Language and Cultural Meaning

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Language and Cultural Meaning
A man who waits for a roast duck to fly into his
mouth must wait a very, very long time.
2
Proverbs Reflect Culture
Chinese Proverbs A camel standing amidst a flock
of sheep. A man who says it cannot be done
should not interrupt a man doing it. Give a man
a fish, and he will live a day give him a net,
and he will live a lifetime. Butcher the donkey
after it has finished the job
What do these proverbs tell us about Chinese
culture and its values?
3
North American Proverbs

• Blow your own horn
• if you want a job done right do it yourself
• Keep your eye on the ball
• Work before pleasure.
• God helps those who help themselves,
• stand on your own two feet.
• If at first you dont succeed, try, try again.
• The early bird gets the worm.
• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher,
  the brewer, or the baker that we expect our
  dinner, but from their regard to their own
  interest.

What do these sayings and proverbs say about N.
American culture?
4
High and Low Context Cultures

• High-context cultures (Japan, China, and Arab
  countries) tend to be relational, collectivist,
  intuitive, and contemplative.
• In a high context culture, many things are left
  unsaid, letting the culture explain.
• Cultures where the group is valued over the
  individual promote in-groups and group reliance
• High-context cultures prefer group values,
  duties, and group decisions.
• prefer more formality.
• Communication style High-context cultures rely
  on nonverbal cues and the total picture to
  communicate. Meanings are embedded at many social
  levels.
• Time Orientation Time is unlimited and
  never-ending in some cultures. Relaxed attitude
  toward time.

5
Low Context Cultures

• Low-context cultures (North America, Scandinavia,
  and Germany) tend to be logical, linear, and
  action-oriented.
• In a low context culture, similar experiences and
  expectations, are to a lesser extent used to
  communicate.
• Much more is explained through words, instead of
  the context.
• Less emphasis on tradition, ceremony, and social
  rules - Dont stand on tradition (formality)
• Communication style emphasize words,
  straightforwardness, openness. People tend to be
  informal, impatient, literal.
• Time Orientation Time is precious to North
  Americans. It correlates with productivity,
  efficiency, and money.

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High-Context and Low-Context Cultures
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• Different cultures have different attitudes,
  ideas, and emotions towards peoples rights and
  obligations and about the world is in general
• A cultural model A construction of reality that
  is created, shared and transmitted by members of
  a group
• cultural models provide a unique world view,
  providing both an understanding of the world as
  it is thought to be and a blueprint for the way
  one ought to behave

• These models are encoded in different words and
  grammatical forms
• The process of encoding the values, ideas and
  emotions in language is universal, although what
  is encoded is culturally relative 
• Proverbs, sayings, stories, myths guide human
  thought and behaviour by providing moral lessons

Pandoras box
8

• More often cultural models are expressed more
  subtly
• In the metaphoric and symbolic meaning of the
  vocabulary we use
• The world is full of meaning and shape our
  perception and experience of reality

• To what extent due the words in a language
  influence peoples perceptions of their world?

9
Which word seems to go with each picture?
taketa naluma
Which one is Masculine and which one Feminine?
10
Sound Symbolism The vast majority of people pair
taketa with the angular illustration and naluma
with the curved one.
taketa Because the consonants are hard it is
perceived as harder and more masculine
naluma consonants are sonorants perceived as
softer and more feminine
Clorox, a hard-working laundry product
Chanel, a perfume
11
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
'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. It is quite an illusion to imagine that
one adjusts to reality essentially without the
use of language and that language is merely an
incidental means of solving specific problems of
communication and reflection. The fact of the
matter is that the "real world" is to a large
extent unconsciously built up on the language
habits of the group.' 1929
Benjamin Lee Whorf Edward Sapir
(1897-1941)
(1884-1939)
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linguistic relativity

• According to Sapir, The complex vocabulary of a
  language may indeed be looked upon as a complex
  inventory of all the ideas, interests and
  occupations that take up the attention of the
  community

• People label things, forces, and events in both
  their physical and social world only if they are
  important to them , i.e. have cultural
  significance.
• The more words, the more significant, and the
  more noticed and experienced
• Through this process unique cultural models are
  created and reinforced
• People give specific names for details of their
  environment when it is important for their
  survival
• Other languages have to be more descriptive
• conclusions can be drawn about cultural attitudes
  from the degree of specialization within sectors
  of vocabulary

Dinka cattle camp
13

• The colour spectrum, is a continuum, each colour
  blends gradually into the next
• But we impose boundaries and talk of red,
  orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
• these discriminations are arbitrary and are
  different in other languages

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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

• The physiology of our eyes is essentially the
  same.
• All normal humans share similar sense perceptions
  of color despite differences in color terminology
  from one language to another.   
• People can see subtle gradations of color and can
  comprehend other ways of dividing up the spectrum
  of visible light. 
• However, as a society's economy and technology
  increase in complexity, the number of color terms
  usually also increases. 
• i.e. the spectrum of visible light gets
  subdivided into more categories. 
• As the environment changes, culture and language
  typically respond by creating new terminology to
  describe it.
• Culture and language are in a constant state of
  interaction and association
• Because cultures change more rapidly than
  languages the forms of language will in course of
  time cease to symbolize those of culture.

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• Colour Terms
• Dani (New Guinea) have only two colour categories
• mili which means dark, cold colours such as black
• mola which means warm, bright colours such as
  white
• languages with three colour terms add Red
• those with four add yellow
• English has 11

(red, yellow, black, white, green, blue, purple,
pink, brown, orange, grey)
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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

• Sapir Whorf says habitual thought might be
  influenced, if not determined, by linguistic
  structures.
• We perceive the world through language - the
  colors we see is predetermined by what our
  culture prepares us to see
• do we see blue and green colours because our
  language has two different names for these two
  neighbouring parts of the colour spectrum?
• Can the Tiv perceive or distinguish between Red
  and yellow?

17
EMPTY

• Whorf believed that language influenced peoples
  thoughts and behaviours
• noticed that fires were often caused by a
  persons inappropriate behaviour motivated by
  labels given to objects
• Workmen often threw matches and cigarette butts
  into empty gasoline drums even though the drums
  contained vapours and invisible traces of
  gasoline
• Whorf concluded that the mens behaviour resulted
  from the misinterpretation of the word empty
•  

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• Whorf concluded that Hopi and English have
  different conceptions of time, number and
  duration
• Hopi emphasizes continuity, cyclcity and
  intensity of events
• English emphasize the boundedness and
  objectification of entities
• e.g. English uses terms like summer and morning
• Hopi they are more like adverbs e.g. morning
  becomes while morning phase is occurring
• English tenses divide time into three distinct
  units of past, present and future
• Hopi do not indicate the time of an event but
  focus on the manner or duration of an event.

Whorf concluded that concepts of time and matter
are not given in substantially the same form by
experience to all people but depend on the nature
of the language or languages through which the
use of which they have been developed
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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

• linguistic determinism
• the language we use to some extent determines
  the way in which we view and think about the
  world
• Strong determinism
• language actually determines thought, that
  language and thought are identical.
• Weak determinism
• thought and behaviour are merely affected by or
  influenced by our language

20
Language and Gender Concept

• do children learn to recognize themselves as boys
  or girls when their language emphasizes gender?
• Alexander Guiora looked at children in Hebrew
  speaking homes, Finnish, speaking homes and
  English speaking homes
• Hebrew has the most gender emphasis of the three
  languages - nouns are either masculine or
  feminine and even second person and plurals are
  differentiated by gender

"Land" is feminine, but "field" is masculine
"mountain" is masculine, but "hill" is feminine
"bed" is feminine, but "table" and "chair" are
masculine "month" is masculine, but "year" is
feminine "lamp" is masculine, but "lampstand" is
feminine.
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English emphasizes gender less, only in third
person singular his and hers
Finish emphasizes gender least, only man and
woman convey gender
Consistent with the idea that language may
influence thought Hebrew speaking children
acquired the concept of gender identity the
earliest on the average and Finnish speaking
children the latest
This comparative approach to discourse provides a
way to understand the interrelationships of
linguistic and cultural factors
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• language can also influence memory and
  classifying tasks
• The plural of English nouns referring to animate
  beings (animals, humans) and most inanimate
  objects requires a plural marker
• amorphous substances such as sugar, mud, water
  etc. Do not require the marker they cannot be
  counted

•  Mayan language Yucatec requires plural marking
  only for animate objects
• In recalling and sorting tasks speakers of
  English paid attention to number for animate
  beings and objects but ignored number for
  substances while Yucatec paid attention to number
  but only for animate beings, ignoring number for
  everything else

23
Which belong together? The green things and the
blue things Or the circles and the bars ?
24

• Carroll and Casagrande looked at Navaho Indians
• they place great stress on form and shape,
  rigidity and material from which an object is
  constructed
• they gave three groups of children
• one Navaho speaking
• one English speaking
• one bilingual
• showed them a green stick, a green rope and a
  blue rope and a blue stick
• asked them which objects went together
• Navaho speakers said objects with the same form
  i.e. ropes went together
• English speakers categorize by colour rather
  than form put green stick and green rope together
• Other languages (e.g. Yucatec in Mexico) sort
  objects on the basis of material because the
  words in their language emphasize the material
  rather than the shape.

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•  Issues of language and perception can also be
  addressed by examining differences in
  conversational style favoured by speakers of
  different languages
• When people interact with one another verbally
  they continually interpret and evaluate the
  others speech in order to ascertain not only its
  meaning but also its intention.
• speakers respond to what they perceive as the
  other persons meaning
• when people learn second and third languages they
  may learn to properly use the pronunciations,
  words and grammatical patterns but may
  unconsciously transfer the conversational
  inferences they learned in their native language
• they therefore misinterpret the meanings and
  intentions of their coparticipants regardless of
  the fact that they may understand the literal
  meaning of the words spoken to them.

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• communicative practices considered appropriate
  within a particular community foster feelings of
  identity and group membership
• Features signalling group membership include
  intonation (pitch, rhythm, velocity), pausing,
  and stylistic and rhetorical choices
• People therefore are unaware of making
  particular interpretations and evaluations of
  other peoples speaking styles assuming that
  their reactions are normal and natural as well
• People with different cultural backgrounds may
  assume that different styles of speaking are
  appropriate in particular settings, resulting in
  miscommunication

lucky bastards
people thinking differently about what is going
on in their interaction
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• Semantic Domains
• A set or aggregate of words, all sharing a core
  meaning related to a specific topic
• e.g. kinship terms, body-part words, animals,
  colours
• words within a domain all share common meaning
  in that they refer to the same type of object or
  event,
• but each word in the set and labels a specific
  and distinct entity i.e. It contrasts with
  others.
• What are the principles upon which these
  similarities and distinctions are made?
• When we know this we can make inferences about
  how speakers experience their world.
• The number of distinctions made within a domain
  reflects the degree of cultural interest.

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• English animal names
• Age and sex of horses and cows are culturally
  important we have separate names for them
• We also have names for different breeds of these
  animals
• other animals we treat more generally e.g.
  chipmunk, otter moose etc.

• Foal
• Filly
• colt

Mare Stallion
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(No Transcript)
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• In some domains of vocabulary, cross-cultural
  comparisons uncover basic differences in the ways
  people perceive their universe
• e.g. kinship terms can reveal peoples perception
  of their social relations
• Three sets of contrasts generation, sex of
  relative and lineality
• Define the features of our kin that we consider
  meaningful
• Some cultures, e.g. Iroquois make distinctions
  based on relatative age of sibling

English kin terms
Sudanese kin terms
Hawaiian kin terms
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componential analysis
e.g. Seneca grandmother and her
sisters grandfather and his brothers mother and
mothers sister father and fathers
brother mothers brother father sister older
sister younger sister older brother younger
brother cousin daughter son niece (female
speaker) niece (male speaker) nephew (female
speaker ) nephew male speaker granddaughter grands
on principles generation and sex of relative

• the procedure used to determine significant
  contrasts
• words in a domain are viewed as being composed of
  isolable components of meaning that co-occur
  in different combinations e.g. younger
  generation female lineal daughter
• comparisons of distinctive components allow us to
  understand better systems of meaning,of a culture
  and its members

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• differences in kinship terminologies are not
  merely linguistic but reflect societal attitudes
  towards ones relatives
• individuals called by each kin term are
  understood by speakers to stand in particular
  social relationships and to have certain rights
  and obligations vis a vis speakers
• the meanings of words thus reflect ones social
  universe
•  

• Within each generation the males of one Yanomamo
  lineage call each other brother and all the women
  sister.
• Males of lineage X call males of lineage Y
  brother-in-law and are eligible to marry their
  sisters whom they call wife, even though they may
  not marry them.
• A man must marry a woman of a category called
  wife,

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A fish or a whale?

• In order to classify words speakers need to know
  the defining characteristics of each class
• The mistake of classifying a whale as a fish
  reveals that definitional criteria of category
  membership do not have equal weight
• Certain traits are considered by speakers to be
  more important than others

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•  Criteria for classification are different in
  different languages
• e.g. some language organize noun categories in
  the basis of gender i.e. masculine or feminine,
  or animate and inanimate

What do a deer and a rock have in common?

• Algonquian languages (Ojibwa, Cree, Blackfoot,
  Cheyenne) would classify all persons, animals,
  spirits, large trees, tobacco, maize, apple,
  raspberry, calf of leg, stomach, spittle,
  feather, birds tail, horn, kettle, pip, snowshoe
  together
• The principle of classification is personhood
• In Algonquian, personhood in religious contexts,
  can include stones which can have a spirit and
  thus have agency and perform actions or they are
  spiritually relevant
• embodies several important aspects of Algonquian
  worldview
• Thinking not in dichotomies

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Ethnoscience

• How different languages classify the world
• Different cultures have different underlying
  assumptions that can be used to group entities

How would you classify these creatures?

• Papago (Arizona) divide birds into those that
  rarely fly (quail, chicken road runner) and
  those that often fly eagle, crow dove
• The fact that some birds are more likely than
  others to fly is considered important by Papago
  speakers and is directly expressed in their
  language
• plants contain 5 classes trees, cacti,
  cultivated seasonal (things planted from seeds)
  wild seasonal (growing by itself) and unlabeled (
  wild perennials that are neither cacti, trees nor
  bushes)
• The Papago system of plant science highlights
  their interests in environment and economy
• The class of cacti is singled out no doubt
  because if the preponderance of cacti in the
  environment
• Seasonal plants are distinguished on the basis of
  their origins

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Focal meaning and Prototypes
Which square provides the best example of blue?

• The focal meaning of a word is its central sense
  within the whole reange of meanings that it has
  - the best example
• in colour terminology each word covers a graded
  range of different hues along a continuum, rather
  than a discrete and absolute quality
• speakers in a community generally agree on the
  focal meaning of a word,
• Berlin and Kay found that focal meanings of basic
  color terms were substantially similar in all
  languages suggesting a universal color system
  based on physical stimuli

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Prototypes

•  
• An idealized internalized conceptualization of an
  object, quality, or activity
• Real-life objects and activities are measured
  against these internalized concepts and are named
  according to how well they approximate the ideal.
• speakers in our culture agree that robin is
  closest to the prototype or idealization

Which is the best example of a bird?
38

• a man above the age of majority who has never
  been married
• What would be some poor examples?

What is a bachelor
What is a confirmed bachelor?

• People and activities can also be evaluated with
  reference to prototypical constructs
• Speakers depend on cultural models consisting of
  expectations for and evaluations of behaviour
• A man living in a stable conjugal relationship, a
  priest are poor examples
• The point is that categories like these cannot be
  defined abstractly but, rather are appropriately
  understood only in the context of culturally
  shared expectations background setting

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What is an argument

•  Because all communication occurs in cultural
  contexts, speakers understanding of what is
  happening is often measured against prototypical
  constructs
• What is an argument
• What is a discussion
• What is a debate
• What is a lecture
• What is an apology
• We evaluate our own and the behaviour of others
  depending on what type of interaction we think is
  taking place
• Participants may not agree on the type of
  interaction
• Lack of consensus may result when participants
  have different goals and are motivated to define
  encounters in particular ways given

40
Concepts of Space and location
How would you describe the relation between the
table and chair?

• Everyone has perceives space and the relationship
  of objects in space but how it is conceived and
  encoded in language may differ from one culture
  and language to the next
• languages have lexical and or syntactic devices
  that allow speakers to describe spatial relations
  between objects and grounds
• The locative case corresponds vaguely to the
  English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by".
• spatial representation must include the encoding
  of objects shapes, dimensions, relationships with
  other objects and background, as well as ideas of
  location, physical motion, etc.

41

• Three different systems
• absolute systems describe things in relation to
  is placement according to an orienting axis e.g.
  the points of a compass. the chair is east of
  the table, or uphill/downhill
• In order to apply such a system, speakers must
  constantly be aware of their absolute orientation
  in space
• Such speakers have to utilize fundamentally
  different orientations to space and objects than
  do speakers of English
• relative systems refer to objects relative to
  one another the chair is to the right of table
• Egocentric systems of spatial reference describe
  objects from the point of view of the speaker the
  chair is to my right
• Languages differ in their preference and
  frequency of use of the various systems
• English emphasizes relativistic
• These relations are encoded in locative or
  directional propositions (at near, away from,
  toward, in front of etc.)

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• languages that encode spatial relations
  differently, lead speakers into habitual ways of
  expressing concepts and therefore of thinking
  about underlying relationships
• Studies in childrens acquisition of spatial
  concepts indicate that the way their language
  structures space and location influences their
  perceptual processes

43
Cultural Presupposition

• participants in speech interactions come to
  encounters with an array of knowledge and
  understanding (models) of their culture as
  expressed and transmitted through language
• The vocabulary of a language is not merely an
  inventory of arbitrary labels referring to
  objects, entities or events

• for conversation to run smoothly much of what
  speakers say depends on their accurate assessment
  of hearers knowledge e.g. about the Stanley cup
• these presuppositions are collected by people
  during through a lifetime of experience in the
  culture
• because all human experiences are cultural, a
  tremendous amount of accumulated but unstated
  knowledge is continuously carried with us.

The Stanley Cup
44

• Other kinds of cultural presuppositions are more
  complex and their incorporation into meanings of
  words more subtle
• English has many terms expressing various types
  of coercion cause, force, oblige, make, compel,
  order, command, constrain, must, have to, ought
  to
• Navajo does not contain verbs of this sort
• Instead of I have to go there a Navajo
  speaker would say it is only good that I should
  go there
• This construction lacks the force of compelling
  necessity
• English readily expresses the idea that a person
  has a right to impose her or his will on another
  animate being Navajo does not

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• Cultural presuppositions also involve an
  understanding of and assumptions about other
  peoples intentions, desires and goals
• e.g. Telling a joke, teasing, insulting, or
  swearing.
• These understandings are often cultural
• We nay use the same words in telling a joke
  calling some four-eyes, or insluting them
• Speakers need to choose between options for word,
  tone of voice, and or facial expression to
  provide the right meaning
• Listeners must rely on social norms to determine
  whether they are the object of a joke or insult.

46
How are you?
A greeting or a real concern?
speakers have to know the social purposes of
particular words or utterances Most such
requests are routine and require a routine answer
47
Terrorists versus freedom fighters

• Words convey symbolic meanings expressing
  cultural values and shared assumptions
• terrorists expresses strongly negative
  judgement
• freedom fighter a positive judgement
• Labelling someone as a terrorist is in part an
  attempt to influence hearers opinions about this
  person because terrorism is an act that is
  socially condemned.

• The use of words such as new, bigger, and
  improved in advertisements reveal a cultural
  assumption of improvement and change and that
  this is good
• also connected with ideas of evolution

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• Cultural symbols obtain their strength because
  speakers-hearers unconsciously accept their
  indirectly expressed assumptions
• The power of language to convey social messages
  is recognized, for instance, by many American
  women who object to being called girl or by
  African-American men who object to being called
  boy
•  In order to gain insights into a peoples
  worldview or system of values, it is necessary to
  ascertain the cultural symbols embedded in their
  words.
• This is one reason why translation from one
  language into another is never completely
  accurate
• Words in isolation can be translated
• The meaning of words in context cannot be easily
  conveyed

boy
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Metaphor
All the world's a stage, And all the men and
women merely players They have their exits and
their entrances (William Shakespeare, As
You Like It, 2/7)

• metaphors are unstated comparisons between
  entities or events that share certain features
• cultural meanings are transferred through
  metaphor
• Recurring metaphors in a language reveal
  underlying concepts that help construct the
  reality or worldview of the speakers
• our conceptual system in terms of which we both
  think and act is fundamentally metaphorical in
  nature
• we experience our world through cultural
  metaphors
• analysis of metaphor provides insights into
  cultural constructions of reality

50

• The metaphor "wall" is one of the most commonly
  used metaphors.
• We think of a "mental wall" or a wall between two
  people, with little thought as to what makes this
  metaphor work.
• As we think of a new kind of wall, we come up
  with a new metaphor.
• And with each new metaphor, a new, deeper
  understanding of what a wall really is.

Wall a solid vertical plane that separates one
area and its contents from another area and its
contents.
Metaphor "A dam is a wall to water. It blocks
the (outward) movement of water." Observation
Now we know that a (metaphoric) wall can block
liquids. Metaphor "An artery wall keeps blood
from leaking." Observation Now we also know that
a (metaphoric) wall doesn't need to be
flat. Metaphor "A window is a wall to air but
not to light." Observation A (metaphoric) wall
can block out one thing and not another.
51
Window
an opening in an otherwise solid and opaque
surface that allows the passage of light
52
time is money

• You dont use your time profitably
• How do you spend your time these days?
• This gadget will save you hours
• Dont waste my time
• Time in our culture is seen as a valuable
  material resource or commodity that we use to
  accomplish our goals
• Thus we understand and experience time as the
  kind of thing that can be spent, wasted,
  budgeted, invested wisely or poorly, saved or
  squandered.
• Other cultures have different concepts of time
  and have different metaphors for time

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For the Nuer time is associated with social
rhythms and ecological changes From village to
cattle camp Thus it is not the rainy season, it
is time of the cattle camps, and courting
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Up Down Emotion Youre in high
spirits Hes feeling low today Consciousness Wake
up See sank into a coma (fell
asleep) Health Hes in top shape her health is
declining Control Im on top of the
situation He fell from power Status Shell rise
to the top Hes at the bottom of
society Virtuousness Hes high minded I
wouldnt stoop to that
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personification

• the process of attributing animate or human
  qualities to non-living entities or events
• Common in many languages
• the window looks out over the mountains
• an inanimate object, window, is interpreted as
  if it were capable of an action, looking, which
  is inherently possible for animate beings.
• n other expressions intangible processes are
  likewise treated as thought they were concrete
  animate beings and therefore able to eat or kill
• My feet are killing me

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Metonymy

•  The substitution of one entity for another based
  on their shared occurrence in context rather than
  similarity of their attributes
• metonymy refers to the use of a single
  characteristic to identify a more complex entity
• It is common for people to take one
  well-understood or easy-to-perceive aspect of
  something and use that aspect to stand either for
  the thing as a whole or for some other aspect or
  part of it.
• Take the throne throne royal power
• She likes to read Shakespeare (where Shakespeare
  stands for all his works)
• Dont sweat it seat perspiration but
  stands for hard work