Examining the Impact of Perceived Cultural Distance on the Pragmatic Choices of Saudi Customers in Service Encounters

This study examines service encounters in Saudi Arabia from a pragmatic perspective. Its aim is to investigate the possible impact of perceived cultural distance between customers and service providers on pragmatic choices. It specifically examines how Saudi customers construct their service encounters when talking to service providers of the same (versus different) cultural/ethnic background in terms of discourse structure; strategies of request and internal modifications, and stylistic strategies. Three cafés with service providers of three different ethnic/cultural backgrounds are chosen. One has Saudi service providers, the second café has Arab (non-Saudi) service providers, and the third café has non-Arab service providers. Forty socially minimal service encounter interactions that take place in each café are observed and manually recorded. The study uses the framework of ‘rapport management’ by Spencer-Oatey (2002) as its approach for data analysis. The findings indicate that there are differences among the three sets of data in terms of discourse structure, the realization of the speech act of request, and the stylistic aspect of interactions. According to the special nature of service encounters, customers’ pragmatic choices are explained in terms of expressing certain degrees of social distance rather than politeness. More specifically, the closer cultural distance between customers and service providers, the more pragmatic strategies functioning to achieve more closeness and solidarity are employed.

Et Al.: New Voices in Arts Management

Et Al. imagines kaleidoscopic possibilities for the stewardship of culture and land as decolonizing practices. Culture and the arts can enhance society by strengthening our connections to each other and to the earth. This arts management book was born during a racial reckoning and accelerated by a global pandemic. What exactly is the business of no-business-as-usual? The ethical challenge for arts management is far more complex than asking how to get things done; we must also ask who gets to do things, where, and with what resources? Our task is to generate cultures that refuse to annihilate themselves or each other, much less the planet. Et Al. contributes to the conversation about arts and cultural management by providing rare, behind-the-scenes insights on justice-centered arts management praxis — ideas tied to action. The book makes space for people to publicly reflect, write, and share insights about their own ideas and ways of working. Its polyphonic voices speak to pragmatic strategies for arts management across cultures, genres, and spaces. Its stories are told from the perspective of individuals and families, micro businesses, artist collectives, and civic institutions. As a digital publication, the platform lends itself to multi-media knowledge objects; the experiences documented within it include ethnographies, qualitative social research, personal and communal manifestos, dialogues between peers, visual essays, videos, and audio tracks. This open source, multimedia book is structured into six streams which are numbered for their exponential powers: Stream¹ : Center is Everywhere; Stream² : Gathering Community; Stream³ : Honoring Histories; Stream⁴ : Shifting Research; Stream⁵ : Forging Paths; Stream⁶ : Generative Practice. The book discusses imaginative ways of generating cultural equity in praxis, and is an invitation for further imagination, conversation, and connection. Et Al. presents an interactive landscape for readers, thinkers, and creators to engage with multimedia and intergenerational essays by Amy Shimshon-Santo, Genevieve Kaplan, Gerlie Collado, Abraham Ferrer, Julie House, Britt Campbell, Delia Xóchitl Chávez, Sean Cheng, Yvonne Farrow, Allen Kwabena Frimpong, Kayla Jackson, Erika Karina Jiménez Flores, Cobi Krieger, Loreto Lopez, Cynthia Martínez Benavides, Christy McCarthy, Janice Ngan, Cailin Nolte, Michaela Paulette Shirley, Robin Sukhadia, Katrina Sullivan, and Tatiana Vahan.

Cuantificador todo en tiempos del Covid

The sudden onset of the Coronavirus pandemic created the need for contemporary societies to adjust quickly to new rules that frequently limit our civil rights. Governments are obliged to take decisions and inform society of such. On the other hand, imposing unpopular rules on potential voters can result in a loss in popularity that can be devastating for a politician. This is true even in the face of a force majeure. Therefore, from the point of view of the pragmatics of political discourse it is imperative to choose those linguistic devices that would allow communicative goals to be achieved while not compromising the speaker. In the official speeches of the Spanish Prime Minister that took place between January and June 2020 and which coincided with the most dramatic period of the pandemic, the frequency of the use of quantitative expressions, especially of the collective universal quantifier todo, is significant. In this paper we will analyse various uses of this linguistic expression that arise from the discursive pragmatic strategies employed by the speaker.

Examining the Impact of Perceived Cultural Distance on the Pragmatic Choices of Saudi Customers in Service Encounters

This study examines service encounters in Saudi Arabia from a pragmatic perspective. Its aim is to investigate the possible impact of perceived cultural distance between customers and service providers on pragmatic choices. It specifically examines how Saudi customers construct their service encounters when talking to service providers of the same (versus different) cultural/ethnic background in terms of discourse structure; strategies of request and internal modifications, and stylistic strategies. Three cafés with service providers of three different ethnic/cultural backgrounds are chosen. One has Saudi service providers, the second café has Arab (non-Saudi) service providers, and the third café has non-Arab service providers. Forty socially minimal service encounter interactions that take place in each café are observed and manually recorded. The study uses the framework of ‘rapport management’ by Spencer-Oatey (2002) as its approach for data analysis. The findings indicate that there are differences among the three sets of data in terms of discourse structure, the realization of the speech act of request, and the stylistic aspect of interactions. According to the special nature of service encounters, customers’ pragmatic choices are explained in terms of expressing certain degrees of social distance rather than politeness. More specifically, the closer cultural distance between customers and service providers, the more pragmatic strategies functioning to achieve more closeness and solidarity are employed.

«¿Y si empezamos por arriba a la derecha?» The Functioning of Proposals in Task-Oriented Dialogues in Spanish and Italian

Within the field of Cross-Cultural Pragmatics, the analysis on the working of the linguistic act of proposing in Spanish and Italian hasn’t attracted enough attention if compared to other acts such as, among others, requests, invitations, refusals and compliments. In this study we approach this topic starting from the hypothesis that two languages that are perceived to be close from a cultural perspective should activate similar pragmatic strategies when proposing something. Through the analysis of 16 pragmatically oriented conversations we will see that, along the lines of previous studies, Italian and Spanish speakers activate slightly different strategies when formulating a proposal despite the starting point.

In the Footsteps of Graphicons: Tracing Parameters and Pragmatic Strategies in Graphicon Usage

The textual intercourse in computer-mediated communication is intertwined with graphicons of various forms, gaining new meanings and functions. They are part of the online culture and, specifically, part of the communicative skills in digital environment. In many cases, graphicons are used not as signs of emotion but rather as indication of the illocutionary force of the textual utterances that they accompany. The current work endeavours to reveal the specific aspect of language use where iconoid objects “take over” and substitute textual utterances. The paper also attempts to trace to what extent pragmatics could be applicable in the analysis of the visual representations (i.e. graphicons) embodied in computer-mediated communication as means of communicative acts. The different graphicon forms and the dynamics in the usage carry additional challenge for the interpretation of the “visual” act. However, it is possible to systematically trace a pattern in the occurrence of the graphicons – their use as a complementary to a written statement, and their use as a single communicative act.

Incidental pragmatics learning in telecollaborative exchanges

This paper aims to explore the outcomes of incidental pragmatics learning in the context of a telecollaboration programme, with a focus on the speech acts of criticising and suggesting. The programme involved Italian learners of English and American learners of Italian. It was organised around weekly Zoom video calls over an academic semester. Every second virtual encounter was devoted to providing and discussing feedback on written texts produced by the partner in the target language. The discussion was held in the feedback provider’s L2. For this study, we focused on three intermediate-to-advanced learners of English whose data were analysed longitudinally. English native speakers’ data, collected during a previous round of the telecollaboration programme, were analysed as a reference baseline. Signs of development in the linguistic behaviour of the three learners were observed with regard to the pragmatic strategies they used to comment on their partners’ errors, but not in the distribution of internal modifiers and supportive moves.

L1 Interference in Interlanguage Pragmatics A Study on Requesting in Russian L2 and Italian L2

Within the field of Second Language Acquisition, a growing interest has been devoted to interlanguage pragmatics, in particular how L2 speakers use the linguistic means by which a given language conveys politeness. Being the speech act of ‘request’ one of the most frequent and salient Face Threatening Acts, the current study investigates whether and to what extent L2 learners of Russian and Italian transfer their L1 pragmatic strategies into their L2 when required to perform a request. Qualitative and quantitative analysis has been conducted on data collected among (i) N=9 Russian L1 learners of Italian L2 via role plays and (ii) N=38 Italian L1 learners of Russian L2 via discourse completion tasks. In particular, we will compare L1 and L2 production of head acts, modification, and orientedness.

Transcultural Nurse Views on Culture-Sensitive/Patient-Centered Assessment and Care Planning: A Descriptive Study

Introduction: Culture-sensitive (CS) and patient-centered (PC) care are considered essential to achieve high-quality equitable care. The purpose of this study was to determine how expert nurses incorporate CS/PC care into their assessment and care planning practices, especially for culturally diverse and marginalized patients. Methodology: Using a qualitative, descriptive design, we conducted a focus group at the October 2019 Transcultural Nursing Society Conference. Participants ( n = 9) discussed how they instilled cultural sensitivity and patient-centeredness into their assessment and care planning skills. Results: Participants revealed attitudes, knowledge, and skills associated with CS/PC assessment and care planning. They also identified specific strategies for translating CS/PC theory into assessment and care planning practices. Discussion: Three principles and many pragmatic strategies for incorporating CS/PC care into daily practice emerged from the data. Nurses may find these principles and strategies helpful in integrating CS/PC care into their daily care of patients in busy clinical settings.