Chapter 4 LANGUAGE & C ULTURE

1. Chapter 4LANGUAGE & CULTURE

2. Scientists have noticed that dialects differ not only for social variations but also for other ‘cultural’ factors. • This approach to the study of Language originated in the work of Anthropologists who have used ‘language as a source of information in cultural studies.

3. Culture • Culture: • All the ideas and assumptions about the nature of things and people that we learn when we become members of social groups. • Def. “socially acquired knowledge” • We acquire without conscious awareness • The ‘language’ we learn provides us with a ready-made system of ‘categorizing’ the world around us and shaping our experience. • We learn by time how to categorize the distinction between different concepts./ thus, we develop a more elaborated conceptual system that is relevant in our social world/culture. • E.g. ‘dog’ or ‘horse’ for a child is just a ‘bow-wow’ • Some of the cultures do not have horses so they don’t have that concept in their language

4. Categories • Category: • A group with certain features in common. • The vocabulary we learn through our first language is the set of category labels we inherent./ they r the words we use for referring to concepts. • Organization of external reality varies according to the language being used to talk about it. • E.g. ‘rain’ ‘coconuts’ ‘dates’ • Colors for New Guinea speakers and English speakers. • Clip # 2 (colors, directions, & snow) • Thus, there are conceptual distinctions that are Lexicalized: “expressed as a single word” in one language and not in the other.

5. Kinship terms • Kinship terms: • One of the examples of lexicalized categories: words we use to refer to members of the family. • E.g. ‘father’ & ‘uncle’ in English vs. other languages lexicalized the distinction in English • ‘female parent’s brother’ /the distinction isn’t lexicalized in English./ but it is in Arabic (خال \ عم) • Age is also important in some languages for the distinction between family members./ Mayan e.g. • Norwegian the distinction between ‘male parent’s mother’ & ‘female parent’s mother’ is lexicalized but not in English nor in Arabic.

6. Time Concepts • An abstract e.g. of conceptual system. • English has words for units of time “two days”/ shows that we think of time in amounts the same way we treat physical things “two people” • In Hopi lang. time is not treated the same/ no terms • Clip # 3 (Hopi and their time concept)

7. Linguistic Relativity • First proposed by European linguists in the 18th c. to analyze the connection between language & culture. • Linguistic Relativity: • Our Language influences our thought/ the structure of our language, with its predetermined categories, affects how we perceive the world./ first language. • weak version • Linguistic Determinism: • Language determines thought/ suggests we are prisoners of our own lang., i.e., we will only be able to think in the categories provided by our language. • strong version • Language Thought • E.g. ‘snow’ for English speakers vs. Eskimos • Clip # 1

8. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis • Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: • 20th c. / American linguists • They suggested that: the language of the ‘Hopi’ led them to view the world differently from those who spoke European languages. • E.g. ‘time’ to the Hopis as duration not exact numerals • Different distinction between ‘animate’ & ‘inanimate’ in their grammar/ they treat ‘clouds’ & ‘stones’ as living creatures because their lang led them to do so • Unlike English speakers, because their grammar does not mark them as ‘animates’

9. Arguments presented against the hypothesis: • French lang uses feminine grammatical structure with some ‘inanimate’ things, however they do not believe that they are ‘female’ entities just like woman ‘la femme’ • E.g. ‘la pierre/ stone’ ‘la porte/ door’ • Therefore, while the Hopi language has a particular classification for ‘stone’, it does not mean the people worry about stepping on living creatures when they step on stone.

10. It is the human who is thinking about the experience and determining what will be expressed, not the other way around (not the language) • E.g.1/ Snow • English does not lexicalize the distinction between different forms of snow unlike the Eskimos./ however, English speakers manipulate their language to refer to different kinds of snow (powdery snow, dirty snow…) • So, we cannot say that language controls thought, but, it is thought that determines language • Thought Language

11. E.g. 2/ Dates- coconut- rain- money - Our languages reflect our concern • We inherit the language we use to report knowledge, and we also inherit the ability to manipulate and be creative with that language in order to express our perceptions. • If thinking and perception were determined by language then the concept of language change would be impossible! • E.g. 3/ computers • Human manipulates the language not the other way around.

12. Cognitive Categories • We can look at language structure as a way of analyzing cognition (i.e. how people think) • The Hopi treat clouds and stones as ‘animate’ entities in their language system/ thus it can tell us sth about their culture and how they think/ as ‘having special importance in life’ and not as ‘having life’ as in English.

13. Classifiers • Classifiers: • Grammatical markers that indicate the type or ‘class’ of noun involved. • As a type of cognitive categorization. • In Swahili (prefixes are used as classifiers to distinguish between humans and non-humans) • Japanese e.g. (classifiers are associated with the shape of the objects) • English e.g. (classifiers are mostly associated with expressing quantity/ ‘unit of’) • Countable (a shirt/ an apple) • Non-countable (expressions: ‘a piece of furniture’/ ‘a bit of information’)

14. Social Categories • Social Categories: • Categories of social organization that we can use to say how we are connected or related to others. • E.g. uncle/ brother • Can be used for close friends as well as family members. • We can use these words as a means of social categorization, that is, marking individuals as members of a group defined by social connections.

15. Address Terms • Address Terms: • A word or phrase for the person being talked to or written to. • They function as social category labels. • Solidarity/ being the same in social status • ‘brother’ • Unequal relationship/ higher or lower status • ‘Sir’ • Titles (Dr. / professor) • Equal relationship/ similar status • First names / nicknames ‘jenny’ • Pronouns/ socially close vs. distant • Old English (thou/ you)

16. In English, people without special titles are addressed as: • Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms. • Only the women’s address terms include information about their social status.