Chapter seven language, culture, and society

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Chapter seven language, culture, and society

• Discussions in this chapter
• 1.language and culture
• 2.language and society
• 3.language and cross-cultural communication

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7.1.1how does language relate to culture?

• Language study conducted in the past
• Ever since the beginning of the eighteenth
  century, the linguistic inquiry of language has
  been either comparative and historical or
  structural and formalized in nature.
• Changes took place at the start of the 20th
  century----to study language anthropologically .

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Anthropological linguistics

• A branch of linguistics which studies the
  relationship between language and culture in a
  community, e.g. its tradition, beliefs, and
  family structure.
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• For example, anthropological linguists have
  studied the ways in which relationship within the
  family are expressed in different cultures
  (kinship terminology), and they have studied how
  people communicate with one another at certain
  social and cultural events, e.g. ceremonies,
  rituals, and meetings, and then related this to
  the overall structure of the particular community.

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  ????????????,???????,?????????????????????

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• Some areas of anthropological linguistics are
  closely related to areas of sociolinguistics and
  the ethnography of communication.
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Pioneers in

• Europe(England) Malinowski, Firth.
• North America (America ) Boas, Sapir, and Whorf.

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Work in England

• The meaning of a word greatly depended upon its
  occurrence in a given context, or rather, upon a
  real language situation in life.
• Wood two interpretations
• 1.
• 2.canoe

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Speech act theory

• Language is a mode of action
• This view of language is the basis for the
  generation of the speech act theory.

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Contribution by Malinowski

• Paved the way for a cultural, rather, a
  contextual study of language use in Britain.

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His influence

• Under his anthropological view of language and
  being fully aware of the importance of the
  context in the study of language use, Firth, a
  leading figure in a linguistic tradition later
  known as the London school, tried to set up a
  model for illustrating the close relationships
  between language use and its co-occurrent
  factors. He developed

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The strong cultural-oriented implications of the
theory by Firth

• 1.the creativity and diversity of linguistic
  idiosyncrasy in language use.
• 2.who speaks (or writes )what language (or what
  language variety) to whom and when and to what
  end

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The furtherance of the theory by Halliday

• The founder of systemic-functional linguistics,
• He views language from a socially semiotic or
  interactional perspective, he interprets grammar
  functionally as a resource of meaning potential,
  and his linguistic model in the study of
  literature.

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Research work in America

• Boas, Sapir, Whorf
• The anthropological approach to the study of
  language and culture laid a firm foundation in
  the history of linguistic development.

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Ethnography of communication

• The study of the place of language in culture and
  society. Language is not studied in isolation
  but within a social and/ or cultural setting.
  Ethnography of communication studies, for
  example, how people in a particular group or
  community communicate with each other and how the
  social relationships between these people affect
  the type of language they use.

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  ?,??,??????????????????,?????????????????????????

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• The concept of an ethnography of communication
  was advanced by the American social
  anthropologist and linguist Hymes and this
  approach is important in sociolinguistics and
  applied linguistics.??????????????????????????,???
  ????????????????????

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Components of SPEAKING

• S
• P
• E
• A
• K
• I
• N
• G

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A theory about the relation of language and
culture

• It is influential and extremely controversial
• The hypothesis concerning the language, thought,
  and culture.
• Suggested by Benjiamin Lee Whorf
• The SapirWhorf Hypothesis

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Suggestions of the hypothesis

• Language helps mould peoples way of thinking
• Different languages may probably express
  speakers unique ways of understanding the world.
• In other words, it means
• 1.language may determine our thinking
  patterns----linguistic determinism
• 2.similarity between languages is
  relative.----linguistic relativity (first
  expounded by the German ethnologist, Wilhelm von
  Humboldt)

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A famous follower of the hypothesis

• Eugene Nida, a well-known linguist and
  translation theorist,
• Involved in the Bible translation work across
  different languages
• Five types of subculture proposed by Nida
• 1.ecological culture
• 2.linguistic culture
• 3.religious culture
• 4.material culture
• 5.social culture

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7.1.2 more about the SapirWhorf hypothesis

• Proponents
• Hopi, an American Native language spoken in
  Arizona, a timeless language
• Opponents
• Dugum Dani, a Papuan language spoken in the
  central highlands of Irian Jaya.
• Word color terms

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Prediction

• Linguistic studies in the new century will become
  more fruitful if an evolutionary, cognitive, and
  interdisciplinary perspective is taken in its
  theoretic pursuit.

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7.1.3 case studies

• 1.The interplay of language and culture ranges
  from textual structure to phonological variation.
• 2.Phonological differences or dialectal accents
  reveal more than geographical origins of
  speakers.
• RP
• GA

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• 3.Words are sometimes idiomatically-governed
  and culturally-specific.

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7.1.4 to which extent do we need culture in our
linguistic study?

• A study of linguistic issues in a cultural
  setting can greatly promote our understanding of
  MOTIVATION and DIRCTIONALITY in language change.

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7.1.5 culture in language teaching classroom

• Three objectives to teach culture in our language
  class
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• Successful mastery of a given language has
  much to do with an understanding of that culture.

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7.2 language and society

• The study of language can help us to know more
  about mans social activities.

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7.2.1 how does language relate to society

• Works by philosophers and grammarians in
• A. the Graeco-Roman tradition
• B. the Indian tradition
• Two different views of language study
• 1.monistic or autonomous pursuit
• Chomsky
• 2.dualistic view of linguistic inquiry
• Sociolinguistics in 1960s

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7.2.2 a situationally and socially variationist
perspective

• Language always changes with situations.
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• Language is also determined by social norms.
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• So language differences in form are both
  stylistically (situationally) and socially
  governed.

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Social factors influencing language use

• 1.class
• 2.gender
• 3.age
• 4.ethnic identity
• 5.education
• The first two are discussed.

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Language variations resulting from the different
class background of people

• 1960s
• Work by William Labov
• Study the relationships between speakers social
  status and their phonological variations.
• Written work by him
• His study shows that class and style are two
  major factors influencing the speakers choice of
  one phonological variant over another.
• Class is an indispensable sociolinguistic
  varible.
• Evaluation on the book.
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4 .

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The influencing of gender upon language use

• The work was done 2000 years ago in Greek.
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• The real work was initiated by Robin Lakoff
• Labov also did something
• The features of WOMEN REGISTER (women language)
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
• 6.

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Why the existing of the women language

• Womens place in society
• Simply speaking, the linguistic differences
  between men and women are culturally and socially
  governed.
• Women register is not only used by women but also
  by powerless members in society.
• sex is a word used to refer to ones biological
  property, while gender is a word employed to
  show ones social property,

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Why LINGUISTIC SEXISM

• It is not language itself but womens place in
  society that makes people linguistically behave
  in that way.
• The study of gender differences has become
  increasingly interesting to people in
  sociolinguistics ever since the 1970s.

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7.2.3what should we know more about
sociolinguistics?

• Two important things
• 1.structural things
• 2.their uses in a sociocultural context
• Consequently, two big issues to deal with
• 1. how these two factors are related to each
  other
• 2.why it should be so
• In other words,
• 1.we study language use in social context to know
  structural things
• 2.we examine linguistic phenomena of a speaking
  community to understand the sociological things.

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The features of sociolinguistics

• 1.pluralism
• 2.diversity
• 3.overlapping with other types of scientific
  research (multidisciplinary nature)

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Research approaches

• classify sociolinguistic studies
• 1.by means of a hierarchical division
• 2.by means of an orientational categorization.
• Sociolinguistic study of society
• Sociolinguistic study of language
• The two are related but not identical perspective
  of observation.

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• Macro level of study
• To know society by studying language
• (sociolinguistics study of language)
• Questions
• .
• Micro level of study
• To know language by studying society
• (sociolinguistic study of society)
• Questions
• .

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7.2.4 what implications(??) can we get from
sociolinguistics?

• The applications of sociolinguistics
• (???????)
• in
• 1.language classroom
• 2.law court
• 3.clinical setting

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1.Language classrooms

• Two different views of philosophy in language
  teaching
• To train the students as grammarians
• To train the students as active language users.
• Traditional language teaching.
• Changes in 1970s Hymes theory of communicative
  competence
• Linguistic competence (Chomsky)
• Pragmatic competence
• How to train students as active and successful
  language users in a real language context.

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Contributions of sociolinguistics to language
teaching in classroom

• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.

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2. Law court

• ??
• 1).
• 2).
• 3).
• The choice of one discourse pattern over another
  is institutionally decided and socially
  maintained.

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3. Clinic settings

• How .
• More implications can.

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7.3 cross-cultural communication

• The importance of cross-cultural communication
• Words by Carl Rogers

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7.3.1what should we know all bout cross-cultural
communication?

• Intra-cultural communication
• Cross-cultural communication
• How to communicate cross-culturally and
  successfully?
• Suggestions
• A.
• B.
• C.
• Principles we should follow in cross-cultural
  communication
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.

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7.3.2 case studies

• The importance of successful cross-cultural
  communication
• 1. when in Rome do as the Romans do
• A. pronominal usage
• B. address forms
• C. greeting expressions

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A. pronominal usage

• In most European and Asian languages
• In English,.

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B. address forms

• In English,
• In Chinese,

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C. greeting expressions

• Food (material) for talk
• In England, . why?
• In China, . Why?

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2. Put yourself in others shoes

• The dropping of the two atomic bombs in Japan
  during W.W.II. In Hiroshima,
• When we decode the message from a person with
  different social and cultural background from our
  own culture, misunderstanding will happen, and
  possibly producing disastrous consequence (e.g.
  wars)

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3. One cultures meat is another cultures poison

• Case one
• CECT
• Case two
• Chinese girls in New York city
• How we Chinese catch peoples attention when we
  want to seek help?

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Factors concerning the correct interpretation and
smooth cross-communication

• a.
• b.
• c.

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4. Honesty and sincerity are key points to mutual
understanding

• Necessary and sufficient prerequisites for
  becoming a good cross-cultural communicator
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.

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7.4 summary

• To study language, culture, and society
  evolutionarily.
• The developments in 21th century
• How to do an evolutionary pursuit of linguistic
  matters?
• 1.
• 2.

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• The emergence of sociolinguistics in 1960s
  signifies the beginning of the systematic pursuit
  of language matters.
• Knowledge in relevant fields such as
  anthropology, sociology, social psychology,
  ethnology, and cognitive sciences is necessary
  and sufficient conditions for a well-done study
  of sociolinguistics.