Cultural Linguistics and Pragmatics In Pragmatic cultural schemas

Cultural Linguistics and Pragmatics

In Pragmatic cultural schemas a four-tier hierarchy is at work Pragmatic schema>speech act/event>pragmem e>pract

Pragmemes are: general situational prototypes of pragmatic acts that are capable of being executed in a particular situation or cluster of situations.

Practs refer to particular realisations or instantiations of pragmemes

Pragmemes are often closely linked with certain cultural assumptions and expectations

Cultural schemas that provide a basis for pragmatic meanings are pragmatic schemas

Our goal is to develop a framework for examining the relationship between cultural schemas and pragmatic devices

We're going to look at 4 examples of pragmemes and practs from Persian, and one each from Hungarian and American English -shekasteh-nafsi (modesty) --sharmandegi (being ashamed) --rudar-bayesti (respectful distance) --ta'arof (giving/accepting invitations, general etiquette) Hungarian: ne haragudj (on) American English: my bad

Pragmatic schema: Shekasteh-nafsi (modesty) speech act/event: responding to a compliment on an achievement Pragmeme: reassign the compliment to the complimenter Practs: I owe this achievement entirely to you, This is the result of your excellent teaching

Pragmatic schema: shekasteh-nafsi (modesty) Speech act/event: responding to a compliment on the taste of food Pragmeme: apologise Practs: I am sorry, I know it does not taste good It is not worth your while, my apologies if it does not taste good

Pragmatic schema: Sharmandegi (being ashamed) Underlies such speech acts as expressing gratitude, offering goods and services, requesting goods and services, making apologies, formulating refusals, and accepting offers.

“Mr. Anderson (Australian) and Roya (an Iranian immigrant) are neighbors. Each month when mowing his lawn, Mr. Anderson mows Roya’s front lawn as well. She is very pleased, and one day says to him: You always make me ashamed by mowing my lawn. Mr. Anderson then stopped mowing Roya’s lawn. ”

The Persian concept of “shame” associated with gratitude is meant to convey the speaker’s awareness of inconvenience caused =a mismatch of the pragmatic schemas at work

Pragmatic schema: sharmandegi (feeling ashamed) Speech act/event: expressing gratitude Pragmeme: express sharmandegi Practs: I am really ashamed, it was very kind of you You made me really ashamed, please forgive me.

Pragmatic schema: sharmandegi Speech act/event: making a request Pragmeme: express sharmandegi Practs: I am ashamed, my I ask you to help me? With utmost shame, I need to ask you to do something for me.

Pragmatic schema: Rudar-bayesti (respectful distance) Speech act/event: receiving an offer of food Pragmeme: do not reject the offer, even if you don’t like or need it Practs: I am already full, but I don’t want to reject your kind offer, so I accept it This schema encourages the speaker to refrain somehow from refusing particular offers.

Ta’arof “a verbal dance that circles around respect” Encourages the receiver of an offer to accept only after several refusals Pragmatic schema: Ta’arof Speech act/event: offering goods (e. g. fruit, pastry) Pragmeme 1: insist on the offer for several turns Practs: Have some of my food, please. Let me give you half of my sandwich Pragmeme 2: reject an offer several times before possibly engaging in a final acceptance Practs: Thanks so much, but I had some before coming here.

Another instantiation of ta’arof is when a speaker receives a compliment on an item in his or her possession and then offers the object of the compliment to the complimenter Pragmatic schema: ta’arof Speech act/event: responding to a compliment on an item in one’s possession Pragmeme: offer the object of the compliment to the complimenter Practs: It is not worthy of you, but please take it. Please take it as a keepsake from me.

Pragmatic schema: ta’arof Speech act/event: leave taking Pragmeme: offer invitations as part of leave-taking Practs: Visit us with your family for dinner sometime. You would make us very happy if you visited us sometime.

A single pragmatic schema may underpin a number of speech acts. An example from Hungarian: Pragmatic schema: ne haragudj speech act: apology/excuse pragmeme: politely bowing out of something you don’t want to participate in pract: Ne haragudj, holnap este nem tudok menni pragmeme: letting somebody know you’ve done something they will not be happy about pract: Ne haragudj, de sajnos eltörttem a képernyődet

An example from American English: Pragmatic schema: my bad speech act: responding to someone’s discovery of your guilt pragmeme: a way of non-chalantly acknowledging that you did it, while minimizing the gravity of the action pract: I forgot to tell you she called yesterday. My bad.

Pragmatic schema: my bad speech act: responding to a missed opportunity or mistake in a game pragmeme: a way of accepting responsibility and thereby seeming heroic pract: I should have passed you the ball more quickly, my bad.

“A thorough understanding of practs requires an equally thorough understanding of the cultural schemas and speech acts/events underpinning the pragmemes that are being instantiated. Since pragmatic schemas are by definition conceptual in nature and practs are essentially linguistic, the hierarchical relationship is conceptual at one end and linguistic at the other. ”