LANGUAGE

DEFINITION

• Language is a method for communicating information, including ideas, thoughts, emotions. Language may be defined as human speech in either spoken or written form. The word is derived from "Lingua", which in Latin means tongue. Loosely speaking, it may mean any system of communication including traffic lights and signals.
• Language has made possible the development advanced, technological civilization. It is difficult to conceive a civilization without language for communication.

LANGUAGE FAMILIES

• There are about 3,000 different languages spoken in the world. More than 100 languages are spoken by over one million each; nineteen languages are spoken by over 50 million each.
• Languages spoken around the world may be categorized into following families (i.e. groups of languages developed from a single parent language):
  • Indo-European
    • Germanic: English, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish.
    • Romance: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian.
    • Balto-Slavic: Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Croatian, Latvian, Lithuanian.
    • Indo-Iranian
      • Indo-Aryan
        • Sanskrit: Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujrati, Marathi, Punjabi, Romany.
        • Dard
      • Iranian: Persian, Pushto.
    • Greek
    • Celtic: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh.
    • Albanian
    • Armenian
  • Sino-Tibetan: Chinese, Thai, Burmese, Tibetan.
  • Afro-Asian: Arabic, Hebrew, Swahili.
  • Japanese and Korean
  • Uralic and Altaic: Finish, Hungarian, Turkish, Mongolian.
  • Dravidian: Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam.
  • Malayo-Polynesian: Indonesian, Philippine, etc.
  • Austro-Asiatic; Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian.
  • Black African
  • American Indian

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

• Different societies are often separated by the language they speak. A language shares common features with rest of the culture:
  • It is learned, not innate.
  • It is a social phenomenon, an attribute of the group.
  • It is historically transmitted through teaching and learning..
  • It tends to hang together coherently, thus making communication possible.
  • It is coded in symbols.
• Languages are identified with reference to concrete groups of people called speech communities. Individuals or subgroups within a speech community may make use of these linguistic sources in different ways. Language is produced and reproduced through the activity of its speakers. Language at any given point is a snapshot of a continuous process.
• Aspects of environment that are of special importance will be reflected in the language (i.e. a culture bamboo is an important natural resource may have more than one name for the material; vocabularies of a technologically developed society may contain a large number of words that reflect complex technologies). A language will contain a greater number of terms, more synonyms, and more fine distinctions when referring to features of cultural emphasis.

DESIGN FEATURES OF A LANGUAGE

Following are some characteristics of human language that differentiate it from other known animal communication systems:

• Openness: Human languages are open to changes. New linguistic messages are coined easily and freely. Thus old messages are transformed and blended, assigning new meanings.
• Duality of patterning: Patterns in almost all known linguistic systems can be categorized into phonological (related to the sound system of a language) and grammatical subsystems.
• Displacement: Linguistic messages may refer to things remote in time (past, present, future), space (here, there, somewhere), or both, from the site of communication, including things that do not exist, and events that never occurred.
• Prevarication: A human language can provide false messages. It is possible to formulate hypothesis and lie.
• Semanticity: Linguistic signals are associated with physical, social, and cultural worlds of the speaker. The signals are complete and meaningful.

LINGUISTIC ETHNOCENTRISM

It is the belief that one's own language is better than other languages. The reasons may be historical, social, political, or religious.

CONTEXTING AND LANGUAGE

• Contexting is the way in which people communicate and circumstances surrounding that communication. Context includes not only the verbal or linguistic messages, but also the physical surrounding, previous conversations between participants, and general rules of behavior to which the parties subscribe (Hall and Hall, 1987).
• The greater the amount of knowledge and experience two communicators share, the less important it is for them to express directly what they wish to say or write.
• The less the communicators share, the more necessary it is for them to convey their meaning through words and gestures.
• Contexting, to a large extent, is culturally learned behavior. For members of a particular culture, contexting comes as naturally as their language. Language and contexting are closely linked, because people learn appropriate contexting behavior at the earliest stage of childhood language acquisition.
• The degree of contexting varies from culture to culture. It reflects and affects attitude toward the value attached to respect and status maintenance, an important variable of international business communications
• Types of context (Figure 1):
  • High context:
    • When individuals have considerable knowledge and experience in common, their communication is generally highly contexted. In highly contexted communication, what individuals choose not to put in words is essential to the understanding of the actual message intended.
    • In highly contexted communications, the communicators commonly anticipate that what is not actually said is already understood.
    • To the extent that members of high context cultures rely on means other than verbal self-disclosure to communicate their message, they can be seen as indirect.
    • In high context communication, the words are inseparably related to social relationships, politics, and morality. The purpose is not enhance the speaker's individuality but rather to promote social harmony and integration.
  • Low context:
    • When communicators rely little on shared knowledge and experience, their communication is called low context. More information must be explicitly stated in a low context exchange than in a high context one. Emphasis is placed on verbal or written disclosure.
    • To the extent that members of low context cultures rely on verbal or written self-disclosure to communicate their message, they can be seen as direct.
    • A primary function of low context communication is to express one's thoughts as clearly, logically, and persuasively as possible, so the speakers can be fully recognized for their individuality in influencing others.
• Context triangle: Contexting may be explained in terms of the amount of information transmitted and the amount of information stored or assumed. Hall (1990) has developed the relationship of information, context, and meaning using a pair of interlocking triangles. In the context triangle, the amount of shared or stored information is indicated as a continuum ranging from very little to a considerable amount. Low context communication is indicated at the bottom of the triangle, high context at the top.
• Information triangle: The information triangle shows a continuum of actual information explicitly transmitted in any communication. The top of the triangle represents little transmitted information; it reflects high context communication in which the messages rely on what is understood. The bottom of the triangle suggests low context communication that relies on transmitting much information explicitly.
• Meaning square: The context and information triangles can be combined together to form a communicated meaning square. As context is lost, information must be added if the meaning is to remain constant. The complete relationship can be expressed in a single diagram; there can be no meaning without both information and context.
• Contexting and international cultural difference
  • An entire society can be considered high context if it relies on how message is expressed than on what is actually said. Similarly, some other cultures may be deemed as low context because of their emphasis on the words used in communication rather than the meanings inferred from the situation surrounding the communication. "All cultures arrange their members and relationships along the context scale, and one of the great communication strategies, whether addressing a single person or an entire group, is to ascertain the correct level of contexting of one's communication." (Hall, 1990).
  • The differences in contexting are extremely important to international business communication. Assessing the degree of contexting in one culture allows a person to devise a strategy of either directness (relying on explicit information) or nuance (relying on implicit, implied, or understood information).

  

  Figure 1. Context

LANGUAGE OF TIME

• In order to function effectively in a society, it is essential to acquaint oneself with the language of time. One must be able to read the hidden messages in time system. It is important to know how to read the messages associated with time in other cultures (Hall & Hall, 1987).
• Human concepts of time has grown out of the natural rhythms associated with daily, monthly, and annual cycles. These concepts are often modified by the internal biological clocks that regulate the physiological functions of our bodies. In terms of international business, time systems can be broadly categorized into two classes: monochronic and polychronic.
• Monochronic time
  • Paying attention to only one thing at a time.
  • Time is divided into segments; it is scheduled and compartmentalized.
  • Time is experienced in a linear way; it is like a road extending from the past to the future.
  • Time is perceived as being almost tangible; it is something that can be "bought", "spent", "wasted", or "lost."
  • Time becomes an "enclosed space" in which some people are allowed to enter, others are sealed off.
  • Work time is clearly separable from personal time; time is inflexible; schedule coordinates activity; appointment time is rigid; activities are isolated
    from the organization as a whole - tasks measured in time (activity per hour).
• Polychronic time
  • It is characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of many events at a time and by great involvement with people.
  • It emphasizes more on complete human transactions rather than on holding to schedules.
  • Time is experienced as much less tangible than monochronic time.
  • Work time is not clearly separable from personal time; time is flexible and fluid; interpersonal relations coordinate activity; appointment time is flexible; activities are integrated into organization as a whole; tasks measured as part of overall organizational goal.

References:

Hall & Hall (1990). Understanding cultural differences. Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press.