Abstract
This chapter asks to what extent similar principles of language use can be found in all cultures and to what extent there are culture-specific communicative basic structures. The answer to this question is complicated insofar as language is part of culture and, like culture, must be acquired by the individual in the course of his or her own development. Thus, the first question is to what extent the respective mother tongue imposes restrictions on the individual with regard to certain patterns of thought and forms of communication. To investigate this question, known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, neither a systematic comparison of language systems nor an absolute comparison of language use is sufficient. It is only possible to separate linguistic conventions from real cultural differences if the intracultural variation in different situations is also taken into account. Relatively consistent statements can just be made concerning the individualism-collectivism factor. Here it can be stated that in collectivistic compared to individualistic cultures, speaking is characterised by a stronger self-restraint.
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Helfrich, H. (2023). Language and Communication. In: Cross-Cultural Psychology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67558-8_9
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