Deborah Tannen’s linguistic contributions

Learn about the topics that made Deborah Tannen famous.

Intercultural communication deals with how people from different backgrounds communicate. Everyone is unique, and diversity adds variety to the world. Because of so many differences, though, it is very easy to miscommunicate. Deborah Tannen’s research has revealed a lot of interesting ideas and natural phenomena associated with intercultural communication.

Tannen has discovered some unique traits about conversational styles, and how the messages sent are not always the messages received. Some of the conversational signals that indicate playful affection and not genuine insults include intonation and pausing. For example, if a man says to a woman, “You are so silly,” with a type of voice that is higher in pitch than normal, the intonation in the speech indicates that the man is just teasing the woman. He attempts to say that the woman is funny rather than odd or bizarre.

Pausing can also lead to the phenomenon of teasing. For example, a person asks for the name of another person. Using pauses and words like “um” and “uhh” can reveal how a responder acts silly in response to such question. In both cases, the people doing the teasing are just trying to be affectionate rather than insulting because a genuine insult would not have such a light-hearted tone. Instead, a genuine insult would have a more serious tone of voice.

There are also cases of miscommunication because of metamessages, which are messages that have implied meanings. A possible situation in which a message could provide a metamessage would be in a job interview.

If an applicant does not have a serious nor professional tone of voice when answering the questions asked by the interviewer, the interviewer might have the impression that the interviewee does not want the job, and instead wants to simply be foolish. The actual applicant might just attempt to be joking and teasing the interviewer; however, the metamessage that the interviewer receives is that this particular applicant is too silly to be worthy of such a job or position.

Another situation, in which a message could provide a metamessage, as well as a misinterpretation, is when a serious question is asked in a whimsical tone. The classic marriage proposal, “Do you want to marry me?” poses a very serious choice for the receiver of such a proposal.

However, if the person that proposes is just joking, then the result can include the following: the receiver of the proposal would laugh and understand the joke, or the receiver can say “I do” in a serious manner, or even storm off in disgust because the receiver does not want to marry the person who proposed.

Because of such situations, it is important to use conversational signals, such as a proper tone of voice and appropriate pauses in order to convey a message that is as true to the message intended as possible. The conversational signals provide a lot of distinction between the messages sent and the metamessages received because a lot of miscommunication happens simply because a silly question can be taken seriously.

In fact, there are people that might take a joke too literally simply because they cannot pick up the higher tone of voice used during intonation, as well as the lack of understanding pauses when they are used. Similar to teasing, the tone of voice used and pauses employed can distinguish between a joke and a serious question or statement; however, it is up for the receiver to decide if the tone of voice really is as serious or as whimsical as the sender of the message intends such a message to be.

An example of communication that provides distance and hierarchy in terms of speaking with others is indirectness. For example, a woman might say to another person, “Oh, I cannot make it to lunch today. I am busy.” She might say it one day and be serious.

However, if she keeps on making excuses, and tries to avoid the other person completely, then that would indicate both distance and hierarchy. The reason why is because the woman purposefully trying to other person by saying “I’m busy” reveals how that woman does not want to be around the other person, and yearns to distance herself away from the other individual. Because she wants to stay away from the other person, she might consider the other person insignificant and not worth her time.

Another type of communication that provides distance and hierarchy is sarcasm. It deals primarily with the idea that a person makes a big deal about nothing. This idea reveals how something that might be considered a very small difference can turn into a really large difference. For example, a sarcastic remark could be, “Oh, whatever. Who cares?” Such a perceptibly simple remark can become more serious and transform into a heated debate between two people.

The debate could heat up when the other yells out, “I care!” Later on in such an argument, the acquaintanceship or friendship between those two people can become bleak as the argument ruins such a relationship between two people. The argument would then result in a growing distance between such two people, and both people might regard each other as inferior. Thus, sarcasm can create both distance problems and hierarchy issues as a simple remark can turn a possible friendship into a more sinister relationship.

Distance and hierarchy, in terms of communication, applies not only to American culture, but other cultures as well. For example, the Japanese would pay respect and prove that they are listening to a speaker by nodding.

Such a gesture represents respect for a speaker as well as the idea that the listener is subservient to the speaker. This type of behavior shows how there is a little bit of distance between the speaker and listener because the listener attempts to not equate himself/herself with the speaker. It also reveals hierarchy because the listener behaves as though he/she is subservient to the speaker, and must pay dutiful respects.