语言学导论第九章.pptVIP

Chapter 9 Language and Culture Preliminaries Illustrate with examples the differences in the responses to the word dog between Chinese and Americans. Explain how the color terms mean differently to Chinese and westerners. What is culture? (in a broad sense) it means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community. (in a narrow sense) it may refer to local or specific practice, beliefs or customs, which can be mostly found in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture etc. two types of culture material culture is concrete, substantial and observable (e.g. food culture); spiritual culture is abstract, ambiguous, and hidden (e.g. ideologies; beliefs; values) the relationship between language and culture Language is a part of culture. Language is the primary means for cultural transmission. Some linguistic differences are due to cultural differences. Various cultures will have different responses to the same word. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Our language helps mould our way of thinking and , consequently, different languages may probably express our unique ways of understanding the world. linguistic determinism/relativity Language may determine our thinking patterns. (linguistic determinism) Similarity between languages is relative, the greater their structural differentiation is , the more diverse their conceptualization of the world will be. (linguistic relativity) two versions of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis the strong version: The language patterns determine people’s thinking and behavior. the weak version: The language patterns influence people’s thinking and behavior. linguistic evidence of cultural differences 1. greetings and terms of address 2. gratitude and compliments linguistic evidence of cultural differences 3. color words: white red green blue brown purple black yellow pink orange gr