Page 206 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

184 Helga Kotthoff

5.3. Communicating honor and interdependency
The great importance given to formal and pathos-laden communication and to
addressing those present as representatives of larger entities, such as their clans,
their regions, or their extended families or institutions to which they may be-
long, marks stylistic and ritual differences to the corresponding genre of toasts
in western Europe or North America. In Georgia, the pathos-laden form of pres-
entation is seen as normal and is not felt to be bombastic or pompous.
While raising glasses and clinking them belong internationally to the genre,
in Georgian toasts an emotionally laden and sometimes even religious vocabu-
lary plays an important role, as we have just seen, and additionally, speakers use
metaphor, metonymy, and threefold lists of parallel structures to achieve aes-
thetic and emotive effects. Important textual characteristics include a marked
framing of the toast, more or less pronounced prosodic and syntactic line struc-
turing, repetitive use of formulas, as well as a special, picturesque and exclusive
vocabulary distinct from that of everyday speech; these serve to praise the
qualities of the toasted individuals.
In the toast social qualities of persons are often made publicly visible. Geor-
gian guests and their hosts expect positive mention of their families or native
regions as signs of politeness, as well as respect for deceased members of their
families. Similar to what Sifianou (1992) and Matsumoto (1988) write about
politeness standards in Greek and Japanese cultures, in Georgia a person is posi-
tioned in relationship to his/her social group and the duties it entails.
Interdependency and reciprocity can be identified as the central ideas in the
Georgian concept of “pativi.” In Georgia the honor of an individual unavoidably
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extends to that of his family and village (as in many Asian and southern Euro-
pean cultures, as well). Persons who honor others too little place their own
honor in jeopardy. In that sense Georgian culture resembles all those which have
been characterized as sociocentric (see Foley 1997 for an overview).
Culturally and morally bound conceptions are involved in many ways in
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encounters with guests. In comparing Western and Oriental styles of communi-
cation, we often encounter contrasting values of independence and interdepen-
dency. I have analyzed toasts as ways of communicating respect in social net-
works (Kotthoff 1999a). In toasts culturally specific morals (and the attendant
politics of feeling) become evident in the performances.
The repetitiveness of themes and formulas, the pathos-laden manner and
the verbal expression of hopes and shared desires remind one of prayer. God and
other transcendental forces are addressed directly in the Georgian toast. Hence,
it is hardly surprising that the guests respond with “amin” (amen). Indeed, culi-
nary events often combine with religion in all corners of the world, and even in
the Western world, within the religious sphere shared eating and drinking play a
symbolic role, even if that role is exclusively symbolic.