2the_relationship_between_language_and_culture

2the_relationship_between_language_and_culture

The relationship between language and culture What is the relationship between language and culture? Before that, we

should first know what language is and what culture http://www.doczj.com/doc/d87e2383e53a580216fcfe63.html nguage is a

term most commonly used to refer to so called "natural languages" —the forms of communication considered peculiar to

humankind. By extension the term also refers to the type of human thought process which creates and uses language.

Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation, maintenance and use of systems of symbols, each referring to

concepts different from themselves. A ccording to Goodenough’s (1957:167) well-known definition, “a society’s culture consi

sts of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members and to do so in any

role that they accept for any one of themselves”. Specifically speaking, this definition implies that culture refers to the patterns

of customs, traditions, social habits, values, beliefs and language of a society. However, the word "culture" is most commonly

used in three basic senses: excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities; an integrated pattern of human knowledge,

belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning; the set of shared attitudes,

values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

Recent research revealed that language is closely related to cognition and the cultural settings. Every society has its own

culture, which is recorded, reflected and symbolized by its language. Language and culture evolved and developed together,

and therefore have been interwoven and mutually dependent throughout their history. Neither of them can exist or develop

without the other. Culture consists of the products or civilizations of human society, including language, which is deeply

embedded in culture. Culture, to a great extent, manifests itself in patterns of language. Language, as part of culture, probably

the most important and essential aspect of culture, plays a very important role in it. Language reflects or mirrors almost all the

contents of culture, and hence in a broad sense serves culture as the symbolic representation, for all the knowledge and

beliefs that constitute a people's culture are habitually encoded and transmitted in the language of the people. So without

language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and even shaped by culture. It is well

recognized that language is not only a scientific system of linguistic symbols, but also a sociocultural activity. This view can

account for the statement that language is culturally transmitted. Cultural transmission is one of the important characteristics

of human language.

Since the knowledge and beliefs that constitute a people’s culture are habitually encoded and transmitted in the language of

people, it is extremely difficult to separate the two. On the one hand, language as an integral part of human being, permeates

his thinking and way of viewing the world, language both expresses and embodies cultural reality. On the other hand,

language, as a product of culture, helps perpetuate the culture, and the changes in language uses reflect the cultural in

return.

For many people, language is not just the medium of culture but also is a part of culture. It is quite common for immigrants to

a new country to retain their old

customs and to speak their first language amid fellow immigrants, even if all present are comfortable in their new language.

This occurs because the immigrants are eager to preserve their own heritage, which includes not only customs and traditions

but also language. This is also seen in many Jewish communities, especially in older members: Yiddish is commonly

spoken because it is seen as a part of Jewish culture.

Language is the principal means whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is used in contexts of communication, it is

bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways. (Claire, 1998: 3)

To begin with, words people utter refer to common experience. They express facts, ideas or events that are communicable

because they refer to a stock of knowledge about the world that other people share. Words also reflect their author's attitudes

and beliefs, their point of view, which are also those of others. In both cases, language expresses cultural reality.

But members of a community or a social group do not only express experiences; they also create experience through

language. They give meaning to it through the medium they choose to communicate with one another, for example, speaking