|
Cross-cultural differences in computer-mediated communication (CMC) have received little attention so far, especially with regard to complaining behaviour. It is therefore the aim of the present study to contribute to this still unexplored research area by comparing British English and German complaints in CMC, precisely on eBay. This study is thus anchored in the field of cross-cultural pragmatics, and the main approach taken is speech-act based. However, since complaints are always embedded in discourse and therefore occur as post-event, the present investigation also takes the contextual factors of the data into account, thus additionally drawing on research from discourse analysis. The overall aim of this study is a comparison of the British English and German production of computer-mediated complaints and, consequently, a description of similarities and differences, of which the latter may lead to misunderstandings in cross-cultural electronic communicative situations. Specifically, the collected complaints were analysed according to five categories: the use of complaint strategies, the chosen level of directness, the employment of modification, the use of pronouns, and the handling of CMC features. In the light of these categories, the following research questions guided the investigation: Do British and German traders’ computer-mediated complaints differ with regard to the five categories of analysis? Does the reason for complaining influence their linguistic choices? Does it make a difference whether they have one or two reasons for their online complaint? In order to find answers to these research questions, British English and German complaints were taken from the British and German feedback forum of the online auction house eBay and analysed according to the five categories. The results were then statistically compared. The findings of this project show both similarities and differences in the way British English and German eBay users formulate their online complaints. Differences become apparent with ...
|
