Intercultural Communication Studies XIII: 2 2004 Ma WITTGENSTEIN’S LANGUAGE-GAME AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Despite the frequent deployment of the expression “intercultural communication ” in a wide range of scholarly writings, there has not been found a good way to capture its precise signification, being either vacuous or inscrutable. Most statements that seem to be offering its definition amount to no more than giving a circular explication. For example, the editors of the Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication speak of it in such a way: “Intercultural communication generally involves face-to-face communication between people from different national cultures (Gudykunst & Mody 2002:ix; my italics). ” Here both the term “communication ” and “culture ” re-appear in the very sentence supposed to be an explanation of the expression “intercultural communication”. Would it be possible to say anything substantial regarding the signification of intercultural communication without using the two key concepts of the term which themselves call for clarification? In this paper, I will examine the relevant conceptual contours surrounding the notion of intercultural communication, which has been presented in most cases in either explicit or implicit contrast with intracultural communication. First, I will sketch the difference between an "ideal language " view and a "pragmatic " view on meaning and the nature of language, providing the background for th