Evaluating while justifying intercultural requests
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Victor Ho completed his PhD in Linguistics at Macquarie University. His research interests include pragmatics, intercultural communication, professional communication, and (political) discourse analysis. He has published in the Journal of Pragmatics, Discourse Studies, Text & Talk, and Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Abstract
Research into the speech-act request performed by people of different cultures operationalized at levels including nation, community of practice, and L2 speakers has identified and discussed sets of culture-related request-making behaviors. The findings of this research suggest that differences exist among cultures in request-making behaviors concerning the use and choice of request directness and strategies, rhetorical approaches, and internal and external modifications. The present study, with an intercultural orientation, focused on an external request modification element – grounder, an element that can function to build solidarity while justifying the request. The lexicogrammar used by both Chinese and non-Chinese professionals in textualizing the grounders accompanying their intercultural English requests made via email was analyzed using Appraisal Theory. The use of evaluative language in intercultural request grounders was then compared with that in intracultural ones. The findings indicate that while both Chinese and non-Chinese professionals demonstrated positive accommodative evaluative behavior in the construction of the discourse of intercultural request grounders, the non-Chinese professionals showed a stronger willingness to accommodate than the Chinese professionals. Possible reasons for the accommodation behavior demonstrated by the professionals of the two different cultures were offered and discussed.
About the author
Victor Ho completed his PhD in Linguistics at Macquarie University. His research interests include pragmatics, intercultural communication, professional communication, and (political) discourse analysis. He has published in the Journal of Pragmatics, Discourse Studies, Text & Talk, and Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Munich/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Black as night or as a chimney sweep? Color words and typical exemplars
- Pragmatic uses of person pro-forms in intercultural financial discourse: A contrastive case study of earnings calls
- Request patterns by EFL Canarian Spanish students: Contrasting data by languages and research methods
- Evaluating while justifying intercultural requests
- Forum
- Interculturalism, multiculturalism, and intercultural studies: Questioning definitions and repositioning strategies
- Preference structure in L2 Arabic requests
- Book Reviews
- Book Review
- Book Review
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Black as night or as a chimney sweep? Color words and typical exemplars
- Pragmatic uses of person pro-forms in intercultural financial discourse: A contrastive case study of earnings calls
- Request patterns by EFL Canarian Spanish students: Contrasting data by languages and research methods
- Evaluating while justifying intercultural requests
- Forum
- Interculturalism, multiculturalism, and intercultural studies: Questioning definitions and repositioning strategies
- Preference structure in L2 Arabic requests
- Book Reviews
- Book Review
- Book Review
