Abstract
Misunderstanding is an old and open question especially in the linguistic domain, but few concerns have put on this important topic recently. To reconsider this problem and offer instructive views, the new theoretical perspective and approaches are needed. A new theory “socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics” (SCA) dubbed by Istvan Kecskes offers a fresh angle for understanding misunderstandings. Other than traditional pragmatics and cognitive pragmatics, SCA standing in the middle point tries to integrate them and explain linguistic phenomenon with both social and cognitive factors. This study tries to examine misunderstandings under SCA, especially its view of Common Ground Co-construction. First, it is assumed that the root cause of misunderstanding lies in egocentrism, which are both an intrinsic property of verbal communication and a mechanism of individual thinking. Then, with a detailed analysis of CG co-construction deficiency and misunderstandings from the perspective of CG co-constructionism of SCA, it is illustrated how egocentrism causes different misunderstandings. In so doing, this study digs out the root cause of misunderstanding by taking speaker and hearer as a whole, and considering both the social factors and cognitive factors, which is a fresh practice on the “speaker-hearer pragmatic model” of SCA.
Highlights
Misunderstanding is a common “untidy” verbal communication phenomenon, [1] which often has negative effects and even creates interpersonal conflicts, which requires more time and effort to resolve
This paper mainly aims to discuss the egocentrism of communication as the root cause of misunderstanding by means of Common Ground (CG) Co-construction in SCA
This paper has explored the root cause of misunderstanding by using a new perspective of social-cognitive pragmatics
Summary
Misunderstanding is a common “untidy” verbal communication phenomenon, [1] which often has negative effects and even creates interpersonal conflicts, which requires more time and effort to resolve. In our daily life especially in casual talks, misunderstandings seem to be ubiquitous and difficult to avoid This shows that misunderstandings are not “errors” in the general sense, and their essential roots deserve further study. Zhou Honghui and Chen Dongchun: Understanding Misunderstandings from Socio-cognitive Approach to Pragmatics communicative nature and the overall process of communication, namely, taking speaker-hearer as a whole. From this point of view, Wu's research seems closer to this aim, and especially its research ideas are worthy of noticing and learning. [19] SCA provides a new perspective for exploring the root causes of misunderstanding from the perspective of speaker-hearer as a whole and the nature of communication. This paper mainly aims to discuss the egocentrism of communication as the root cause of misunderstanding by means of Common Ground (CG) Co-construction in SCA
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