Keywords: cross-cultural communication; Pragmatic failure; equation?of?time;?time?difference
I. Introduction
Any communication activity, whether verbal or nonverbal, is closely related to time. In cross-cultural communication, the difference of time concept often leads to pragmatic failure. This is because the concept of time belongs to the deep structure of culture and is unconscious. People often take their own concept of time for granted, which brings difficulties to communication. When communicating with foreigners, we often encounter such a phenomenon: a person who can speak a fluent foreign language, or a person with a solid basic language skills, often feels embarrassed in cross-cultural communication, which leads to the failure of communication between the two sides. Analyzing this phenomenon, some people often attribute this error to the speaker's lack of language knowledge, which is actually a pragmatic failure. Therefore, in today's economic globalization and frequent cultural collisions, it is particularly important to understand people's concept of time under different cultural backgrounds and reduce cross-cultural pragmatic failures. We look at cross-cultural pragmatic failure from the difference of time concept between China and the United States.
Second, the differences between Chinese and Western concepts of time
(a) Different time orientations
China used to be a time-oriented culture. The past time orientation means that people either keep the past in mind and treat it as something that just happened; Either attach importance to the old life and repeat the past [1]. China is one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, with a splendid cultural heritage of more than 5,000 years. Being ancient, old and long means being respected. Experience and qualifications are very important in social life, and old age is a sign of wisdom. As the saying goes, "if you don't listen to the old man, you will suffer." Before doing things, people always humbly ask their predecessors for advice. Connected with this, people worship their ancestors, respect the elderly and teachers, and attach importance to experience and age.
Different from China culture, the United States is a future-oriented culture. Future time orientation means that everything focuses on the future, and future orientation is their important value concept. Influenced by the "evil human nature" of Christianity in western countries, human beings stole the forbidden fruit, committed the original sin, lost the paradise and came to suffer on earth. For Westerners, there is no way out. Only by going forward bravely and constantly, and striving for the future through our own efforts, can there be hope. It is not difficult to understand that English and Chinese use different concepts when referring to the past and the future with "before" and "after" respectively. Therefore, learning from past mistakes to avoid future mistakes should be in English.
(2) Different time habits
Cross-cultural pragmatic failure from the perspective of the differences between Chinese and American time concepts: time habits are different in different cultures. In terms of time usage habits, Hall (1977) classifies the time of different cultural groups into single duration and multi-duration. One-way punctual people regard time as a straight line and can be cut into segments. They emphasize timetable and advance arrangement. People with multi-directional time system are used to dealing with several things at the same time, emphasizing people's participation and the completion of tasks, but not emphasizing that everything goes according to plan [2].
China people belong to a multi-directional time system, so they use their time at will, which is very flexible. To a certain extent, China people are masters of time and can control it at will. People in China seldom decide when to date and visit their friends. "Be there or be square" means that time can be delayed. Americans are typical one-way timekeepers. Hall said that in the western world, it is difficult for anyone to escape the control of social life by one-way time. Needless to say, business activities and even sex life are manipulated by time. This is related to the high pressure and fast pace of life in the west, and the resulting fast food restaurants, frozen food, microwave ovens and other daily necessities are all helpful to speed up. Therefore, there will be conflicts between the East and the West in the concept of time. Before business negotiations begin, Americans usually spend 15 minutes talking about some light topics about weather, sports, TV and travel to ease the atmosphere and enhance understanding.
Thirdly, the analysis of cross-cultural pragmatic failure caused by the difference of time concept between China and the United States.
(A) the definition of cross-cultural pragmatic failure
Pragmatic failure does not refer to the expressive errors in general diction and sentence-making, but refers to the errors in inappropriate speech or inappropriate speech and expression, which leads to the failure to achieve the expected results [3]. Don't abuse or apply your own culture at will to avoid cultural interference, communication difficulties, conflicts, misunderstandings and even hatred. This is what Jenny Thomas, a British linguist, calls "cross-cultural pragmatic failure". All kinds of pragmatic failures, including linguistic and non-linguistic pragmatic failures, that people make when communicating between different cultures are called cross-cultural pragmatic failures. The use of language is inseparable from nonverbal communication space, and nonverbal communication (including the concept of time) is also very important in communication, so nonverbal failures may also produce pragmatic failures. This pragmatic failure is caused by both sides of communication and is a normal phenomenon in life.
J Thomas believes that pragmatic failure can be divided into two categories, namely pragmatic language failure and social pragmatic failure. According to the above classification, cross-cultural pragmatic failure can also be divided into: language pragmatic failure and social pragmatic failure. The following examples are used to analyze the language pragmatic failure and social pragmatic failure caused by the difference of time concept between China and the United States.
(B) the time difference between China and the United States caused by language pragmatic failure
Pragmatic failure of language refers to the failure to correctly or properly use the form and pragmatic function of the language shared by both parties at that time to express their intentions. In cross-cultural communication, cross-cultural pragmatic failures are caused by different cultures' different understandings of the same or similar time forms. For example, a China student lent an American friend a book, and stressed that the first part of the book was wonderful, urging him to read it as soon as possible. The friend replied, "But we have already started telling the story." The China student thought he was reading the beginning of the story, so he said, "I know, but please finish it quickly?" The American friend thought he was urging him to return the book quickly, so he made a communication mistake. In fact, English and Chinese time terms are different in expressing time order. China culture is dominated by the orientation of past time, and people look at time from the perspective of facing the past: in Chinese, "before" means past time, and "after" means future time; America is a future-oriented culture, and people look at time from a future-oriented perspective: "before" refers to the future time, and "after" refers to the past time. Influenced by their mother tongue, China students transfer Chinese strategies to English. In English sentences, "in front" means the last part, while in Chinese "in front" means the first part. In the above example, China students think that "the front of the story" also refers to the first part of the story in English, but this is not the case. In English, it actually refers to the last part of the story, and China students often make pragmatic mistakes.
(C) Socio-pragmatic failures caused by the differences in time concepts between China and the United States
Socio-pragmatic failure refers to the failure of cross-cultural communication caused by ignoring or ignoring the social and cultural background differences between the two parties. In cross-cultural communication, it often happens that cross-cultural communication barriers are caused by not knowing the cultural background of the other party's social activities related to the concept of time. For example, when Americans are invited to dinner, they often adopt the substitution mode, that is, if the time is set at 7: 00 sharp, they will arrive around 7: 05, no later than 7: 1.5 [5]. China people are likely to be late for more than the host can wait, making people's meals lose color; It is also possible to arrive early and leave the host in a hurry, because the host may not be ready at that time, or the hostess is dressing up. America is a society with one-way timing. People regard time as a straight line and can cut it into segments. They emphasize that only one thing can be done at the same time, and the things arranged in one time period can be arranged next time. Time controls people's activities, and the host does not prepare for the dinner in advance. Delaying the dinner will affect the host's later schedule. China people are the masters of time. They can do several things at the same time, except for meetings and other important things, which generally do not need to be arranged in advance. Therefore, in China, the host can advance or postpone the banquet. This case is because the China people attending the banquet don't understand the social rules related to the American concept of time.
Fourthly, the coping strategies of cross-cultural pragmatic failures caused by the differences in time concepts between China and the United States.
In order to minimize cross-cultural pragmatic failures caused by different time concepts, both parties should try to understand each other's time concepts. The concept of time is a deep culture and intangible, which affects people's thoughts and behaviors all the time. In the new century of globalization and frequent cultural exchanges among countries, if we don't respect and understand the time concept of other cultures, we may have misunderstandings and cross-cultural communication may fail. I think we can do the following: (1) Improve our understanding of the differences between Chinese and American time concepts. When observing another culture, we often unconsciously take our own right and wrong as the standard, and no one can completely avoid enthnocentrism. When their time concepts are different, it is not appropriate to evaluate them, but to describe them objectively. (2) Flexibility and negotiation. The process of cross-cultural communication is a cognitive understanding of foreign cultures. It is not easy to accelerate mutual understanding by the efforts of one side alone. Both sides need to interact, explain their time concept to each other and make adjustments. For example, foreign teachers who arrange classes on Sundays can explain to their domestic counterparts that their country does not work on Sundays.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion
Different concepts of time affect the smooth progress of cross-cultural communication, and people's different attitudes towards time and their corresponding different social behavior habits often hinder effective communication. Time reflects people's psychological tendency to a certain extent, so it is very important to adjust the mentality and realize effective communication. Successful cross-cultural communication requires both sides to understand each other's cultural orientation and attitude towards time, and learn to be flexible and negotiate in the process of cross-cultural communication, so as to reduce unnecessary losses to individuals, companies and even countries caused by cross-cultural pragmatic failures due to differences in time concepts.
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