• The Conference
  • Home
  • Programme
  • Venue & directions
  • Organizing Committee
  • Scientific Committee
  • Exhibitors & sponsors
  • Satellite events
  • Conference Party
• Past & future
  • Previous symposia
  • Finland 2014
  • Spain 2016
• About FU Berlin
  • University homepage
  • Humanities at FU

Programme: accepted abstracts

Search for abstracts --- authors title abstract

---

Abstract ID: 929

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Pragmatic Differences of Clarification Request in English and Japanese

Authors: Tsuda, Sanae
Submitted by: Tsuda, Sanae (Tokai Gakuen University, Japan)

Purpose:

This paper compares pragmatic aspects of clarification requests in English and Japanese. Firstly, it analyzes native speaker conversations of British, Australian and American English to see if there are common pragmatic features in these English varieties¹. Secondly it compares the result with native Japanese speakers’ clarification requests.

Background:

SLA researchers claim that L2 learners obtain not only necessary information but also improve their communication skills by making clarification requests (Pica, 1987). At the same time, making clarification requests is face-threatening to SL learners since it reveals the questioner’s failure in understanding the other’s message (Ozaki, 1989). In English or Japanese cross-cultural conversations between the native speakers of these languages, it is observed that the Japanese speakers tend to avoid making clarification requests while English speakers do not hesitate to do so (Tsuda, 2008, Tsuda et al. 2008). Their difference motivated the present study to compare clarification requests in English and Japanese.

Conversational data:

The data consist of 30 minute, first encounter conversations by 3 male native speakers of British, Australian and American English. Six conversations for each variety, total of 18 are used for the analysis. Six 30 minute Japanese conversations are analyzed for comparison.

Results:

As is expected, clarification requests are found far less in native speaker conversations of both languages than the cross-cultural data. Qualitative analysis shows that there are not noticeable pragmatic differences in the three English varieties. When necessary, all speakers do not hesitate to make clarification requests even in their first encounters. They seldom use hedges before making clarification requests. What characterizes English native speakers is that they employ clarification requests for such innovative purposes as making a joke, expressing a surprise or encouraging the other participants to elaborate a topic, which will help make first encounter conversations more enjoyable. On the other hand, although the Japanese speakers do not hesitate to make clarification requests when speaking among themselves, they mostly use clarification requests to achieve their primary purpose of obtaining information that they failed to understand.

¹ This is a part of JACET Politeness Study Group research which aims to describe pragmatic indices of British, Australian and American English. It is funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education (No. 22520595).

References

Ozaki, Akito. 1989. Requests for Clarification in Conversation between Japanese and Non-Japanese. Pacific Linguistics Series B-102. Department of Linguistics Research  School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University.

Pica, Teresa. 1987. Second Language Acquisition, and the Classroom. Applied Linguistics. vol.8.2-21.

Tsuda, Sanae. 2008. Clarifications in Intercultural Conversations. Paper presented at the 14th NATE/7th FEELTA conference held at Far Eastern National University, Vladivostok, Russia.

Tsuda, Sanae, Murata, Yasumi, Otsuda Yoko, Hori Motoko, Shigemitsu, Yuka, and Otani, Mami. 2008. Intercultural Communication between Native and Non-Native Speakers:Japanese and English Conversation Styles and Rapport Development. JACET Chubu 25 Shuunen Kinen Ronbunshu (JACET Chubu Chapter 25^th Year Commemorative Issue) pp.57-82.