Communicating Meaning across High- and Low-Context Cultures – a Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Communication involves a host of factors, being embedded in the broad sociocultural context in which messages are conveyed. Several theoretical frameworks have been proposed concerning patterns of communication and the way(s) they differ according to culture. Our paper draws on Hall’s (1976) key notions of low-context and high-context cultures, coupled with strategies of explicitation and implicitation. Our analysis focuses on the extent to which communicators rely on “context” to overtly state something in low-context cultures, or to covertly render a message in high-context cultures. Accordingly, we aim to highlight that culture-specific ways of communication are typically reflected in the use of phrases and/or idiomatic expressions that count as allusions (historical, literary, etc.) or opaque culture-specific items.

Keywords

• communication
• high-/low-context cultures
• phrases
• idiomatic expressions
• crosslinguistic equivalence