Professional Communication: A Comparative Analysis of the National-Cultural Features of the Language of Business Communication Based on the Material of Negotiations in English, Spanish, French and Russian Languages

The notion of linguoculturology determined the choice of the object and subject of the research. The object of research is professional communication in business and it lies at the intersection of several fundamental sciences - cultural studies of intercultural communication, linguistics, and ethno-psychological linguistics. The subject of research is a comparative analysis of business communication. The material of business negotiations in four cultures: English, French, Spanish, and Russian serves as a sample for research. The aim of this study is closely related to object and subject and is to analyze the communicative behavior of representatives of English, French, Spanish, and Russian cultural and linguistic communities in order to outline the brightest differences and similarities of it. Moreover, the aim is to attempt to describe the ways to neutralize or at least reduce cultural barriers that can cause “failures” in the process of professional intercultural communication. During this attempt, a special emphasis on oral business communication in the negotiation process is made. Afterwards and most importantly, the aim of this research is to use the existing theoretical knowledge to create an easy and ready to use roadmap for intercultural communication and specifically for intercultural negotiation on a systematic level. In order to implement the aim of the work it is necessary to go through several steps. As a first step, it is essential to systematize the elements of culture that are reflected in a communicative act. Then, it is necessary to provide interpretation and examples of the main ways in which these elements leave their trace in business discourse. The objectives of the study are derived from its aim. First, the problem of describing the ways of representing the culture in language and speech is solved. Afterwards, the analyses of the typical errors of transmitting cultural information in business communication as well as the extra-linguistic parameters of business interaction (e.g. hierarchical relation between communication parties) is conducted. As a next step, we study the means of communicative-pragmatic adaptation that play a key role in preserving or rejecting the cultural information within the communication process. Furthermore, we conduct a review of the key successful techniques and strategies that allow the transmission of the cultural nucleus of the original message. The claim of this study consists in the idea that the strategies for successful business communication and specifically business negotiation vary from language to language, but at the same time depend on the knowledge and correct usage of several meta-factors. Namely, foreign language itself, peculiarities of a specific culture, business context and, consequently, appropriate language formulas as well as the knowledge of the background of other stakeholders.