英语课件Chapter7 Lg,Culture and Society.pptVIP

Chapter 7 Language, Culture and Society What is culture? Broadly speaking, it means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language. In a narrow sense, it refers to local or specific practice, beliefs or customs. L-C: L is a part of C; C is transmitted or realized in L. 7.1 Language and Culture 1. L-C: L is the carrier of C; C is represented though L use. 2. 20th century: an anthropological orientation—lg in a sociocultural context in England (Bronislaw Malinowski John P.Firth) and North A.(Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf) 3. 1920s, Anthropological study of Ls in England, Malinoski (1884-1942) did field work in Trobriand Islands about the primitive culture the meaning of a word greatly depended on its occurrence in a given context, or on a real lg situation in life. (“wood”:-tree, transportation) in that speech community. He claimed that “lg function as a link in concreted human activity…It’s a mode of action and not an instrument of reflection” (1923:312)a cultural, contextual study of lg 4. Firth (1890-1960)(London School): L use—its co-occurrent factors, context of situation: A. The relevant features of the participants, persons, personalities. ((non)verbal action) B. The relevant objects. C. The effects of the verbal action. “who speaks (or writes) what lg (or what lg variety) to whom and when and to what end” (Fishman, 1972:46) Firthian tradition is the founder of SFL, M.A.K. Halliday study L from socially semiotic or interactional perspective; grammar-source of meaning potential, lc model-study of literature 5. 1920s, a cultural study of lg in A. Dell Hymes (1927-) ethnography of communication: a lc study of social and cultural factors, elements of this framework: (1) speech community (2) situation, event, and act (3) SPEAKING components --speech community: a group of people who “share not only the same rules of speaking, but at least one lc variety as well”.