Download (23MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository

Consolidating this array of findings, House (1996; 1998a, b; in press),
has identified five dimensions, along which German and English speakers
'habitually display different preferences in terms of communicative choice'
(House 1996x, 345) (see table 2.1).
Table 2.1. Parameters of German - English Communicative
Differences
Directness
Orientation
towards Self
Indirectness
Orientation
towards Other
Orientation Orientation
towards Content
Towards
Addressees
Explicitness Implicitness
Ad-Hoc Formulation Verbal Routines
Source: House (in press)
Findings from the analysis of a range of discourse phenomena and
textual materials provides not only evidence for differences in the realisation of
specific speech acts, but clearly points to more fundamental differences in
social norms informing how discourse, fellow interlocutors, and one's self as
speaker are normatively oriented to in verbal interaction in the two speech
communities. I shall discuss these issues further below.
Although approaching discourse from a different disciplinary and
analytical standpoint, Watts (1989) corroborated much of what has been
observed by House and colleagues. Based on a comparative analysis of two
conversations between English and Swiss-German family members in their
respective cultural settings, Watts identified salient differences which further
suggested fundamental social norms guiding speakers' orientations to
verbal intercourse and conventional understandings of facework practices.
59