Is There Any Right to Die Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 150

Is There Any Right to Die - Essay Example This question leads to an endless chain of contradictions; however, under a closer examination, it becomes obvious for everyone that such kind of existence can be barely called â€Å"life†. Nowadays medicine possesses a lot of tools, such as morphine, which are able to "facilitate" sufferings of deathly ill patients. In the meantime, the drugs change patient’s mind and psyche, which eliminates any personality features. Hence, even though the drugs may cure and help the person to defeat the unbearable pain, still human personality is being destroyed by those medicals. According to a liberal measurement of human life value, the liberal policy of European and United States stated that the value of human life is secondary in comparison with a person’s will. This means that if a person can be considered as adequate, according to psychological evaluation of one, the person is responsible for one’s own decisions and actions, and therefore one’s decision must be respected by the rest of the society. Hence, such person is eligible to do whatever one wants with his or hers own life and body, unless it causes any harm to other people and is prohibited legally (Seale, 1994). If to take a look at the issue from the personal point of view, it becomes obvious that the life has a meaning when pleasures prevail over sufferings; moreover, positive emotions are considered to be more meaningful than the negative ones. So euthanasia seems to be the only solution in some cases; for instance, when human’s life cannot be maintained in other way and suffering cannot be relieved except by death. In short, if suffering is evil, how can we morally justify preservation of life, which has turned into a constant suffering?   

The Development of Machine Translation Essay Example for Free

The Development of Machine Translation Essay Introduction What is machine translation? Simply put, machine translation is the application of computer text from one natural language into another natural language text translation. The translation climax in the history of China again and again set off, the translation of Buddhist scriptures in the Eastern Han to the Tang and Song dynasties, the Ming and Qing technology translation and the Opium War to the May Fourth Movement to promote the progress of history. Today, the advent of the global information age is the translation climax conditions, requirements, involved in the field of computer science, mathematics, linguistics. However, the science of translation career how? Effects? How we will develop and make progress? In this paper, a review of the development of machine translation, disadvantages, role and prospects of superficial discussion, to answer these questions. i. A history of the development of machine translation The 17th century French philosopher, mathematician Descartes and the German mathematician Leibniz put forward the idea of using the machine dictionary overcome language barriers. In 1946, the worlds first electronic computer was born, after 50 years of development, through the tortuous road success, there are setbacks, presented numerous challenges for researchers. Machine translation potential social and economic benefits, some Western countries as well as Japan and other countries have spent a lot of R D, machine translation into the boom by its start-up period of the trough, the recovery period and make showing unprecedented prosperous and developed. The following is a brief overview of the various periods of its development. That is start-up period (1947 to 1954), Trough period (1954 to 1975), Recovery period (1975 to 1989),Prosperous Period. ii. The problem of machine translation The machine translation prosperity does not mean it does not have any problems. According to statistics, machine translation with human translation, translation accuracy and readability is less than 70%, many ways, there are a large number of problems, yet computer, language experts and machine translation users to jointly overcome. Opened the translation history at a glance the criterion the eyes of the beholder, the wise see wisdom. Three Kingdoms period follow essentially, Gavin ornaments East Jindao An best of Record, not so prejudicial statements were made tour word Tang Xuan Zang, neither shall seek the truth, and shall Yu vulgar to modern Yan Fu, letter the relentless pursuit of Dayak Chinese letter, Fu Lei quite similar , environment of Qian Zhongshu Gu Zhengkun best approximation . Tytlers three principles abroad, the famous translator Nidas dynamic equivalence the the fee Road Rove equivalents, otherwise Gorlee, alleged meaning on qualitative quantity. But are all demanding translation standards. The machine is translated as a translation, of course, should pay attention to the quality of the translation. The translation quality of machine translation can understand and loyalty, it is difficult to achieve the ideal standard. These examples to illustrate (1) The erroneous translation of part of speech and meaning. These problems with the machine error on the part of speech, meaning Discrimination are inseparable. Once the parts of speech in this connection vocabulary to syntax bridge is the wrong resolution, the translation will be wrong. Therefore, it is the wrong resolution mistranslation phenomenon should arouse the attention of machine translation researchers. (2)Adverbial wrong translation Of mistranslation. Such as the num ber and type of vehi2cles be misinterpreted as such a number of types of vehicles. Comparative sentence mistranslation. The earlier a smog alert can be issued, the greater its effectiveness is as it al2low s were wrongly translated: constitutes more time this smoke alarm can be as early as issued, the greater its efficiency as it does allow and the correct translation should be: the sooner the alarm, the greater the role, because it will make the Sketch word mistranslated. Small words, such as articles, conjunctions, English is not fluent in English. Chinese On the contrary, they become redundant, this machine translation can not be a good conversion. On these issues, there have been a lot of research, but always simple description, do not be traced. I believe that the key to these problems is not a simple computer program driving hard to the issue of slavery, but the context of the language itself is not a thorough analysis, we should ponder the question is how to make the machine with minimum knowledge. How to make the long-term accumulated cultural knowledge to penetrate into the machine translation. When they make the machine and from the search context, and in a certain culture play a role in its translation, what will? Mentioned Context, we can get some inspiration from the M alinow ski and Firth, Firth linguists task should be to study the text language phenomenon and its context combination, machine translation is the translation of a natural language another natural language should be set analysis, Discrimination select processing as an integrated process, asked to do , Shindaya. Gave us think of fruitRevelation, the word of the keys on the piano, alone has no effect. Keep context together makes sense. Another factor is the cultural context. Firth social scene decided to play social role social role is limited. Therefore, the social scene is also limited. Event enables the machine translation These limited role in society, the social scene analysis processing, translation will be able to improve the understandability credibility and While this robot suspected, but this is the trend. Since the machine translation represents the high-tech should be a breakthrough in the current information age. ii. The role of machine translation. Machine translation through a saddle-type process, PaulDeposit and flourish, today turned into a tool, the reasonIt is its role in promoting. (1)Promote social progress Human leave no stone unturned to develop and complete a machine. Is translation systems, has developed a translation software, promoted by Economic development, social progress, eliminating the language in the world among people Introduction obstacles, communicate with the entire world. (2) Improve translation efficiency With the machine translation research has improved continuously, the field of translation achieved unprecedented success. In our translation work, We can make use of a variety of translation systems or software to complete the translation task, Samples can improve the speed and accuracy of the translation, translation efficiency. (3) Promote the development of other areas Machine translation to get involved in mathematics, computer science, linguistics, translation Science and other multi-discipline areas need strong development of these disciplines, substantial based on the outcome, so as to promote the development of these areas. Fourth, the outlook on the prospects for machine translation. The birth of the machine translation system, especially to people translation, who brought hope. Although machine translation the understandability and loyalty also not ideal, but if the mathematics, computer science, translation studies and language science and other researchers in the field of work together, will make the machine translation out more beautiful flowers, bear more fruit. Conclusion In the above mentioned, if the context of the language environment and cultural context for consideration in the process of programming, will be able to make the translation discourse stronger language three functions, namely the concept of function, people interpersonal function and textual function was more prominent. It is also the author most would like to suggest, hope, serve role. It should be believed that through the tireless efforts of many researchers make machine translation. Having been properly developed, thus will be able to promote vigorous translation cause development.

The Second Tradition of Thanksgiving Essay -- Essays Papers

When the great holiday of Thanksgiving comes to mind, most people think of becoming total gluttons and gorging themselves with a seemingly unending amount of food. Others might think of the time spent with family and friends. The whole basis of the holiday is family togetherness, fellowship, and thankfulness for blessings received during the previous year. Every family has their own unique way of spending time together with loved ones only seen during the holidays. In the Stock home, there is only one thing we enjoy doing. Sure, like every other family we have our grand and elaborate dinner, which is composed of all the greatest delicacies my mother and grandmother can whip up. Of course, as is expected, after stuffing ourselves as if this was our last meal the men in the family congregate in the living room. We sit and wait for our tradition to begin by discussing how each of our lives has been unfolding since last Thanksgiving. Finally, the moment arrives, kick off of the first of many Thanksgiving Day football games. There are thousands of fans who watch football with religious devotion. At the Stock house that is not the case. However on Thanksgiving, our eyes glaze over and we rise to the highest of football enthusiasts. Every man sitting around our big screen T.V. has his own team to cheer for, which usually causes many spirited discussions during the four quarters of testosterone induced insanity. As the game plays on we all grow further and further engrossed in watching. As the women talk in the kitchen and the children run around, sometimes even right in front of the television, our stares never stray from the glowing giver of joy. It might seem silly... ...nderstand and appreciate the games my dad and the rest of my male family members have been watching for years, I became that much closer with all of them. As John Madden said â€Å"The turkey brings the family together, but the football keeps them together† (www.espn.com). As a tradition Thanksgiving’s football watching extravaganza has become an occasion I have begun to look forward to for months. After spending this great tradition with my father and my family those geezers are looking a lot younger. Work Cited Stock, John, Personal Interview, 11-29-03 www.espn.com, Friday, Nov. 21, ESPN, 11-21-03 www.football.com, Friday, Nov. 21, NFL Internet Network, 11-21-03 http://rats2u.com/thanksgiving_events.htm, 2001, St. Clair Associates, 11-21-03 http://www.dezmin.com/Mtarchives/000-122.html, Nov. 21, 2001, Dezmin’s Archives and It’s Contributors, 11-21-03

Philippine Education Essay

The system of education in the Philippines was patterned both from the educational systems of Spain and the United States. However, after the liberation of the Philippines in 1946, the systems have changed radically. The Department of Education (or DepEd) administers the whole educational system, which also includes the allocation of funds utilized for school services and equipment (such as books, school chairs, etc.), recruitment of teachers for all public schools in the Philippines, and the supervision and organization of the school curricula. see more:k to 12 curriculum advantages and disadvantages The former education system of the Philippines is composed of 6 years of elementary education starting at the age of 6 or 7, and 4 years of high school education starting at the age of 12 or 13. In this system, education is not compulsory. However, since June 4, 2012, DepEd started to implement the new K-12 educational system,[3] which includes the new curricula for all schools (see the section). In this system, education is now compulsory. All public and private schools in the Philippines must start classes from a date mandated by the Department of Education (usually every first Monday of June for public schools only), and must end after each school completes the mandated 200-day school calendar of DepEd (usually around the third week of March to the second week of April). The implementation of the K-12 program is â€Å"phased†. The first phase of the implementation will start on SY 2012-2013. During this school year, universal kindergarten will be finally offered, and will now be a part of the compulsory education system; and a new curriculum for Grade 1 and Grade 7 students would be introduced. By SY 2016-2017, Grade 11/Year 5 will be introduced, and Grade 12/Year 6 by SY 2017-2018; with the phased implementation of the new curriculum finished by the SY 2017-2018. Students in 2nd year to 4th year high school this SY 2012-2013 are not included in the program. It is only applicable to students from Kinder to 1st year high school which is now called Grade 7. However, during the new educational cycle, from 2016 to 2018, college enrollment could slow down because of the entrance of the lower-year students to the new educational system. Primary Education Elementary school, sometimes called primary school or grade school (Filipino: paaralang elementarya, sometimes mababang paaralan), is the first part of the educational system, and it includes the first six years of compulsory education (grades 1-6). These grades are further grouped (informally) accordingly into: primary level, which includes the first three grades (grades 1-3), and intermediate level, which includes the last three grades (grades 4-6). The elementary school education covers a smaller but wider than the junior and senior high school because of the spiral approach educational technique. In public schools, the core/major subjects that are introduced starting grade 1 include mathematics, Filipino, and Makabayan (until grade 3, this subject is synonymous to social studies, but also incorporate values education and the fundamentals of political science). English is only introduced after the 2nd semester of grade 1. Science is only introduced starting grade 3. Heograpiya (geography), kasaysayan (history), and sibika (civics) (abbreviated as HEKASI), is only introduced starting grade 4 (similar also to social studies but focuses more on the subjects earlier stated). Minor subjects then include music, arts, physical education, and health (abbreviated as MAPEH). In private schools, subjects in public schools also include those of the public schools, with the additional subjects including: computer education and HELE (stands for home economics and livelihood education; while in Christian schools or in Catholic schools, religious education. International schools also have their own subjects in their own language and culture. From grades 1-3, students will be taught using their mother tongue, meaning the regional languages of the Philippines (also called as dialects) will be used in some subjects (except Filipino and English) as a medium of instruction. It may be incorporated as a separate subject. But from grade 4, Filipino and English as a medium of instruction will then be used. On December 2007, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced that Spanish is to make a return as a mandatory subject in all Filipino schools starting in 2008 but it didn’t come into effect. DECS Bilingual Policy is for the medium of instruction to be Filipino for: Filipino, Araling Panlipunan, Edukasyong Pangkatawan, Kalusugan at Musika; and English for: English, Science and Technology, Home Economics and Livelihood Education. Article XIV, Section 7 of the 1987 Philippine constitution mandates that regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein. As a result, the language actually used in teaching is often a polyglot of Filipino and English with the regional language as the foundation, or rarely the local language. Filipino is based on Tagalog, so in Tagalog areas (including Manila), Filipino is the foundational language used. Philippine regional languages are used in the provinces in the teaching of Makabayan. International English language schools use English as the foundational language. Chinese schools add two language subjects, such as Min Nan Chinese and Mandarin Chinese and may use English or Chinese as the foundational language. The constitution mandates that Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis. Following on this, a few private schools mainly catering to the elite include Spanish in their curriculum. Arabic is taught in Islamic schools. Until 2004, primary students traditionally sat for the National Elementary Achievement Test (NEAT) administered by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS). It was intended as a measure of a school’s competence, and not as a predictor of student aptitude or success in Secondary school. Hence, the scores obtained by students in the NEAT were not used as a basis for their admission into Secondary school. During 2004, when DECS was officially converted into the Department of Education (DepEd), and also, as a result of some reorganization, the NEAT was changed to National Achievement Test (NAT) by the Department of Education (DepEd). Both the public and private elementary schools take this exam to measure a school’s competency. As of 2006, only private schools have entrance examinations for Secondary school. The DepEd expects over 13. 1 million elementary students to be enrolled in public elementary schools for school year 2009–2010. Though elementary schooling is compulsory, latest official figures show 27. 82% of Filipino elementary-aged children either never attend or never complete elementary schooling, usually due to the absence of any school in their area, education being offered in a language that is foreign to them, or financial distress. In July 2009 DepEd acted to overcome the foreign language problem by ordering all elementary schools to move towards mother-tongue based learning initially. The order allows two alternative three-year bridging plans. Depending on the bridging plan adopted, the Filipino and English languages are to be phased in as the language of instruction for other subjects beginning in the third and fourth grades. Secondary education PSHS Main Campus. Note the disparity between rural and urban education facilities in the Philippines. Secondary school in the Philippines, more commonly known as â€Å"high school† (Filipino: paaralang sekundarya, sometimes mataas na paaralan), consists of four levels largely based on the American schooling system as it was until the advent of the comprehensive high schools in the US in the middle of last century. The Philippine high school system has not moved much from where it was when the Philippines achieved independence from the US in 1946. It still consists of only four levels with each level partially compartmentalized, focusing on a particular theme or content. DepEd specifies a compulsory curriculum for all high schooling, public and private. The first year of high school has five core subjects, Algebra I, Integrated Science, English I, Filipino I, and Philippine History I. Second year has Algebra II, Biology, English II, Filipino II, and Asian History. Third year has Geometry, Trigonometry, Chemistry, Filipino III, and World History and Geography. Fourth year has Calculus, Advanced Algebra, Physics, Filipino IV, Literature, and Economics. Minor subjects may include Health, Music, Arts, Technology and Home Economics, and Physical Education. In selective schools, various languages may be offered as electives, as well as other subjects such as computer programming and literary writing. Chinese schools have language and cultural electives. Preparatory schools usually add some business and accountancy courses, while science high schools have biology, chemistry, and physics at every level. Secondary students used to sit for the National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT), which was based on the American SAT, and was administered by DepEd. Like its primary school counterpart, NSAT was phased-out after major reorganizations in the education department. Now the National Achievement Test is administered to second year students. Higher education institutions, both public and private, administer their own College Entrance Examinations (CEE). Vocational colleges usually do not have entrance examinations, simply accepting the Form 138 record of studies from high school, and enrolment payment. Reference: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Education_in_Philippines.

Clyne’s Revision of Grice’s Maxims Essay

Grice’s Maxims have been criticised for being too Anglo-centric. Michael Clyne proposes revisions to the four maxims in his 1994 book Intercultural Communication at Work. Do Clyne’s revisions of this model go far enough in universally accounting for intercultural conversation? Why or why not? Grice’s General Cooperative Principle has been under continuous debate for the past three decades. It is mainly through the maxims that Grice’s paradigm has been challenged as highly ethnocentric, however such readings may tend to take the maxims too literally rather than as â€Å"reference points for language interchange† (Allan as cited in Clyne, 1994, p. 11). There is some agreement in this, but as suggested by Mey (1994, p. 74), the principle and maxims are â€Å"always defined relative to a particular culture†. It is this idea of cultural values underlying communication that has caused the contention of Grice’s cooperative principle and its subordinate maxims. Many linguists (Keenan, 1976; Wierzbicka, 1985; Clyne, 1994; Bowe & Martin, 2007) have criticised Grice’s Maxims for being too ethnocentric – claiming that its assumptions are based on Anglo-Saxon norms and culture. This Anglo-centric nature is problematic for intercultural communication as the maxims are inapplicable to many cultural values systems; namely European and Southeast Asian cultures where harmony, respect and restraint play a key role (Clyne, 1994, p. 192). In an attempt to better reflect intercultural conversation, Clyne (1994) has proposed a set of revised ‘maxims’ to make Grice’s principles more universal. His revision of Grice’s model certainly accounts for a wider variety of contexts and cultures, however it cannot be said to universally account for intercultural conversation. As conversation is unique to its context and participants, in reality no single theory could universally embody real life language use. Although people of all backgrounds generally do attempt to facilitate successful communication (if it doesn’t conflict with their purpose or cultural values), factors unique to each participant can affect any given conversation. Thus, it c an be said that while individuals are conditioned by their culture and environment, discourse patterns will always be influenced by personality factors (Watts, 1991) and pragmatic and intercultural competence. On the surface, Grice’s cooperative principle seems to provide little  difficulty for intercultural analysis; its degree of uncertainty is certainly appropriate for discussions of cultural diversity. Making a contribution â€Å"such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged† (Grice, 1975, p. 45) seems to allow for the acceptance of different purposes and requirements in different contexts, and does not exclude the influence of norms associated with a variety of different speech communities. Although intercultural analysis was not Grice’s main concern, he has defined the discourse of his cooperative principle as â€Å"concerted enterprises† that allow â€Å"a high degree of diversity in the motivations underlying quite meagre common objectives† (1989: 369). Grice himself makes no explicit claims of universality, using characteristically modest language to refe r to a â€Å"first approximation of a general principle† (1989: 26). He is extremely careful not to overstate the case for ‘cooperation’; suggesting that â€Å"each participant recognizes in them (talk exchanges), to some extent, a common purpose, or at least a mutually accepted direction† (1989, p. 26). It should be pointed out however, that Grice’s maxims depict an idealised and simplified language use, whereas reality is much more complex and multi-dimensional. In everyday conversations, telling the entire truth might be seen as impolite or inappropriate in certain cultures. There also tend to be intercultural differences that do not always follow a universal principle. Some cultures and languages (i.e. Chinese) often dictate that their speakers use indirect speech in conversation, which means they are unable to follow Grice’s maxims of quantity and manner. In such cases, there is a clash between Grice’s maxims and the pragmatic rules of conversation, which are culturally sensitive. For example, when being offered a drink, a typical Chinese person would automatically say no the first time, while expecting the offer to be made at least two or three times more. This resembles a kind of phatic language communication; saying no, but not really meaning no. In this sort of situation, if someone doesn’t adhere to the cultural norm – choosing to follow Grice’s maxims instead, then they would sound odd and out of place. The above example demonstrates that Grice’s maxims aren’t relevant in all contexts as they clash with certain cultural values systems. Many linguists  (Clyne, 1994; Hymes, 1986; Loveday, 1983; Walsh, 2009) have picked up on this discrepancy between theory and data, claiming that the maxims are only relevant to the English speaking Western world. In particular, Clyne (1994) has pointed out that they have limited relevance to cultures where content and knowledge are core values. For example, speakers of Malagasy, â€Å"whose form of co-operation seems to consist in making their contributions as opaque, convoluted and non-perspicuous as possible† (Keenan as cited in Mey, 1994, p. 74) could be seen as flouting the Maxim of Quantity. This is because information, especially ‘new’ information gives the holder a certain amount of prestige, thus Malagasy people tend to use indirect, evasive language. It is obvious then, that environmental factors, social interaction and cultural norms need to be considered when interpreting conversational implicature. This is reinforced by Hymes (1986), who notes that Grice was correct in assuming that any culture will have some sort of orientation towards telling the truth (quality), being informative (quantity), staying on topic (relation), and being clear (manner), but that this orientation and how it is articulated cannot be assumed to be the same in all cultures. It is necessary then to recognize that each language and/or culture will have its own settings for each of the maxims (Bowe & Martin, 2007). In an attempt to reduce the cultural bias of Grice’s maxims, Clyne (1994) has proposed revisions to the four maxims (quantity, quality, relation, manner) by considering different cultural norms and expectations. An example of this is the modification of the maxim of quality so that it reads ‘do not say what you believe to be in opposition to your cultural norms of truth, harmony, charity, and/or respect.’ This revision accounts for situations in which the hearer may not want to respond truthfully in order to preserve face or harmony (Lakoff, 1973). This cultural value of harmony is especially prevalent in Chinese and Vietnamese cultures. Nguyen (1991) claims that communalism and collectivism has enforced harmony as a central cultural value in the Vietnamese people. Because of this emphasis on harmonious relations, Vietnamese frequently utilise ambiguous communication behaviours in order to avoid conflict. Although this language use could flout one or more of Grice ’s maxims, by introducing cultural parameters such as truth, harmony and face, Clyne’s (1994) revisions can better account for  intercultural conversation. Clyne’s (1994) revised maxims for intercultural analysis certainly have more regard for the communicative patterns of non-English cultures; however, they don’t altogether meet the needs of intercultural communication. In intercultural communication a high level of pragmatic competence is central to an interlocutors performance. As Thomas (1984) points out, it is commonly the differences in pragmatic competence that are problematic in intercultural conversation. Furthermore, it is possible to have achieved a very high level of linguistic proficiency, while having a relatively low level of socio-pragmatic proficiency. This can result in speakers using a language, which for some reason is deemed inappropriate, incomprehensible or even offensive (Thomas, 1984). This will be demonstrated by the following example: An Australian manager has been reassigned to the Athens office of his organization and is assigned a Greek secretary. On a daily basis, he assigns work to her by using conventional indirect requests such as ‘Could you type this letter?’ One day, she complains to a colleague, ‘I wish he would just tell me what to do instead of asking me. After all, he’s the boss and I’m here to do what he wants.’ In the above example, we have a mixture of assumptions about the rights and obligations of two parties in a relationship characterized by asymmetrical distribution of power, and the way this power will be exercised and acknowledged. The Australian boss attends to the face wants of his secretary by attempting to minimize the power distance between the two. This is done by the use of politeness strategies that seemingly give the subordinate the option not to perform a requested act – ‘Could you type this letter?’ Thomas (1995, p. 161) observes that ‘allowing options (or giving the appearance of allowing options) is absolutely central to Western notions of politeness’. An Australian secretary would presumably know that a direct, on-record refusal of this request would be face threatening to her boss – as well as threatening to her own job. She could potentially employ indirect refusal strategies (i.e. hints), which would avoid on record refusal and  sustain the appearance of harmony. As Green (cited in Thomas, 1995, p. 147) points out â€Å"the speaker is really only going through the motions of offering options or showing respect for the addressee’s feelings. The offer may be a facade, the options nonviable, and the respect a sham. It is the fact that an effort was made to go through the motions at all that makes the act an act of politeness.† It is clear that in this example the two parties have not yet negotiated a shared set of norms. The secretary acknowledges and accepts the power difference between herself and her boss. She is dependent on him for work, and she accepts that he has the right to tell her to carry out various secretarial duties. To her, the Australian boss seems insincere when he requests her to do something for him, because as far as she is concerned, the power relationship admits no options. That is; she does not interpret the deference that her boss displays towards her as an act of politeness. There are obviously socio-pragmatic differences between the two parties. The Australian boss has carried his socio-pragmatic norms into the Greek setting, where they violate the expectations of his Greek subordinate. Each party is defining and acting within the situation differently. Despite this, their encounters are not entirely unsuccessful: the boss makes requests for work that the secretary completes. However, the Greek secretary feels dissatisfied with her boss’s politeness strategies. It can be said that neither party is completely interculturally competent. That is; communicating in a culturally competent way requires interlocutors to learn about the ways culture influences communicative utterances of individuals concerned. After all, if the secretary constantly doubts the sincerity of her boss, the relationship is threatened. And if the boss is unaware of the effects of this, he may experience a rude awakening in the near future. Based on what has been discussed, it can be concluded that Grice’s maxims cannot be taken as absolute rules; this would be neither right nor practicable. Language is not as clear-cut as mathematical formulas; it frequently integrates with culture and society. Thus cultural and pragmatic considerations are vital to successful intercultural communication. Moreover, linguistic competency may not always cause a breakdown in  communication; very often when language form and cultural norm clash, culture supersedes language form. Clyne’s (1994) revisions of the conversational maxims better reflect cultural variation, however they do not universally account for intercultural communication. The examples aforementioned demonstrate that factors such as pragmatic and intercultural competence also play a key role. Intercultural communication then becomes something that is negotiated at local level by participants, involving mutual adaptation. Difficulties may arise, of course, in the process of negotiation through limitations in the socio-pragmatic and strategic competence of some or all participants. After all, there are individual differences in these competencies, and as Agar (1994) points out, we have to remember that in any intercultural conversation, ‘it’s persons not cultures that are in contact’. References: Agar, M. (1994). The intercultural frame. In International Journal of Intercultural Relations 18/2:221-237. Bowe, H. J. & Martin, K. (2007). Communication across cultures: Mutual understanding in a global world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Clyne, M. (1994). Inter-cultural Communication at Work: Cultural Values in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and Conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press. Grice, P. (1989). Studies in the Way of Words. London: Harvard University Press. Hymes, D. H. (1986). Discourse: Scope without depth. In International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 57, 49-89. Keenan, E. O. (1976). On the universality of conversational implicatures. Language in Society 5.67-80. Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness, or minding your p’s and q’s. In Papers from the Ninth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. 292-305. Loveday, L. (1983). Rhetoric patterns in conflict: The sociocultural relativity of discourse organizing processes. In Journal of Pragmatics, 7, 169-90. Mey, J. (1994). Pragmatics. An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. Thomas, J. (1984) Cross-cultural discourse as â€Å"unequal encounter†: Toward a pragmatic analysis. In Applied Linguistics, 5(2), 226-235. Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in Interaction. An Introduction to Pragmatics. Harlow /Munich: Longman. Walsh, M. (2009). Some neo-Gricean maxims for aboriginal Australia. Retrieved from http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/research/docs/alw/Walsh09.pdf (accessed 22/10/2013) Watts, R. J. (1991). Power in family discourse. Berlin: Mouton. Wierzbicka, A. (1991). Cross-Cultural Pragmatics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter Wierzbicka, A. (1985). Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts. In Journal of Pragmatics 9.145-78.