ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates contexting in terms of interactional communication and discusses British indirectness. It also investigates how culture affects newspaper reporting. Cultures vary in their orientation towards expressive or instrumental communication according to their HCC or LCC orientation. Expressive cultures are happy wearing their heart on their sleeve, whereas instrumental cultures believe more in self-control. Western society is a predominantly verbal culture, yet there is a great deal of difference regarding what is to be verbalized. Newmark suggests the following scale of 'emotional tone' to describe the same piece of music. This gives us an example of how the same feelings could be verbalized according to one's orientation to under- or over- statement. Levine and Adelman mention the high involvement New Yorkers and the relatively high considerate Californians. The same type of divide exists between Southern and Northern Italy, Britain, Germany, and many other countries.
