LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

About This Presentation
Title:

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Description:

PowerPoint Presentation ... Part II – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:6
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 26
Provided by: uniz164

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE


1
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
  • Part II

2
TAXONOMIES
  • Language has its own classes of units (vowels
    and consonants nouns and verbs statements and
    questions)
  • used to classify and categorize various aspects
    of the world
  • People do not always classify things the way
    scientists do
  • folk taxonomies scientific classifications

3
  • folk etymology- way of classifying a certain part
    of reality so that it makes some kind of sense to
    those who have to deal with it.
  • Typically, taxonomies of the flora and fauna

4
  • Frakes study of folk taxonomy account of the
    terms that the Subanun (southern Philippines) use
    to describe disease
  • considerable amount of disease among the Subanun,
    discussed at length (d. of the skin).
  • a variety of categories when discussing a
    particular set of symptoms
  • nuka can refer to skin disease in general but
    also to eruption.
  • further distinguished as a beldut sore rather
    than a me?abag inflammation, or buni
    ringworm, and then the particular beldut can be
    further distinguished as a telemaw distal ulcer
    or even a telemaw glai shallow distal ulcer
  • a hierarchy of terms with a term like nuka at the
    top and telemaw glai at the bottom.

5
COLOR TERMINOLOGY
  • Also used to explore relationship between
    different languages and cultures. The color
    spectrum- physical continuum that doesn't show
    any breaks. Still, humans divide it into bits and
    assign names to the component parts green, blue,
    yellow, red.
  • Are color terms arbitrary, or is there a general
    pattern? If there is a pattern, what are its
    characteristics?

6
  • All languages make use of basic color terms. A
    basic color term must be a single word (blue or
    yellow) and not some combination of words (light
    blue or pale yellow). It mustn't be a
    sub-division of some higher-order term (crimson
    (dark red) scarlet (bright red)- higher-order
    term is red). A basic color must also have a
    general use- it mustn't be applied to a narrow
    range of objects (blond- only for color of hair
    and wood).

7
BERLIN KAYs findings
  • L. with 2 color terms- equivalent in English
    black and white. 3rd is red. The 4th and the 5th-
    yellow and green. The 6th and the 7th are blue
    and brown. And then gray, pink, orange and
    purple
  • relationship between the extent of color
    terminology in a l. and the level of technical
    complexity of that society not technologically
    advanced communities- fewest color terms, e.g.
    the JALÉ of New Guinea words corresponding only
    to black (dark) and white (light).
    Technologically advanced societies have terms
    corresponding to all eleven mentioned above.
    Societies in intermediate stages have
    intermediate numbers, e.g. the TIV of Nigeria (3
    terms), the GARO of Assam and the HANUNÓO of the
    Philippines have 4, while the BURMESE have 7

8
Symbolism of colors
  • BLACK- seen in its cold and negative aspect
    black comedy, black economy, black eye, black
    look, black magic, black sheep (of the family),
    black mood, the pot calls the kettle black
    (rugala se sova sjenici).
  • WHITE- associated with purity, innocence,
    chastity, recognition, cowardice, defeat white
    Christmas, white elephant (expensive, but not
    useful), white lie, white hair (old person, also
    euphemistic), white handed (honest man), white
    horses (waves white at the top), white magic
    (used to do good), white wedding (traditional
    Christian marriage in a church at which the woman
    wears a white dress).
  • RED- symbolically related to fire, blood, love,
    spirit, beauty, strength, health, energy, joy,
    sex, success, anger, courage, and patriotism
    red-letter day (special, important), red tape,
    red-blooded (energetic, sex-loving), red-hot
    (successful), red-light district, in the red,
    paint the town red, see red.

9
PROTOTYPE THEORY
  • Rosch concepts are best viewed as prototypes a
    bird is not best defined by reference to a set
    of features that refer to such matters as wings,
    warm-bloodedness, and egg-laying characteristics,
    but rather by reference to typical instances, so
    that a prototypical bird is something more like
    a robin than it is like a penguin, ostrich, or
    even eagle. This is the theory of prototypes.

10
  • People classify objects according to what they
    regard as being typical instances (a chair is a
    typical item of furniture, an ashtray is not
    apples and plums are typical fruit, coconuts and
    olives are not)
  • Hudson prototype theory has much to offer
    sociolinguistics

11
TABOO AND EUPHEMISM
  • Language- used to express things, but avoid
    saying certain things as well.
  • Certain things are not said, because people
    refuse to talk about those things?taboo
  • if those things are talked about, they are talked
    about in very roundabout ways?euphemism

12
TABOO
  • refers to things that are simply not talked
    about- one way in which a society expresses its
    disapproval of certain kinds of behavior believed
    to be harmful to its members, either for
    supernatural reasons, or because such behavior is
    thought to violate a moral code
  • Tabooed subjects sex, death, excretion, bodily
    functions, religious matters and politics
  • In some cultures they even include names of
    animals

13
  • when someone breaks the rules, it might cause
    problems, although maybe not as much today as in
    the past (Shaw's use of bloody in Pygmalion, or
    damn in "Gone With the Wind" Taboos- violated to
    claim free speech, draw attention to yourself,
  • Freud breaking a taboo (a sex one) is a form of
    verbal seduction-"talking dirty".
  • The penalty for breaking a linguistic taboo can
    be severe- blasphemy and obscenity are still
    crimes in many jurisdictions (but hardly likely
    to cost you your life)
  • violation of certain non-linguistic taboos (e.g.
    incest ones) might have severe consequences in
    certain places in the world.

14
  • Haas certain l. taboos arise from bilingual
    situations the Creeks of Oklahoma- as they use
    more English, they avoid Creek words resembling
    English taboo words fakki (soil), apiswa (meat),
    apissi (fat).
  • Similarly Thai students learning English avoid
    using words like fag (sheath) in the presence of
    Anglophones also avoid using yet and key- sound
    like the Thai words jed (to have intercourse) and
    khîi (excrement). Even personal names might cause
    embarrassment in a different l. environment the
    Vietnamese name Phuc in an anglophone group

15
EUPHEMISMS
  • Euphemism (Gr. euwell, phemespeak)- a
    metaphorical or metonymic use of an expression in
    place of another expression that is offensive.
  • Eupheme- originally a word or a phrase used in
    place of a religious word or phrase that should
    not be spoken aloud (unspeakable names for a
    deity, such as Nemesis or Yahweh). By using
    euphemisms, the speaker was believed to please
    gods and stay in their good fortune.
  • e.g. medvjed- the term avoids the association
    with a beast by describing it as a "honey eater.

16
  • used to deliberately cloud an issue or to
    misdirect attention
  • used to "dress up" certain areas of life and
    neutralize the unpleasantness (sex, bodily
    functions, dying, unemployment, criminality and
    many others)
  • allow us to give labels to unpleasant tasks and
    jobs in an attempt to make them sound almost
    attractive
  • number of areas in which we can find e. is
    increasing all the time (being fat, getting
    old-especially in the States).

17
  • Nadel the Nupe of West Africa- the most prudish
    people in the world (sharp distinctions between
    expressions that are suitable for polite
    conversation and that are not)
  • constantly resort to circumlocutions and
    euphemisms to avoid direct mention of sex, body
    parts or bodily functions. They have developed
    indirect ways of referring to tabooed matters
    (rich system of metaphors).
  • the Nupe have developed indirect ways of
    referring to tabooed matters, ways they can
    employ on these occasions when it is possible to
    free themselves from normal constraints, e.g. in
    certain kinds of story-telling or on specific
    festive occasions.

18
Classification of euphemisms
  • terms of foreign origin (copulation, perspire,
    urinate)
  • abbreviations (SOB-son of a bitch, BS-bullshit,
    TS-tough shit)
  • abstractions (it, the situation)
  • indirections (sleep together, privates, go to the
    bathroom)
  • mispronunciations (goldarnit-God damn it,
    freakin'-fucking)
  • plays on abbreviations (barbecue sauce-BS, sugar
    honey ice tea-SHIT, Maryland Farmer-MF)

19
Euphemisms for death
  • The English l. has many e. related to death,
    dying, burial and the people and places which
    deal with death. This is connected with the
    magical belief that to speak the word 'death'
    meant inviting death.
  • Some colloquial euphemisms
  • pass away, pass on, meet the maker, go to sleep,
    go to the other side, go to rest, go to the final
    reward, go West, croak, kick the bucket, bite the
    dust of pets put away, put to sleep gangsters'
    jargon deep six (six feet under), rub out,
    erase, waste, make sb. sleep with the fish

20
Euphemisms in political correctness
  • intellectually challenged, slow- stupid
  • differently-abled- handicapped
  • needy, under-privileged, disadvantaged- poor
    people
  • underdeveloped, developing, emergent, Third
    World- poor countries

21
Euphemism unawarereness
  • darn-damn
  • heck-hell
  • life insurance-death insurance
  • dentures-false teeth
  • ethnic cleansing-genocide
  • collateral damage-killing of innocents
  • perspire-sweat
  • bathroom-toilet
  • social disease-venereal disease

22
ALPHABET EUPHEMISMS
  • A1- amphetamine ingested illegally
  • AC/DC- behaving both heterosexually and
    homosexually
  • B- bloody, as in B fool bitch, as in silly B
  • BO- body odor
  • C- cancer, as in the big C cocaine crack
  • D- damn, damned, damnable big D is death
  • DCM- notice of dismissal from employment (Don't
    come Monday)
  • G- gee, jeez, Jesus G-man- federal agent working
    for the U.S.Government
  • H- hell (what the H?) heroine
  • M- marijuana
  • N- nigger, (the N-word)
  • O- not oxygen, but opium
  • P- piss, p off

23
Euphemisms vs. Doublespeak
  • What distinguishes doublespeak from other
    euphemisms is its deliberate usage by
    governmental and military institutions.
    Commentators such as Noam Chomsky and George
    Orwell have written a lot about the dangers of
    allowing such euphemisms to shape public
    perceptions and national policy.
  • Examples of doublespeakcasualties for deaths
    taking friendly fire for being attacked by your
    own troops "the Final Solution" for Nazi's plan
    to murder the world's Jews.

24
  • the Croats laugh and scorn euphemisms more than
    the Americans do- there are fewer ethnic and
    social group in Croatia and it isn't absolutely
    necessary to be politically correct.
  • some of the new euphemisms (particularly those
    invented in the USA) are silly and unnecessary
    vertically challenged- short person carnal
    knowledge- sexual intercourse service the
    target- kill the enemy immortally challenged-
    dead.

25
  • Euphemisms can influence memory as well as
    perception
  • after seeing a film of a multiple-car accident,
    50 subjects were asked How fast were the cars
    going when they hit?, and 50 were asked How fast
    were the cars going when they smashed? The hit
    subjects averaged 8 miles/h, and the smash
    subjects 11 miles/h. Both groups were also asked
    Did you see any broken glass? (There was none in
    the film.) Of the hit subjects, 7 said yes, and
    of the smash subjects 16.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)