Stylistics

Codes and Contexts

Humans communicate by using codes, which are the vehicles for the transmission of meaning. Codes exhibit many properties; they are culturally defined and governed by rules. The many types of codes—verbal, nonverbal, paralanguage, and discourse (Cooley, 1983; Gudykunst, 1983)—can be formal or informal, and the rules for using them may change depending on the contexts in which they are used.

Different cultures use different codes to transmit meaning, and different rules may apply depending on different contexts. Acknowledging these explicit and implicit rules does not mean knowing how to use them appropriately across cultures. Clinicians need to be aware of these many codes and contexts in developing the cultural and social intelligence needed to apply these implicit rules.

Transmitting Meaning

Our language is one of the most important codes in transmitting meaning. People from the same cultural group may share the same or similar languages. When people travel, they bring their codes with them. Over time, the patterns of these linguistic codes change and may become difficult to decipher. Those who are exposed to many languages may switch and mix codes. Others may have different levels of proficiency in the languages they use.

In the United States, many people grew up with several different "Englishes." In an article titled "Mother Tongue," bestselling novelist Amy Tan, a Chinese-American, described these forms of Englishes: "I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as simple; the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as broken; my translation of her Chinese, which could certainly be described as watered-down; and what I imagine to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure. I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts" (Tan, 2003, pp. 256-257).

Nonverbal Codes

Not only do we have to learn to decode the verbal linguistic codes, we also need to decode such non-verbal messages as facial expressions, gazing, postures, proximity, and gestures. Different cultures have different interpretations of these nonverbal codes. Furthermore, we have to decode the meanings hidden in the tone of an expression. For example, in the United States, the word "okay" can be expressed in a high tone with energy, denoting emphasis and enthusiasm; that same word can be expressed with a low tone and a lack of energy, denoting a lack of support or willingness.

In Japan, however, the same word, reflecting the same level of energy, may not have the same meaning. Paralinguistic features including pitch, stress, loudness, rhythm, and cadence are sometimes more powerful in transmitting meanings and linguistic features. Many Americans say that when they hear two Cantonese speakers talk, they think they are arguing. This is due to the Americans' lack of familiarity with the tonal language and the mannerism in which discourse is conducted.

The cultural/linguistic differences present challenges for individuals who work with linguistically and culturally diverse populations. Many Cantonese find it curious that in an upscale restaurant, people from Western cultures engaged in conversation speak soft and low. One can hear the clinking of the silverware. In the Japanese culture, slurping the udon soup from a bowl is a normal behavior, as is burping. In some cultures, slurping noodle soup indicates enjoyment and burping is a form of praise for the hostess, indicating the food served was delicious (see sidebar on page 9 for other types of codes).

Socio-cultural Contexts

All human encounters are embedded in sociocultural contexts, which carry codes that vary from the very informal to the most formal. Buying something from a roadside vendor is considered very informal, while being received by the Queen of Sweden is considered very formal. All contexts must be interpreted according to the specific social and cultural norms. For example, one cannot say to the queen "How are you doing?" nor ask her "How is everything?" On the other hand, saying to the vendor, "How is business?" would be perfectly acceptable. In most interactions with people from China, asking someone his or her age is fairly common and one would expect to get an answer. This same question cannot be asked in a social setting in the United States.

"Foot-in-Mouth" Syndrome

Being able to read the context and decode the message is essential for successful cross-cultural communication. Not knowing what to say to whom may lead to a cultural faux pas. The expression "I put my foot in my mouth" conveys that the person said something inappropriate and has committed a social/cultural faux pas. Thus the "foot-in-mouth syndrome" means a person knows the conversational rules and violates them.

Orestroem (1983) gives the following characteristic features of American conversation:

• Private rather than public
• Casual and spontaneous (planning and production are more or less simultaneous)
• Not institutionalized (informal setting; turn order, length, aim, and topic are not specified in advance)
• Focuses on the interaction (facts are not always central)
• Free to introduce new topics
• Frequent use of "tag questions" (isn't it) and "intimacy signals" (you know)
• Frequent use of "listener responses" (mm, yes, that's right)

In clinical encounters, clinicians must be aware of the sociocultural contexts in which we interact and must learn to be more sensitive to multiple contexts in their daily encounters.

Codes Within Contexts

The interpretation of the codes depends on the particular contexts. A polite nod, smile, or response of "yes" may simply be an acknowledgement that our client has heard the message. It may not signify agreement with the comments. As an example, an SLP working in a large California school district recalled an IEP meeting in which both Hmong parents were present. During the presentation of the case, they nodded their heads frequently. But when the SLP asked the parents to sign the document, the father refused. When probed, the parents indicated that they were following the report by nodding, but they did not agree with the recommendation of the SLP and could not sign an agreement.

Another example illustrates an SLP's ability to interpret the sociocultural context when making a home visit to a Hmong family to ask the parents to read to their children and assist with homework. Although she did not know that Hmong is a preliterate society and many Hmong do not have literacy skills, she was sensitive to the environment and to contextual cues. She entered the apartment and noticed that there were no newspapers, books, or magazines. She even went into the bathroom and noticed no reading materials. She then asked a number of critical questions and learned that the parents did not know how to read or write in English but could speak some English. Instead of asking the parents to read to their children, she suggested that they read together and with the help of a volunteer who was a retired teacher. Being sensitive to the context made it possible for the SLP to build the bridge of communication and achieve clinical goals.

Social Intelligence

Karl Albrecht (2006) defines social intelligence as the ability to get along well with others while winning their cooperation. It is a combination of sensitivity to the needs and interests of others with an attitude of consideration and skills for interacting successfully with people in any social context; it includes being able to decode the messages in context and respond appropriately. He described five dimensions of social intelligence: situational awareness, presence, authenticity, clarity, and empathy. An SLP should assess one's social intelligence and further develop social intelligence in order to work competently in our multicultural society.

Conversational Rules and Discourse

In a multicultural society, people come into contact with others from various cultures, and an initial encounter may be marked by uneasiness. People do not know what to say or what not to say. They are hesitant about making comments for fear of making the other person uncomfortable. The composition of discourse—silence, interruptions, turn-taking, the organization of talk, choice of dialect, code-mixing, and code-switching—are all part of the complex system of using codes. In addition, the rules of conversational pragmatics are different among cultures.

For example, in the Japanese culture, there is a hierarchy in seating arrangements and rules about who should speak and who should not. Nancy Masterson Sakamoto (1995) described the rules of Japanese conversation as similar to bowling—one person has the floor and he will be the one to talk. On the contrary, she felt that the American rule is more like a tennis game in which the players hit the ball back and forth and there is an exchange. These rules are learned through experience.

Cultural Intelligence

Earley and Mosakowski (2004), in their Harvard Business Review article, "Cultural Intelligence," discussed a bank ad that shows a grasshopper with this message: "USA—Pest. China—Pet. Northern Thailand—Appetizer." Cultural intelligence is an aptitude and skill related to emotional intelligence. They define cultural intelligence as an outsider's seemingly natural ability to interpret someone's unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures the way that person's compatriots would.

The three sources of cultural intelligence are head, body, and heart (Earley and Mosakowski, 2004). Being able to diagnose your cultural intelligence is the first step in self-understanding. It helps to understand whether you are (Earley and Mosakowski, 2004) a "provincial" who works well with people of similar background but runs into trouble when venturing farther afield; an "analyst" who relies on intuition rather than on systematic learning style; an "ambassador" who is confident, but with the humility to know what you do not know and how to avoid underestimating cultural differences; a "mimic" who has a high degree of control over his behaviors; or a "chameleon" who possesses high levels of all three components and achieves results with skills and perspective. Earley and Mosakowski provide six steps for developing cultural intelligence (see sidebar at left).

Developing cross-cultural competence requires education and training, personal engagement, and life-long experience (Cheng, 2004; Cheng 2006; Nidhi, Ribera et al., 2005). The diagram on p. 32 offers a model for developing cultural and social competence that integrates the key attributes—positive attitude, acumen, and aptitude (heart, head, and hand)—at the core of these competencies (Cheng, 2007). Gaining knowledge about the cultures, communication codes, and situational contexts is the key to success in clinical practice.

A Multiplicity of Codes

We are constantly decoding messages that take many formats. For instance, people use paintings to record their history and cultures. From cave paintings, we learned about predecessors' lifestyles, history, cultures, and stories. Symbols are the most significant parts of cultures. The enormous success of the novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003) is based on the intricacies of deciphering different codes: the curator of the Louvre cuts himself to show the symbols of a Da Vinci painting; the story uses a poem—in the form of a riddle that needs to be decoded—to find the grave of Mary Magdalene. Braille and sign language are used to transmit meaning.

The following are other visual codes.

The Dress Code: In the Western world, dress codes are part of the social etiquette. "Black tie" does not necessarily mean wearing a tie that is black—it means formal attire, such as a tuxedo. Likewise, "white tie" does not necessarily mean wearing a tie that is white, but signifies a very formal occasion. Business attire generally means business suits, and business casual means suits but less formal. Casual chic is not the same as casual, but is less formal than business casual. For most people from other cultures, cracking the dress codes can be very challenging, and many people appear in venues either overdressed or underdressed. The general rule is that it is acceptable to be overdressed but not underdressed.

Color is an important aspect of dress codes. The Chinese use the color red for weddings and New Year celebrations. A Chinese person often anticipates an invitation to a wedding or birthday when a red envelope is received. On the other hand, the color white is generally reserved for funeral and memorial services. Typically, white flowers also decorate the funeral wreaths.

In many Western cultures, however, white is the wedding color—the bridal gown is white and many wedding floral decorations are white—and black generally is considered the funeral color. When decoding these colors, people from different cultural orientations will have different reactions and attach different meanings to such codes. These interpretations are learned in context and acquired through family discourse, cultural interactions, time, and life experience.

The Gift Wrap Code: Gift-giving is part of all cultures. But gift wrapping varies among different places and cultures. Cracking the gift wrap code for gift boxes requires substantial knowledge and experience. In Western cultures, a gift with a blue wrapping may convey the meaning that the gift is for a baby boy, and a gift wrapped in pink might be intended for a baby girl. In the Western world, wedding gifts are generally wrapped in soft colors. In China and many parts of Asia, wedding gifts may be given in a red envelope or in a red box.

Other Aspects of Codes: There are other aspects of codes, including housing, eating habits, and various ways to present food. When China's Premier Teng Xiao Ping visited the United States, he was often served steak or prime rib as a main course in state banquets. Several days later, he asked if Americans only eat steaks. In China, state banquets may have up to 12 dishes with many variations on a dish. When Patricia Nixon accompanied her husband, President Richard Nixon, to China, a whole fish with head was once served during a state banquet, and she politely asked the host to remove the head of the fish. However, in the Chinese tradition, the whole fish is served to convey the meaning of wholeness and plenty. Serving the fish without the head would not be proper. 

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Wind' by Ted Hughes- Analysis

Wind

This house has been far out at sea all night,

The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,

Winds stampeding the fields under the window

Floundering black astride and blinding wet

Till day rose; then under an orange sky

The hills had new places, and wind wielded

Blade-light, luminous black and emerald,

Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.

At noon I scaled along the house-side as far as

The coal-house door. Once I looked up -

Through the brunt wind that dented the balls of my eyes

The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope,

The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace,

At any second to bang and vanish with a flap;

The wind flung a magpie away and a black-

Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly. The house

Rang like some fine green goblet in the note

That any second would shatter it. Now deep

In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip

Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought,

Or each other. We watch the fire blazing,

And feel the roots of the house move, but sit on,

Seeing the window tremble to come in,

Hearing the stones cry out under the horizons

Ted Hughes

Biography:

Often referred to as one of the greatest 20th century poets, Ted Hughes was born in Yorkshire in 1930. He began to write his first poems aged 15, before winning a scholarship to study English at Cambridge, although he switched to Archaeology and Anthropology in his third year there. His first published poem appeared in 1954, the year of his graduation, and his first book of poems, 'Hawk in the Rain', was published in 1957. The previous year he had met the American poet, Sylvia Plath, and they were married in four months. Over the next 41 years he would write over 90 books, winning numerous prizes and fellowships, and was appointed England's poet laureate in 1984, with his love of nature a key influence in his work. However, his personal life was less successful. His marriage to Sylvia Plath was a turbulent one, and they separated after seven years. She committed suicide in 1963, gassing herself in her kitchen a year after their separation, and many held Hughes responsible as a result of his affair with Assia Wevill. Six years later, Wevill killed herself and their four-year old daughter, Shura. His reputation was marred by these tragedies, and it was with great surprise that the literary world received 'Birthday Letters' in 1998, the year of his death from cancer. This volume was dedicated to Sylvia Plath, and paints a tender portrait of every aspect of his relationship with her. The intensity and beauty of his language is breathtaking, and every poem I have read contains fresh, striking imagery that perfectly encapsulates its subject.

Analysis:

‘Wind’ is one of Ted Hughes’ most formidable poems, showing an entirely different aspect to this element. Unlike many other poets such as John Clare (‘A Morning Breeze’), Hughes is not concerned with describing the beauty and serenity of a balmy breeze; his aim is solely to communicate the relentless, godly strength and power of the wind that he knows from stormy days on the moors of the Pennines, using pathetic fallacy as the main device to describe both the wind and its victims.

           
            In the first of six four-line stanzas, Hughes describes the tempestuous night that has passed. The opening line is both simple but striking, comparing a solid house to a flimsy boat that has been tossed and smashed in a sea gale, with the words ‘far out’ and ‘all night’ suggesting the house is marooned in isolation. Like terrified, panicked animals, the woods have been ‘crashing through darkness’ while the hills are ‘booming’ with the thunderous sound of the wind. Personification is used to convey its almighty, dangerous power: it was ‘stampeding the fields’ while the land was futilely ‘floundering’ in the ‘blinding wet’.  The oceanic metaphor continues, conjuring up an image of a night mastered by the storm that rages through the dark. However, the beginning of the second verse is misleading: ‘till day rose’ indicates that finally the storm is over, whereas, in fact, the ensuing chaos is almost more intense, undiluted by the rain that saturates the first four lines.

           
            No longer black, the sky has now adopted the unnatural, ominous colour of orange, and as a consequence of the previous night, the ‘hills had new places’: the wind is so powerful that it has the ability to alter the very landscape it rules. It is also armed and ready to do battle with the earth again with renewed vigour, demonstrated by the martial image ‘wind wielded blade-light.’ Imagining the wind as an Anglo-Saxon warrior, Hughes shows that it has harnessed the power of light to its weaponry, and conveys a crazed frenzy. It is as though the wind even has a face, with the ‘black and emerald’ the colours of its pupil and iris. However, they are ‘luminous’, and the light from its wild face is ‘flexing like the lens of a mad eye’: a surreal concept conveying brilliantly the strange light and unpredictability in the aftermath of a storm. 

           
                        The third stanza opens with the line, ‘at noon, I scaled along the house side’, as Hughes continues with the metaphor of the house as a boat.  Inching along the wall for protection, he reaches ‘as far as the coal house door’; by starting a new line after ‘as far as’, Hughes creates an exaggerated climax before recording the small distance that he actually managed to navigate. This first-person perspective is most effective in conveying the poet’s vulnerability. Hunched and stooped, he dares to look up just once, and immediately the balls of his eyes feel ‘dented’ by the ‘brunt wind’. This shocking sensory image of an eyeball being violently assaulted by a hard object conveys the brute force of the wind. The internal rhyme of ‘dented’ and ‘tent’ adds to the harsh, metallic feel of the verse, continuing with ‘the tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope’. Not only is the physical shape of the curved landscape depicted, this metaphorical image of movement shows the inescapable wind as being almost within the earth, its formidable power nearly snapping the ropes that anchor the hills to the ground.

           
            In the literal and figurative ‘the fields quivering’, Hughes shows not only the rippling appearance of the land, but personifies it as well: previously, the fields were stampeded by the wind, now they tremble in submission and distress. The sky too is mastered by the wind, with an arresting description of the shape of the horizon as a ‘grimace’, wincing in fear and pain. This is followed by the onomatopoeic, ‘bang and vanish with a flap’: such is the nature of these words that they demand to be read quickly and suddenly, demonstrating the unpredictable state of the land at the merciless hands of the wind, and the upheaval and tension it causes. With careless ease, the wind ‘flung a magpie away’: it is personified as it hurls a bird as thoughtlessly as a human might a discarded object.  ‘Flung’ also indicates a temper.  In contrast to the rapid pace of this stanza, the reader is then forced to slow down with the monosyllabic ‘black-back gull bent like an iron bar slowly’, which links closely with the image being described, as the assonantal rhythm mirrors the meaning. Material is of no consequence to the wind, as it easily alters the shape of both metal and earth, and nature is helpless in the face of the wind’s demented onslaught.

           
            ‘The house’ is deliberately placed in the stanza above the rest of its sentence to create impact for the opening of the next verse, as it matches the harsh assonance of sounds of ‘iron’ and ‘slowly’. It also sits alone, perilously exposed. The wind has now reached a frequency so powerful that it could shatter Hughes’ home like ‘a fine green goblet’, showing that compared to the wind, mere bricks and mortar are extremely delicate and fragile. The wind has again reached inside its subjects: before, it threatened to burst from within the hills; now, it howls inside the house at a frequency that could shatter glass. There is a sense of urgency and tension in the words  ‘any second would shatter it’, with Hughes and his house now in immediate danger.

           
            Despite the reassurance of being ‘deep in chairs’ by a ‘great fire’, this is no match for the wind, and Hughes and his family are uneasy and unsettled by its presence. It has invaded their minds, for they ‘cannot entertain book, though, or each other.’ Instead, they sit brooding, watching the fire while they ‘feel the roots of the house move’. There is no security to be found, and again, the house is in danger of being hurled away, and shifts to rearrange its position in the earth. The windows not only tremble with the force of the wind that hammers them, but are personified as afraid, desperate to seek shelter within the walls of the house. In the concluding lines, they hear the ‘stones cry out under the horizons’: even the prehistoric stones are weeping in desperation at the cruel havoc caused by the wind.

           
            Hughes uses enjambement to create fluidity much like the flow of the wind, although there is no regular rhyme pattern, showing that its inexhaustible energy cannot be limited. Hughes portrays how its sheer elemental force masters the land, sky, light, fire and stones in an assault of sense images which reflect its immeasurable rage. However, the tone is not one of criticism, but of awe at its power. He also highlights the insignificance of man compared to such strength, with the personification serving to blur the line between nature and humanity, as all are helpless in the face of the wind.

Critical Summary of An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa

Critical Summary

Coming of age is never easy. Coming of age as a woman is even harder. But coming of age as a female immigrant in a foreign country may be the most difficult of all. For many women born into societies with restrictive social and political codes, however, immigration may be the only real way to come of age. In An American Brat, Pakistani-born novelist Bapsi Sidhwa reveals with a humorous yet incisive eye the exhilarating freedom and profound sense of loss that make up the immigrant experience in America.

Sidhwa begins her novel in Lahore, Pakistan. Feroza Gunwalla, a 16-year-old Parsee, is mortified by the sight of her mother appearing at her school with her arms uncovered. For Zareen Gunwalla, Feroza's outspoken 40-something mother, it is a chilling moment. The Parsees, a small sect in Pakistan, take great pride in their liberal values, business acumen, and—most importantly—the education of their children.

It's 1978 in Pakistan and 16-year-old Feroza Ginwalla, the heroine of the novel, An American Brat, is beginning to worry her relatively liberal, upper-middle-class Parsee parents. She won't answer the phone; she tells her mother to dress more conservatively; she sulks, she slams doors, she prefers the company of her old-fashioned grandmother; she seems to sympathize with fundamentalist religious thinking. What to do? “I think Feroza must get away,” says Zareen, the girl's mother, to her husband, Cyrus. Feroza is packed off to visit her Uncle Manek, a student at MIT. But as Zareen waves goodbye to her daughter, she cannot know that in America Feroza will become more independent than Zareen ever dreamt, or hoped, was possible. “Travel will broaden her outlook, get this puritanical rubbish out of her head.”

And indeed it does—although to a disastrous degree, from Zareen and Cyrus' point of view, for Feroza's three-month sabbatical with her uncle in Massachusetts turns into a three-year sojourn in many parts of the United States.

By the time Zareen decides, toward the end of the book, to reassert parental control by flying from Lahore to Denver—where Feroza has become a hotel-management student—it's too late. Her daughter is already an “American brat,” a woman with a mind and opinions of her own, able to relish the ability to choose.

An American Brat is an exceptional novel, one of such interest that the reader's reservations, while significant, are ultimately of little consequence. Bapsi Sidhwa, author of three previous works of fiction and frequently referred to as Pakistan's most prominent English-language novelist, has produced a remarkable sketch of American society as seen and experienced by modern immigrants.

America, to Feroza and her Uncle Manek, is in many ways a paradise—as indeed it appears to be for Sidhwa, a Parsee who has lived in the United States for many years—but An American Brat is nonetheless a measured portrait, often reassuring and discomfiting at the same time.

It's both wonderful and startling, for example, to hear the fully Americanized Manek say to the newly arrived Feroza, as she grapples with some well-wrapped container, “Remember this: If you have to struggle to open something in America, you're doing it wrong. They've made everything easy. That's how a free economy works.”

In style, An American Brat is nothing like Henry James' The Ambassadors, being straightforward, humorous, easygoing and unpoetic. In plot, though, it bears some similarities, with travelers finding themselves unexpectedly transformed by their encounters in a new land. Feroza soon realizes that Manek's years in the United States have changed him: He is now “humbler and, paradoxically, more assured and quietly conceited, more considerate, yet … tougher, even ruthless.”

One of the first things Zareen notices about Feroza at the Denver airport is her gaudy tan: “You'd better bleach your face or something,” she tells her daughter, “before you come home.”

But even Zareen proves vulnerable to America's charms:

Although she has come to break up Feroza's engagement to a “non”—a non-Parsee—she glories in the shopping and amenities of Denver life, “as happy as a captive seal suddenly released into the ocean.” Zareen, her American mission at least partially accomplished, returns to Pakistan but wonders momentarily whether she has done the right thing. And that's the issue lying at the heart of this novel—the competing loyalties immigrants feel toward family, culture, heritage, self. The problem only flashes through Zareen's mind because she is too old to be fully taken with American ways; Manek can almost ignore the contradiction because, being male, he will be celebrated for living in the United States so long as he takes a Parsee wife.

Feroza, by contrast, feels the brunt of the conflict, newly aware of the severe sexism in Parsee culture—men can marry outside the faith, for instance, while women cannot—and thrilled at the idea of having her own money, her own career, her own identity. Feroza has come to America, she discovers moments after first landing in New York, to be “unself-conscious”—to be free, once and for all, of “the thousand constraints that governed her life.”

An American Brat suffers from a meandering, literal plot and a tone that doesn't distinguish major insights from minor ones. Page by page, though, Sidhwa keeps the reader engaged, for one can never predict which mundane American event she will display in an entirely new light.

At the hospital: A Parsee couple is presented with a ?15,000 bill for their daughter's delivery, where-upon the shocked father replies, walking out, “You can keep the baby.” At home: Feroza, gushing over Manek's vast supply of canned frankfurters and sardines, saying, “I could eat this all my life!”

At an expensive restaurant where Manek has sent back half his meal, to Feroza's horror, because he can't possibly pay for it: “If you weren't so proud,” Manek tells his niece, “you wouldn't feel so humiliated, and you'd have enjoyed a wonderful dinner.”

He has a point, however twisted, and it's moments like that which make An American Brat a funny and memorable novel.