Communicating Within and Across Professional Worlds in an Intercultural Setting

Abstract

This paper investigates spoken interactions mainly in English during a specific event involving participants from different linguistic, cultural and professional backgrounds. The event, a winery visit, was organized within a wider three-day international convention on the Nebbiolo grape, which took place in northern Italy in early 2004 and brought together wine producers from Italy, the U.S., Australia, South Africa and Switzerland. Other participants included vineyard owners, journalists, researchers, experts on viticulture and wine from around the world, and members of the local community. Data for the present paper consist of audio recordings of one of the winery visits organized as part of the convention. During the visit, interactants from Italy, the U.S. and Croatia used English and some Italian. The interactants from Italy and the U.S. were wine producers, while those from Croatia consisted of three journalists and a wine producer with an interpreter. The analysis focuses on the use of evaluation (Thompson / Hunston, 2000) and specialised lexis concerning grape growing, wine making and wines, with attention given to knowledge already shared by interactants and the linguistic means with which they build shared knowledge and common ground. Attention is also given to switches between English and Italian and the use of Italian terms during discussions in English