Culture - English

HALL (1982). THE TRIAD OF CULTURE

- Technical culture (consciously learned): based on/concerned with identification/definition

of concepts, regularities related to objective truths/artefacts (art, music, architecture, food

and drinks, vegetables vs fruit, visible behaviour, language): it is taught.

- Formal culture: expression of an accepted way of doing things subconsciously acquired via

experience or exposition to given rituals (customs, routines, styles of discourse/dress, good

manners): it can be analysed and taught (level of politeness, cooperation).

- Informal culture: out-of-awareness level to which we respond emotionally, related to the

illocutionary level (expressions of surprise, shock, solidarity, desire): it is more or less shared all

over the world, although it can be problematic for outsiders coming from different cultures.

THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISHNESS: CONVERSATION CODES

Conversation codes are unwritten rules used by English people (native speakers/living in

England/exposed to that culture) in most occasional/fortuitous conversation (not institutionalised):



- To overcome people’s natural reserve (shyness riservatezza);

- As “displacement practices”, to avoid awkward moments by moving from a subject to

another.

Linguistic behaviour can be divided into three categories, signalling the predominant negative

face and reserve of English people, based on the general rule of privacy (≠ Americans):

1. Greetings: weather-speak

2. Grooming-talk

3. Bonding-talk

WEATHER SPEAK

Evaluative comments about the weather used as a pragmatic (‘nice day, isn’t it?’):

- To signal willingness to interact;

- As an off-record strategy: allowing the interlocutor to engage in conversation or not.

The guessing name rule

Never ask or say directly, find indirect ways and helpful clues to enquire about your interlocutor’s

private sphere or to inform about your own. Example:

A: “Driving to the city centre has become a nightmare! Do you drive to work?”

B: “No, I usually walk there.”

A: “So do you work in the neighbourhood?”

B: “Yes, at the hospital.”

A: “Oh, you’re a doctor than?”

B: “No, I’m a nurse.”

The reciprocal disclosure rule

The reciprocal disclosure rule is based on a possible/subconscious principle of symmetry or balance

implicit in the conversation, due to cooperation or merely out of reflex politeness, to reciprocate

with a comparably personal disclosure. The principle of symmetry places information about yourself

to make interlocutors reciprocate with similar information, hoping of eliciting an equivalent

response (“Do you live nearby?” is preferred to “Where do you live?”, “I usually don’t watch TV, but

when I do usually watch very old movies”).

BONDING TALK – Female-bonding vs. Male-bonding

Bonding talk refers to languages used to create positive or amicable to facilitate interaction.

Female-bonding refers to counter-compliment rules based on cooperative/complementing rituals.

Opening compliment (self deprecation/modesty) is followed by:

- Counter-compliment and self-deprecation (usually through witty/amusing self-critical

remarks);

- Acceptance + embarassement + counter compliment/switch topic.

‘I like your new haircut / your hair looks great! I wish I had gorgeous hair like you…

o mine’s so boring!’

‘Oh no! My hair’s terrible! I wish I had it short like you!’

o ‘Well… thank you…’

o

Male-bonding the “Mine’s Better than Yours” rule reflects (seemingly) the competitive rituals often

mitigated by undercurrent humour:

- Statement in praise of something (Mine: my car, football team, political party, type of beer);

- Countering statement challenging the first assertion (both when you are being sincere and

also when you agree with your interlocutor);



“I like this beer” “You should try this one then”;

o 

“I have a Japanese car” “Why would anyone buy a Japanese car, when you

o could have a BMW for that price?”

“Power is related to representation: some representations have cognitive authority or can secure

hegemony, others do not have authority or are not hegemonic.”

However, every community/domain has its hegemonic ideology (football supporters, vegans,

hunters, religion) – thus, aligning to it makes you a member of the community.

Trump e Salvini sono considerati idioti sui media, sembrano non essere appoggiati, ma hanno vinto

entrambi le elezioni. Perché? COMMUNICATION

Forms, types, functions

Any types of communication are indeed a form of culture (English lesson, Curriculum Turismo

  

Culturale, Teacher Sala, Code***, spostata in aula 1 non relevant! lezione spostata in aula 1

relevant!). Communication (medium) can be: 

1. Oral: highly context-based (gests, expressions something that refers to language). We do

not have fixed parametres, but flexible. They can easily change. The context is the criteria

to establish and individuate the differences. It needs to disambiguate the meaning of the

speech (saying “later” is needless to understand the context; but saying “later on today” is



essential to understand it you might know the time you have in mind). Oral texts can be:

a. Informal: unrehearsed in situational and interpersonal context (there are no metrics).

Something important and meaningful in that context (if you are talking about music,

saying “Carlo Magno is my favourite character” is totally non-relevant);

b. Formal: rehearsed in cultural context (arbitrary level). Precise, clear and logical

(reading a text, studying it and reading it again to make sure you know precisely the

argument).

2. Written: little (or not at all) context-based where anything that is needed for written text is

worded out (lexicalised). Written texts can be:

a. Public, texts targeted to people that you don’t know; speaking as much you can

about convention. For instance:

i. Fictional texts: based on the aesthetic function

ii. Non fictional texts: based on the utilitarian function (the way it is presented)

b. Private, texts written in completely different ways and to specific interlocutors:

i. To self-diares: you do not need to check, read and study it to make sure you

haven’t done any mistakes, because you are the only one that read that

text using abbreviation, slang, informal expressions).

ii. To other’s letters: it is something shared between the writer and the

interlocutor. You’re going to use another language to formalise a text that

should be understood by your interlocutor).