The relationship between language and culture.
Chapter 7章
Hale Waihona Puke Language, Culture and Society
1 What is the relation between language and culture? 2 Why is it necessary to teach relevant cultural information in language class? 3 Is English better than the language of some American Indian tribe’s language? 4 A language may have many different varieties. How can we classify its varieties?
While some researchers claim to have found reliable evidence to justify its validity, others suggest to have obtained enough counter-evidence to jeopardize its feasibility. It is clear that one must be careful and do not rush to any hasty conclusion before he really obtains some reliable and convincing evidence to support or reject the hypothesis.
Chapter Seven
Language, Culture and Society
语言学期末复习练习题3
1. The sub-field of linguistics that studies the relation between language and society is called ________.A. sociolinguisticsB. neurolinguisticsC. macrolinguisticsD. microlinguistics2. Which of the followings doesn‟t belong to dialectal varieties? _______.A. regional dialectB. sociolectC. idiolectD. diglossia3. The dialect which is caused by social status is ________.A. regional dialectB. sociolectC. idiolectD. diglossia4. Standard dialect is _________.A. designated as the official or national language of a countryB. a dialect a child acquires naturally like his regional dialectC. used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposeD. used by people who belong to the higher social status5. Sometimes, two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite role to play. This phenomenon is _____.A. bilingualismB. diglossiaC. pidginD. creole6. Which of the followings does NOT constitute the reason for regional dialect?A. Geographical barrier.B. Loyalty to one‟s native speech.C. The existence of standard dialect.D. Physical and psychological resistance to change.7. A speaker uses the Standard English dialect when interacting with strangers, and uses a different dialect when interactingwith individuals whom she recognizes as members of her own social group. This illustrates which of the following types of linguistic behavior?A. Hypercorrection.B. Negative transfer.C. Code-switching.D. Borrowing.8. Which of the following statements is not the concern of sociolinguistics?A. The language a person uses reveals his social background.B. There exist social norms that determine the type of language to be used on a certain occasion.C. How does the human mind work when they use language.D. To investigate the social aspects of language.9. The word “language” is sometimes used to refer to the whole of a person‟s language. This is called ________.A. scientific languageB. idiolectC. colloquial languageD. formal language10. The form of a given language used in a certain geographical space is called ____.A. styleB. dialectC. registerD. pidgin11. According to Sapir-whorf Hypothesis, which of the following is NOT true?A. Different languages offer people different ways of expressing the world around.B. Language filters people‟s perception and the way they categorize experiences.C. Language patterns determine or influence people‟s thinking and behavior.D. Language structure people habitually use shows no influence on people‟s behavior.12. Which of the following about the relationship between language and culture is NOT true?A. Language use is tinted with its culture.B. Language expresses cultural reality.C. The relationship is analogous to that of structures and processes.D. The relationship of language to culture is that of part to whole.13. The famous line “My love is a red, red rose.”stirs up vividly the imagination of a beautiful lady. This is the _______ meaning of “rose”.A. denotativeB. connotativeC. iconicD. dictionary14. The meaning can be found in the dictionary is the _______ meaning of a word.A. denotativeB. connotativeC. iconicD. culture15. In English, “green” in the phrase “green-eyes” is associated with ________.A. unhappy feelingsB. high social positionC. envy or jealousyD. negative qualities16. France has made special efforts to protect its language from being corrupted by other languages especially American English. This is a kind of ________.A. linguistics imperialismB. linguistic nationalismC. cultural imperialismD. cultural diffusion17. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is about ________.A. language and thoughtB. language and translationC. grammatical structureD. second language acquisition18. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is also known as linguistics ________.A. reliabilityB. relativityC. reversibilityD. reachability19. Which of the following statements about nonverbal communication is NOT true?A. Nonverbal communication and culture are similar in that both are learned, both are passed on from generation to generation, and both involve shared understandings.B. Studying nonverbal behavior can lead to the discovery of a culture‟s underlying attitudes and values.C. Nonverbal actions always occur in isolation.D. Nonverbal communication has five basic functions: to repeat, to complement, to substitute for a verbal action, to regulate, and to contradict a communication event.20. Which statement is NOT right in describing the behaviorists‟ view?A. Behaviorists view stresses imitation, stimulation and reinforcement.B. Behaviorists offer a reasonable account of how children acquire some of the regular and routine aspects of the language.C. Behaviorists hold that children learn the language gradually in much the same way as habit-forming.D. behaviorist‟s accounts are convincing especially when it is used to explain children‟s acquiring complex system.21. According to Chomsky, the Universal Grammar is ________.A. got through imitation and practiceB. acquired through the interaction with the environmentC. pre-equipped in children‟s brainsD. gained specifically for each language22. Which of the following statements is true?A. All normal children have equal ability in learning their first language.B. Linguistic environment plays an important role in first language learning.C. A child can begin his first language acquisition at any time.D. It is easy for parents to teach their children grammar.23. The child may get confused at hearing the color of white used for paper when he/ she first thought is as the word for snow. This is an example for ________.A. under-extensionB. over-extensionC. hearing impairmentD. mental retardation24. Around the age of 2, children begin to produce two-word utterances such as “mommy sock”, which of the following statements about this is NOT true.A. This kind of speech is called telegraphic speech.B. This kind of speech is called caretaker talk.C. There are content words in the speech.D. There are not function elements in the speech.25. The children know the taboo words, the polite forms of addressing during ___.A. pragmatic developmentB. atypical developmentC. grammatical developmentD. vocabulary development26. The theory of universal grammar was proposed by ______.A. Noam ChomskyB. FirthC. F.D. Saussure D. Sapir27. The following statements about error analysis are true EXCEPT _______.A. the once predominant contrastive analysis was gradually replaced by error analysis.B. different from contrastive analysis, error analysis gives less consideration to native language.C. error analysis compares the forms and meanings across the native and target languages.D. two main sorts of errors were diagnosed: interlingual errors and intralingual errors.28. Some Chinese learners of English tend to pronounce “three” as “tree” and “this” as “dis”. This is caused by _________.A. interlingual interferenceB. intralingual interferenceC. cognitive factorsD. semantic change29. The common errors such as “he/ she has/ have to touch the society” in Chinese English learners belong to _______.A. systematocityB. permeabilityC. fossilizationD. substitution30. Generally 4 types of motivation have been identified in the second language learning “Learners learn a second language for external purpose.” is called _______ motivation.A. instrumentalB. integrativeC. resultativeD. intrinsic31. Among various divisions of learning strategies. Those by Chamot (1986) and Oxford (1990) are widely accepted. “The techniques in planning monitoring and evaluating one‟s learning” is called ________.A. cognitiveB. metacognitiveC. affectD. social32. In the following statements about motivation, which one is NOT true?A. It is defined as the learner‟s attitudes and affective state or learning drive.B. It has a strong impact on a learner‟s efforts in learning a second language.C. It plays an important role in learners‟ use of learning strategies.D. It occurs only when learners learn a second language for external purpose.33. ________‟s Input Hypothesis is one of the most famous theories among different models of language acquisition.A. KrashenB. ChomskyC. AustineD. Halliday34. The study of the relationship between brain and language is called _______.A. sociolinguisticsB. macrolinguisticsC. microlinguisticsD. neurolinguistics35. The brain stem maintains the essential functions EXCEPT ______.A. heart rateB. muscle co-ordinationC. respirationD. memory36. The “right ear advantage” means ________.A. the right ear has an advantage for the perception of linguistic signals.B. the right ear is better at environmental sounds such as bird songsC. human beings can get sounds only from the right earD. the left ear can‟t get the linguistic signals at any time37. Which of the following statements is NOT true?A. The information from the left side of the body is received only by the right side of the brain and vice versa.B. The information from the left side of the body is received only by the left side of the brain and vice versa.C. The brain is divided into two sections: the lower section called the brain stem and higher section called cerebrum.D. The cortex is separated by the longitudinal fissure into 2 parts: the left and right cerebral hemispheres.38. ________ refers to the learning and development of a language.A. Language acquisitionB. Language comprehensionC. Language productionD. Language instruction39. The word “ Motel” comes from “motor + hotel”. This is an example of ________ in morphology.A. backformationB. conversionC. blendingD. acronym40. Language is t tool of communication. The symbol “ Highway Closed” on a highway servesA. an expressive function.B. an informative function.C. a performative function.D. a persuasive function.41. …Linguistic determinism‟ and …linguistic relativity‟ have alternatively been used to refer to _____.A. cross-cultural communicationB. Sapir-Whorf HypothesisC. anthropological linguisticsD. ethnography of communication42. The most recent advance in CD technology used in CALL is the development of _____.A. CD-ROMB. CD-RC. CD-ID. HVD43. What does …mouse potato‟ mean?A. a mouse padB. a mouse shaped like a potatoC. a potato as food for the mouseD. a computer addict44. Which of the following forms of writing are more likely to use foregrounding?A. Poetry.B. Diary.C.Research Papers.D. Novels.45. “_____” is often understood as a language system between the target languageand the learner‟s native langua ge.A. Input HypothesisB. Sapir-Whorf HypothesisC. InterlanguageD. Contrastive Analysis单选答案：1-10：A D B A B C C C B B 11-20：D C C A C B A B C D 21-30：C B A B A A C A C C 31-40：B D A D D A B A C C 41-45: B B D A CII. 多选题：1. Which of the following are foregrounded?A. The 1960 dream of high rise living soon turned into a nightmare.B. The speech was made 29 October 1941 to the boys at Churchill‟s old public school, Harrow.C. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.D. We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we aremade of sugar candy.2. Which of the following include a metonymy?A. By this hour the volcanic fires of his nature had burnt down.B. The kettle boils.C. Lands belong to the crown.D. They have a fleet of fifty sails.3. Which of the following lines are most likely from the poems of E. E. Cummings?A. l(a / le / af / fa / ll / s) / one / l / inessB. am was. are leaves few this. is these a or / scratchily over which of earth dragged onceC. i had an uncle named / Sol who was a born failure andD. A woman I forswore; but I will prove, / Though being a goddess, I forswore not thee:4. Which of the following involve …general context effects‟?A. You can understand every word of a baseball commentary but you do not know what it is talking about.B. You do not understand a sentence but when you read the next sentence you can know the meaning of the first one.C. You do not know why in a foreign movie people say yes as they shake their heads.D. You do not know what a text is about until you are given the title of the text.5. Which of the following statements can be made about sociolinguistics?A. It has contributed to a fresh look at the nature of language development and use.B. It has contributed to the development of theoretical linguistics.C. It has contributed to a change of emphasis in the content of language teaching.D. It has contributed to innovations in materials and activities for the language classroom.6. Which of the following statements are true of a computer corpus?A. It is a large body of machine-readable texts.B. It is a collection of linguistic data.C. Its main purpose is to verify a hypothesis about language.D. It deals with the principles and practice of using corpora inlanguage study.7. Which of the following terms are related to Cognitive Linguistics?A. Word recognition.B. Language acquisition.C. Construal operations.D. Categorization.8. Which of th e following are NOT true of the “women register”?A. Women use more “fancy” color terms.B. Women use stronger swearing words.C. Women use more intensifiers.D. Women use more direct expressions.9. Which of the following include a metaphor?A. His eyes came out of his head like a prawn‟s.B. The hallway was zebra-striped with darkness and moonlight.C. The thought was a fire in him.D. The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.10. Which of the following are writings of stream of consciousness?A. Pride and PrejudiceB. To the Lighthouse.C. As I Lay Dying.D. Jane Eyre.11. Which of the following book titles contain “alliteration”?A. V owels and Consonants.B. Gone with the Wind.C. Sex and the City.D. The Wonder of Words.多选答案：1-5：CD，BC，ABC，AC，ACD，6-10：ABC，CD，BD，BCD，BC，11：BCD，III. Decide whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F). (10 points, 1 point each)1)Duality refers to the property of having two levels of structures，such that units of the primary level are composed ofelements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.2)Articulatory Phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds.3)The adjective is an open class of words.4)The “parts of speech” in traditional grammar is often referred to as “word class” today.5)“Hot” and “cold” are converse antonyms.6)The holophrastic stage is the mature phase of language acquisition.7)Men use stronger curse words than women.8)The Relevance Theory was suggested by H. P. Grice.9)Stream of consciousness was used in the writings of William Faulkner.10)Machine translation can be used for restricted technical purposes, such as the weather report.辨析题答案： 1. T 2. F 3. T 4. T 5. F 6. F 7. T 8. F 9. T 10. TDecide whether the following statements are true or false. (15 points)1. Arbitrariness means you can use language in any way you like.2. The English syllable may have as many as three consonants in the coda position.3. When dividing syllables, we normally put consonants in the coda position.4. “Radar” is an invented word.5. The consonant [x] existed in Old English.6. Today we normally say that English has two tenses: present and past.7. Accord ing to J. Firbas, Communicative Dynamism refers to “the extent to which the sentence element contributes to the development of the communication.”8. Leech‟s conceptual meaning has two sides: sense and reference.9. In logical symbols, ∀means “all” and ∃means “some”.10. Deviation corresponds to the traditional idea of poetic license: the writer of literature is allowed –in contrast to the everyday speaker – to deviate from rules, maxims, or conventions.11. Couplets are two lines of verse, usually connected by a rhyme.12. A language that has seven color terms has reached the last stage of evolution.13. In Hopi, a simple question like …Are you going to eat rice and cassava now?‟ will have several different translations in accordance with the actual situations.14. MT can now be realized on the internet.15. A concordance is a listing of the contexts in which a word appears, as retrieved from a computer corpus.正误辨析答案：F F F F T T T T T T T F F T T。
《新大学英语跨文化交际阅读》Language and Culture
Hale Waihona Puke Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf visited Geely on May 2010 and met Geely Group Chairman Li Shufu. At the meeting, the Swedish King showed his great concern for the future Volvo Cars, so he asked Li how Geely would guarantee that Volvo's standards would not be undermined after Geely's acquisition. Li Shufu said "We are not just keeping Volvo's standards, but helping Volvo regain its past glory.” The following day, the Swedish group attended the Geely-Volvo acquisition forum in Shanghai. One of the textbook authors made a presentation to the Swedish group and he asked the Swedish group whether they understood what Li meant by saying “We are not just keeping Volvo's standards, but helping Volvo regain its past glory.” They replied “No” and they asked the author what Li meant. When the author gave a short explanation from an intercultural perspective, they were all relieved and showed their gratitude to Geely’s acquisition.
The Relationship between Language and Thought
The Relationship between Language and Thought班级：091 学号：091301323 姓名：田蕾According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the definition of Language is “the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by peopl e of a particular country”. As we all know, language is invented by human being. It is the crystallization of human being’s wisdom. But what’s the internal relationship between language and thought? Different experts and scholars in different academic fields, they study in different perspectives and obtain different conclusions.In linguistic language and thought, anthropological language and cultural studying history, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is popular known. This hypothesis is not only famous for its creative conclusion of the relationship between language, thought and national culture, but also for the wide argumentation that it brings. The principle is often defined in two versions: (i) the strong version that language determines thought and that linguistic categories limit and determines cognitive categories and (ii) the weak version that linguistic categories and usage influence thought and certain kinds of non-linguistic behavior.In fact, to do the research about the relationship between language and thought, someone have been concerned early than Sapir in linguistic field. Take the famous Germany linguists Wilhelm von Humboldt for example; who was the first man saw language as the expression of the spirit of a nation. Although he tried to give an answer to respond the questions about national language diversity or similarity, he still didn’t make a clear illustration. However，his discussion of the relationship between language and thought raises an interesting question in philosophical field——People comes from different language groups, use different language structure, whether they are in the same way to look at the objective world?In contrast to Humboldt, Boas always stressed the equal worth of all cultures and languages, and argued that there was no such thing as primitive languages, but that all languages were capable of expressing the same content albeit by widely differing means. According to Franz Boas: “I doesn’t seem likely […] that there is any directrelation between the culture of a tribe and the language of they speak, except in so far as the form of the language will be moulded by the state of the culture, but not in so far as a certain state of the culture is conditioned by the morphological traits of the language.”（Franz Boas, 1911）Boas' student Edward Sapir reached back to the Humboldtian idea that languages contained the key to understanding the differing world views of peoples. In Sapir’s opinion, he thought because language represented reality differently, so the speakers of different language would perceive reality differently. According to Sapir: “ No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.”( Sapir, Edward, 1929) Moreover, he explicitly rejected pure linguistic determinism by stating, "It would be naïve to imagine that any analysis of experience is dependent on pattern expressed in language." We could conclude general ideas from two aspects as language deterministic theory and relative theory. On the one hand, language determine the way our thought. On the other hand, the similarity of the language is relative, as the greater in structural difference, the reflection as to the world is more different.All in all, language and thought interact to each other and have an inseparable relationship between them. For one thing, to adhere to the native language is good for keeping language cultural and aesthetic value. On the other side, the hodgepodge of languages and cultures can improve the ability of language expression and thinking. Nowadays, English is the official language in the world. As English universal education developed, it also brings the different mode of thinking from us. We need to absorb the advantage of western culture, at the same time, there are more a lot to do to protect and carry forward our Chinese traditional culture.References:Boas, Franz (1911), Handbook of American Indian languages (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 40. Washington: Government Print Office (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology).) 1Sapir, Edward(1929), The status of Linguistics as a science Language5Edward Sapir & Morris Swadesh (1946) American Indian Grammatical Categories. Word 2:103–112. Reedited for Dell Hymes in Language in Culture and Society,。
跨文化交际UNIT-5
Supplement: Verbal Communication
3. Elaborate, Exacting and Succinct Styles ▪ Compare the followings: ▪ Arab: @#%&$%~$*&`^%#@... … ▪ American: Just the facts! ▪ Chinese: Silence is Golden.
Supplement: Verbal Communication
Verbal Communication Styles (p179-183) : ▪ Direct / Indirect ▪ Self-enhancement / Self-effacement ▪ Elaborate / Exacting / Succinct ▪ Personal / Contextual ▪ Instrumental / Affective
Supplement: Verbal Communication
4. Personal and Contextual Style ▪ The personal communication style emphasizes the
individual identity of the speaker. Eg. English has only one form for the second person, that is, you. ▪ The contextual style highlights one’s role identity and status. Eg. Chinese, German and French, for example, have informal and formal forms of the pronoun you (你/您; du/Sie; tu/vous).
语言学笔记
语言学笔记I Introduction1. What is linguistics?Linguistics is the systematic/scientific study of language.study: investigate, examine, not learnscientific: based on the systematic investigation of data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure, the way in which it is studied.language(zero article): It implies that it studies not any particular language, but languages in general.What is the relationship between data & theory?▲In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation; that is, a theory without the support of data is hardly valid; data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.The process of study may be as follows:1) Certain linguistics facts are found to display some similarities, so generalizations are made about them.2) On the basis of these generalizations hypotheses are formulated to account for the facts. These hypotheses are tested by further observations.3) A theory is constructed about how language works.2. What is a linguist? What is the main task for him?A person who studies linguistics. He does not need to be able to use a large number of languages for communication purposes, but he should have a wide experience of different types of languages. His task is not to learn to use any particular language, but to study how each language is constructed, how it is used by its speakers, and how it is related to other languages. He is alsoconcerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from one social class to another, how it changes from one historical period to the next, and how children acquire their mother tongue. To sum up, his task is basically to study and understand the general principles upon which all languages are built. To make his analysis as scientific as possible, he is usually guided by 4 principles.▲Consistency (一致性): there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement.▲Economy (经济性) : other things being equal, a shorter statement or analysis is preferred to a long or more involved one. The best statements are the shortest possible ones which can account most fully for all facts.▲Objectivity(客观性): a linguist should be as objective as possible in his description and analysis of data, allowing no prejudice to influence his generalization.▲Exhaustiveness(穷尽性): to gather all the materials relevant to one‘s investigation and give them an adequate explanation.3. What are the scopes of linguistics?▲Phonetics: the study of human speech sound▲Phonology: the sound pattering▲Morphology: the study of the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed▲Syntax: the arrangement of sentences▲Sem antics: the study of meaning▲Pragmatics: the study of how speakers use sentences to effect successful communication▲Psycholinguistics: the relationship between language & the mind▲Historic linguistics: the study of language change▲Sociolinguistics: the relationship between language & society▲Applied linguistics: the application of linguistic theories & principles to language teaching( narrow sense)▲Anthropological linguistics▲Neurological linguistics▲Mathematical linguistics▲Computational linguisti cs4. What are some important distinctions in linguistics?(重要区别)①Synchronic linguistics (共时语言学):the study of a language system at one particular point in time （研究特定时间的语言体系）Diachronic (historical)linguistics (历时语言学):an approach to linguistics which studies how a language changes over a period time（研究语言在一段时期内怎样变化）In modern linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one.e.g. The sound system of Modern British English②Prescriptive vs. descriptive( 规定性与描写性)▲The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things actually are.▲Do/Don‘t say X. (prescriptive)▲People do/ don‘t say X. (descriptive)Look at the following pairs of sentences:▲It is I. It is me.▲Who did you speak to?▲Whom did you speak to?▲I haven‘t done anything.▲I haven‘t done nothing.▲③Speech & writing5. Why do modern linguistics regardthe spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language?▲1) linguistic evolution; ( historically)▲2) daily communication; (function)▲3)acquisition of the mother tongue; ( genetically)▲4) features of human speech (authentic)▲④Langue & parole(语言与言语)Who made the distinction between langue and parole? And when?▲F. de Saussure ( a Swiss linguist) in the early 20th century.▲― if we could embrace the sum of word-images stored in the minds of all individuals, we could identify the social bond that constitutes language (langue). It is a storehouse filled by the members of a given community through their active use of speaking (parole), a grammatical system that has a potential existence in each brain, or, more specifically, in the brains of a group of individuals. For language is not complete in any speaker; it exists perfectly only within a collectivity. In separating language( langue) from speaking (parole) we are at the same time separating (1) what is social from what is individual; and (2) what is essential from what is accessory and more or less accidental.( ------Saussure 1959:13-14 ) ▲―如果我们能了解所有个人头脑中的语言形象，我们就能知道形成语言的社会因素。
语言与文化的关系The relationship between language and culture
Questions:
1. Does language form culture? 2. To what extent does language influence culture?
3. Language is influenced and shaped by culture.
The most obvious influence of culture on
The relationship between language and culture
---Introduction
2014-10-22
The same one word may stir up different associations in people with different backgrounds
nguage is part of culture.
Culture is a wider system
Culture
Language
that completely includes language as a subsystem. The relation of language to culture is that of part to whole.
apartment
• Chinese + English = Chinglish ---English with Chinese chracteristics
The appearance of Chinglish also reflects the relationship between language and culture. It shows a special kind of relationship between English language and Chinese culture.
The relationship between language and culture (语言与文化的关系)
The relationship between language and cultureIntroductionLanguage is the important means of communication, and it is the carrier of culture and a part of culture, any language was born with formation of its culture, develops with the development of culture, and in most cases, perishes with death of its culture.1. Language, as a concrete system of signs, has its own significance in the culture communicationIt has long been recognized that language is an essential and important part of a given culture and that the importance of culture upon a given language is something indispensable.1.1 Language is a systemThe important of language to the study intercultural communication is clearly captured in the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s simple sentence “Language is the archives of history.” His declaration takes on added significance when we realize that one of the major characteristics identifying us as human is our ability to use language –to make sounds and marks serve as substitutes for things and feelings.Over millions of years, we have evolved the anatomy necessary to produce and receive sounds have taken on meaning by representing things, feelings, and ideas. This combination of evolution and culture has led to the development of a four-part process that enables us share our internal states with other human beings. In short, we can receive, store, manipulate, and generate symbols to represent our personalized realities.1.2 The importance of languageLanguage is extremely important to human interaction because it is how we reach out to make contract with our surroundings. If we were to survey a normal day, we would soon see that we use words for a wide variety of purposes we may use language when we first awake: “Good morning!” We use words as a wa y to write with the outside world. Or we may use words to share an unpleasant experience and to get support from other: “Let me tell you about the horrible dream I had last night.” This example also demonstrates how we employ words to relate to the past, that is, to talk about something that has already happened.We use words so that we can experience some control over the present: “please pass me thesalt and pepper.” We each seek to affect our environment, to influence many lf the daily situations in which we find ourselves. Words, and how we manipulate them, permit us to make those alterations through symbolic transactions with others.We also use words to form images of the future: “I have meet with Jane at work today, but I dread seeing her, because I k now she’s going to be upset about the changes I’m making in her work schedule.” Our wording ability allows us to predict and describe the future .We use words to persuade to exchange ideas, to exchange ideas, to express views, to seek information, and to express feelings. When we study another language, we soon discover that the symbols, the sounds for those symbols, and the rules for using those symbols and sounds are different.2. Language, as a culture institution, is born with culture. It develops and interacts with the cultureTo preserve the language of a nation is to preserve its special culture and history. When people can not understand the old language, they will be less tightly connected to or even gradually lose their cultures and histories. Their enemies know much more clearly than themselves as to this point.We still remember that in the famous article The Last Lesson, the first thing Prussians did when they intruded France, was to replace French with Prussian in the school education. Japanese also took the same strategy in order to cut off the connection between people and their histories and cultures. This evil refused to only stay in people's memory and is still threatening certain cultures and nations. Thus both Jews and Tibetans are still fighting to preserve their languages for the sake of their cultures and histories at the edge of being extinguished.2.1 Explain the meaning of the cultureWhen delivering daily speech, the word "culture" refers to pursuits such as literature and music. More broadly, we can define "culture" as all the modes of thought, behavior, and production that are handed down from one generation to the next by means of communicative interaction── speech, gesture, epic, construction, and all other communication among hu mans── rather than by genetic transmission or heredity. "Culture" is an essential concept for it is what makes humans unique in the animal kingdom. All familiar forms of social organizations, ranging from the simplest family to the most sophisticated corporation depend upon "culture" for their existence. Nevertheless, "society" and "culture" might be confusing forone to distinguish. "Society" is population that is organized to carry out the major function of life.A society's "culture" consists of all the ways in which its members think about it among themselvesCulture, in a broad sense, means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community. As culture is so inclusive, it permeates virtually every aspect of human life and influences predominantly people’s behavior, including linguistic behavior. In a narrow sense, culture may refer to local or specific practice, belief or customs, which can be mostly found in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture etc.Generally speaking, there are two types of culture: material and spiritual. While material culture, as the term itself suggests, is concrete, substantial and observable, most of spiritual culture, the products of mind, is abstract, ambiguous, and hidden. In contrast with nature in the sense of what is born and grows, culture refers to what has been grown and brought up with, in other words, what can be nurtured. Culture, especially material culture, is reproduced and preserved through the maintaining of beliefs, traditions, education and other institution mechanisms, mean while, it changes slowly with the development of the society.2.2 The relationship between language and cultureWe begin our preview of language by noting that it is impossible to separate our use if language from our culture. In its most basic sense, language is a set of symbols and the rules for combining those symbols that are used and understood by a large community of people. When we study another language, we soon discover that not only are the symbol and sounds for those symbols different, but so are the rules (phonology, grammar, syntax, and intonation) for using those symbols and sounds.Word different are obvious in various language. In English, we live in a house. In Spanish, we live on a case. In Thai we live in a ban. Phonology also varies culturally. In English, we have 21 consonant sounds and 5 vowels that combine to from 38 various sounds. “Vie tnamese has 34 segmental phonemes consisting of vowels, semivowels and consonants.” The Filipino language has 16 consonants and 10 vowels forming 26 phonemes. Portuguese has 21 consonants and 13 vowels that form 34 basic phonemes. Grammatical structures are unique to each language as well. In English verb tenses express contrast between past, present, and future acts, but in Vietnamese, the same verb reflects all three and the time of action is inferred from the context. Syntax, or theword order and structure of sentences, also varies depending on the language. The normal woes order for simple sentences in Filipino is the reverse of the word order in English. That is, the predicate is followed by the subject. For example, the English sentence “The teacher died” would be “Namatay ang guro” or “died the teacher” in Filipino. In English, the subject is followed by a verb and then an object, but in Korean, the subject is followed by the object and then the verb. So in English we might say, “The cat ate the mouse,” but in Korean, “Cat mouse ate” would be correct.These examples indicate that if we want to communicate in another language, it is important for us to know not only the symbols of that language, but also the rules for using those symbols. As you know language is much more than a symbol and rule system that allows us to communicate with another person-language also shapes the process by which people became introduced to the order of the physical and social environment. As Nanda indicates, “language, therefore, would seem to have major impact on the way an individual perceives and conceptualizes the world.”2.2.1Language not only express a person’s meaning but also express a nation’s cultureWe can have different meanings for the same word. For instance, to one person, the woes grass might mean something in front of then house that is green, has to be watered, and must be mowed once a week: to another person, grass may mean something that is rolled in paper and smoked. All people, drawing on their backgrounds, decide what a word means. People have similar meanings only to the experience includes baseball, to us a rope is a line driver. If our background lies in the world of jazz music, the word ax does not indicate something used to chop wood but any horn or woodwind instrument. And it is likely that we and a physician respond differently to the woes cancer.If we include culture as a variable on the process of abstracting meaning, the problems became all the more acute, for culture teaches us both the symbol and what the symbol represents. When you are communicating with someone from your own culture, the process of using words to represent your experience is much easier because within a culture people share many similar experiences. But when communication is between people from distinct cultures, different experiences are involved and the process is more troublesome. Objects, events, experiences, and feelings have the labels or names they do because a community id people arbitrarily decided to so name them. If we extent this notion to the intercultural setting, we can see that diverse cultures can have both different symbols and different responses.There are even differences between British and American usage in word meanings. Although some words are spelled and pronounced the same, they have different meanings. For instance, the words boot, bonnet, lift, and biscuit in British English translate into American English as car trunk, car hood, elevator, and cookie. In the area of business, there are also some interesting differences. For example, the British term annual gunnel meeting translates in American English as annual meeting of shareholders; scheme translates as pension plan. From these examples, we see that culture exerts an enormous influence on language because culture teaches not rules for using those symbols and rules for using those symbols, but more important, the meaning associate with the symbols. Further, culture influences the way people use language.2.2.2 Language and its culture influence are exemplified in the theoretical formulations of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesisLanguage and its culture influence are exemplified in the theoretical formulations of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which in essence states that language is a guide to “social reality.” T his hypothesis implies that language is not simply a means of reporting experience but, more important, it is a way of defining experience. Sapir wrote:Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society …The real world is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached. Nanda provides an excellent example if the Sapir-Whorf concept in practice: If my language has only one term-brother-in-law- that is applied to my sister’s husband, my husband’s brothers, and my husband’s sisters’ husbands, I am led by my language to perceive all of these relatives in a similar way. Vocabulary, through what it groups together under one label and what it differentiates with different labels, is one way in which language shapes our perception of the world.3. Linguistic evidence of cultural differenceAny linguistic may be simultaneously of a denotative, connotative, or iconic kind of meanings. To begin with, any sign has a meaning that can be found in a dictionary, this is the denotative meaning. For example, “rose” is a flower that has a pleasant smell and is usually red,pink, white, or yellow etc. On most occasions “rose” means more than a flower, it also triggers many associations mostly good ones such as love, fragrance, passion and beauty etc. These are its connotations or connotative meanings. Moreover, the word “rose” also invok es image to people. The famous line “my love is a red rose” stirs up vividly the imagination if a beautiful young lady. This is the iconic meanings.All these types of meanings are bound with culture encodings from their associations. Each language has its own metaphors that provide semantic cohesion within its boundaries. Motivated by the need and desire to influence others, people choose to use words which emphasize denotative meaning, connotative meaning or iconic meanings or all of them, during the same process its cultural meanings are created.The following are some illustrations of the cultural differences in language use which we may often come across in our daily life.3.1 A Comparison of Chinese and British Hospitality in Treating GuestsIn China, people’s hospitality is shown by the number of the dishes offered as well as by the eagerness to impress the guest with the most expensive and nutritious food.While in Britain, people value equality. Their hospitality is shown by treating the guest as an equal with the host. Believing in simplicity regarding food, they may offer their guest the same type of meal they usually eat. Part of the reason is their egalitarianism and other reason is that the host wants to introduce the foreign guest to British food and eating customs, and make the guest feed comfortable.The foreign guest might think of the saying. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”3.2Different Topics between China and West Common topics in China3.2.1Common topic in ChinaSince there is not much privacy that is found in China. People feel free to ask almost any question without being offensive. The most common topics are age, income, property, family life, especially children, politics and religion. Also, when a purchase, is made, Chinese people will often ask or voluntarily tell the item’s price in order to share the happiness of shopping. But most Westerns feel it very inappropriate to talk about the price of products they have purchased. That information is considered private, so question about price should not be asked.Elderly people are highly respected in China, of “old” means wisdom and experience, theolder the better. Males especially will often ask about each other’s age to show respect for the elder one. And the elder one feels very happy to be addressed as “lao” plus surname.Today, more and more Chinese women, who have been influence by the Western cultures, do not want to give their ages.However, it is very rude for person to address the senior or the elder only by their family names. Some topics concerning the death will always be avoided.3.2.2 Common topics in the westPeople in the West like to talk about the weather, sports, news, traveling, interests and hobbies. Do not ask personal questions about age, weight, illness, income, property, religion and politics. In general conversations asking about these political issues. Beware that politics is an “emotionally changed” topic because the people in the conversation may have differing viewpoints within the group.General question about family can be asked to start a conversation. You may ask if a person is single or married. Depending on how the conversation is going, you can either ask directly by saying, “Are you single?” or “Are you married?” or indirectly by saying, “Do yo u have a family?”3.3 Friendship3.3.1 Friendship in ChinaIn China most people expert their friends to do for then when they are in need. There is an obligation to a friendship. People feel obligated and a duty to do for their friends. We have a lot for Chinese sayings concerning friendship:“为朋友两肋插刀”(people can take any risks, even risk of their lives, especially among male friends, to do everything for their friends disregarding whether it’s right or wrong);“有难同当，有福同享” (people can not only share bitterness ,hardships but also happiness with their friends). Other proverb and sayings such as “一个篱笆三个桩，一个好汉三个帮”(As one fence needs three stakes, a good guy needs three fellows.)“在家靠父母，出门靠朋友”(It is your parents that you can rely on at home, but it is your friends that you can count in when out in the society ), show that friendship really counts or is very important to a person in the society.Having friends reflects having a good personality you have and more sociable you are. Your life will be better if you have more friends, and will be worse without friends. One needs a friend to help him or her out when difficulties occur, and one needs a friend to offer financial supportwhen there is a lack of money. So in other words, one cannot be without friends in his or her life. Actually, there is a lot to say about Chinese friendships, and I am sure you have more explanations you can add to this list because of a better understanding of your own personal friendships.3.3.2Friendship in the United StatesIn general, American has causal, friendly relationships with many people, but deeper, closer friendships with only a few. Friendship requires time and commitment (The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons) and depending on the American is commitment to family, which is a priority, and time require for work or school, various types of friendships will be developed.3.3.3 Different ways of Expressing FriendshipPeople in the west apologize to their friends over things like asking for help in some small matter or telephoning late at night. They tend to use polite forms such as “could you”, and “would you” even with their friends. They may sound cold and distant when they feel perfectly friendly.Chinese people tend to make more direct requests to their friends. They address those they know quite well in a very direct way. They may sound rude and demanding when they intend to sound friendly.3.4 Greetings and term of addressIt is estimated that in English there are at least a dozen different g reetings, from “Hi” and “Hello” to more specific and longer ones like “How are you getting on?” or “How is everything with you?” People choose the proper one to greet different people they meet on different occasions. For example, people greet a new acquai ntance with “How do you do?” and expect the same in answer, but they greet an old friend differently. When friends meet, you may find more than once they are uttering” How are you?” at the same time to each other, and they both answer “Fine, thank you.” Di fferently, a Chinese speaker may greet his friends or new acquaintance with “Nin hao” or “Nihao”, whether they meet for the first time or anytime in the day.Another noticeable difference between the two greeting systems is that most Chinese people tend to greet acquaintances with “have you eaten?” or “Where are you heading for?” Obviously, if we greet the native speakers of English in this way, it will certainly cause misunderstanding.Sometimes different terms of address can be equally misleading for Chinese learners ofEnglish or English learners of Chinese. While in China “Tongzhi” was once used for all people irrespective of sex, position or marital status, in English –speaking communities “Mr.” “Mrs.” “Miss.” “Ms.” would be appropriate in similar situa tions. It is also interesting to note that in recent years “Mr.” and “Miss.” Are picked up again to replace “Tongzhi” with the changes in society. Meanwhile “shifu” is frequently used to show respect for strangers. English speakers, on similar occasions, w ould use “Sir” or “Madam”.The extension of kinship term is another feature of Chinese culture . Term such as “uncle, aunt, grandpa, and granny” are used as honorific titles for senior people or strangers, as in “ Granny Li” and “Uncle “Zhang”. Native spea kers of English would be puzzled if they are addressed in this way by people outside the immediate family. Similarly, the use of respectful titles-Chair-man Jiang, Premier Zhou, Director Ma-to indicate people’s influential status is typical of Chinese culture. Such practice, however, is less common in English –speaking cultures.3.5 Natural environmentIn Chinese, "the east wind" makes one feel warm genial, the grass long hawk flies, mixed peanut tree, but "the west wind" then just right is opposite, some one kind the flavor which sends the human to the bone to inter the body or bones of a monk. Yan Shu had written that “last night the west wind withered the blue tree”, Ma Zhiyuan had written that “ancient road, the west wind and thin horse.” All these are illustrations. However English situation is actually different from Chinese. We can read to Samuel Butler’s poem that” biting east winds”. Charles Dickens had written that “How many winter days have I seen him. Standing blue nosed in the snow and east win d! “About the west wind, then has John Milton’s line from his poem” And west winds with musky wing”. John Masefield had written that “It is a want wind the west wind full of birds ' cries. “The meaning of the two kinds of wind association of summer is so d ifference in Chinese and English people’s mind. The reason is also the geographical position. China is located in the Asian mainland. Because of the continental climate in China, the four seasons are distinct. In summer the most obvious characteristic is a scorching sun and unendurable hot. But England is located in the North temperate zone. Because of the marine climate, the summer in England is so beautiful, temperate and satisfied.3.6 manners and customsIn English there is only a word “cousin” but in Chinese there male cousin, younger male cousin, younger female cousin to express the same meaning. We can find that, Chinese relates unexpectedly the cousin obtains so strictly. It must say the sex and branch out the size. That is different from using only one word in English .The reason of this language phenomenon should attribute to the Chinese 23,000 years long time feudal rule. This kind of feudalism patriarchal society takes the blood relationship relations highly. It emphasized specially rank difference, and advocated the precedence and maintained between seniors and juniors. Westerner’s ideal is everybody pursues equality .They want to obtain the equal standing with the dialogue person. So westerners always directly shout the name of their sisters, brothers even their father and mother.3.7 Thanks and complimentsCulture differences are also evident in the ways gratitude and compliments are expressed. It is noted that people in the West tend to verbalize their gratitude and compliments more than Chinese speakers and that the westerners tend to accept thanks and compliments more directly and frankly than we Chinese do.When a native English speaker expresses to us his gratitude, a Chinese speaker may feel embarrassed and would sometimes say “no, no” t o decline whatever expressions of gratitude. However, English speakers, in a similar situation , would say something like “I am glad to hear it “ or “I am glad to be of help “ to acknowledge and accept the thanks. To native speakers of Chinese, expressions like “Not at all” or “It is nothing” which are sometimes used by Englishmen to turn down thanks may sometime lead to misunderstanding.Similarly, many native Chinese speakers will feel embarrassed when they hear compliments like “you speak excellence English” or “You have acquired a native English speaker accent.” To show their modesty and that they do not deserve a compliment, is sincere, they tend to use an emphatic “no”. English speaking people, unlike Chinese, will accept compliment. Therefore, they think it is inappropriate to show false humility, or pretended modesty.3.8 Privacy and taboosAlthough people of different culture have many common areas of privacy or taboos, there are also areas where our culture differs from western culture. As the sa ying goes “A man’s home is high value on privacy. It is not appropriate for us to ask questions about personal information like age, family background, salary, or questions on personal activities. It is advisable we shouldnot talk about such things, when conversing with English –speaking people unless they indicate clearly that they do not mind or they talk about them first themselves. Some of these questions are listed below:How old are you?What are your wages?How much do you earn?You make a lot of mo ney, don’t you?What’s you name?How much did that pair of shoes cost you?Moreover, we should be careful to avoid expressions related sexual intercourse, some organ of human body, four-letter words and racism etc.In China when two people first meet each other, they will ask many questions to each other. After three minutes, they will know each other very well. They have got much privacy information clearly from each other. Include family situation, individual condition. This also is the different cultural context which both sides locates is having an effect. The English beautiful women pay great attention to individual privacy specially. They thought individual matter shouldn’t let others know. And they wouldn’t others to intervene. Since 1100 years Chines e people live in a village near to each other and contact each other very often. So their privacy affair was difficult to let other persons know. Therefore they very are willing to understand others good and bad in life, others also want honestly to consider.3.9 Culture –relate idioms, proverbs and metaphorsDifferent languages may reflect different culture, different cultures entail different language expressions. Idioms, proverbs and saying and metaphors in different languages, derived from different origins, also demonstrate cultural differences. Different languages may have different idioms owing to different living environments, social conventions and literature tradition etc. A constellation of examples could be picked up from different levels of language analysis to illustrate the interplay of language and culture.When you get your hands dirty, it does not necessarily mean in the American culture that you have done some manual work and need to wash your hand.When you have enough dumbbells, it does not necessarily mean that you keep pair if this instrument for regular physical practices.Another example that since English people view dog as human being’s best friend, we can find more English people view dog as human being’s best friend, we can find more English expressions with dog than in Chinese.Luck dog: a luck personClever dog: a clever boy or smart ladDumb dog: silent person or a person who keeps secretsLead a dog’s life: to live an exhausted and unhappy lifePut on the dog: put in airAnd some proverbs and saying with dogs are listed as fellows.Every dog has his day.Dog does not eat dog.Give a dog an ill name and hang him.Barking dogs seldom bite.Beware of a silent dog and still water.Love me, love my dog.As to metaphor, we can easi ly find that in Chinese anger id compared with “liquid” or “qiti” as in “wo qi si le”(I am anger to death)while in English anger is more compared with “fire” as in “he is outraged.” “His face turned red with anger.” “She lost her temper.”, to mention just a few.3.10 Color wordThere are many color words in our language, such as red, white, black, yellow, purple and so forth, which are used frequently. In the first place, I’d like to introduce the common usages of the color words.English abounds with phrases containing color words. Colors may convey different messages to people of different cultures. Due to the respective cultural background and tradition, some phrases containing color words have far surpassed their original meanings, forming different connotations.What does see red mean? If he is in a blue mood, what kind of mood is he in? Is he happy, sad, or what? Obviously, red and blue do not mean just the color. Each has additional meanings-certain cultural associations-that are hidden behind the word. The following part will be devoted to the discussion of cultural differences of certain color words.In both Chinese and English, red is usually associated with happy occasions. On calendar,。
- 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
- 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
- 3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。
The relationship between language and culture Language and culture are inextricably linked together and closely related to each other. Language is the part of culture, the mirror of culture, the visible part of culture and reflects culture. Language is the archives of culture. It plays a significant role in culture. Without language, culture would not be possible. Language, in its broadest sense, is the symbolic representation of a nation‟s culture. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture. Culture determines one‟s behavior and the way one speaks. Culture teaches us what to speak, how to speak in different situations. H.D.Brown stated precisely: “Culture is really an integral part of the interactions between language and thought. Culture patterns, customs, and ways of life are expressed in language; Cultural-specific world views are reflected in language.”(1994) Culture is our invisible teacher and textbook. As children grow up, they learn how to act within their culture and how to speak within their culture. They are learning language and culture at the same time. In learning how to speak, a child must not only master the vocabulary and grammar of a certain language, he must also absorb the social rules that govern how he should use his vocabulary and grammar in concrete situations. He learns a culture that is largely expressed through language. Learning language means learning culture. The two interact and the
understanding of one requires the understanding of the other. So, learning a foreign language well means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms. It mans learning also the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs and behavior of their society, learning to understand their …langua ge of the mind‟. In a word, learning a language is inseparable from learning its culture.。