LINGUIST List 14.865

Tue Mar 25 2003

Books: Pragmatics: Wierzbicka

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. mouton, Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Wierzbicka

		
Title: Cross-Cultural Pragmatics
Series Title: The Semantics of Human Interaction
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter
 http://www.degruyter.de/hling.html
			
Availability: Available
 
Author: Anna Wierzbicka, Australian National University 

Paperback: ISBN: 3110177692, Pages: xxxviii, 502, Price: Euro 29.95 /
	 sFr 48,- / USD $29.95
Comment: Second edition
			
Abstract:
			
This book challenges the approaches to human interaction based on
supposedly universal 'maxims of conversation' and 'principles of
politeness,' which fly in the face of reality as experienced by
millions of people crossing language boundaries (refugees, immigrants,
etc.) and which cannot help in the practical tasks of cross-cultural
communication and education. In contrast to such approaches, this book
is both theoretical and practical: it shows that in different
societies, norms of human interaction are different and reflect
different cultural attitudes and values; and it offers a framework
within which different cultural norms and different ways of speaking
can be effectively explored, explained, and taught.

The book discusses data from a wide range of languages and it shows
that the meanings expressed in human interaction and the different
'cultural scripts' prevailing in different speech communities can be
clearly and intelligibly described and compared by using a 'natural
semantic metalanguage,' based on empirically established universal
human concepts. As the book shows, this metalanguage can be used as a
basis for teaching successful cross-cultural communication, including
the teaching of languages in a cultural context.

Anna Wierzbicka is Professor at Australian National University,
Canberra.

>From the contents:

Introduction to the second edition

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1
Introduction: semantics and pragmatics

Chapter 2
Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts

Chapter 3
Cross-cultural pragmatics and different cultural values

Chapter 4
Describing conversational routines

Chapter 5
Speech acts and speech genres across languages and cultures

Chapter 6
The semantics of illocutionary forces

Chapter 7
Italian reduplication: its meaning and its cultural significance

Chapter 8
Interjections across cultures

Chapter 9
Particles and illocutionary meanings

Chapter 10
Boys will be boys: even 'truisms' are culture specific

Chapter 11
Conclusion: semantics as a key to cross-cultural pragmatics
			
Lingfield(s): Pragmatics
	
Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)

 See this book announcement on our website:
 http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=5678