Usage anomalies and internationalization

Communication can fully succeed only if the recipient of a message gives the same interpretation to the message that its sender intended. The achievement of successful communication becomes problematic in an international setting in which the senders and receivers of messages have different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The different linguistic backgrounds manifest themselves as spelling and syntax anomalies. Cultural differences result in a context switch, which can substantially change the meaning of a message. We suggest that messages be explicit and robust. Explicitness means that there is little dependence on a cultural context; robustness means that potential sources of linguistic misinterpretation, such as double negatives, are avoided. We point out research directions that aim at dealing with the problems associated with internationalization.