A Study On Pragmatic Failures In Cross-cultural Business Negotiations

With the increased international status of China's economy, China has joined in the world business activities more frequently. As an important part of business activities, negotiations play a crucial role in international economic communication, which makes the successful conduct of cross-cultural business negotiations research topic of very important practical significance.Pragmatic failure, a factor closely related with language, culture and communication, is regarded as a serious barrier to the successful completion of communication and thus has become a hot topic of study in the academic circles. Since 1983, when Jenny Thomas first proposed the term"pragmatic failure", many scholars both abroad and at home have done considerable researches in this field from different perspectives and have made great achievements.In accordance with Sperber & Wilson's relevance theory and Xiong Xueliang's cognitive context theory, this thesis probes into pragmatic failures in cross-cultural business negotiations. It is argued that though pragmalinguistic factors can lead to pragmatic failures in cross-cultural business negotiations, sociopragmatic factors, which are deeply rooted in specific cultures, influence cross-cultural business negotiations the most. The purpose of the thesis is to explore the manifestations and causes of pragmatic failures from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics and to put up with suggestions for negotiators to have reference. The author hopes that negotiators will handle a butcher's cleaver skillfully in cross-cultural business negotiations.By analyzing pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication, the author finds that cognitive context plays a very important role in cross-cultural communication. Knowledge script, psychological schema and socio-psychological representation, the three variables of cognitive context are powerful in explaining the pragmatic failures that occur in cross-cultural business negotiations. Improper choice of knowledge scripts, image prominence of psychological schema and cultural differences that influence socio-psychological representations are the direct causes for pragmatic failures in cross-cultural business negotiations. On the basis of the investigation into the causes of pragmatic failures, the thesis proposes some suggestions to reduce and avoid pragmatic failures. In the process of negotiations, negotiators should try their best to enrich their linguistic knowledge and cultivate cultural awareness, so as to improve the pragmatic competence and avoid negative pragmatic transfer. They should also construct mutual cognitive environments with their counterparts as far as possible and appropriately select cognitive contexts. In this way, business negotiations will achieve a multiplier effect.The thesis is written in five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction and the fifth is the conclusion. The second to the fourth chapter is the main body of the thesis. Chapter two briefly introduces the relationship between cross-cultural communication and business negotiations, the definition and classification of pragmatic failures, and reviews the study already made abroad and at home. Chapter three is the theoretical bases of the thesis. It first introduces the principle of relevance and optimal relevance in Relevance Theory. And then it illustrates the notion of cognitive context, the discussion focuses on the description of the three variables of cognitive context. At last, this chapter explores the communicative function of cognitive context and how it works in the ostensive-inferential mode of communication. Chapter four analyzes the instances of pragmatic failures from pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic perspectives respectively. This chapter also elaborates the causes of pragmatic failures in cross-cultural business negotiations and offers some useful suggestions for negotiators to follow in the cross-cultural business negotiatons.