Donal Carbaugh
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Communication, Faculty Member
- Ethnographer of communication who is interested in interactional dynamics among people in different placesedit
Research Interests: Rhetoric and Linguistics
Intercultural dialogue and its many variants such as interfaith, interethnic,and interracial dialogue set global scenes with some sort of differencesat play. This paper examines difference by proposing ways to developa reflective capacity... more
Intercultural dialogue and its many variants such as interfaith, interethnic,and interracial dialogue set global scenes with some sort of differencesat play. This paper examines difference by proposing ways to developa reflective capacity relative to specific dialogic practices and goals whichare typical in peacebuilding. The chapter is organized into two parts. In thefirst part, three dimensions of peacebuilding praxis are introduced whichfocus on interactional needs, relational needs, and informational needs ortruth-value. Each is explored in specific cases. The second part of the paperelaborates how these very practical matters can be valued differentlyin different religious, intellectual, and cultural traditions. The differencescan be productively engaged, however, as we deepen our understandingof the ways dialogic peacebuilding encounters activate different models ofpersonhood, means of relating, vocabularies of emotion, and ways of dwellingin the nature of things
Research Interests:
This chapter addresses issues of pragmatics and culture by presenting a framework for the cultural analysis of discourse which has been explicated and used in previous literature (e.g., Berry 2009; Carbaugh 1988a, 1990, 2005; Carbaugh et... more
This chapter addresses issues of pragmatics and culture by presenting a framework for the cultural analysis of discourse which has been explicated and used in previous literature (e.g., Berry 2009; Carbaugh 1988a, 1990, 2005; Carbaugh et al. 1997; Scollo 2011). Indebted to the ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1972), and interpretive anthropology (Geertz 1973), this particular analytic procedure is one implementation of the theory of communication codes (Carbaugh, 2005; Philipsen 1997; Philipsen et al. 2005). As such, it takes pragmatic communication to be not only its primary data but, moreover, its primary theoretical concern. The framework responds to specific research questions, addresses particular kinds of intellectual problems, includes five investigative modes, and uses a special set of concepts. In this chapter, each of the modes is discussed as analytically distinct, yet complementary to the others, including theoretical, descriptive, interpretive, comparative, and critical analyses. Special attention is given to the interpretive mode and to intercultural interactions as a site for the application and development of cultural discourse analysis.
Research Interests:
This chapter presents to readers the spoken words of Blackfeet people who have discussed their homeland, its landscape, and all that it entails. In the process, the chapter seeks to help readers hear in those words in a Blackfeet way of... more
This chapter presents to readers the spoken words of Blackfeet people who have discussed their homeland, its landscape, and all that it entails. In the process, the chapter seeks to help readers hear in those words in a Blackfeet way of speaking about their land, to introduce some of the cultural meanings of Blackfeet in that way of speaking about it, and to offer an understanding of this way as a communal touchstone which is anchored in the discourse Blackfeet participants produce as they speak about their homeland.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT This article explicates a theoretical framework which was designed to discover cultural features both within and about car communication. The general approach the framework provides has been used for basic research in the United... more
ABSTRACT This article explicates a theoretical framework which was designed to discover cultural features both within and about car communication. The general approach the framework provides has been used for basic research in the United States and China, and has proven useful to researchers and designers. We discuss specifically how the approach can develop and implement speech-enabled human–machine interface (HMI) systems to address cultural features of communication and interaction. The general framework unveils the cultural nature of human–machine communication, while it also opens the possibility of discovering new cultural dimensions and principles which designers may not yet have considered. The approach is adaptable to a variety of communication contexts, with our focus here on the in-car communication of drivers with a speech-enabled HMI. Specific findings are briefly discussed including implications for research and design.
Research Interests:
... In Distinctive Qualities in Communication Research, editors Donal Carbaugh and Patrice M. Buzzanell bring together scholars with varied and productive approaches to communication to address the question of what distinguishes... more
... In Distinctive Qualities in Communication Research, editors Donal Carbaugh and Patrice M. Buzzanell bring together scholars with varied and productive approaches to communication to address the question of what distinguishes communication research from similar studies ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In The Practice of the Wild, Gray Snyder encourages readers to exercise “grace,” a kind of reflective practice that regularly acknowledges what we have been given, its role in sustaining us and in helping us move further along our way. I... more
In The Practice of the Wild, Gray Snyder encourages readers to exercise “grace,” a kind of reflective practice that regularly acknowledges what we have been given, its role in sustaining us and in helping us move further along our way. I must begin, then, by giving thanks to Jennifer Peeples and Stephen Depoe for bringing these essays together, to the authors here for their thoughtful words, to those whose words inspired theirs, and to the world we humbly share, which inspires us, and within which we strive to understand our places, as it variously makes itself known to us. This is what sustains us; and for that, I give thanks.
ABSTRACT This article explicates a theoretical framework which was designed to discover cultural features both within and about car communication. The general approach the framework provides has been used for basic research in the United... more
ABSTRACT This article explicates a theoretical framework which was designed to discover cultural features both within and about car communication. The general approach the framework provides has been used for basic research in the United States and China, and has proven useful to researchers and designers. We discuss specifically how the approach can develop and implement speech-enabled human–machine interface (HMI) systems to address cultural features of communication and interaction. The general framework unveils the cultural nature of human–machine communication, while it also opens the possibility of discovering new cultural dimensions and principles which designers may not yet have considered. The approach is adaptable to a variety of communication contexts, with our focus here on the in-car communication of drivers with a speech-enabled HMI. Specific findings are briefly discussed including implications for research and design.
Research Interests:
Getting acquainted with others is one of the most basic interpersonal communication events. Yet there has only been a limited number of studies that have examined variation in the interactional practices through which unacquainted persons... more
Getting acquainted with others is one of the most basic interpersonal communication events. Yet there has only been a limited number of studies that have examined variation in the interactional practices through which unacquainted persons become acquainted and establish relationships across speakers of the same language. The current study focuses on self-disclosure practices in initial interactions between first language speakers of English from Australia and the United States. It was found that while both American and Australian participants volunteered self-disclosures in the context of presentation-eliciting questions, there was a noticeable tendency for the American participants to self-disclose without being prompted by questions from the other participant. We also found that there was a tendency for the Australians to use positive assessments in response to self-disclosures less often and with a lesser degree of intensity than the American participants. These tendencies in sel...
Research Interests:
This article is a creative reconstruction of reflexivity as it operates for some practitioners of the ethnography of communication. Our central concern is conceptualized as “discursive reflexivity”; with that concept, we foreground... more
This article is a creative reconstruction of reflexivity as it operates for some practitioners of the ethnography of communication. Our central concern is conceptualized as “discursive reflexivity”; with that concept, we foreground communication both as primary data and as our primary theoretical concern. As a result, we treat reflexivity as a process of metacommunication, that is, as a reflexive process of using discourse at one level to discuss discourse on another. Following current and past research, we explore how dimensions of discursive reflexivity differently configure into five types of ethnographic practice, these being theoretical, descriptive, interpretive, comparative, and critical inquiry. Each is discussed as analytically distinct from the others, yet all coalesce experientially or, in other words, all coexist in one’s experience as an ethnographer. Relationships are discussed between discursive reflexivity and self-reflexivity, including various modes of ethnographic...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Chapter 13 Speaking about menopause: Possibilities for a cultural discourse analysis Cindy Suopis and Donal Carbaugh Cindy Suopis and Donal Carbaugh follow the lead of Francis Trix in examining non-medical discourse talk about diagnosis.... more
Chapter 13 Speaking about menopause: Possibilities for a cultural discourse analysis Cindy Suopis and Donal Carbaugh Cindy Suopis and Donal Carbaugh follow the lead of Francis Trix in examining non-medical discourse talk about diagnosis. In this case the discourse ...
... Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact. Donal Carbaugh, University of Massachusetts - Amherst. Suggested Citation. Donal Carbaugh. Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact. , 1990. ...
Research Interests: Man and Donal Carbaugh
ABSTRACT: In this chapter, we take a very preliminary look at several expressive systems in order to ask: Is there something like “dialogue” in each, as a concept and practice. We explore the expressive systems-in-use both the relevant... more
ABSTRACT: In this chapter, we take a very preliminary look at several expressive systems in order to ask: Is there something like “dialogue” in each, as a concept and practice. We explore the expressive systems-in-use both the relevant terms in several languages AND the practices being referenced with those terms. The analyses focus on Blackfeet, Chinese, Finnish, and Hungarian expressive systems. We find that the systems, considered together, reveal a wide variety of possibilities that are active when “dialogue” is mentioned, and ...
Information technologies bring into view not only ideas and their transmission via electronic devices, but also means of expression and the meanings they assume for readers / listeners / viewers. This transformation -- from information... more
Information technologies bring into view not only ideas and their transmission via electronic devices, but also means of expression and the meanings they assume for readers / listeners / viewers. This transformation -- from information through technology to expressions and their meanings -- is an intrinsic part of any electronically mediated communication. This project explores one such electronically mediated text, Tango Finlandia, a segment of the popular American news program, 60 Minutes, as it has been broadcast and discussed prominently in the United States and Finland. Analyses of exchanges between Finnish and American students demonstrate how the "exact same" televisual information and the "exact same" English words convey information that is transformed into two different expressive systems with very different cultural meanings.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Communication and Culture
Research Interests:
... They were asked, "Are you still in the romantic relationship that last year was long-distance?" The respondents were presented with 14 termination strategies extracted from the work of Baxter (1982): 1.... more
... They were asked, "Are you still in the romantic relationship that last year was long-distance?" The respondents were presented with 14 termination strategies extracted from the work of Baxter (1982): 1. Confronted other with completed decision to end the relationship 2 ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The speech of employees at a television station is investigated from a cultural perspec-tive, demonstrating its situated meaningfulness to those who create it, its relative inac-cessibility to outsiders, and an understanding of how to... more
The speech of employees at a television station is investigated from a cultural perspec-tive, demonstrating its situated meaningfulness to those who create it, its relative inac-cessibility to outsiders, and an understanding of how to discover such meanings. The study explicates a local system ...
