American ever accused you of lying to them when the same behavior in your culture would not be considered a lie or a transgression of trust?
Expletives? What are the worst words or most taboo topics of conversation?

What do you think is the rudest thing you have seen Americans say or do?

The meaning of various colors. Are there colors men should not wear? Women? Children/adults? Weddings, funerals, religious ceremonies? Cars? Americans love red cars-Asians love White cars! And the always say it represents ‘purity’ but I still don’t really understand what they mean by that because it is clearly not what Americans often mean by that word which tends to be honesty and chastity

The meaning of various animals—Calling someone a pig means they are selfish or dirty in our culture, it might mean something very different in another culture. Calling someone a chicken here means they are cowardly, but in China it sometimes means someone is a prostitute, I have heard. Dragons are villains in Western literature by heroes in Asian lore.

Most of all, how does an American choose from the various forms and functions available to achieve her/his interactional goals in a given encounter with specific individuals in specific contexts. What are the elements of interaction that serve as cues/determiners for the right level and type of politeness? What are the relative values of each component? E.g., is age more important than length of acquaintance relative to the same relationship in U.S. culture? What would make members of this culture love and admire an American interacting with them?

Independence Strategies (Negative Face)

Some Common Linguistic Strategies of Involvement/Intimacy/Interest:

1) Make minimal assumptions about H’s wants
2) Give H the option not to do the act:
3) Minimize threat
4) Apologize
5) Be pessimistic
6) Dissociate S, H from the discourse
7) State a general rule
8) Use family names and titles
9) Be taciturn (i.e. talk very little)
10) Use own language or dialect

Involvement Strategies (Positive Face)

Some Common Linguistic Strategies of Involvement/Intimacy/Interest:

1) Notice or attend to H
2) Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H)
3) Claim in-group membership with H
4) Claim common point of view, opinions, attitudes, knowledge, empathy
5) Be optimistic
6) Indicate S knows H’s wants and is taking them into account
7) Assume or assert reciprocity
8) Use given names and nicknames
9) Be voluble (i.e., talk a lot)
10) Use H’s language or dialect

Stuff to Review from Class Lectures (I may add to this)

Semiotics (and a grammar thereof), (Saussure)
Prescriptive vs. descriptive rules (Saussure)
Structural components of language
Multifunctionality (multiple forms for one function, and vice versa)
Power & Solidarity Axis (also Dominance/Affiliation, Distance/Intimacy) (Tannen, Lakoff, etc)
Three power/politeness relationships:
Lakoff: Distance, Deference and Camaraderie
Polite Fictions about “unmarked face relations”
Face, The Double Bind, (Bateson)
Positive and Negative Face Needs (Goffman)
Positive and Negative Politeness, Involvement strategies, Independence strategies (Brown & Levinson)
FTA, FTA Management Strategies, On (including bald) and Off Record FTA mitigation strategies
Repair strategies
Conversational Style, pragmatic homonymy and synonymy (Tannen)
Grice’s Cooperative Principle, Grice’s Maxims
Lakoff’s Rules of Politeness

Rules of Alternation and Co-Occurrence (Ervin-Tripp)

Communicative Competence: (Canale & Swaine)
1. Grammatical Competence
2. Discourse Competence
3. Sociolinguistic Competence
4. Strategic Competence
Pragmatic Expectancy Grammar (John Oller 1979)
How language and culture are mutually constitutive

The role and value of chunks and formulaicity (Bolinger)
Metalanguage, Metadiscourse, Contextualization cues (Gumperz, Bateson)
Turn Taking cues: gaze, falling intonation, audible intake, leaning in, anacrusis, creaky voice, syntactic completion
Pause Inspection (Sacks)
Rhythm (Erickson), batoning (Birdwhistle)
Keigo in Japanese
Back channels (Garfinkel) also called attention signals (Kendon?)
Breaching experiments (Garfinkel)
Turn Sharks
Adjacency Pairs, First and Second pair parts


Tu/Vous Distinctions (ie, pronouns of power and solidarity)
Terms of Address and Reference, (Brown & Ford)
Frame, Footing, Schema, Script

Applying the first section of Phillips to your project

what implications does your section have for your informant project?
give us a list of 5-10 points

if a term is introduced, be sure it is defined and in your list

if ideas are numbered in the text, that is a good indication that you should zoom in on that and include it in your summation

if a scholar is cited for an idea that is a good indication that the idea is significant

What to tell your informant

1) We would like to learn about your culture.

2) We would like to get a look at American culture through your eyes.

3) The dates when you will need them to be available to interview

4) The need for at least two interviews

5) The need to record the interviews (extra credit for video taping)

Obviously you need to have your informant’s permission to record-no secret taping!