BBI 3301 INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

1. BBI 3301 INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

2. Introduction to the course • The course provides an introduction to the way in which language and culture reflect each other. • It also aims to introduce arenas in which language and culture are linked. • We will examine how • language structures thought; • how people talk as a means of accomplishing their goals; and investigate connections between language and social structures.

3. Aims of the course By the end of this course, you should be able to: • Understand the fundamental concepts used in the study of language and culture. • Discuss the notions of language and cultures. • Understand how language and culture are related or interconnected to one another.

4. Synopsis • The course will examine the relationship of language and culture. It examines how meaning is related to sign and action. It investigates the spoken language and oral culture; the print language and literate culture; as well as the relationship between language and cultural identity. It will also discuss some current issues in relation to language and culture.

5. Assessment • The assessment requirements for the course include: An assignment: 30% Mid-semester test: 30% Final examination: 40%

6. Assignment • The question or topic for the assignment will be distributed during our first face-to-face. Mid-semester Test • The mid-semester test will cover units 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this module and chapters 1, 2 and 3 of your text. Final Examination • Questions for the final examination will be based on units 5, 6, 7 and 8 of this module and 4, 5, 6 and 7 of your text.

7. Text • Kramsch C. (1998). Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • The text, Language and Culture by Claire Kramsch (1998) OUP, provides a broad and readable overview of a wide range of topics. Topics in this text will be referred to throughout the guide and you are to do the required reading as stipulated at certain points in your reading of the guide. • For other recommended reading, refer to the section under references at the end of the module.

8. Learning schedule Week Topics Hours • 1 Unit 1 Introduction 5 • 2-3 Unit 2 The relationship of language and culture 7 • 4-5 Unit 3 Meaning as sign 7 • 6-7 Unit 4 Meaning as action 7 • 8-9 Unit 5 Spoken language, oral culture 7 • 10-11 Unit 6 Print language, literate culture 7 • 12-13 Unit 7 Language and culture identity 7 • 14 Unit 8 Current issues 5

9. About the instructor Prof Dr. Chan SweeHeng I can be contacted at: The Department of English Language Faculty of Modern Language and Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang Selangor DarulEhsan Telephone: 8986101 Ext. 8728 (Department Office) Or 8707 (my office) (You should try ringing my office first, failing which to reach me, then you may call the department office and leave a message) My email I.D. is shchan@fbmk.upm.edu.my You may also fax me at 03-89439951

10. Unit 1: Introduction TO Language and culture What is Language? • Knowledge of a language includes knowing ‘the sound system, words, and the sentences or non-sentences of that language’ (Fromkin and Rodman, 1998: 4). • Differentiate between the terms linguistic competence (LC) and linguistic performance (LP). LC refers to knowledge of a language. LP refers to language in use.

11. Language is a ‘communication system that has work to perform, a system that speakers exploit purposefully’ and it is ‘used to do things, not merely to report them or talk about them.’ Finnegan (1994: 14), • Core and Scribner (1974: 8), argue that ‘language is said to be at one and the same time a vital force and an individual tool of communication and thought; it is, so speak, on both sides of the culture-cognition relationship.’

12. Henslin (2006:38-40) notes that language is the primary way people communicate with one another. It’s a system of symbols which all us to communicate abstract thought (Henslin, 2004:40). • It’s a perspective which allows culture to exist.

13. What is Culture? • Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted behavior. • Culture is all the values, norms, and customs that people share with one another. • Culture includes language and beliefs. • Culture is all of the material objects such as monuments, three-piece suites, the lottery, fur coats, and fine automobiles.

14. Culture is ideas (like the belief in democracy and freedom) found within a society. • Culture is what individuals think is right and important as they interact (Schaefer, 1992:67).

15. Culture is a way of life. When people talk about "the way of life" of people with a distinctive life style, whether they live in Appalachia or Norway, they are talking about culture. • It defines what is important and unimportant. Culture refers to everything that people create. Values, norms, goals, and culture in general, develop as people interact with one another over time.

16. Other Aspects of Communication: • In addition to language, we also communicate in other ways. • These auxiliary communication techniques are known as use of paralanguage. • Various forms of paralanguage -- include kinesics, gesture, tone and character of voice, and proxemics (O’Neil, 2000).

17. A. Kinesics • Kinesics is body language, that is the language of gestures, expressions and postures. B. Gestures • Some gestures are the same throughout the world. e.g: a smile. • Some gestures may be different in different parts of the world.e.g: spitting on someone is a symbol or sign of contempt in Malaysia but it is an affectionate blessing if done in a certain way among the Masai of Kenya (O’Neil, 2000).

18. C. Tone and character of voice • The meaning of an utterance can be altered by tone and character of voice. e.g: are you okay? are you okay? D. Proxemics • Proxemics is the study of the distance between individuals or groups when engaging in conversation. e.g: establishing a comfort zone avoiding eye contact in a crowd

19. E. Use of Space • Culture tells us how to organise space in such a way as to control the nature of interaction. e.g: Japanese offices are set up with the manager’s desk at the end of a row of desks used by subordinate employees. This maximises his interaction with the workers. F. Use of Time • Culture tells us how to manipulate time in order to communicate messages. e.g: punctuality, power relationship

20. G. Communicating with Clothes • The clothes we wear have many functions. e.g: worn to provide supernatural protection, office wear, royal colour. • The appearance of a person tells us their gender, age, economic class and sometimes their intentions.

21. Overview of Language & Culture • Language is one of the main ways by which we send and receive messages. • Throughout the world there are some 5,000 different languages. • Only 20% have a written form; 80% are only spoken. • Our language is a product of our culture, and our culture is a product of our language. COM 340

22. The language we speak influences what we see and think, and what we see and think, in part, influences our culture. • Therefore, one can not become truly fluent in another language unless he also understands the cultural context in which to use that language.

23. Unit 2: The relationship of Language and Culture Functions of Language: 1. language expresses cultural reality. 2. language embodies cultural reality. 3. Language symbolises cultural reality.

24. The ways that language and culture impose on nature correspond to various forms of socialisationor acculturation • Culture brings order and predictability into our use of language. • Social conventions and norms of social appropriateness are the products of speech communities. • Culture liberates and at the same time, constrains us socially, historically and metaphorically.

25. Language and Thought Processes The Whorfian Hypothesis: • Linguistics relativity and determinism. If the environment and what it comprises are known only through the varying selective and organising mechanisms of language, what we perceive and experience would then be arbitrary.

26. The notion of linguistic relativity implies that the world is differently experienced in different language communities and more strongly, that language causes these differences. • Certain aspects of language behavior challenge Whorf’s proposal that the absence or presence of a lexical distinction can be taken as an indicator of a corresponding perceptual or conceptual distinction.

27. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis • The central idea behind their theory, is that language is not merely a tool for reporting experience, but more importantly it is a shaper of ideas. • In other words, a language does not merely record and transmit perceptions and thoughts, it actually helps to shape them. • Language controls the way we think and perceive the world. It is the guide for our mental activity. COM 340

28. S&W went into Native America and saw that people constructed their world differently, and their language reflected that. Navajo, for example, had "one, two, three, some, and many" as counting categories (where we typically have 2, singular and plural). Lakota do not categorize green separate from blue or black. Hopi divide things into categories like "breathing things" and "moving things" and "round things".

29. All of these have linguistic features. We have an "s" we add to plurals. One tree, two trees, three trees. A Navajo would have one tree, two treeX, three treeA, some treeM and many treeP (all different forms of the plural). • In English, verbs are treated the same whether it's a laptop that "runs", an person that "runs" or water that "runs". Each of those would be conjugated differently in Hopi due to the different category.

30. So, S &W see this, and wonder ”Did language cause people to see the world in these categories? Or did the way they see the world effect language?".Most linguists think they got much of it wrong, but they put the seeds down for some interesting work on how language and culture are intertwined, and how a change in the language necessitates a change in the culture and vice versa.

31. Unit 3: Meaning as sign What does it mean to mean something? • Meaning is related to social reality. • Meaning is often manifested through denotation, connotation and icon.

32. Denotation What are the conditions that are needed for the sign to take on meaning? 1. reality has to be given a name for each of the entity segmented. e.g.the dictionary entry of the thousands of words from A-Z that are used in English. 2. segments must be recognisable and have applications that are repeatable. e.g. a car is a car in any place.

33. 3. There must be room for extension in the use of the term. e.g. X is Y, X is a kind of Y and X is like Y. e.g. Chomel is a cat. Chomel could be is a special breed of cat. Chomel could be a name for other kinds of cats.

34. Language and our View of Reality • To examine how language affects the way people view the world one can look at the words used in certain languages for certain things. • Reality must be captured in memory. Only then can the linguistic in it be stored for future use. • For example, various cultures have different ways of dividing the color spectrum, thereby illustrating that they view the world differently. COM 340

35. Color Spectrum English Shona Bassa

36. Culturally Salient Words • Each culture has certain items which are very salient (important) to that culture. • Japanese: many words for fish and sea products. • Some names of a fish change as they grow. • English “seaweed” - Japanese nori, wakame, konbu, mozuku, hijiki • Different words for rice depending on if it is raw or cooked and how it is served. • Raw uncooked rice - kome • Cooked rice served in a bowl - gohan • Cooked rice served on a plate - raisu COM 340

37. Japanese Seaweed wakame nori konbu mozuku hijiki COM 340

38. Japanese Names for Rice gohan raisu kome COM 340

39. Culturally Salient Words (con’t) • English: many words for types of meat, ways to cut, and ways to cook. COM 340

40. Language-Culture Connection • Some words and phrases are so connected to the language and culture that they are used, that they are difficult to translate into another language. • English: fair play, privacy or independence • Japanese: filled with language that humbles the speaker and raises the level of the person being spoken to. • No single verb for “lock” - must say “close with a key.” (kagi de shimeru) COM 340

41. Language-Culture Connection (con’t) • Each language associates certain words with certain ideas or concepts. • Activity: Write down the first words that come to mind in the order that you think of them, for the word you will see next. COM 340

42. marriage COM 340

43. Trilingual study - “Marriage” • Americans equality sharing love togetherness • French passion sexuality • Japanese children family end-of-the-line pessimistic COM 340

44. Survey of Japanese Univ. StudentsMale Female bouquet cake child church congratulations divorce flower honeymoon June bride responsibility ring tears wedding dress Wedding reception white baby husband banzai independence bridal party life bride knife cake married life ceremony name change child partner’s parents dowry propose dress ring engagement ring shotgun wedding groom wedding dress happy wife honeymoon COM 340

45. Connotations • Connotations are derived from how people use the words and the associations. It goes beyond literal meaning. • e.g . the word theatre. In ancient times, it was associated with disease, sin and depravity – all negative in nature. Today, it connotes high culture.

46. A. Similes • As _____ as a peacock. • As_____ as a church mouse. • As_____ as a doll. B. Metaphors • She speaks in a _______voice to attract his father’s attention. (very sweetly). • He _________under her intense stare and confessed the crime. (gave up resisting). • He was raving _____to find out that his son had cheated in the examination. (very angry)

47. C. Proverbs • Too many cooks spoil the _____. • An apple a day keeps the _____. • A bird in the hand is worth two in _____.

48. Icons Words and their meaning are also often associated with sounds. • e.g: the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, the giant saying Fie, fa, fo, fum as he enters his house and smells human blood. • What kind of image does the sounds conjure?

49. OTHER INFLUENCING FACTORS IN LINKING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE 1. Encoding • Meaning is situated in experience. 2. Semantic Networks • Some semantic properties are those related to class of words, and their relationships. e.g: woman, girl, lady belong to the same word class. • Some words are synonyms while others are antonyms.

50. 3. Discourse Communities and Practices • Discourse communities are limitless. • Groupings are identified with dialects, registers, repertoires, roles and reputations. • Dialects are affiliated to language users, registers refer to varieties in the context of situational use.