Intercultural Communication.9.pptVIP

Intercultural Communication Lecture 9 Reading II Language, Thought and Culture Language affects thought Weasel words glorify ordinary products. ‘sparkling’, ‘refreshing’ drinks; ’enriched’, ‘fortified’ nutrients; ‘jumbo’ eggs etc Euphemisms connote things that are not desirable. Taboos; ‘receiving waters’ (lakes rivers : industrial wastes) ‘assimilative capacity’ (maximum amount of waste); ‘sanitary engineers’ (garbage men); ‘rest room’ (toilets); ‘substandard dwellings’ (slums); ‘family’ (a micro cluster of structured role expectations) Words shape the way in storing events in memory The experiments: ‘eyeglasses’ vs ‘dumbbells ‘ship’s wheel’ vs ‘sun’ ‘gun’ vs ‘broom’ ‘crescent moon’ vs ‘letter “C”’ Sentence structure affects meaning “Did you see the broken light?” “Did you see a broken light?” the definite article: there was a broken headlight “Did you see some people watching the accident?” “Did you see any people watching the accident?” Similar results as above “How fast was the car going when it hit the stop sign?” Containing a presupposition: the existence of a stop sign and the car hit the stop sign Culture as an integral part of the interaction between language and thought Cultural patterns, customs and ways of life are expressed in language. Culture-specific world views are reflected in language. Cultures are different in dividing the color spectrum Chinese Purple, blue, black, green, yellow, orange, red English Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red Shona Cipsuka, citema, cicena, cipsuka Bassa Hui, ziza The use of verbs English: “He is running.” Hopi: “I know that he is running at this moment”; “I remember that I saw him running and I presume he is still running”, “I am told that he is running” In Hopi, ‘Time’ is expressed in terms of events, sequences and development. The development of events is important. Does language reflect or shape the world view? Wilhelm von Humboldt Language shapes a person’s world view. Sapir Whorf Linguistic