Abstract
In contact with foreign environment, the encounter of two (or more) cultures is common in situations with an incompatible cultural aspect. A typical example is T-V distinction. In most languages, mainly European ones, conveying social deixis oscillates between two poles: T and V forms. Present-day English is the only mainstream language with the absence of morphological markers for conveying T/V relationships. The present research examines the concept of expressing social distance in Slovak and in English, languages respectively having and lacking overt T/V markers, in order to specify the distinctiveness of English vs. Slovak lingua-cultural identity and/or discursive practice of the respective culture with regard to expressing social distance. This is done in two steps. Firstly, the underlying concepts (a lingua-cultural identity, social distance, T/V forms) are studied by means of the conceptualizing scheme (Kačmárová, Bilá, Vaňková 2018); its essence lies in accounting for and in aligning four sub-processes: frame establishment, encoding (pre-understanding), contextualization (salience), and code configuration. The conceptualization process utilized a set of principles (adopted from Clyne, Norrby & Warren 2009). Secondly, based on the theoretical results, the questionnaires were designed. The questions for native speakers of Slovak examined the preferences in the usage of T vs. V forms; the questions for native speakers of English examined the preferences in the usage of informal vs. formal ways of communication. The present study indicates that the conceptualizing process may as well be of hierarchical nature. Thus, the mere conceptualization of T vs. V or informal vs. formal may emanate from the conceptualization of social distance in terms of a set of principles, the conceptualization of the specific principle in terms of the relationship types, the conceptualization of the relationship type in terms of a specific culture and the conceptualization of a culture-specific relationship type through language means (T or V).
Highlights
Once conducted research on expressing social deixis in two languages led to an important conclusion that serves as a research problem in the present study
We argue that examining the concept of expressing social distance in languages with and without overt grammatical T/V markers must consider what the speaker is committed to in interaction (Haugh 2013: 41): “A speaker means something by intending that the hearer recognise what is meant as intended by the speaker,” and, the speaker is held accountable to the moral order for what he or she is taken to mean in interaction
The present study aims to specify the distinctiveness of English vs. Slovak lingua-cultural identity and/or discursive practice of the respective culture with regard to expressing social distance
Summary
Once conducted research on expressing social deixis in two languages led to an important conclusion that serves as a research problem in the present study. The study concerned (Bilá, Kačmárová & Kraviarová 2018) dealt with expressing interpersonal relationships, namely T and V (tous vs vous) address in Slovak and in English based on phonic realization of utterances. С. 344—365 utterances spoken in everyday situations, categorized them based on socially acceptable principles for T and V distinction, and subdivided them into two subcorpora (utterances complying with T-form and those complying with V-form lingua-cultural behavior). The important finding (and the tentative research problem) is that the American culture seems to apply the model of “dispersion” rather than bipolarity, which makes it an intricate task to identify V (vous) encounters
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
