Harmonization of Communication in Professional Setting
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22364/BJELLC.10.2020.09Keywords:
harmonization of communication, professional setting, linguistic ecology, pragmatic strategiesAbstract
The 21st century has introduced many changes in modern workplaces which have become multilingual and multicultural. The present paper sheds light on selected aspects of workplace discourse, revealing that backstage communication in a professional setting plays a very significant role in establishing and maintaining effective subject-bound transaction and/or interaction between the partners involved in communication. The theoretical framework of the paper is designed to consider recent contributions in professional communication research supported by some seminal theoretical writings on linguistic ecology that explore the role of language in natural interactions that occur among people working for multinational companies. T he linguistic politeness theories are taken into account when cases of communication harmonization in a professional setting are examined. T he empirical part of the paper deals with a qualitative discourse analysis of authentic electronic data collected in a multilingual company in Riga, Latvia. T he study concludes that a present-time multilingual workplace exhibits a direct relationship between the use of language and power equilibrium, which vividly characterises contemporary communication in a professional setting. Pragmatic strategies employed can enhance the harmonization of communication in order to avoid the risk of miscommunication.
References
Agnouri, J. (2013) The multinational reality of the multinational workplace: Language policy and language use. Journal of Multilingual and Multinational Development, 34 (6): 564-581. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2013.807273
Appadurai, A. (1986) The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819582
Barroso, J.M. (2010) Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Brussels: European Commission.
Bouvier, G. (2016) Discourse and Social Media. London: Routledge.
Brown, P. and Levinson, S. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085
COM, 116 (2005) Brussels: European Commission.
Cox, J. (2012) Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere. London: Sage.
Cutting, J. (2006) Pragmatics and Discourse. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203994597
Derni, A. (2008) The ecolinguistic paradigm: An integrationalist trend in language study. The International Journal of Language, Society and Culture, 24: 21-30.
Drew, P. and Heritage, J. (1992) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Friedrich, P. (2016) The Sociolinguistics of Digital English. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315681184
Goffman, E. (1969) The Representation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin.
Grice, H. P. (1975) Logic and conversation. In P. Cole and J. L. Morgan (eds.) Syntax and Semantics (pp. 41-58) New York: Academic Press.
Gumperz, J. and Cook-Gumperz, J. (1990) Sources of miscommunication in intercultural organizational settings. Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, University of California Press, 91: 6-24.
Haugen, E. (1972) The ecology of language. In The Linguistic Reporter (pp. 342-359). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lakoff, R. (1973) Language in context. Language, 48: 907-927. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/411994
Leech, G. (1983) Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.
Karimova, M. (2018) Perception of Meaning in Language Use in Social Context. Riga: University of Latvia.
Koester, A. (2010) Workplace discourse. London: Continuum.
Rozina, G. and Karapetjana, I. (2018) Communication in professional setting from perspective of linguistic ecology (pp. 279-295). In I. Vitola (ed.) Linguistics of Life. Riga: LU Akadēmiskais apgāds.
Rozina, G. and Karapetjana, I. (2011) Pragmatics Linguistic Politeness. Riga: University of Latvia.
Schnuer, S. (2013) Exploring Professional Communication. London: Routledge.
Solly, M. (2016) The Stylistics of Professional Discourse. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748691692.001.0001
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2000) Rapport management: A framework for analysis. In H. Spencer-Oatey (ed.) Culturally Speaking. Managing Rapport Through Talk Across Cultures (pp. 11-46). London: Continuum.
Steffensen, S. and Fill, A. (2014) Ecolinguistics: the state of the art and future horizons. Language Sciences, 4 (6): 25-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2013.08.003
Stevens, P. (2012) Towards an ecosociology. Sciology, 46 (4): 579-595. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511422586
Stibbe, A. (2015) Ecolinguistics. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315718071
Thomas, J. (1983) Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, (4) 2: 91-112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/4.2.91
Thornborrow, J. (2002) Power Talk: Language and Interaction in Institutional Discourse. London: Longman.
Trim, J. (1959) Historical, descriptive and dynamic languages. Language and Speech, 2 (1): 9-25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/002383095900200103
Weislinger, J. and Trauth, E. (2002) Situating culture in the global information sector. Information Technology and People, 15 (14): 306-320. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09593840210453106
Wodak, R. and Krzyzanowski, M. (2011) Language in political institutions of multilingual states and the European Union. In P. Auwera and J. Kortmann (eds.) Languages and Linguistics of Europe (pp. 621-639). Berlin: Mouton. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110220261.621
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 University of Latvia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
