Are There Languages And Cultures That Leave Less to Context?

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And has this been studied by linguistics and anthropologists?

How do the rankings line up with the amount of autism diagnosed in the country? I could imagine that an autistic person might not struggle as much in a society where the amount left to context is lower, and that could be reflected in diagnostic percentages.

I don't remember where I got it from but Japan had the highest rate and the German-speaking part of Switzerland had the lowest. Does Japanese tend to leave more to context than other languages, and German less than other languages?

I live in a society considered very verbal as opposed to relying on pregnant silences. That's the main reason I left my culture of origin, which is known for its heavy reliance on context, and this is my most limiting AS trait.

Yes, I fare better in this culture.

That said, it's not enough to make a distinctive difference in my quality of life. Humans in all cultures rely (according to research) abt. 75% on non-spoken communication.

By the way, I have a degree in Linguistics.

Mmm...I just realized that you were talking about language, not behavior.

Well, I know several languages, 3 of them at mother tongue level, which I use a lot daily, and languages is my thing, and I never noticed any differences in regard to explicitness/implicitness.

A bit off-topic perhaps: I find English to be an incredibly expressive language in its richness of descriptive terms. I suppose this is connected to anglo-saxon cultures being always at the front of development in all fields, having to develop new language all the time.

In that sense, the older a language, the poorer it is. Take for example Hebrew, a language that was dead as a spoken language for 2 thousand years, and artificially resurrected for use in everyday life. It has a very restricted vocabulary compared to English and very often requires resorting to English to be able to express, or even name, something.

I started learning chinese, as far as I can tell its incredibly direct because there are symbols for words. I was actually going to make a topic about it, but I found this. I could be wrong, but the symbols are so fun to draw.

I can answer your question about Japanese, as I studied it at degree level. The Japanese language is HUGELY context-dependent, to the extent that if someone is given a sentence to translate in Japanese they might have no idea how to translate it without knowing who was speaking and what the speakers were doing and talking about, because it could mean any number of different things depending on those factors. Pronouns (I, he, she, they) are rarely used, there is no distinction between present and future tense, and other non-essential things are also often omitted - it's a very efficient language! - so you need to be able to infer a lot from the context without it being stated.

Having said that, I think the Japanese culture (along with many asian cultures) is more autism-friendly than Western cultures. There are more rigid rules about how to interact with other people and more defined social roles to operate within (for example, there are fixed ways of speaking and behaving with someone who is older or superior). Also, Japan is very introvert-friendly. Being quiet and polite in Japan and not speaking very much is considered normal, whereas in America and Europe it is seen as abnormal and deficient in some way. I don't think a child in Japan would be taken to a psychiatrist for being quiet, withdrawn and obsessed with one field of study the way they would in the US, as those things are actually considered positive behaviours by the Japanese. Because of that, I would be really surprised if there was a higher prevalence of autism diagnosis in Japan - if anything I would expect it to be less.

You can probably tell Japan was my special interest for a while!

I don't know what creates cultures and languages that leave less to context. German, and continental European could be like that. Maybe it has to be rigid, systematic, clearly defined and a presence of artificial, social constructions. Which leaves the rural areas of the world out. Scandinavian is very vocal and expressive I think. Urban Swedish is very expressive, but urban Danish is maybe that kind of restricted and clear type you are talking about. Icelandic derives almost directly from a very old language, norse, but I don't think they lack in the ability of being expressive, do they? Hebrew, ok, but Icelandic is practiced in very rural areas. (I am worse at discussing language than discussing society, which probably is apparent, lol.)

I would argue that there may not be a correlation with language and autism diagnosis frequency, because there must be societal factors like rural areas that inherents less problems for autistics, and there seem to be spoken languages with a lot of context in those societies.

The only answer I have for you is a saying that people have here about Americans (and I think it's common in other places as well): Americans say "f**k you" when they mean "I like you" and "I like you" when they mean "f**k you." English-language cultures in general seem to be very confusing when it comes to saying one thing and meaning another. The culture seems highly geared towards protecting peoples' feelings and being polite and friendly rather than being direct and honest. There's also a huge lack of direct expression of real feelings. You have to plaster a smile on your face all the time or else something must be "wrong" and you can never tell if someone (a friend, a coworker, even a family member) really likes you or not unless you put your ear to the door after you leave a room and hear what they really have to say behind your back.

I find Europe to be very different. Especially Mediterranean cultures are very expressive - if they like you, you're gonna know it, and if they don't like you, you're gonna know that too. I live in Central Europe and people here are less emotionally expressive but verbally quite direct and honest. When I was teaching English lessons to businesspeople I found that they really resented it if I told them they were doing well to encourage them when in fact they knew they were making a lot of mistakes. When someone has a problem with someone else, they say something instead of implying and resenting and gossiping. And when they say "how are you?" it's because they actually want to know.

All that being said, I still have problems all the time with misunderstanding what someone means, just because I can't read their tone or body language well enough. Sarcasm is a bit different here and harder for me to pick up on, and the sense of humor is different as well. I think overall it's easier for me in this culture - at least I know that when someone expresses an opinion they almost certainly mean it honestly - but there are some things that are difficult no matter where you are.

Half of my family are direct descendants of the Huns, hailing from the beautiful former Yugoslavia. Nice people, but not much for subtlety.

German has less context-dependent words (aside from military terms or those relating to specific occupations) than Arabic, which relies on the use of diacritics to distinguish context to non-native speakers. Some words look the exact same when diacritics are removed, so the meanings can be confused. This is the case regarding the passage about virgins in the Qurʾan. Some experts have argued that the passage is actually speaking of 72 raisins (which were rare and expensive in the era in which the Prophet Muhammad lived)...

Can you imagine the suicide bombers, what a disappointment to get raisins instead of women afterwards!

It is interesting how some say the English language is 'dull' in comparison to Latin languages which are more 'expressive' or something. But in many cases that seems to be the people in general who make a language sound 'cool' or not - i.e. if German culture was more "open" like that of Italy, the German language would probably be associated in many minds with the same mindset of Italians in our timeline.....



Yes. German language and culture is very direct in comparison to say the English spoken by English Britoners. AFAIK the people in the US have a 'medium' setting in usage of deadpan, with English doing that the most and Germans doing it the least (in the context of Germanic languages at least).

My native language is Spanish, and I believe that for the reason I mentioned above, English has left the Latin languages behind, which indeed used to be the richest. I have NLD, so language is the center of everything for me. Take technology or self-growth as examples, I have to resort to English to even think, also to Google for information.

DAMN!! !!

Many suicide bombers are in for a shock when they reach the pearly gates.

Even if it is "virgins," that's pretty non-specific. Make a nice list in your head of what most virgins are - either too young to be sexually active, or else too unattractive to become sexually active. Even gender isn't specified. : )

Anyway I don't think it's really the "72 virgins" thing that persuades crazy extremists to blow themselves up. Somehow I suspect it's a bit deeper than that. Still, any excuse to laugh is a good excuse to laugh. : D

They better bring their appetite.

Dutch language and culture is very direct. It's a prerequisite to be bluntly honest to fit in. I think this is a classic that shocked the world. The interview begins in Dutch, but there is a fragment of an interview with a lady from NBC.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIkgCbljJys[/youtube]

In a way, Dutch culture is also quite autistic. People will be very friendly to foreigners, but don't expect them to invite you to their home. Among ourselves, our proverbial tolerance (which is indeed nothing more than proverbial, it doesn't really exist), is actually a national decision to leave each other alone. Probably to prevent civil war.