Page 57 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

A cognitive pragmatic perspective on communication and culture 35

wee’s old-fashioned views which may easily appear sexist, or, at least, not
politically correct, in the modern Western world (e.g. A man’s sexual needs are
naturally stronger – more basic – than a woman’s; Men are not able, or they are
less able than women, to control their sexual impulses, etc.). So, in this instance,
communication will be less than successful in case the communicator has inad-
vertently conveyed some belief-assumptions which contradict those that he evi-
dently intends to convey.
Miscommunication may also arise because some evidence of the communi-
cative intention has not been recognized by the addressee:

(3) At a meeting recently held in Japan, an American was discussing two alter-
native proposals with his colleagues, all of whom were native speakers of
Japanese. The American was well schooled in the Japanese language and
was, indeed, often called “fluent” by those around him. At this meeting, pro-
posal A was contrasted to proposal B, and a consensus was reached about
future action, and the meeting then dismissed. Upon leaving the room the
American commented, “I think the group made a wise choice in accepting
proposal A”. A Japanese colleague, however, noted, “But proposal B was
the group’s choice”. The American continued: “But I heard people say that
proposal A was better”. The Japanese colleague concluded, “Ah, you lis-
tened to the words but not to the pauses between the words”.
Brislin (1978: 205), quoted in Gutt (2000: 78)

In this situation, pauses were intended to be recognized as produced with the
intention to convey something important for the interpretation of the words used
(i.e. that the speaker merely acknowledges the hearer’s view, whilst rejecting it
politely). The hearer misunderstood the utterance because he had overlooked
the communicative intent behind the pauses due to his lack of appropriate con-
textual cultural knowledge about the way pauses are used as ostensive stimuli.
The success of genuine communicative acts, such as (1) to (3), depends on
the informative intention being recognized. However, in many situations the
fulfilment of the informative intention depends on the informative intention not
being recognized. Consider:

(4) Situation: Zoë, a final year undergraduate, was waiting to see one of her lec-
turers to discuss her dissertation topic with him. After the lecturer had asked
her a couple of times to wait a little bit longer, Zoë came up with an alter-
native action plan, and said, roughly:

“That’s alright. I’ll come to see you later this week. I’ll first go and talk about it
with Chloë. She’s already started working on her dissertation, so she can help
me with the topic”.