A Cross-cultural Study On Interpersonal Communication Strategies

Communication between people is an important and indispensable aspect of human society, as it acts as bridges that connect individuals together. People use communication strategies in order to engender understanding. To use communication strategies during interpersonal communication is a universal phenomenon in all societies. Nevertheless, the strategies adopted could vary according to different cultures. Why do people prefer this strategy rather than that one during the process of communication? What are the maxims and stimuli that influence people's strategic communication?Discourse communication is a topic of concern by pragmatists and sociolinguists. They propose that a certain maxim should be abided by when people communicate between themselves. The various forms of the conversational styles and the selection of the communication strategies should all based on the conversational maxim. Grice first proposed the Co-operative Principle (CP), and after him, Lakoff, Leech and other scholars raise Politeness Principle (PP) to complement CP. Brown and Levinson later put forward the 'face theory', which raises the Politeness Principle to a new practical height. Kim coordinates CP with PP to formalize the "conversational constraints" as the principle that controls the interpersonal communication. The writer adopts Kim's theory as the standard and principle that influences and controls interpersonal communication strategies.The selection of a proper conversational strategy is also affected by cultural background and context factors, however. Referring to the theory of Spencer-Oatey, the writer regards cultural background and context as two variables that constrain the choice of proper communication strategies. In the discussion of the first variable - culture, the writer analyzes the cultural differences between Chinese and Western societies by the means of cross-cultural communication. As for the second variable, context, the writer concentrates on the discussion of interpersonal relationship and fields of conversation. Finally, by discussing the strategies used in speech-acts, the combined functions of the two variables are illustrated.