Skip to main content

Cultural Discourse Analysis: Pragmatics of Social Interaction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology ((PEPRPHPS,volume 4))

Abstract

This chapter addresses issues of pragmatics and culture by presenting a framework for the cultural analysis of discourse which has been explicated and used in previous literature (e.g., Berry 2009; Carbaugh 1988a, 1990, 2005; Carbaugh et al. 1997; Scollo 2011). Indebted to the ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1972), and interpretive anthropology (Geertz 1973), this particular analytic procedure is one implementation of the theory of communication codes (Carbaugh, 2005; Philipsen 1997; Philipsen et al. 2005). As such, it takes pragmatic communication to be not only its primary data but, moreover, its primary theoretical concern. The framework responds to specific research questions, addresses particular kinds of intellectual problems, includes five investigative modes, and uses a special set of concepts. In this chapter, each of the modes is discussed as analytically distinct, yet complementary to the others, including theoretical, descriptive, interpretive, comparative, and critical analyses. Special attention is given to the interpretive mode and to intercultural interactions as a site for the application and development of cultural discourse analysis.

An earlier version of this chapter was published in the Journal of Intercultural Communication 2007, 36, 167–182.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    The acronym CuDA is used to identify cultural discourse analysis as distinct from critical discourse analysis (e.g., Fairclough and Wodak 1997) and from conversation analysis. It is distinct from the former as it insists on phases of descriptive, interpretive, and comparative analysis prior to critical assessments; and from the latter in its emphasis on interpretive and cross-cultural analyses.

  2. 2.

    The concept, function, here is used in the pragmatic tradition of John Dewey, capturing what is done in conjoint action; it is not being used in the functionalist sense of Talcott Parsons’ sociology.

  3. 3.

    This point introduces the cyclical quality of this research design, as well as the analyst’s critical reflection on the perspective taken to the inquiry. These points are discussed in much more detail elsewhere (Carbaugh and Hastings 1992).

  4. 4.

    Of course, there is the special case where participants themselves are critiquing the practices through which they communicate (see Carbaugh 1989/1990).

  5. 5.

    The emphasis in this report is on the CuDA framework. The fieldwork literature cited throughout provides ample illustration of actual workings of this in the ethnographic literature. Specific pieces can be consulted for detailed demonstrations of these analyses.

References

  • Acheson, Kris. 2008. Silence in dispute. In Communication Yearbook 31, ed. C. Beck, 1–57. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, Benjamin. 2000. Communicative behavior and conflict between African-American customers and Korean immigrant retailers in Los Angeles. Discourse & Society 11:86–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basso, Keith. 1996. Wisdom sits in places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, Leslie. 1993. Talking things through and putting it in writing: Two codes of communication in an academic institution. Journal of Applied Communication Research 21:313–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, Michael. 2009. The social and cultural realization of diversity: an interview with Donal Carbaugh. Language and Intercultural Communication 9:230–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloch, Linda-Renee. 2003. Who’s afraid of being a friere? The analysis of communication through a key cultural frame. Communication Theory 13:125–159.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braithwaite, Charles. 1997. Sa’ah naaghai bik’eh hozhoon: An ethnography of Navajo educational communication practices. Communication Education 46:219–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal. 1988a. Talking American: Cultural discourses on DONAHUE. Norwood: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal. 1988b. Comments on “culture” in communication inquiry. Communication Reports 1:38–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal. 1989/1990. The critical voice in ethnography of communication research. Research on Language and Social Interaction 23 (1989/1990): 261–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal, ed. 1990a. Cultural communication and intercultural contact. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal. 1990b. Toward a perspective on cultural communication and intercultural contact. Semiotica 80:15–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal. 1996. Situating selves: The communication of social identities in American scenes. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal. 2005. Cultures in conversation. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal. 2007. A cultural discourse theory of emotion. Paper presented at the Eastern Communication Association, Providence, Rhode Island.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal, and Sally O. Hastings. 1992. A role for communication theory in ethnography and cultural analysis. Communication Theory 2:156–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal, and Lisa Rudnick. 2006. Which place, what story? Cultural discourses at the border of the Blackfeet Reservation and Glacier National park. Great Plains Quarterly 26:167–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal, and Karen Wolf. 1999. Situating Rhetoric in cultural discourses. International and Intercultural Communication Annual 22:19–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbaugh, Donal, Timothy Gibson, and Trudy Milburn. 1997. A view of communication and culture: Scenes in an ethnic cultural center and private college. In Emerging theories of human communication, ed. B. Kovacic, 1–24. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Covarrubias, Patricia. 2002. Culture, communication, and cooperation: Interpersonal relations and pronominal address in a Mexican organization. Lanham: Rowan and Littlefied.

    Google Scholar 

  • Covarrubias, Patricia. 2007. (Un) biased in Western theory: Generative silence in American Indian communication. Communication Monographs 74:265–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman., and Wodak, Ruth. 1997 Critical discourse analysis. In Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction, ed T. van Dijk, Vol. 2, 258–284. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitch, Kristine. 1998. Speaking relationally: Culture and interpersonal communication in Colombia. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, Mary. 1993. Wit, power, and oppositional groups: A case study of pure talk. Quarterly Journal of Speech 79:303–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hastings, Sally O. 2000. Asian Indian “self-suppression” and self-disclosure: Enactment and adaptation of cultural identity. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 19:85–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hastings, Sally O. 2001. Social drama as a site for the communal construction and management of Asian Indian stranger identity. Research on Language and Social Interaction 34:309–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hester, Stephen, and Peter Eglin. 1997. Culture in action: Studies in membership categorization analysis. New York: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hymes, Dell. 1972. Models of the interaction of language and social life. In Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication, ed. J. Gumperz and D. Hymes, 35–71. New York: Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katriel, Tamar. 2004. Dialogic moments: From soul talks to talk radio in Israeli culture. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katriel, Tamar, and Gerry Philipsen. 1981. What we need is communication: Communication as a cultural category in some American speech. Communication Monographs 48:301–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackenzie, Lauren Benotti. 2005. When words fail, music speaks: How communication transforms identity through performance at the Berkshire Hills Music Academy. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Massachusetts Amherst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackenzie, Lauren, and Mary Wallace. 2011. The communication of respect as a significant dimension of cross-cultural communication competence. Cross-cultural Communication 7:10–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milburn, Trudy. 2000. Enacting “Puerto Rican time” in the United States. International and Intercultural Communication Annual 23:47–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milburn, Trudy. 2002. Collaboration and the construction of Puerto Rican community. In Building diverse communities, eds. M.P. Orbe, T. McDonald, and T. Ford-Ahmen, 287–303. Cresskill: Hampton Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milburn, Trudy. 2009. Nonprofit organizations: Creating membership through communication. Cresskill: Hampton Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, Eric. 2003. Discourses of water: A framework for the study of environmental communication. Applied Environmental Education and Communication 2 (3): 153–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, Eric. 2007. Regional communication and sense of place surrounding the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. In Nuclear legacies: Communication, controversy, and the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, eds. B. C. Taylor, W. J. Kinsella, S. P. Depoe, and M. S. Metzler. Lanham: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ojha, Ajwa. 2003. Humor: A distinctive way of speaking that can create cultural identity. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 32:161–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philipsen, Gerry. 1987. The prospect for cultural communication. In Communication theory: Eastern and Western perspectives, ed. L. Kincaid, 245–254. New York: Academic.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Philipsen, Gerry. 1992. Speaking culturally. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philipsen, Gerry. 1997. A theory of speech codes. In Developing communication theories, eds. G. Philipsen and T. Albrecht, 119–156. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philipsen, Gerry. 2002. Cultural communication. In Handbook of international and intercultural communication, eds. W. Gudykunst and B. Mody, 51–67. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philipsen, Gerry, and Donal Carbaugh. 1986. A bibliography of fieldwork in the ethnography of communication. Language in Society 15:387–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Philipsen, Gerry, Lisa Coutu, and Patricia Covarrubias. 2005. Speech codes theory: Revision, restatement, and response to criticisms. In Theorizing about communication and culture, ed. William Gudykunst, 55–68. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poutiainen, Saila. 2005. Kulttuurista puhetta deittaamisesta. [Cultural Talk about Dating.]. Puhe ja kieli 25: (3) 123–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saito, Makato. 2007. Silencing identity through communication: Situated enactments of sexuality in Japan. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Massachusetts Amherst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scollo Sawyer, Michelle. 2004. Nonverbal ways of communicating with nature: A cross-case study. Environmental Communication Yearbook 1:227–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scollo, Michelle. 2007. Mass media appropriations: Communication, culture, and everyday social life. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Massachusetts Amherst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scollo, Michelle. 2011. Cultural approaches to discourse analysis: A theoretical and methodological conversation with special focus on Donal Carbaugh’s Cultural Discourse Theory. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 6:1–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scruton, Roger. 1979. The significance of common culture. Philosophy 54:51–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seitel, Peter. 1974. Haya metaphors for speech. Language in Society 3:51–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Townsend, Rebecca. 2006. Widening the circumference of scene: Local politics, local metaphysics. KB Journal 2 (2): 1–19. http://kbjournal.org/townsend.

    Google Scholar 

  • Townsend, Rebecca. 2004. deliberation and democracy: Ethnography of Rhetoric in a New England Town Meeting. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Massachusetts Amherst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toyosaki, Sayoshi. 2003. Ethnography of cross-cultural communication: International students’ accounts of US-American culture and communication. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 33:159–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins, Richard. 2005. The optimal form: Inadequacies and excessiveness within the Asiallinen [Matter of Fact] Nonverbal Style in public and civic settings in Finland. Journal of Communication 55:383–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins, Richard. 2007. Cultural frames: Loci of intercultural communication asynchrony in a CBS 60 Minutes news segment. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 31:243–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Witteborn, Saskia. 2003. Communicative competence revisited: An emic approach to studying intercultural communication competence. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 32:187–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Witteborn, Saskia. 2007. The expression of Palestinian identity in narratives about personal experiences. Research on Language and Social Interaction 40:145–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donal Carbaugh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Carbaugh, D. (2016). Cultural Discourse Analysis: Pragmatics of Social Interaction. In: Capone, A., Mey, J. (eds) Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_22

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_22

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12615-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12616-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics