Abstract
Abstract
This paper employs Kecskes’ socio-cognitive approach to analyze the varied speech styles and cognitive dynamics of the
Chinese character (Lee) in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. The discussion of the novelistic dialogue segments has shown that
the Chinese interlocutor’s verbal strategies vary from pidgin to English or a combination of the two, which are predominantly
hearer-centered and marked by deliberate and conscious attempts on the part of the speaker to meet the cooperation principle. Lee’s movement
between different communication modes is partly predetermined by the disparate power relations between the interlocutors and partly
determined by his own communicative needs, thus producing a unique pattern that governs his language use in the given intercultural
communicative process. In particular, pidgin is used as a self-protection mechanism, a buffer and a way of identification by the Chinese
character, which informs the wider socio-historical context of Chinese immigrants’ victimization of racial discrimination in the American
society at the turn of the twentieth century. Just like his shifting verbal strategies in intercultural communication, Lee’s cultural
identity is also characterized by fluidity in the in-between space of two cultures.
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Article metrics loading...
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.19071.zen
2021-03-02
2024-03-28
-
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.19071.zen
dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
-contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
10
5
Full text loading...
References
-
Bhabha, Homi K.
1994 The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.
[Google Scholar]
-
Blommaert, Jan
1998 “Different approaches to intercultural communication: A critical survey.” Plenary lecture, Lernen und Arbeiten in einer international vernetzten und multikulturellen Gesellschaft, Expertentagung Universität Bremen, Institut für Projektmanagement und Wirtschaftsinformatik (IPMI), 27–28February.
[Google Scholar]
-
Bolton, Kingsley
2000 “Language and Hybridization: Pidgin Tales from the China Coast.”
Interventions2 (1): 35–52.
10.1080/136980100360788
https://doi.org/10.1080/136980100360788
[Google Scholar]
-
Buck, Pearl S.
2012 [1946] Pavilion of Women. New York: Moyer Bell.
[Google Scholar]
-
Burke, Thomas
2012 [1916] “The Chink and the Child.” InLimehouse Nights, 15–37. London: Forgotten Books.
[Google Scholar]
-
Dawson, Raymond
1967 The Chinese Chameleon: An Analysis of European Conceptions of Chinese Civilization. London: Oxford University Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Goldsmith, Oliver
1904 [1794] Letters from a Citizen of the World to His Friends in the East. London: Wells Gardener, Darton & Co.
[Google Scholar]
-
Gumperz, John J.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511611834
[Google Scholar]
-
Hymes, Dell
1996 Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Toward an Understanding of Voice. London: Taylor and Francis.
[Google Scholar]
-
Kecskes, Istvan
2004 “Editorial: Lexical merging, conceptual blending, and cultural crossing.”
Intercultural Pragmatics1 (1): 1–26.
10.1515/iprg.2004.005
https://doi.org/10.1515/iprg.2004.005
[Google Scholar]
-
Kecskes, Istvan
2010 “The paradox of communication: Socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics.”
Pragmatics and Society1 (1): 50–73.
10.1075/ps.1.1.04kec
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.1.1.04kec
[Google Scholar]
-
Kecskes, Istvan
2012a “Intercultures, Encyclopaedic Knowledge, and Cultural Models.” Journal of Zhejiang University42 (4): 71–86.
[Google Scholar]
-
Kecskes, Istvan
2012b “Is there anyone out there who really is interested in the speaker?”
Language and Dialogue2 (2): 283–297.
10.1075/ld.2.2.06kec
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.2.2.06kec
[Google Scholar]
-
Kecskes, Istvan
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892655.001.0001
[Google Scholar]
-
Kecskes, Istvan
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.11.010
[Google Scholar]
-
Kuhn, Philip A.
2008 Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
[Google Scholar]
-
Lynn, Shane
https://doi.org/10.5325/steinbeckreview.12.2.0149
[Google Scholar]
-
Mildorf, Jarmila
2013 “Reading Fictional Dialogue: Reflections on a Cognitive-Pragmatic Reception Theory.” Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies24 (2): 105–116.
[Google Scholar]
-
Rohmer, Sax
2009 [1933] Bride of Fu Manchu. Exeter, Cornwall: House of Stratus.
[Google Scholar]
-
Shipman, Samuel
and
John B. Hymer
1918 East Is West: A Comedy in Three Acts and A Prologue by Samuel Shipman and John B. Hymer. New York: Samuel French.
[Google Scholar]
-
Steinbeck, John
1992 [1945] Cannery Row. New York: The Penguin Group.
[Google Scholar]
-
Steinbeck, John
1995 [1938] “Johnny Bear.” InThe Long Valley (With an Introduction and Notes by
John H. Timmerman
), 101–120. London: The Penguin Group.
[Google Scholar]
-
Steinbeck, John
2000 [1952] East of Eden. London: The Penguin Group.
[Google Scholar]
-
Steinbeck, John
2001 [1969] Journal of a Novel. London: The Penguin Group.
[Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/ps.19071.zen