The relationship between language and culture (语言与文化的关系)

The relationship between language and culture

Introduction

Language is the important means of communication, and it is the carrier of culture and a

part of culture, any language was born with formation of its culture, develops with the

development of culture, and in most cases, perishes with death of its culture.

1. Language, as a concrete system of signs, has its own significance in the

culture communication

It has long been recognized that language is an essential and important part of a given culture

and that the importance of culture upon a given language is something indispensable.

1.1 Language is a system

The important of language to the study intercultural communication is clearly captured in

the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s simple sentence “Language is the archives of

history.” His declaration takes on added significance when we realize that one of the major

characteristics identifying us as human is our ability to use language –to make sounds and marks

serve as substitutes for things and feelings.

Over millions of years, we have evolved the anatomy necessary to produce and receive

sounds have taken on meaning by representing things, feelings, and ideas. This combination of

evolution and culture has led to the development of a four-part process that enables us share our

internal states with other human beings. In short, we can receive, store, manipulate, and generate

symbols to represent our personalized realities.

1.2 The importance of language

Language is extremely important to human interaction because it is how we reach out to

make contract with our surroundings. If we were to survey a normal day, we would soon see that

we use words for a wide variety of purposes we may use language when we first awake: “Good

morning!” We use words as a way to write with the outside world. Or we may use words to share

an unpleasant experience and to get support from other: “Let me tell you about the horrible

dream I had last night.” This example also demonstrates how we employ words to relate to the

past, that is, to talk about something that has already happened.

We use words so that we can experience some control over the present: “please pass me the salt and pepper.” We each seek to affect our environment, to influence many lf the daily

situations in which we find ourselves. Words, and how we manipulate them, permit us to make

those alterations through symbolic transactions with others.

We also use words to form images of the future: “I have meet with Jane at work today, but I

dread seeing her, because I know she’s going to be upset about the changes I’m making in her

work schedule.” Our wording ability allows us to predict and describe the future .We use words

to persuade to exchange ideas, to exchange ideas, to express views, to seek information, and to

express feelings. When we study another language, we soon discover that the symbols, the

sounds for those symbols, and the rules for using those symbols and sounds are different.

2. Language, as a culture institution, is born with culture. It develops

and interacts with the culture

To preserve the language of a nation is to preserve its special culture and history. When

people can not understand the old language, they will be less tightly connected to or even

gradually lose their cultures and histories. Their enemies know much more clearly than

themselves as to this point.

We still remember that in the famous article The Last Lesson, the first thing Prussians did

when they intruded France, was to replace French with Prussian in the school education.

Japanese also took the same strategy in order to cut off the connection between people and their

histories and cultures. This evil refused to only stay in people's memory and is still threatening

certain cultures and nations. Thus both Jews and Tibetans are still fighting to preserve their

languages for the sake of their cultures and histories at the edge of being extinguished.

2.1 Explain the meaning of the culture

When delivering daily speech, the word "culture" refers to pursuits such as literature and

music. More broadly, we can define "culture" as all the modes of thought, behavior, and

production that are handed down from one generation to the next by means of communicative

interaction── speech, gesture, epic, construction, and all other communication among

humans── rather than by genetic transmission or heredity. "Culture" is an essential concept for

it is what makes humans unique in the animal kingdom. All familiar forms of social

organizations, ranging from the simplest family to the most sophisticated corporation depend