Chapter 9 - Language and Culture Flashcards
Define Culture
- Whatever knowledge a person must have to function in a particular society
- “making sense of the world”
What is high culture?
appreciation of music, art theatre
What is cultural knowledge
- Socially acquired
- Not hereditary
- Required for daily living
People belonging to the same culture will…?
- Interpret the world in the same ways
- Express themselves in ways understood and accepted by each other
What are the 4 possible types of relationships?
- L causes worldview
- Language may predispose toward a particular worldview - Worldview is reflected in the Language
- Culture does not determine the structure of the language it simply reflects it - No relationship (definitely not right)
- Both affect each other
What did Sapir and Whorf both advocate
That the Structure of a L determines the worldview
What was whorf’s example of how L determines worldview?
- People continued to smoke around gas barrels that were “empty”
• Because “empty” is interpreted this as no content, but there was still explosive vapor
What does Sapir claim
- Language and culture are Inextricably related and one can’t be understood without the other
- WE are at the mercy of our L
- The real world is unconsciously built up on our language
- L predisposes worldview
How did Whorf build on Sapir’s view? What were his claims?
• Deterministic relationship between Language and Culture
- L shapes ideas and guides mental activity and impressions
- everything we experience is filtered through our L
- organize impressions through our mental linguistic system
- Structure determines speakers worldview
- we are constrained by our L
What is Whorf’s New principle of reality
All observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe
What did fishmen observe?
- it is easier to talk about things in languages that have vocabulary on the topic
If a canadian child and an Inuit child see snow do they perceive it differently?
Yes according to Sapir Whorf because the inuit child will have to look for different characteristics of it.
why do children in asian countries do better in math
their counting system is easier to understand
What is the strongest version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
- grammatical categories not only help the users to perceive the world but also limit such perception
- You perceive what your language allows you to perceive
- Your language controls your worldview
- we have to make certain observations according to our L
The language affects a person’s relationship to the universe in several ways:
-Vocab:
if you have words to describe something you will perceive it different than a language that doesn’t have that description
Grammar: Distinctions in gender, time, number and Animacy
Who were the Hopi?
- Concept of time is fundamentally different from that of western cultures
- analysis of events in terms of dynamic motion
- They could not understand bus schedules
what did whorf conclude about the Hopi
- Think in terms of cycles of events & sets of processes
- NOT in units of time
- objects/events are not countable
- validity is important - how the speaker came to know this information
Who were the Matses
- live in South america (cat people)
- most secluded culture (1st contact with western society in 1960)
- Their L requires them to specify exactly how they came to know about the info they speak about
- Incorrect evidentiality” = a lie
• E.g. “how many wives do you have” (can’t say he has 2 unless he can see them)– “there were two last time I checked”
How can L. structure affect our observation
- Gender in European Ls (neighbour)
- English you have to specify the tense more specifically
What are the 2 forms of the Sapir Whorf hypothesis
1) Linguistic determinism (the strong form) -people think differnt b/c of L
2) Linguistic relativity (the weaker claim) - L influences perception
What was the study cunducted by Lucy to test the sapir Whorf hypothesis?
- studied Grammatical number in English and in Yucatec Maya
- English: count and mass nouns
- Yucatec: plural for animate nouns - optional
What has the hypothesis of Lucy’s study?
Hypothesis
1) E.speaker – more conscious of the numbers of objects they see
2) E. speakers should perceive more objects as countable
What was the layout of Lucy’s experiment
- speaker sof two Ls shown a scene from normal village life
Results
- Similar responses for words that overlapped in both Ls
- differences where grammars were maximally different
- Yacatec were more consistent with animate counting
Was Lucy’s experiment in favour or against sapir whorf hypothesis?
evidence for the hypothesis
What happened in the experiment about gender in european Ls
o Bridges, clocks and violins:
- More manly properties by Spanish speakers
- Thought to be more ‘slender’ or ‘elegant’ by German speakers
Who was the must vicious critic of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Steven PInker
- says the argument is circular : there are different languages > people who speak them have differnt thoughts > there are differnt Ls
Why do people still teach children languages they will never use
- Because we believe it will open our worlview
What is the argument against the hypothesis
o If language totally determines thought, there can be no thought without language (deaf, mute and young children
o Communications between speakers of different languages should not be possible?
o Expressing same idea in Language without the word (snow)
o If it’s true we would be trapped in the prison of our Language
3 major factors in english kin system
1) Gender
2) Generation
3) Blood/ marriage
What is the first approach to kinship.
relating kinship terms to specific words
What are the problems with approach 1
1) Semantic composition (e.g. grand-father): we are re-using the same words for different relations
2) Circumlocutions - long descriptive phrases (the longer the phrase the less importance)
3) We use kin terms for people we are not related to (parent’s best friends are called aunts/uncles)
What is approach 2
why do different relationships have the same term? Why do similar relationships have different terms?
e.g. hudson’s study on the multiple kinship terms
• kinship terms in use are collected
• Breakdown into The basic components of each term
kinship terms determine what?
norms of behaviour
- if you call someone a brother they have an obligation to act as a brother
Why is our kinship system failing
It is not adapting to social change in family structure
What is Taxonomy
- mental cateogries we use to organize what we observe in the world
- Splitting the world into concets & arranging them into a classification
- involve flora & fauna
Wardhaugh’s example of taxonomy?
o Taxonomy of disease vocabulary among Subanun in Philippines
o The pronoun system of Palaung
IN BOOK
why study taxonomies?
- They indicate how speakers use their Ls to organize the world around them.
- Systematic behaviour
- cultural basis
What is Dyirbal
-tribe in australia,
•All objects are classified in 4 classes: Bayi, Balan, Balam, Bala
What effects classification in Dyirbal
o Similarity
o Associations (fishing associated with men)
o Cultural Beliefs: (dangerous things go with women)
Why are color terms arbitrary?
• The color spectrum is a physical continuum and yet We parcel it out and assign names
do all languages have color terms?
Yes
What criteria does a color term have
o Single word
- Not obvious sub-division of a higher-order term (e.g. crimson & scarlet to red)
o General use (not just for hair)
o Not highly restricted
What pattern was revealed by *Berlin and Kay (1969)? (know first several steps)
o If only 2 terms in a L → Black and white
o If a 3rd color = red
o 4th and 5th = yellow and green
o 6th and 7th = blue & brown
o In no order = grey, pink, orange, purple
exception: russian determines blue and light blue as seperate
how is colour terminology related to technological development?
Little technological development = the fewest colour terms
o e.g., the Jalé of New Guinea = dark and light
what is the gender difference in colour awareness?
- Women distinguish more colours than men
criticism: can’t really label colours b/c each person has a different interpretation of color
is there agreement on labelling colours?
- little agreement on colour boarders
- more agreement on typical color
What is rosh’s prototype theory
- we view objects as prototypes - a bird is not a set of features, it is a reference to a typical instance
- varies with out culture/language
- there is fuzziness that allows creativity
- explains why we can identify typical colours
What else can the concept of prototypes be applied to
Social situations
i.e. a ‘typical’ teenager’ or a ‘typical party’
What is “taboo”?
prohibition or avoidance in any society of behaviour
- politness constraint
- believes to be harmful
Why might taboos be broken?
o To show freedom from social constraints
o To expose taboos as irrational & unjustified
example of a taboo word
bloody in England, caused shock when used in a film
example of taboo in bilingual situation
o Name change in Russian Mennonites in Canada
- Last name ‘dick’ → ‘dyck’
What do euphemisms allow us to do?
o To talk about unpleasant/taboo things
o To make the L more presentable, polite
o T ‘Dress up’ in the L
example of a euphemism
- vintage instead of used
