Nella dissertazione si intende indagare il problema delle varietà della lingua tedesca, con particolare attenzione alla loro percezione da parte di parlanti provenienti dai tre centri principali, la Germania, l'Austria e la Svizzera. Le istituzioni di questi Paesi hanno avvertito la necessità di fissare le particolarità linguistiche attraverso grammatiche, dizionari, glossari. La trattazione ha inizio con una breve descrizione dello sviluppo del concetto di testo e dell'insorgere della sua consapevolezza negli studi linguistici. In seguito, si introducono la tipologia testuale e la componente culturale, con considerazioni sui molti approcci e scopi attraverso i quali entrambi i fenomeni sono stati affrontati nelle discipline più disparate, per giungere a collocare in modo più puntuale l'evoluzione dell'interesse per il pluricentrismo nella lingua tedesca. L'ipotesi più accreditata presso gli esperti è che la varietà di appartenenza venga segnalata sul piano lessicale, sintattico, grammaticale e pragmatico. Infine, si descrivono i risultati che un semplice sondaggio sulla comprensione di testi del settore assicurativo hanno evidenziato e li si confronteranno con quanto riportato dai dizionari di riferimento che fanno parte del codice delle varietà. / The dissertation investigates the problem of the German varieties, and in particular how a text is perceived by native speakers coming from its three main linguistic centres, namely Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where the institutions have felt the need to fix the different characteristics of their own variety in dictionaries, grammars and glossaries. The first Chapter is devoted to the development of the concept of textuality in linguistics. Chapter two considers some of the various approaches to text typology and culture in the different disciplines to introduce the question of pluricentricity in German. The hypothesis generally supported by the main scholars is that the varieties are signalled at the lexical, syntactic, pragmatic and grammar levels. The last chapter deals with the results of the interviews about the comprehension of some insurance texts and compare them to the dictionaries acknowledged in the code of the three varieties.

This study analyzed intercultural communication competence between Malays and Chinese in organizational and social settings in Malaysia. Two groups: Malays and Chinese in organizations in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), were studied. The intent of this study was to find similarities and differences in Malays and Chinese' communication styles. A total of forty-six respondents were surveyed: twenty-three Malay executives and twenty-three Chinese executives, in organizations in Malaysia. The organizations were selected based on their function, size, number of employees, ethnic composition, and location. The open-ended questionnaire was written in English and pretested. The revised questionnaire was sent to Kuala Lumpur to be administered by two interviewers who were from each ethnic groups. All of the responses from the questionnaire were interpreted and categorized by two Malay and two Chinese individuals who acted as coders. This study used thematic content analysis to analyze the responses from the two groups. Respondents' descriptions and explanations of their perceptions on conflict were studied. Coders from both ethnic groups were asked to recall a conflict situation in both organizational and social settings. Each group varied in their definition and perception of conflict. The results showed some similarities in their perception of appropriate and effective verbal and nonverbal messages in organizational and social settings. The results also showed some similarities and differences in their perceptions of inappropriate and ineffective verbal and nonverbal across ethnic group lines. The similarities can be explained by shared orientations to uncertainty, large degrees of power distance and collectivism. The differences may be due to cultural dimensions that are situationally variant. The findings showed both groups' preference for clear and explicit verbal messages in task orientations, and for nonverbal messages in relational-orientations. / Graduation date: 1993

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Portuguese

Language competence is decisively important in international business and could increase efficacy, efficiency, sales and profits. Language is an underresearched area in business studies though language constitutes management and the managers building structures, processes, cultures and personalities being the most vital working tool to get things done and make them understandable. Since 1970 Swedish companies lose market shares globally and in Europe. In an era requiring better foreign language skills there is a declining trend among young Swedish business people and students in other languages than English. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyse the role of language in intercultural business communication between Swedish expatriates and locals in Serbia, The Czech Republic, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria and indirectly also Russia and Poland. To understand the business culture in these countries the author has learned the local language in these seven countries taking 3687 private language lessons. This improves the researcher’s understanding of the culture and its people giving directness and depth in communication, independence and receptivity. This ethnographically inspired hermeneutic study holds semi-structured interviews with expatriates. Better language skills among expatriates – particularly in the local language - could make them more self-dependent and win contracts and it strengthens closeness to customers, relationship and trust, strategic view and ability and also operational effectiveness and efficiency enabling their companies to gain market shares. Using Weber’s ideal types the cultural significance structures emerge featuring the cultures in these countries showing that expatriates have to strengthen the ability of the locals in the areas of trust, responsibility and initiative, independent thinking, holistic view, win-win thinking and reduce fear while the expatriates’ own abilities in these areas are strengthened if they speak the local language. Language strategies permitting the expatriate to be more communicatively and linguistically self-dependent are having a common company language, using multilingualism or having the expatriate speak or learn to speak the local language where the advantages, disadvantages and characteristics of these and other aspects of the role of language are given in ideal types.

El estudio examinó la posible influencia del lenguaje y lugar de origen de un lector en la comprensión de mensajes de comunicación en salud y en la formación de actitud e intención hacia la realización de una conducta preventiva. Un instrumento de medición con escala de comprensión de lectura, actitud e intención fue suministrado a un grupo de puertorriqueños y dominicanos N=40) residentes en San Juan, Puerto Rico. La escala de comprensión tenía dos textos en diversos niveles de dificultad (bastante fácil y medio) de acuerdo con la Fórmula de Legibilidad para el idioma español de Francisco Szigriszt Pazos. Se encontró que no hubo diferencia estadísticamente significativa (p>.05) entre la muestra en el nivel de dificultad bastante fácil, no obstante en el nivel de dificultad medio sí hubo diferencia estadísticamente significativa (p<.05). Los análisis reflejaron que la comprensión y actitud en conjunto no predicen de manera significativa el grado de intención para la adopción de una conducta preventiva de salud. / This study examines the possible influence of a reader's place of origin on the comprehension of health communication messages and on the formation of attitudes and intentions of preventive behavior. A measurement instrument with a reading comprehension, attitude and intention scale was administered to a group of individuals of Puerto Rican and Dominican origin (N=40) living in San Juan, Puerto Rico.The reading comprehension scale used two texts with different levels of difficulty (relatively easy and intermediate) in accordance with the Readability Formula for Spanish of Francisco Szigriszt Pazos. There was no statistically significant difference (p>.05) among the samplefor the relatively easy level of the reading test; however, for the intermediate level, there was a statistically significant difference (p<.05). Analyses showed that comprehension and attitude together do not significantly predict the degree of intention to adopt healthy preventive behavior.

This study aims to investigate the representations that Indian students have of Hispanic cultures and, on the other hand, to assess the degree to which native Spanish teachers give importance to the intercultural competence in teaching an L2. This research has been carried out by means of questionnaires and interviews with teachers and students of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL). The data, gathered through the questionnaires and interviews, show a clash between the Indian students´ self-stereotypes and their other-stereotypes regarding the Hispanics. The results also show a contradiction between the will and determination of the SFL teachers to incorporate "intercultural" elements in their teaching practice and the feeble extent to which they manage to do so.