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Part of
Current Issues in Intercultural Pragmatics
Edited by István Kecskés and Stavros Assimakopoulos
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 274] 2017
► pp. 181–206

Chapter 8
The interactive (self-)reflexive construction of culture-related key words

| Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Based on two film shootings with Brazilian and German exchange students, this paper examines the role of metacommunication for the joint construction of key words used to draw a line between the own and the other culture. The filmed discussions were elicited by cards asking participants to talk about the expected and already experienced differences between the target country and their country of origin regarding university, society, religion, family, friendship, relationships, conflicts, styles and language. The results revealed how metacommunicative acts serve as strategies for constructing and reflecting on key concepts like ‘being direct/indirect’, ‘individualism/collectivism’ or ‘time’. One pivotal point is the crucial role of metacommunication in calibrating cultural evaluations with regard to recipient design.
Keywords: otherness, culture-related key words, interaction, metacommunication
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical anchoring
  • 3.Empirical data
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Punctuality
    • 4.2Openness
    • 4.3Directness
    • 4.4Individualism
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • ?ack?
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.274.09sch
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Schröder, Ulrike
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Kecskes, Istvan
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