LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

THERE SHOULD BE SOME KIND OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SOUNDS, WORDS AND SYNTAX OF A LANGUAGE

AND THE WAYS IN WHICH SPEAKERS OF THAT LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE THE WORLD

AND BEHAVE IN IT

DECIDING THE NATURE OF THE RELATIONSHIP AND FINDING THE

SUITABLE WAYS TO DEMONSTRATE IS NOT NECESSARILY BE ‘TRUE’: THE SUN DOES NOT ROTATE AROUND THE EARTH NOR IS

THE EARTH AT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE The structure of a language determines the way in which speakers of that language view the world.

The culture of a people finds reflection in the language they employ: because they value certain things and do them in a certain way, they come to use their language in ways that reflect what they value and what they do.

There is little or no relationship between language and culture.

THE WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS The structure of a language influences how its speakers view the world by the linguist Edward Sapir and his students Benjamin Lee Whorf

Language and culture were inextricably related so that someone could not understand or appreciate the one without a knowledge of the other.

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society.

The background linguistic systems, the grammars, is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual’s mental activity, for his analysis of impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade.

THE WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS Different speakers will experience the world differently insofar as the languages they speak differ structurally.

If speakers of one language have certain words, then speakers of the first language will find it easier to talk about those things; for example physicians talk easily about medical phenomena.

If one language makes distinctions that another does not make, then those who use the first language will more readily perceive the differences in their environment which such linguistic distinctions draw attention to.

The grammatical categories available in a particular language not only help the users of that language to perceive the world in a certain way but also at the same time limit such perception.

THE WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS The cue to a certain line of behavior is often given by the analogies of the linguistic formula in which the situation is spoken of, and by which to some degree it is analyzed, classified, and allotted its place in that world is “to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group.

Language provides a screen or filter to reality; it determines how speakers perceive and organize the world around them, both the natural world and the social world.

If a language requires certain distinctions to be made because of its grammatical system, then the speakers of that language become conscious of the kinds of distinctions that must be made.

THE WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS Syntactic evidence can also mislead. Certain types of language can be associated with ‘advanced’ cultures and that others are indicative of cultures that are less advanced.

ON THE CONTRARY, must we assume that all languages possess the resources that any speaker might require to say anything that he or she might want to say in that language?

IN CONCLUSION, the Whorfian hypothesis is that it is still unproved. WHY??????

KINSHIP SYSTEMS Kinship systems are a universal feature of languages and make use of factors such as sex, age, generation, blood and marriage.

There might be terms which are obviously kinship terms but are used with people who are very obviously not kin by any other criteria usually employed.

Sometimes different relationship are described by the same term and similar relationships are described by different terms.

A single term may refer to a very different type of relationship. Terms used in a kinship system that they carry with them ideas about how the people ought to behave toward others in the society that uses that system.

Kinship systems change to reflect the new conditions.

TAXONOMIES People use language to classify and categorize various aspects of the world in which they live, but they do not always classify things the way scientists do; they often develop systems which is called folk taxonomies rather than scientific classification

A folk taxonomy is a way of classifying a certain part of reality so that it makes some kind of sense to those who have to deal with it.

COLOR TERMINOLOGIES We sometimes cannot directly translate color words from one language to another without introducing subtle changes in meaning.

All language make use of basic color terms. It must be a single word It is not the obvious sub-division of some higher-ordered term. It must have quite general use. It must not be highly restricted in the sense that it is used by only a specific sub-set of speakers.

COLOR TERMINOLOGIES Basic color terms found in a wide variety of languages reveals certain very interesting patterns.

Communities that show little technological development employ the fewest color terms.

There is the existence of an order in the development of color terms.

If speakers of any language are asked to identify the parts of that spectrum they find one system of such identification much easier to manipulate than another.

PROTOTYPE THEORY People do in fact classify quite consistently objects of various kinds according to what they regard as being typical instance.

FURNITURE

PROTOTYPE THEORY

FRUIT

PROTOTYPE THEORY

CLOTHING

TABOO AND EUPHEMISM Certain things are not said, not because they cannot be, but because ‘people don’t talk about those things’; or if those things are talked about, they are talked about in very roundabout ways.

Taboo is the prohibition or avoidance in any society of behavior believed to be harmful to its members in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment, or shame.

Taboo subjects can vary widely Certain language taboos seem to arise from bilingual situations which bring avoidance

TABOO AND EUPHEMISM Euphemistic words and expressions allow us to talk about unpleasant things and disguise or neutralize the unpleasantness.

People might constantly resort circumlocutions and euphemism in order to avoid direct mention of matters pertaining to parts of the body, bodily functions, sex and so on.

Each social group is different from every other in how it constraints linguistic behavior in this way, but constrain it in some such way it certainly does.