LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL MEANING (part 2) Lexical and Cultural Categories • Taxonomic systems: The classification system that orders things in a logical hierarchical way, a system that orders by indicating natural relationships • Semantic domains: an aggregate of words (words put together). All sharing a core meaning, related to a specific topic Example: Kinship terms, body-parts words, or colours Language expresses • Cultural focus: cultural priorities • Transformation • Relationship to members in society Why are semantic domains important? • Speaker’s perception of his/her cultural universe • Degree of cultural interest innovation, extension of semantic domains • Shows how language and meaning changes over time Lexical (vocabulary) components • Kinship terminology comparison • Peoples’ priorities in social relations • Usage of words to name relatives Mother, father, son, daughter, etc The analysis of these contrasts reveals that • First: there is a distinction between generations grandmother/mother, father/son • Two: there is a distinction of sex: father/mother, son/daughter • Third: there is also a distinction between direct and collateral relatives: mother/aunt, son/nephew Componential analysis • Determines significance of contrast by isolating components of meanings • Example kinship terminology ---Younger generation-female-lineal= daughter ---Older generation-male-lineal = grandfather Kinship terminology not a universal • (Seneca ) Iroquoian languages (Quebec, Ontario, and New York) • My Grandmother and her sisters: one word • My Grandfather and his brothers: one word • My Mother and mother’s sister: one word • My Father and father’s brother: one word Seneca Kinship Terminology • Different terms for for older and younger siblings • My mother’s sister’s daughter –sister • My mother’s sister’s son = son • My Father’s brother’s daughter = sister • My father’s brother’s son – brother Lexical classifications • Classification of words to make sense of speech • Degrees of complexity • Ambiguity: Whale fish or mammal • Classification indicates: cultural interest discrimination Ethnoscience • A classification system in a given domain that organizes people’s knowledge of aspects of their universe, as, for example, botanical or zoological terminologies. Ethnoscientific systems are based on taxonomic hierarchies of similarity and contrast. Classification of words is cultural specific • • • • Papagos (Arizona) Life is divided: living things and plants Word for living = animals Animals are the prototype (best example) of living things among the Papagos Focal points and prototypes • • • • Focal point or a word is its central sense Best example Agreed upon by culture Prototype: idealized, internalized conceptualization of an object, quality or activity • Understood in the context of culture Cultural Presuppositions . Cultural presupposition is the notion that participants in speech interactions come to interactive situations with certain cultural knowledge. . Transmitted language . Some more complex: symbolic, rhetorical Summary • Worldviews are expressed through language use • Language frames intentions and activities • Framing accomplished through contrasting of words, classification of words • Language use expresses cultural models Discussion Question: How do cultural models provide frameworks for understanding the physical and social world we live in? Howdo cultu ralmod els provide fra meworks for unde rstand ingthe phy world we l ive in ? sical andso cial