5.2 Language and Culture-1数字时代的商务英语写作.pdf

Verbal Communication 5.2LanguageandCulture-1 Hi, everyone.Welcomeback.In this section,we’ll talk about therelationship between language,thought and culture.It iswell captured in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which was developed by theAmerican linguist and anthropologist Benjamin L.Whorf and Edward Sapir. The hypothesis holds that a culture is embodied in thelanguage ofthepeoplewho speak thelanguage. This cultural framework shapes the thoughts of the language’s speakers. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has two versions: strong and weak or the linguistic determinist interpretation and the linguisticrelativity interpretation. Linguistic determinism believes that language structure controls thoughts and cultural norms. Therefore, the world is largely predetermined by language. The differences between languages reflect the basic differences between diverse cultural worldviews. Linguisticrelativity believesthat culture is controlled by and controlslanguage.Languageprovidesaconceptual category that affectshowthe speakersperception isencodedand stored. Consider some examples of how language categorizes our world. In Chinese language, there are no single words equivalent to the English word ‘cousin’. Instead, Chinese has different words for one’s elder or younger brother or sister-in-law. Chinese even has different words for mother’s elder brother and younger brother, father’s elder brother and younger brother and so forth. This diversity of vocabulary may indicate that in China the interpersonal relationship between an individual and his or her extended family is more complex and perhaps more important than that of an English-speaking country. We create meaning for our world by highlighting certain qualities, characteristics, and organizing seemingly random events into meaningful categories. For example, we divide different modes oftravel into the fastest （plane）, faster(train), slower(car/bus), or most