Language and Culture
Osher Class, Spring, 2016
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Topics for the Class
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Brief History of Linguistics
Brief History of Cultural Studies
Aspects of Language
Properties of Language
Language competence vs
Language performance
• Linguistic components of
Language
• Non-linguistic components of
Language
• Body language and animal
language
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Language vs dialect
Number of languages today
Status of languages today
What is Culture?
Aspects of Culture
Where is Culture?
Numbers of Cultures today
Past cultures and their influence
Cultural competence vs cultural
performance
• Languages with no Culture
• Translation
• Can language influence
culture?
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Definitions
– Language
• The words, their pronunciation, and the methods of
combining them used and understood by a community
• A systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings
by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures,
or marks having understood meanings (non-verbal)
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Definitions (con’t)
– Culture
• Acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities,
and broad aspects of science
• The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief,
and behavior that depends upon the capacity for
learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding
generations
• The customary beliefs, social forms and material traits
of a racial, religious, or social group
• The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices
that characterizes an institution or organization
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Definitions (con’t)
-- Communication
• A process by which information is exchanged thru
a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior
• Information transmitted or conveyed
• A verbal or written message
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C U LT U R E
Communication
Language
Linguistic Components
Sounds
Words Syntax
Non-linguistic components
Kinesics Gestures Proxemics
Semantics
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A Brief History of Linguistics
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Sumarians
Hindu
Greeks
Romans
Arabs
Hebrews
Europe in the Middle Ages
European explorers
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History of Linguistics (con’t)
• Grammars of known languages (19th century)
• 20th century
– Ferdinand de Saussure – father of modern linguistics
– Noam Chomsky – created generative grammar of
universal rules
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A Brief History of Cultural Studies
• Franz Boas – father of American anthropology
• Creation of Centre for Cultural Studies (1964)
• Richard Dawkins proposed the term “meme”
– Can be a word or concept – STOP or
– Can be a sound, picture, movie, a speech, etc.
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Aspects of Language (Bollinger)
• Language is:
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Human
Behavior
Sound
Hierarchic
Embedded in gesture
Both arbitrary and non-arbitrary
Vertical and horizontal
• Language changes to outwit change
• Languages are similarly structured
• Language is heard as well as spoken
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Properties of Language (Bolton)
• Language is productive/creative
• Language is arbitrary
• Language has duality
• Language is discrete
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How we know and use Language
• Ferdinand de Saussure
– Langue + parole = language
• Noam Chomsky
– Competence + performance = language
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Linguistic Components of Language
• Phonology (sounds) - /map/ /cap/
• Morphology (words) – map-s
• Syntax (grammar) – The map is big.
• Semantics (meanings) – John wears a cap. There
is a salary cap.
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Why we need the IPA
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Cough
Dough
Thought
Hiccough
Lough
Enough
Through
Plough
Hough
Thorough
• A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful
ploughman strode through the streets of
Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he
coughed and hiccoughed.
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Three levels of meaning
• Lexical – the dictionary meaning
• Structural or grammatical meaning
• Socio-cultural meaning
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Non-Linguistic Components of
Language – Body Language
• Kinesics
• Gestures
• Proxemics
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Dialects of the U. S.
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Dialects of Spain
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Dialects of England
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Number of World Languages
• Population of the world - 7,106,865,254
• Number of Living Languages – 7,102
• 95% of the world’s people speak fewer than
100 of the world’s different languages
• By 2050, many linguists predict that half of the
world’s languages will disappear
• An entire way of thinking is lost each time a
language becomes extinct
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Definition of Culture
• Acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities,
and broad aspects of science
• The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief,
and behavior that depends upon the capacity for
learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding
generations
• The customary beliefs, social forms and material
traits of a racial, religious, or social group
• The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and
practices that characterizes an institution or
organization
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Guernica by P. Picasso
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Aspects of Culture
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It is learned
Language is the medium of transmission
It is applicable to all people
It is active and dynamic
It changes over time
It is multilayered
It is malleable/adaptive
It is always considered within a context
It is thick, thin, or compartmentalized
It structures our perceptions
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Where is Culture?
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Food/health
Personal hygiene
Transportation
Personal space
Moral code
Modesty
Meals
Social gatherings
Birthdays/holidays
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Clothing
Family
Time
Religion
Humor
Attractions/revulsions
Entertainment
Gender roles
Etc.
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Examples of 21st Century Language
• Texting
– OMG
– IMHO
– BAY
– BTW
– CUL
– OTOH
– PAW
– BRB
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Examples (cont.)
• Totesing (short for “totally”)
– Totes tradge (tragic)
– Totes emosh (emotional)
– Bluebs
– Subconch
– Aphrodeez
– Imposh
– Fosh
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Cultural Competence vs Cultural
Performance
• Knowing about – the gathering of cultural
information
• Knowing how – acquiring cultural behaviors
• Knowing why – discovering cultural explanations
• Knowing oneself – developing self-awareness
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Dialects of the U. S.
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Cultures of Europe
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Cultures of the U. S.
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Past Cultures and their Influence
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Celts – whiskey, bog, shindig
Anglo-Saxon – be, strong, water, the, you
Latin & Greek – bishop, angel, demon
Vikings – get, hit, leg, low, root, want, wrong
Normans/French – many
New World – hurricane, hammock
Spanish – rodeo, avocado, algebra, arroyo
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Origins of English Words
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Created Languages
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The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
Lapine – Watership Down
Newspeak – 1984 by George Orwell
Atlantean – Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Ku – The Interpreter
Klingon, Vulcan – Star Trek
Na’vi - Avatar
Valyrian – The Game of Thrones
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Esperanto
• Alphabet – 26 letters: a b c ĉ d e f g ĝ h ĥ i j ĵ k l
mnoprsŝtuŭvz
• Sample structures:
– Good morning – Bonan matenon
– Good evening – Bonan vesperon
– What is your name? – Kio estas via nomo?
– Thank you – Dankon
– Excuse me – Pardonu min
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Basic Principles of Language
• Language consists of a systematically organized
set of oral/aural symbols.
– Writing only imperfectly represents language
• Associations between symbols and referents are
essentially arbitrary.
• The segmentation of experience by speech
symbols is essentially arbitrary.
• No two languages exhibit identical systems of
organizing symbols into meaningful expressions
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Grammar Differences
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La leche es buena.
Milk is good.
Correspondence
El hermano de David es guapo.
David’s brother is handsome.
Differences
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What is involved
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Language Influences Culture
• Use of geographical location to express all
locations and lapse of time
• Perceptions, e.g., color affected by mother
tongue
• Gender-system languages where animate and
inanimate things must have gender
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Recap
• Language and culture are inexorably
intertwined
• The combination allows us to communicate
and be understood
• We are linguistically and culturally competent
• L & C can and do influence each other (more
research needed)
• Languages and Cultures are unique
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