Interactional expectations and lingusitic knowledge in academic expert discourse (Japanese / German)
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Christiane Hohenstein
Abstract
This article deals with the relation of linguistic knowledge and interactional expectations in spoken professional discourse, more specifically, academic expert presentations in Japanese and German, L1 and L2. It argues that crucial pragmatic differences between L1 Japanese and L1 German corpus data concern linguistic means which process interactional expectations on the part of the hearer in language specific manners. Because of differing discourse procedures in Japanese and German, as hearers, German and Japanese L1 speakers hold differing expectations toward what a speaker is doing and how s/he is going about it. The significance of these ‘interactional expectations’ is in that they facilitate processes of understanding on the part of the hearer (H) by enabling H to anticipate illocutionary and / or propositional relations between utterances in discourse. After a short discussion of the concept of ‘‘interactional expectations’’ in section 1, the data and research context are described section 2. Drawing on corpus data, some of the characteristics and distinct language specific constructions in L1 Japanese academic expert presentations are outlined and contrasted with L1 German in section 3; in section 4 a comparison of an L1 Japanese example with L2 German by an L1 Japanese speaker reveals ‘‘pragmatic transfer’’ based on differences in the pragmatic patterns of L1 Japanese and L1 German discourses, specifically discussed with regard to aspects of social deixis/politeness. In section 5 supplementary evidence of a general difference between (inter-)actional and propositional organization in Japanese and German academic expert presentations is discussed with regard to fillers / speaker’s exotheses and prefatory actions, and in section 6 modals and connectives as linguistic means organizing discourse structures. In section 7, a conclusion is drawn focusing on the need to reflect on interactional expectations in multilingual settings, in order to enable L1 interactants to link non-L1 like linguistic realizations to actually shared discourse purposes in multlilingual constellations.
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Preface
- Changing language regimes in globalizing environments
- Sociolinguistic perspectives on emerging multilingualism in urban Europe
- Japanese language policy from the point of view of public philosophy
- Labor migration and the language barrier in contemporary Japan: the formation of a domestic language regime of a globalizing state
- Metroethnicity, language, and the principle of Cool
- Signs of multilingualism in Tokyo — a diachronic look at the linguistic landscape
- Politics, the media, and Korean language acquisition in Japan
- Econolinguistic aspects of multilingual signs in Japan
- Japan as a host country: attitudes toward migrants
- Regional dialect and cultural development in Japan and Europe
- Language ideology in JFL textbooks
- Beyond keigo: smooth communication and the expression of respect in Japanese as a Foreign Language
- Learning to read and write in Japanese (kokugo and nihongo): a barrier to multilingualism?
- Japanese language instruction and the question of ‘‘correctness’’
- Interactional expectations and lingusitic knowledge in academic expert discourse (Japanese / German)
- Foreigners and the Japanese in contact situations: evaluation of norm deviations
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Preface
- Changing language regimes in globalizing environments
- Sociolinguistic perspectives on emerging multilingualism in urban Europe
- Japanese language policy from the point of view of public philosophy
- Labor migration and the language barrier in contemporary Japan: the formation of a domestic language regime of a globalizing state
- Metroethnicity, language, and the principle of Cool
- Signs of multilingualism in Tokyo — a diachronic look at the linguistic landscape
- Politics, the media, and Korean language acquisition in Japan
- Econolinguistic aspects of multilingual signs in Japan
- Japan as a host country: attitudes toward migrants
- Regional dialect and cultural development in Japan and Europe
- Language ideology in JFL textbooks
- Beyond keigo: smooth communication and the expression of respect in Japanese as a Foreign Language
- Learning to read and write in Japanese (kokugo and nihongo): a barrier to multilingualism?
- Japanese language instruction and the question of ‘‘correctness’’
- Interactional expectations and lingusitic knowledge in academic expert discourse (Japanese / German)
- Foreigners and the Japanese in contact situations: evaluation of norm deviations
