LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL
MEANING
Cultural behavior is not essentially different
from other forms of learned behavior; it is a
consequence of the dynamic of social living
over many generations, while individual
members of the social system are replaced
(Foley, 1997: 12)
Questions
• How do members of different cultures express
their worldviews?
• How do members of different cultures express
events, experiences, and intentions through
language?
• How do speakers express their way of being in
the world through a particular use of their
languages?
By the way a speaker frames intentions
and activities through language
• Usage of contrasting words (Blue/white,
good/bad)
• Grammatical forms (Example: the
structuring properties of sentences)
The framing of intentions and
activities
• English: I must go there.
• English: I make the horse run.
• Navajo: It is only good that I shall go.
• Navajo: The horse is running for me.
Language expresses and reflects
worldviews
• Cultural models: shared cultural attitudes
• Language: key for transmitting cultural models
• Language ----Proverbs, stories, etc.
-- conveying a way of being in the world
--guiding human thought and action
-- provides moral lessons
Dime con quien andas y te dire quien
eres
.
Concrete and symbolic meanings
• “The horse is running for me”
concrete object (horse)
• “Don’t cry over spilt milk”
symbolic meaning, metaphorical
Why do we study language?
• To identify cultural models
• Understand the relationship between
language and environment
• language and society
The Foundations of Linguistic
Anthropology
• Edward Sapir (1884—1939) and his student
Benjamin Whorf (1897—1941)
• Linguistic research among Native Americans
• Sapir: lexicon or vocabulary
• Whorf: Grammatical structures
Edward Sapir
• physical environment and social
environment through the use of language
• Elements of vocabulary influence speakers
perceptions
• Different experience of our world
• The Paiute utilize unique words for valuable
geographical locations
Sand flat, semicircular valley or
hollow, spot for level ground in
mountains surrounded by ridges.
Benjamin Whorf
• Influences on though and behaviour
• Grammatical structures of language
• Grammatical structure and
conceptualization of time, number, duration
Whorf studies among the Hopi
• Time, number and duration fundamental for
Hopi culture
• Hopi: Emphasis: continuity, cyclicity and
intensity:
• English: Emphasis on boundedness and
objectification
• Morning
• “While morning-phase is occurring”
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Language influences people’s perception of
the world
• “Weak version”
• “Strong version”
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: a summative 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: Horse
versus chipmunk
• Transformative: gun and bow
• Not static; changes over time
Why are semantic domains
important in the study of culture?
Semantic domains are important
because:
• 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 sister (s): one word
• My Grandfather and his brother (s): one word
• My Mother and her sister (s): one word
• My Father and hiss brother (s): 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 = brother
• 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.
The classification of words is
culturally 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 of a word is its central sense,
its best example, agreed upon by culture
• Prototype: idealized, internalized
conceptualization of an object, quality or
activity, needs to be 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
• Members of different cultures express different worldviews
through a particular use of their languages (language frames)
• Cultural models are expressed and reflected primarily through
language
• Proverb:
• “The early bird catches the worm.”
• Worldviews are expressed through language use
• Language frames intentions and activities
• Framing accomplished through contrasting of words,
classification of words
Discussion Question:
How do cultural models provide
frameworks for understanding the
physical and social world we live in?