Language Culture and World View

• Language

The word “language” means the most specialized sound signaling system which seems to be genetically programmed to develop in humans

• Culture

Culture in narrow sense means “art and sciences”. In broad sense means “our ways of living, religion, laws, manners, housing, dress, etc. are called culture

• Characteristics of Culture

Culture is acquired , Culture is shared , Culture is learnt , Culture is transmitted , Culture is dynamic , Culture is adaptive , Culture is influential.

• Types of Culture

There are four types of culture

Material / Physical culture:It includes man-made objects such as tools, implements, furniture, etc. It is concerned with the external, mechanical and utilitarian objects. It includes our banks, parliaments, insurance scheme, currency systems, and etc. It is referred to as civilization.

Non-material / Cognitive Culture:It is something internal and intrinsically valuable. It reflects the inward nature of man. It consists of the words the people use or the language they speak etc. It includes our customs, tastes, attitude and outlook, in brief, our acting, feeling and thinking etc. It is mental organization in each individual’s mind.

Real culture:It is that culture which can be observed in our daily life. The culture on which we act upon in our social life is real. It is the culture people adopt in their real life. The whole of the culture can never be real because some of its part may remain unpracticed. Real culture includes the values and norms being practiced.

Ideal culture:The culture which is presented as a pattern or precedent to the people is called ideal culture. It is the goal of the society it can never be achieved fully because some part of it remains out of practice. Ideal culture encompasses the values and norms a culture demands.

• Language and Culture

Language and culture both are determined by each other. It is generally agreed that language and culture are closely related. Language can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. It is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Language provides us with many of the categories we use for expression of our thoughts, so it is therefore natural to assume that our thinking is influenced by the language which we use. The values and customs in the country we grow up in shape the way in which we think to a certain extent.

Culture and Language

What We Say Influences WhatWe Think, What We Feel and

What We Believe

Unique human ability· Ability to create and use language is the most distinctive feature of humans· Humans learn their culture through language· Culture is transmitted through language

The nature of language· Considerable variation in the number of languages in the world· 95% of the world’s people speak fewer that 100 of the approximate 6,000 different languages· Linguists concerned about the last 5% of the world’s languages which are in danger of disappearing

Language and Culture· Anthropologist learn to communicate in another language in order to do field work· Language reflects a Way of Thinking· Close relationship between language and culture. Culture is transmitted by language· Clear that the terminology used by a culture primarily reflects that culture’s interest and

concerns

How Culture Influences Culture?· Cultural emphasis—the vocabulary found in any language tends to emphasize the words that are

considered to be adaptively important in that culture· Military metaphor in medicine· Technology also affects language

Acquiring language· Linguistic symbols are all arbitrary—that is they are conventions by which certain sounds are attached to

certain objects and events· C/A/R=car· Humans’ normal physical and mental apparatus allows them to learn any language with equal ease· Human Being would speak no language if he or she were taught none

· Critical period of language development for humans before the age of six— thereafter learning language skills become increasingly difficult

• Language is determined by Culture Language and its structure are dependent on the cultural context in which they existed. There are ways in which culture really varies and determines language.

Language as a part of Culture Language is not just the medium of culture but is also a part of culture. Linguistic differences are often seen as the mark of another culture, and they create divisiveness among neighbouring people or even among different groups of the same nation

• World View

It is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirely of individual’s or society’s knowledge and point of view including ethics, values etc

• Linguistic Determinism It states that the structure of language determines our thought patterns

• Linguistic Relativity “It means that users of different grammars are pointed by their grammar towards different type of observations and different evaluations of externally similar acts of observation and hence are not equivalent as observers but must arrive at somewhat different view of the world”

The linguist Sapir and Whorf maintained that

“The language spoken by a society influences the way in which that society thinks about the world”

Certain System of Classification in Language and Society There are three systems of classification which are as follows

• Kinship System Kinship systems are the universals features of language because kinship is so important in social organization that people use language to describe a particular kin relationship.

• Colour Terminology It is also used to explore the relationship between languages and cultures. The colour spectrum is a physical continuum showing no breaks at all. The interesting issue is how colours are referred to in different languages? All languages make use of basic terms.

• Taboo & Euphemism To express cultural meanings in language, there are certain basic limitations. Taboo is the prohibition or avoidance in any society of behaviour believed to be harmful to its members in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment or shame.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis This hypothesis states that

“Semantic structure of language shapes or limits the ways in which speakers form the conception of the world”

According to this hypothesis “our thinking is according to our structure of language”

1 st Claim The structure of language determines the way in which speakers of that language view the world.

Weaker claimIt is that the structure does not determine the world-view but is still influential in predisposing speakers of a language towards adopting a particular world-view

Opposite ClaimIt is that the culture of people finds reflection in the language they employ. In this view, cultural values do not determine the structure of the language.

Neutral claimIt is that there is little or no relationship between language and culture

Most accepted ClaimIt is that the structure of language influences how its speakers view the world.

The linguistic relativity principle, or the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, is the idea that differences in the way languages encode cultural and cognitive categories affect the way people think, so that speakers of different languages will tend to think and behave differently depending on the language they use.

The hypothesis is generally understood as having two different versions:

(i) the strong version that language determines thought and that linguistic categories limit and determines cognitive categories and

(ii) the weak version that linguistic categories and usage influence thought and certain kinds of non-linguistic behavior.

Conclusion

Language = knowledge

Knowledge = culture

So,

Language = culture

Both are the means of identity. Both denotes life style and both are dynamic

Language is the keystone to the culture. Language is the carrier and container of cultural information. Language expresses and symbolizes cultural reality. Language is the primary means to the cultural transmission.