Language and Cultural Meaning
A man who waits for a roast duck to fly into
his mouth must wait a very, very long time.
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?
Ch. 4, Slide 2
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 don’t 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?
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 ingroups 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.
Ch. 4, Slide 4
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 - Don’t 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.
High-Context and Low-Context
Cultures
High
Japanese
Arab
Latin American
Spanish
English
Italian
French
North American
Scandinavian
German
Low
Swiss
Ch. 4, Slide 6
 Different cultures have different attitudes, ideas, and emotions
towards people’s 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
Pandora’s box
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 people’s
perceptions of their world?
Which word seems to go
with each picture?
taketa
naluma
Which one is Masculine and which one Feminine?
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”
Clorox, a hard-working laundry product
naluma
consonants are sonorants perceived as
“softer” and more “feminine”
Chanel, a perfume
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
(1897-1941)
Edward Sapir
(1884-1939)
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
 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
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.
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)
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?
EMPTY
Whorf believed that language influenced people’s thoughts and
behaviours
noticed that fires were often caused by a person’s 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 men’s behaviour resulted from the
misinterpretation of the word “empty”
 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
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
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.
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
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
Which belong
together?
The green things and
the blue things
Or the circles and
the bars ?
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.
 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 other’s speech in order to ascertain not
only its meaning but also its intention.
speakers respond to what they perceive as the other person’s
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
co=participants regardless of the fact that they may understand the
literal meaning of the words spoken to them.
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 people’s 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
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.
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
English kin terms
Sudanese kin terms
Hawaiian kin terms
In some domains of vocabulary,
cross-cultural comparisons
uncover basic differences in the
ways people perceive their
universe
e.g. kinship terms can reveal
people’s 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
e.g. Seneca
grandmother and her sisters
grandfather and his brothers
mother and mother’s sister
father and father’s brother
mother’s 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
grandson
principles – generation and sex of relative
componential analysis
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
differences in kinship terminologies are not merely linguistic but
reflect societal attitudes towards one’s 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 one’s 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,
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
 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, bird’s 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
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
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
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?
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
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
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.
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.)
 languages that encode spatial relations differently, lead
speakers into habitual ways of expressing concepts and
therefore of thinking about underlying relationships
Studies in children`s acquisition of spatial concepts indicate
that the way their language structures space and location
influences their perceptual processes
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 hearer`s 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
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
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
Listener`s must rely on social norms
to determine whether they are the
object of a joke or insult.
`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
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
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`
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
Wall: a solid vertical plane that
separates one area and its
contents from another area and its
contents.
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.
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.
Window
an opening in an otherwise solid
and opaque surface that allows
the passage of light
“time is money”
•You don’t use your time profitably
•How do you spend your time these days?
•This gadget will save you hours
•Don’t 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
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
Emotion
Consciousness
Health
Control
Status
Virtuousness
Up
You’re in high spirits
Wake up
He’s in top shape
I’m on top of the situation
She’ll rise to the top
He’s high minded
Down
He’s feeling low today
See sank into a coma (fell asleep)
her health is declining
He fell from power
He’s at the bottom of society
I wouldn’t stoop to that
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
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-toperceive 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)
 Don’t sweat it – seat = perspiration – but stands for hard work
