Читать книгу The Politeness/Impoliteness Divide. English-Based Theories and Speech Acts Practice in Moroccan Arabic онлайн

19 страница из 36

With regard to this framework, cultures are evaluated in terms of generic cultural values that decisively affect the perception of how attempts at communication are made. Hall’s (1976, cit. ibid) study, subsequently applied by several intercultural communication theorists to particular cultural variables, takes this approach. Hall argues that cultures show a tendency towards High Context and Low Context communication. High Context refers to a form of communication where most of the mutual information is taken for granted and thus little information is conveyed. Conversely, Low Context is said to be a form of communication where little mutual information is assumed and most information is conveyed. The concept of High context/Low Context communication has been exploited in different ways, namely, as describing directness/indirectness and exaggeration/understatement, or individualism/collectivism (Cohen 1987). Likewise, a correlation has on occasion been established between these generic variables and intercultural communication.