新编简明英语语言学 Chapter 9 Language and culture

Chapter 9 Language and culture语言与文化

知识点：

1.*Definition: culture; cultural diffusion

The relationship between language and culture

# Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

*Linguistic evidence of cultural differences

Cultural overlap and diffusion

考核目标：

识记：Definition: culture; cultural diffusion

领会：Cultural overlap and diffusion; Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis; Linguistic evidence of cultural differences

简单应用：The relationship between language and culture

定义

文化：including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community.由信仰，风俗，目标，机构，技术和语言构成，具有人类社区生活的特征。

diffusion文化扩散：through communication, some elements of culture A enter culture B and become part of culture B. 通过交际，A文化中的某些成分进入了B 文化，并成为了B文化的一部分。

知识点

what is culture

Culture文化：including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community.由信仰，风俗，目标，机构，技术和语言构成，具有人类社区生活的特征。

Two types of culture:

1. material culture物质文化：is concrete, substantial and observable.具体的，实质的，可观察到的（.意识文化、信念、价值观，时空概念）

2. spiritual culture精神文化：is abstract, implicit, and hidden. 抽象的，多义的，不可见的。

the relationship between language and culture语言与文化的关系

1. language is a part of culture

2. language is the primary means for cultural transmission 文化传播

3. some linguistic differences are due to cultural differences

4. Various cultures will have different responses反映to the same word.

The one hand, language is an integral part of human being permeates his thinking and way of viewing world. On the other, language, as a system of spoken or written symbols used by people in a shared culture to communicate with each other, reflects and affects a culture’s way of thinking and helps perpetuate and change the culture and its influence, which also facilitates the developments of this language at the same time.一方面，语言作为人类密不可分的一部分，渗入了他的思想和世界观，既表达了文化现实，也体现了文化现实。在另一方面，语言作为文化的产物，也有助于文化的恒定，而且，语言运用中的变体也反过来反映了文化的变化。Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis萨丕尔-沃夫假说

relativity语言相对论：Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf, proclaimed that the structure of the language people habitually use influences the ways they think and behave, . different languages offer people different ways of expressing the world around, they think and speak differently, this is also known as linguistic relativity. 爱德华萨丕尔和本杰明·沃尔夫,声称，人们习惯性地运用的语言结构影响的他们的思考和行为方

式,即不同的语言给人们提供不同的方式表达他们周围的世界,他们以不同的方式思考和说话,这

也被称为语言相对论。

2. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis（SWH）萨皮尔沃尔夫假说：Sapir and Whorf believe that language filters people’s perception and the way they categori ze experiences. This interdependence of language and thought is now known as Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis （SWH）.萨丕尔和沃尔夫认为,语言渗入了人们的感知和他们对经验的方式分类之中。语言和思想的这种相互依赖性是现在被称为萨皮尔沃尔夫假说。

对这种假说的理解分为2种方式：Strong version & weak version

1）Strong version强版(Linguistic determinism) believes that the language patterns determine people’s thinking and behavior;(语言决定论)认为,语言模式决定人们的思想和行为

2）Weak version弱版(Linguistic relativity) holds that the former influence the latter. different languages offer people different ways of expressing the world around.(语言相对论)认为,前者影响后者(即人们的思想行为决定语言模式)。不同语言的人们提供不同的方式

表达周围的世界。（更多支持弱版）

P329例子

----The study of the linguistic relativity or SWH has shed two important insights语言相对论或SWH的研究让我们获得了两个重要的领悟:

★There is nowadays a recognition that language, as code, reflects cultural preoccupations and constrains the way people think.现在。人们承认语言作为代码,反映了文化先质和语言限制了人们的思考方式。

★More than in Whorf’s days, however, we recognize how important context is in complementing the meanings encoded in the language.不过，与沃尔夫那个时代不同,我们认识到语境在补足编码与语言中的意义方面是多么重要。