Intercultural Communication and our Understanding of Language

Intercultural communication should be taken into account when we want to define what language is, what its nature is like, and how it functions. Linguistic and pragmatic theories based on L1 assume that language use depends on there being commonalities between language users. These factors create a core common ground on which intention and cooperation-based communication is built. However, this core common ground is limited in intercultural interactions, and interlocutors cannot take them for granted; there is therefore reason to take up the question of how people go about formulating utterances and interpreting them when they have limited access to those commonalities. The paper examines three important aspects of this issue: definition of language, changing role of context, and a modified understanding of linguistic creativity.