Negotiating rejections: a socio-cultural analysis

This paper argues for an investigation of intercultural communication from a sociocultural perspective where communicative action is firmly anchored in social practice and sociocultual context. The section on 'Rejections, denials and other non-acceptances', examines the linguistic representation of saying 'no' in a discursive framework. The results obtained are categorized in the interactive tripartite system of a minus-validity claim based on truth, appropriateness and sincerity. The section on the 'Reconstruction of culture', adapts ethnomethodological principles to the investigation of culture by making explicit the interdependencies between linguistic variation, communicative strategy and sociocultural competence. The final section, 'Intercultural communication revisited', presents the communicative act of a plus/minus-validity claim as a frame of reference which allows for an investigation of linguistic code, social practice and possible perlocutionary effects as regards the reconstruction of cultures and intercultures.