Culture and discourse

Discourse communities

One influential approach to understanding the relationship between languages and cultures has been a discourse approach. Such approaches view cultures as ‘discourse communities’ or ‘discourse systems’. Importantly discourse approaches reject essentialist views of language and culture. Rather they view culture as one of many overlapping discourse systems that individuals orientate towards and make use of in different ways, in different contexts, and in combination with other discourse systems. Discourse systems such as gender, ethnicity, professions and generations are seen as interacting with cultural discourse systems in complex ways, and are thus equally valid in understanding communication. Cultural discourse systems cannot communicate with each other, .i.e. ‘Chinese culture’ does not communicate with ‘English culture’, but individuals can choose to make use of Chinese or English discourse systems alongside other discourse systems they identify with and find relevant to the communication they are engaged in.

In these activities you will explore two influential discourse approaches to culture offered by Clare Kramsch and Ron and Suzanne Wong Scollon.

Activity 1: Three levels of culture and discourse

While it may not be possible to arrive at one all encompassing definition of culture, it is still necessary to elucidate the relationship between culture and discourse, if we are to analyse discourse in intercultural communication. In this activity you are going to explore one approach to understanding the relationship between discourse and culture, based on the writings of Claire Kramsch (1998) that distinguishes between three levels of culture.

Instruction

Select the heading that best matches the paragraph below it. Then read the feedback.

When people identify themselves through groups they are socialised by those groups into common ways of viewing the world. These views are reinforced through institutions such as the family, school, work place and government. These common attitudes, beliefs, values and world views of groups are often expressed through language. Thus we can use the term speech community or discourse community “to refer to the common way in which members of a social group use language to meet their social needs” (Kramsch, 1998: 6-7). Some of the features of discourse which distinguish groups include grammatical, lexical and phonological features. They also include the topics they chose to talk about, the way they present information and their interactional style – this can be referred to as their ‘discourse accent’ (Kramsch, 1998: 7).

Many of the social ways have developed over time and have become an unconscious part of group identity. The group can thus present itself and distinguish itself from other groups through drawing on its ‘unique’ history and the products and events that occurred over this time. These are kept alive again through institutions such as the government, schools and museums and are also part of how the group is written about and spoken about in the media and arts.

Another level of culture is the imagination. Communities share common dreams and imaginings which often expressed through languages help to shape, reflect and provide metaphors for cultural reality. Thus imaginings or images of England are inexorably linked to the interpretations given by the imagination of writers such as Shakespeare and Wordsworth. In another sense many discourse communities are too large for the members to ever communicate with all the other members. Communities are only perceived as communities through imagination.

Social synchronic culture
When people identify themselves through groups they are socialised by those groups into common ways of viewing the world. These views are reinforced through institutions such as the family, school, work place and government. These common attitudes, beliefs, values and world views of groups are often expressed through language. Thus we can use the term speech community or discourse community “to refer to the common way in which members of a social group use language to meet their social needs” (Kramsch, 1998: 6-7). Some of the features of discourse which distinguish groups include grammatical, lexical and phonological features. They also include the topics they chose to talk about, the way they present information and their interactional style – this can be referred to as their ‘discourse accent’ (Kramsch, 1998: 7).

Historical diachronic culture
Many of the social ways have developed over time and have become an unconscious part of group identity. The group can thus present itself and distinguish itself from other groups through drawing on its ‘unique’ history and the products and events that occurred over this time. These are kept alive again through institutions such as the government, schools and museums and are also part of how the group is written about and spoken about in the media and arts.

Imagined communities
Another level of culture is the imagination. Communities share common dreams and imaginings which often expressed through languages help to shape, reflect and provide metaphors for cultural reality. Thus imaginings or images of England are inexorably linked to the interpretations given by the imagination of writers such as Shakespeare and Wordsworth. In another sense many discourse communities are too large for the members to ever communicate with all the other members. Communities are only perceived as communities through imagination.

In conclusion Kramsch (1998: 10) suggests that:

culture can be defined as membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history and common imaginings. Even when they have left that community, its members may retain, wherever they are, a common system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating and acting. These standards are what is generally called their ‘culture’.

Activity 2: An inter discourse approach

Scollon and Scollon (2001) believe that in analysing discourse between individuals culture is too broad a concept and contains too much variability to be of primary use. They suggest it may be more productive to look at different discourse communities at the level of generation, gender, profession and corporate discourse and so forth. Nevertheless, they do not deny that wider understandings of culture are influential to this discourse communities. They identify a number of features of culture that are significant in understanding discourse systems. You are going to consider these features in this activity adapted from Scollon and Scollon (2001: 140-141).

Instruction

Using the terms given below complete each of the four paragraphs. Then read the feedback.

Forms of discourse
Ideology
Face systems
Socialization

1. : history and worldview, which includes: (a) Beliefs, values, and religion

2. : (a) Education, enculturation, acculturation, (b) Primary and secondary socialization, (c) Theories of the person and of learning

3. : (a) Functions of language: information and relationship; negotiation and ratification; group harmony and individual welfare, (b) Non-verbal communication: kinesics: the movement of our bodies; proxemics: the use of space; concept of time

4. : social organization, which includes:(a) Kinship, (b) The concept of the self, (c) Ingroup—outgroup relationships, (d) Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (community organization based on shared history and traditions or mutual interest)

References:

Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scollon, R., and Scollon, S.W. (2001). Intercultural Communication: Second Edition. Oxford: Blackwell.