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Language and culture from a psychological perspective

Language and culture from a psychological perspective. What is blue. English speakers: sky, blueberries, South Pacific Ocean Japanese speakers: sky, blueberries, South Pacific Ocean, lawn, freshly shaven scalp, green traffic light.

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Language and culture from a psychological perspective

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  1. Language and culture from a psychological perspective

  2. What is blue • English speakers: sky, blueberries, South Pacific Ocean • Japanese speakers: sky, blueberries, South Pacific Ocean, lawn, freshly shaven scalp, green traffic light.

  3. Do people who speak different languages think about and experience the world differently? • What do you think?

  4. The horse and I were riding about • Joint endeavor without expressed subject/object relationship • I was riding a horse • Active subject, passive object

  5. Does this small bit of information provide a window into the psychological world of English speakers vs. Navajo • Relationship with nature • Active vs. passive rel. with environment

  6. Owambo greeting • English • Good morning, how are you? • Fine • Owambo • Walelepo • Eh • Onawa? • Eh. • Oshili Nawa? • Eh/ ahawe…..blah, blah, blah

  7. Respect for elders • Mistrust/lying

  8. 6912 living language in the world • Ethnologue • http://www.ethnologue.com/

  9. Linguistic relativity hypothesis • Whorf & Sapir • Linguistic relativity hypothesis • Strongest version states that we can’t do much thinking without the relevant words available • Researchers now believe that thinking is not entirely determined by the language we speak but rather HOW we talk about people, objects and event • Different languages provide different ease at which to talk about these issues.

  10. Snowflake • qanuk 'snowflake' • qanir- 'to snow' • qanunge- 'to snow' [NUN] • qanugglir- 'to snow' [NUN]

  11. Frost, drifting snow, clinging particles kaneq 'frost' • kaner- 'be frosty/frost sth.‘ • kanevvluk 'fine snow/rain particles • kanevcir- to get fine snow/rain particles • natquik 'drifting snow/etc' • natqu(v)igte- 'for snow/etc. to drift along ground'nevluk 'clinging debris/ • nevlugte- 'have clinging debris/...'lint/snow/dirt...'

  12. Fallen snow • (6) Fallen snow on the groundaniu [NS] 'snow on ground' • aniu- [NS] 'get snow on ground' • apun [NS] 'snow on ground' • qanikcaq 'snow on ground' • qanikcir- 'get snow on ground' • (7) Soft, deep fallen snow on the groundmuruaneq 'soft deep snow' • (8) Crust on fallen snowqetrar- [NSU] 'for snow to crust' • qerretrar- [NSU] 'for snow to crust' • (9) Fresh fallen snow on the groundnutaryuk 'fresh snow' [HBC] • (10) Fallen snow floating on waterqanisqineq 'snow floating on water'

  13. Snow formations • (11) Snow bankqengaruk 'snow bank' [Y, HBC] • (12) Snow blockutvak 'snow carved in block' • (13) Snow cornicenavcaq [NSU] 'snow cornice, snow (formation) about to collapse' • navcite- 'get caught in an avalanche'

  14. Blizzard • (14) Blizzard, snowstormpirta 'blizzard, snowstorm' • pircir- 'to blizzard' • pirtuk 'blizzard, snowstorm' • (15) Severe blizzardcellallir-, cellarrlir- 'to snow heavily' • pir(e)t(e)pag- 'to blizzard severely' • pirrelvag- 'to blizzard severely'

  15. Kinship • In many African languages, there is no word for aunt, uncle, cousin. • Only brother, sister • Common question after someone says, “this is my brother” is “Same mother same father?”

  16. What does Vygotsky think? Cultural influence, mental processes, and language are dynamic processes that occur simultaneously ‘talking to learn’ As children verbally interact, then internalize language and then use it to organize thought

  17. Noam Chomsky • Language is hard wired. Grammer/lingistic structure, etc. • At birth infants have the entire range of human language possibilities. • Babbling across cultures shows remarkable similarity • What happens then that matters

  18. What would you do • Nga nga… • Tatetate • Dadadad • Mememem • MAMAMAM • Ieo ieo ieo • Critical period for some phonemes is 10 months

  19. Acknowledge and celebrate sounds in own language • Sounds not in native language are dismissed as babbling and not enforced • Infants and toddlers quickly learn a language

  20. Bilingualism • Use to think these children were slow • What is happening is they have more rewards to sift through when constructing language.

  21. Cross culturally • Overall bias in infancy to use nouns • No difference in the time they use nouns • Use of verbs varies across cultures • Year one in US • Year 3 in Gusii

  22. Large differences in creativity: need to look at definition • 1. novel 2. useful and appropriate • Large differences in self expression • High context cultures, low context • Pen experiment

  23. Fig. 9.8

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