The article we read for Thursday was really interesting to me because it is something that I have experienced first-hand. While studying abroad in Japan the use of the subtle grunt, "nn", to signify one's agreement or attention during a conversation was one the first things that I noticed while there. It is not altogether different from the use of "uh-huh" in American English but it something that strikes one as odd when it is first encountered. It took me a second to comprehend if they were actually interested in the conversation we were having at the time or if they were trying to show that did not care at all what I had to say. Also, the smiling and head-nodding that the article discusses is really true. They do a lot of it.
]]>In the article that we read for Tuesday the author briefly mentioned the Native American custom of using pauses between turns of taking the floor. These pauses, which I would think would be quite discomforting to most Americans, are something that I have read about before in other literature. I think this is a wonderful way to carry out a conversation and wish it was utilized more within the general population. The reason for these pauses is one of respect which allows the speaker and hearer the time to form a well thought out utterance and to fully digest what has been said before taking one's turn. It just seems to me that this is a completely rational way of carrying on a conversation and one that would seem more civilized. Just my opinion though.
]]>So thinking about the many different ways implicatures are used brought to mind somewhat of a correlation between them and politeness. More specifically how people tend to use the most ambiguous implied meaning when they have to tell someone something that is definitely going to hurt their feelings. So I am not going to try to give a really specific example, but I believe everyone knows what I am talking about. There comes those times when we try to soften the blow by letting someone know something through implied meaning rather than saying exactly what it is that is going to be hurtful. By doing this I guess we are also trying to lessen the blow for the speaker. I am not sure if this makes sense but if it understood I would like to hear your comments.
]]>So I am wondering if anyone else has the problems with implied meaning, via texting, that I have encountered. I have a particular friend who does everything in her power not to have a normal phone conversation and insists on texting only. To say the least this is somewhat aggravating at times. Anyway, even though we know each other quite well (personalities, humor, etc.) we have problems figuring out sometimes what is being implied in our messages. This is because so many implicatures must be accompanied by tone of voice, body language, intonation, etc. so that they will be understood. So what do you all think?
]]>So I am curious to know what you all think about where this saying (how are you today?) would fit within the Politeness Principle. The reason I ask is that this is something that everyone says sometime to someone during their daily activities. But on many occasions this is used as a greeting and the speaker is not really asking a literal question. Does this violate any kind of maxim in your opinion?
]]>Reading about this maxim made me think of a funny experience I had when studying abroad in Japan. In Japanese society it is somewhat mandated, through social constructs, that modesty reign supreme when one receives any type of compliment. If someone told you that you cooked a wonderful meal or created a beautiful painting, etc. then the typical Japanese response would be to deflect any praise and say no no, it's really nothing or something to that effect. Of course I did this on most occasions since it is culturally unacceptable to do otherwise. But, one of my friends, who was Japanese told me something that I could say when a native Japanese speaker complimented me on my use of Japanese. I must also say that she had a great sense of humor which is something that I found intriguing because hers was one that was comparable to the western culture more than that of Japanese. Anyway, she told me to say "I like to think so" when someone gave me this compliment because it will somewhat stump them because they'll never expect it and she was right. I would get the strangest glares when I would say this and the person paying the compliment would not know what to say after hearing such a statement. It was quite funny.
]]>So when doing the homework for chapter 17 I found something I disagree with concerning classifying speech acts. On the fourth exercise we are asked to classify some lexical items into as many categories to which we seem them belonging. So for "complain" I think this could be included as an Expressive because to me it does denote the speaker's psychological attitude toward a situation, event, etc. Cruse states that this "intuitively does not belong in this category." So what do you all think.
]]>So I had an instance yesterday during a conversation where what is understood to be the "weekend" was not the same between me and the person to which I was talking. I was talking to my neighbor and we were discussing the nice weather yesterday and I said that it wouldn't be lasting long because it was going to turn bad again over the weekend. She replied " I don't know if that's right. I think we are going to have one more day of nice weather." Of course I was referring specifically to Saturday and Sunday, but the weekend for her obviously included Friday. It was just funny because it is exactly what we discussed in class. I didn't go on to clarify because I didn't really see it as necessary but immediately recognized the misunderstanding.
]]>On the test we had to identify: The adviser keeps tabs on her students (or something like that). I said this was an idiom because you can't modify it as in: keeps many tabs on; nor can you change it as: keeps files on. To me this would make it lose its intended meaning completely. What did you all answer?
]]>I was talking with a classmate about the exam and we were discussing Idioms and Metaphors. We've learned that one of the aspects of metaphors is that they translate well into other languages. I am now studying Spanish and have learned some metaphoric phrases in Spanish so I thought I would share some of them with you all.
A la largia, lo más dulce amargia Too much of a good thing
El hábito no hace al monje The clothes don't make the man
En la variedad está el gusto Variety is the spice of life
Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
Quien ríe de último, ríe mejor He who laughs last, laughs longest/loudest
If you all know some in another language let me know.