Cross cultural communication Levels of Communication Differences: Formulaicity Designed by Mr. Sunan Fathet Presented as a requirement of TF 501 Pedagogic Implications of Language Studies 1/2012 Department of Western Languages Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand

1. The Pragmatics of Cross-
Cultural Communication
Levels of Communication Differences
By Mr. Sunan Fathet 1

2. Parts of formulaic language
idioms collocations
set phrases proverbs
Parts of
Formulaic
Language
routines turns of phrase
rhymes and songs
preferred ways of saying things
(Wray, 2000, cited in Cardiff University, n.d.)
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 2

3. Noticing formulaic language in:
ritualized events (ceremony)
structured events such as weather
forecasts
the language of very young
children
the materials in foreign language
the materials
2. Strategy in foreign language
textbooks, especially for beginners, and in
textbooks, especially for beginners, and
phrasebooks
in phrasebooks
the speech of people with acquired
language disabilities such as aphasia
(Wray, 2000, cited in Cardiff University, n.d.)
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 3

4. A sequence, continuous or discontinuous, of words or
other meaning elements, which is, or appears to be,
prefabricated: that is, stored and retrieved whole from
memory at the time of use, rather than being subject
to generation or analysis by the language grammar.
(Wray, 2002, p.9)
Formulaic (adj.): constituting or containing a verbal
formula or set form of words: a formulaic greeting,
formulaic expressions such as ‘Once upon a time’
- produced in accordance with a slavishly followed
rule or style; predictable: much romantic fiction is
stylized, formulaic, and unrealistic
(Oxford dictionaries, 2012) 4

5. The eleven criteria for identification of
formulaic sequences
Grammatical irregularity
Semantic opacity
Situation/ register specificity
Pragmatic function
Idiolect
Performance indication
Grammatical indication
Previous encounter
Derivation
Inappropriate application
Mismatch with maturation
(Wray and Namba, 2003, cited in Namba, n.d.) 5

6. 1. Grammatical irregularity
„rain cats and dogs‟
The intransitive verb „rain‟ doesn‟t take any object NP and
the NP „cats and dogs‟ is not employed as an adverb.
„if I were you‟
contains the subjunctive form „were‟ which many people
no longer produce in novel constructions but only use in
this wordstring.
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 6

7. 2. Semantic opacity
„kick the bucket‟
The meaning of the whole wordstring, i.e. „to die‟ cannot be
derived from the sum of the meaning of its individual parts.
„spill the beans‟
It means „tell a secret‟ and it is possible to map „spill‟ onto
„tell‟ and „beans‟ onto „secret‟
„like a fish out of water‟
the speaker is not talking about a fish or water.
„very funny‟ can express the opposite of its literal meaning,
when the situation indicates that the speaker is talking about
something not funny at all.
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 7

8. 2. Semantic opacity (cont.)
“opaque metaphor”
„kick the bucket‟ (Moon, 1998, p.23, cited in
Namba, n.d.)
where the meaning is
unintelligible without “general
or etymological knowledge”
„spill the beans‟ (Wray, 2002, p.57, cited in
Namba, n.d.)
It looks fairly non-compositional
„like a fish out of water‟ but the meaning is intelligible
with general knowledge.
When a wordstring has a literal
meaning, it can have “a
„very funny‟ secondary, layer of
pragmatic meaning”.
(Wray, 2002, p.58, cited in
Namba, n.d.)
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 8

9. 3. Situation/ register specificity
„Happy birthday!‟
It is said on a specific day
sensei „teacher‟
In Japanese schools, when students address their teacher in class
they say sensei ‘teacher’ rather than each teacher’s name.
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 9

10. 4. Pragmatic function
„kid‟s stuff‟
„evaluative‟ conveying speaker‟s evaluation and attitude
„you know what I mean‟
„modalizing‟ conveying truth values, advice, requests
„I‟ll tell you what‟
This wordstring functions as a turn claimer in
conversation to manage the flow of the discourse.
„on the other hand‟
Discourse markers are archetypal models which fit this
criterion.
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 10

11. 5. Idiolect
Even without evidence, one
„Happy birthday!‟ can assume that this
wordstring is learned as a
whole from other
people, probably family
„many happy returns‟ members, and the speaker will
always use this form or
another with a similar
formulaic status.
„congratulations‟
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 11

12. 6. Performance indication
Some socio-interactional routines are expressed with an action.
Sensei ohayo-gozai-masu minasan
oyaho-gozai-masu
„good morning teacher, good morning
everybody‟
Repetition of what the speaker has just heard,
prosodic patterns, i.e. intonation and rhythm.
„pick-you-own vegetables‟
There are orthographical cues to formulaic sequences,
such as hyphenation.
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 12

13. 7. Grammatical indication
„this shouldn‟t be spin dried‟
„spin dry‟
„I spin dried it‟.
shows its
formulaicity in the
passive and past They don’t appear as *‘this
forms shouldn’t be spun dry’ (which
means it was spun in order to
dry it, but not in a spin drier) and
*‘I spun it dry’.
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 13

14. 8. Previous encounter
Formulaic sequences in child language according to
the way they are acquired. They heard from other
people’s speech.
“Look I did it all by yourself”
A boy has heard the wordstring „all
by yourself‟ in
his mother‟s speech, i.e. “Good boy! You did it all
by yourself!”. The fact that he keeps using „yourself‟
instead of „myself‟
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 14

15. 9. Derivation
Idiom
„kill two birds with one stone‟
It is commonly observed that people change „two‟ into
„three‟ or other numbers such as kill five birds with one
stone.
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 15

16. More Examples Thai Idioms
„to teach a crocodile to swim‟
„Bring coals to Newcastle‟ to perform a useless task
„peeling banana into mouth‟
„piece of cake‟ It‟s easy.
„come before the chicken‟
To arrive very early in the morning
„tree closes to the shore‟
One foot in the grave
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet 16

17. References
Cardiff University. (n.d.). What is formulaic language?.
Retrieved September 3, 2012, from
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/research/networks/flarn/
whatis/index.html
Namba, K. (n.d.). Formulaicity in Code-Switching: Theory. Retrieved
September 3, 2012, from http://www.senri.ed.jp/site/attachments/
172_06KNamba12.pdf
Wray, A. (2002). Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
17
Formulaicity: By Mr. Sunan Fathet

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