Predictable miscommunication: Understanding differences between - - PDF document

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Predictable miscommunication: Understanding differences between Aboriginal and Standard English narrative styles.

Ben Grimes, 3 June 2020 ben.grimes@cdu.edu.au

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“If two people, from different language backgrounds, both witnessed the same event, would there be significant differences in how they told the story of what they saw?”

To what extent can we predict intercultural miscommunication?

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‘First language interference’ A person’s first language will influence how they speak and understand a second language

‘Contrastive Analysis’

English Aboriginal languages

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Levels of language

Phonology (sounds) Semantics (words) Syntax (grammar) Discourse (conversation, stories, logic)

Different sound systems

z, s, ch, sh dj/tj p = b k = g t = d v, f p/b

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Words

Words with no close equivalent Words with partially

• verlapping

meaning Words with multiple meanings

Buma (v)

• Hunt
• Hit
• Cause death
• Weave
• Pinch (a child)
• Dolphins jumping

Kill (v)

• Murder
• Cause death

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Bundles of meaning

Wänga (n) Camp House Place where [I] am staying Country/place [of origin] Homeland Wife

Some examples of Aboriginal English terms with different meanings (NT)

• Cheeky
• Force
• Half, half-way
• Stop, stopping
• Business
• Poison
• Country
• Relationship terms

(mum, dad, auntie etc)

• Kill
• Deadly

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Ordinary words with multiple meanings

• Did you take your medicine?
• Are you happy to agree to these conditions?
• You can leave after you see the lawyer.
• Your nose is running.
• How do you feel about this?
• He was charged.

Common problem words;

partial overlap or no close equivalent

• Can
• If
• Probably, possibly
• Usually, often, frequently
• Could/would/should
• Don’t have to
• Important, serious
• Need
• Unless
• Instead

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Grammar - Wangurri

• Ga milmitjpayim ŋanapiliŋgu
• And afternoon-became our/for us (ex)
• wapthunma ŋanapu, ŋaykaman ŋanapu,
• hop we (ex) go we (ex)
• bus-ḻim ŋanapu ŋal’ŋalun bala ŋaykaman
• bus-to we (ex) climb then go
• ga ŋanapu dhiŋgiŋ’ yana-warri
• and we (ex) thinking only-contra
• bitjan, “Galki,” bitjana.
• like this, “Close,” like that.
• Meaning based translation:
• And in the afternoon, we hopped (off the plane)

and walked to the bus. We climbed on it and went

• n our way. And we were thinking, “We’re close!”

But we were wrong.

• example courtesty of Dr Marilyn Mclellan,

ARDS

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• Yankunytjatjara
• “Ka pula kuka panya malu utitjunku-nytja-

tjanu-ngku mantjira tjitji panya ungu.”

• and they two meat that-one kangaroo

put-up-noml-after-erg get-serial child that-one give (past)

Meaning – based translation

• 'Then after having put the

kangaroo meat up (in a tree, for safekeeping) they got it down and gave some to the child'

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3/06/2020 10 David Moore, Alyawarr Verb Morphology, 2012, pg 129

Grammar

passives tense Prepositions to talk about time cause & effect abstract nouns Negative questions

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3/06/2020 11 It is important you follow these directions. Please listen carefully about taking this

• medicine. [If you drink the medicine in

the proper way, it will help you get better. If you don’t do it the proper way, you might stay sick.] This is a serious illness. This sickness will make you sick for a long time / will make your body feel very sick. [description] He could be released from hospital next week. Next week the doctor might say that he is allowed to leave hospital and go home. You should get that tested. I think it is good for you to ask a [doctor] to find out more about that [problem]. You should make a booking if you want to see a doctor. You must [call the receptionist] and make a booking. Then they will tell you when you can talk with a doctor. His anger led him to behave that way. He was angry, so he did those things. You will be operated on next week. Next week, the doctor will operate on you. You cannot get pregnant for 12 months after this injection. You must not get pregnant for 12 months after this injection. When you get this injection, you must not become pregnant. You must wait one year, then you are allowed to become pregnant. She went to the clinic because she was sick. The infection got worse because she stopped taking her antibiotics. She was sick, so she went to the clinic. She stopped drinking the antibiotic

• medicine. That made the infection [in her

leg] bad.

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Pragmatics

• Question and answer
• Silence
• Gratuitous concurrence
• Quantifying time
• Quantifying distance
• Body language, eye contact
• Open v closed conversations

Narrative discourse

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“If two people, from different language backgrounds, both witnessed the same event, would there be significant differences in how they told the story of what they saw?”

Experimental research

Constant

• Two identical videos
• Similar viewing process
• Similar questioning process

Variables

• The L1 of the participant (5 SAE, 5 YM)

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Coding idea units in unprompted narrative

• 1. ‘non-visible’

Inferences

• 2. meta-

narrative of viewing

• 3. Recalling

speech acts

• 4. Cultural

schema of ‘fight’

• 5. Spiral

narrative

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• 1. Non-visible inferences
• “she went up on stage and there was a rude, you know, some

bloke wanted to be rude”

• “then umm, the lady was pleased that Jake did that and so

she continued performing”

• “I think that man turning that thing on, the music to cut the

singer off. The other people, the other fella didn’t like him interfering turning the music off, the woman singing that they were listening to.”

• “Type of person just don’t give a shit about anyone else.”
• “They just looked and stepped away. They were frightened.

Maybe he’s the leader.”

• “…then one male rang the police, the one with a white
• jumper. He’s calling for police. That one man, with white

jacket.”

• “I think that man turning that thing on, the music to cut the

singer off. The other people, the other fella didn’t like him interfering turning the music off, the woman singing that they were listening to.”

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• YM participants 24 references to non-visible

inferences

• SAE participants 20 references to non-visible

inferences.

• Given that SAE responses were on average three times

longer, this highlights the relative emphasis placed on non-visible inferences in the narratives of the YM participants.

Marked vs unmarked

• SAE3 “So, you know, potentially they were regulars. That’s an

assumption.”

• SAE4 “And I think he was very restrained in not pushing the guy

earlier, but you know, that’s – he was trying to be professional I

• guess. But that’s an assumption, not an observation – objection your

honour – (laughing).”

• SAE5 “There’s no indication as why he’s asking him to get off. You

don’t, you can’t assume any reason, cause you know, you could assume one side that he’s done something wrong, and you could assume the other side that the bus driver doesn’t want that people

• n his bus. It’s something that you can’t assume there.”

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SAE participants focused more

• n observable aspects, and

marked their inferences/conclusions YM participants focused more

• n non-visible aspects (such

as attitude and relationship) and tended not to mark the difference between

• bservable and ‘inference’
• 2. Reflections about observing

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Comment on role as observer

• SAE participants introduced themselves as an
• bserver into the narrative on 23 instances.
• YM participants on 8 instances (4 by YM1). On

no occasion did YM participants articulate where their attention or focus was while viewing the video.

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Reference to the video medium

• SAE participants made 33 distinct, separate

references to the video itself (rather than the story)

• No YM participant made a reference to the video

in the retelling of the story.

• 1 participant mentioned ‘picture’ on two
• ccasions, in a way synonymous with ‘story’.
• “I’ll tell yous about the first part of that picture

that we watched.”

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YM participants focused on the story SAE participants analysed how they watched the story

SAE speakers appear more credible, and are able to more easily identify reasons for why their story may have inconsistencies or limitations.

• 3. Recalling speech acts

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• In contrast, YM participants use much fewer

strategies when recalling speech.

• 1) generally reported speech “The bus driver

was telling one male to get out, to get out of the bus”

• 2) a broad categorisation of the speech;

“swearing” or “arguing”.

SAE speakers frequently qualified their recollection of speech. YM speakers didn’t generally do this.

In Standard English, direct speech = assumption of attempted verbatim recall.

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Insertion of speech by YM participants

• Original video;

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Video 2

SAE

• Qualified direct speech
• Greater detail about the

nature/tone of speech

• Focus on propositional

content

• Qualifying strategies to

account for inconsistencies

YM

• Unqualified direct speech
• Less detail about style/tone
• f speech
• Pragmatic meaning

(purpose) over propositional (surface) meaning

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• 4. Schema theory
• A schema is a culturally/linguistically embedded narrative

pathway how do we normally talk about [x] topic or in [y] context? think ‘template’

• Schemas operate in associative ways; a word, phrase or

contextual factor will trigger the schema, and then the speaker will adjust their communication in line with the expected schema.

Sharifian (2001:124-125)

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For YM participants ‘fight’ was linked to a ‘conflict’ or ‘social harmony’ concept; participants more focused on why the fight happened. For SAE participants ‘fight’ was linked to a ‘court’ or ‘legal’ concept; focus on legality rather than morality, more concerned with what (with precision) than why.

Cultural schema of fight

“Where were you when the fight started?”

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Common Aboriginal narrative schemas

• Law
• Family/kinship
• Country/land
• Travel/journey
• Ceremony/gathering significant sites & objects
• Visible/invisible world unexplained causes, health &

sickness

If the narrative revolves around one of these domains, there is an increased likelihood that an underlying schema is influencing the narrative.

• 6. Spiral narrative (non-linear)

“He was swearing him front of, front of all the people. Then he, bus driver, the umm, one with the black jumper, was saying to the bus driver ‘come on hit me. Hit me. Hit me.’ Was saying to the bus driver. And the bus driver said ‘I don’t want to hit you. Just get out.’

• Yeah. And he walked, and he still standing there, that
• man. And he was swearing in front of them, all the

everyone sitting down.”

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• 6. Spiral narrative (non-linear)

He was swearing him front of, front of all the people. Then he, bus driver, the umm, one with the black jumper, was saying to the bus driver ‘come on hit me. Hit me. Hit me.’ Was saying to the bus driver. And the bus driver said ‘I don’t want to hit you. Just get out.’

• Yeah. And he walked, and he still standing there, that
• man. And he was swearing in front of them, all the

everyone sitting down.

Summary Expansion

“And the near the bus, the door, he punches him. He pushes him. Pushes that man, and that man pushes the bus driver

• back. And pushes him, then started hitting
• him. Couple of times. Like maybe five, six.

Lot of times. Not six times.”

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And the near the bus, the door, he punches

• him. He pushes him. Pushes that man, and

that man pushes the bus driver back. And pushes him, then started hitting him. Couple

• f times. Like maybe five, six. Lot of times.

Not six times. Well, that fight started between the two and he just kept on pushing at the driver. Nawi (um) driver? And he got told about 100 times I think, but he wouldn’t leave. I think he threw the first punch. That’s when the punch-up started.

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What I saw was, one male was flogging/assaulting. (Someone) put music on, then one male went and then bashed (someone) very badly, to death. Fighting.

And then the young fella, he was, I dunno, he was good, but then he started like you know, swearing. And then umm, he asked him nicely, politely until he started getting annoyed because he just kept talking back, and I couldn’t really

• hear. But he was being, I don’t know, being like annoying, I guess. And then, um, the bus driver told him again, cause

that’s when the bus driver walked away from him to the front of the thing to get his phone to try and like, you know, to tell him over and over that he’s gonna call the cops if he doesn’t. That’s when the passenger got up and then walked towards the front and then kept being like, you know, smart ass, smart aleck, telling him that like you know, and then, I don’t know, for some reason from getting, telling him that like he’s gotta get out from there he turned around and started like you know talking shit about his looks I guess and whatever. He kept telling him like, this is my bus, you get off my bus. And then like, I don’t know. Too much talking, talking, basically and getting angry. And you know the passenger started temper, like you could tell. And then he threatened the driver by saying ‘touch me, so I have like you know, so I can have the right to hit you in the face’, and threatening him like that. And the bus driver said to him, ‘touch me and I’ll hit you too. Like I will hit you back.’ And then the bus driver like yelled at him ‘can you please get off my bus.’ He didn’t say please. He said ‘Get off my bus.’ He didn’t swear I think. It was the other bloke

• swearing. And that’s when the umm, they started getting aggressive to each other I guess. And then um, the

passenger, the passenger um (pause) got more aggressive and then he threw the first punch and then was, you know punching him. And the other two passengers that was in the bus didn’t do anything. Like you know. But the other guy ran, the one with the brown jacket ran, and tried to stop him like you know, stop the passenger the other passenger from hitting the driver, but I reckon he could’ve done more by like pulling him out and whatever, but, yeah. Whilst the passenger that was you know told to get off the bus was like really angry, so I kind of understood that he didn’t really want to be in the middle cause otherwise he would’ve got hurt and whatever. But he did try his best to stop.

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“Overlay structure seems to be at the root

• f a complaint heard from educators

concerned with areas where people speak Pidgin and vernacular languages with similar discourse patterns. It is difficult, they say, to train students to write logically in English, because rather than developing a topic logically, they insist on going over it again and again.” (Joseph Grimes, 1974: 519)

“An overlay, however, backs up the pointer to some earlier time reference, and starts that stretch

• ver again for each plane.”

(Joseph Grimes 1974: 521)

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A working hypothesis

Aboriginal narratives place greater emphasis on relationships, character, motivation and underlying causality at the expense of ‘superficial’ level details and quantification Standard English narratives place greater emphasis on accuracy of superficial/observable details at the expense of deeper understanding and coherency

‘Explanation’ vs ‘Precision’

• Lawyer: Who started the fight?
• Mum/Auntie: Their dads had some trouble…
• Lawyer: His teacher says he’s having trouble at school.
• Mum/Auntie: When he was little, he used to love sitting and

listening to his granddad.

• Lawyer: He’s breached his bail conditions.
• Mum/Auntie: Those police didn’t listen to us. We told them…

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General comments

• We ‘remember’ details that are important according to our

language’s narrative patterns.

• All communication, and all stories, rely on assumed or shared

information (no-one ever says everything they mean).

• We adjust our narrative (to a degree) based on what we think

is relevant or interesting to the hearer.

• The use of a non-English narrative approach will likely lead to

perceptions that the speaker is unreliable or untruthful.

Recommendations

1. Allocate more time for taking instructions; rushed instructions will lead to mistakes in understanding. 2. Obtain instructions through narrative, not question and answer. 3. Minimise interruptions to the narrative in the form of questions; use active listening to move the narrative forward (ie repeat back key elements of the narrative). 4. Triangulate key information; where possible, obtain at least three separate references to information before placing significant weight on the information; avoid placing weight

• n decontextualized speech.

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5. Be explicit about what information is important from a legal perspective; “the law says the judge must think about [x]. Please tell me everything you can remember about [x], then I might ask you more questions about this.” 6. Don’t make assumptions about credibility or reliability based on apparent inconsistency. Remember the ‘presumption of coherency.’ 7. Use diagrams and objects to construct spacial and chronological relationships (see ‘Blurred Borders’ cards). 8. Pre-script key information for clients (see Plain English legal dictionary (NT Criminal Law)).

• Be prepared to make arguments in court about your client

being a vulnerable witness by virtue of language background, and ask the judge to limit all questions to eliciting narrative and open-ended clarification.

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