中西方文化中“沉默”的跨文化对比研究

自从1959年霍尔的《无声的语言》问世以来，“沉默”吸引了众多学者从社会学、人类学、心理学、语言学、民族志学、语用学及美学的角度对其进行研究。“沉默”在交际中普遍存在，甚至比语言传达更多的意义，而且具有鲜明的文化特征，在不同的文化中往往包含着不同的意义，而意义的差异则影响着人们对“沉默”的态度和运用。随着中西交流的日益频繁，中外人民在跨文化交流中也必定会遇到“沉默”问题。如果不了解“沉默”在不同文化间所表示的不同意义及实用语境，则会给跨文化交流带来障碍。本文针对中西跨文化语境中的“沉默”问题进行研究，旨在通过对这一无声语言的跨文化探讨减少不必要的摩擦和冲突。
本文包括五个部分：第一部分简述了研究背景、意义；第二部分探讨了“沉默”的一些基本概念、作用和分类，以及“沉默”与言语的关系；第三部分从不同方面分析了中西文化中“沉默”的差异；第四部分讨论了中西方“沉默”产生的不同原因；最后一部分为总结。

关键词: 沉默   非言语交际   个人主义/集体主义   跨文化交际
A Comparative Study of “Silence”
in Chinese and Western Cultures

Abstract

Since the publication of Hall’s The Silent Language, “silence” has attracted studies from various aspects, such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, linguistics, ethnography, pragmatics and aesthetics. As a commonly found phenomenon in daily communication, “silence” transmits various meanings in different contexts and frequently conveys even more meanings than verbal symbols. What is more, “silence” bears distinctive cultural characteristics and different implications in different languages and cultures that often lead to misunderstandings. With increasing cultural exchanges between China and the western countries, the problem of “silence” would become inevitable in cross-cultural communication. Ignorance of different connotations and contexts of “silence” will surely bring obstacles and even troubles to communication. Therefore, this paper attempts to make a comparative study of the “silence” phenomenon in Chinese and western cultures with the hope of reducing unnecessary frictions and conflicts in intercultural communication.
This paper consists of five parts: Part One is a brief introduction of the background and the significance of the study; Part Two deals with the concepts, functions and classifications of “silence”, and the relationships between silence and speech; In the third part, differences of “silence” in Chinese and western cultures are analyzed from different aspects; In the fourth part, the author discusses the possible reasons for such differences. The last part sums up the whole study.

Key words: Silence,      Non-verbal communication,      Individualism/Collectivism,  
                           Cross-cultural communication

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