Chapter Seven Language, Culture, and Society

Teaching aims: to study the relation between culture, society and language Teaching focuses: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, Language Variation Teaching procedures: 1. Language and culture 2. Language and society

1. Language and Culture

What is culture? In a broad sense, culture means the total way of life of a people, including how to speak, how to act, how to think, how to feel, etc. In a narrow sense, culture may refer to local or specific practice, beliefs or customs, which can be mostly found in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture, etc. There are generally two types of culture: material and spiritual.

1.1 The relationship between L & C Generally, the relation of L to C is that of part to whole, for L is part of C. The knowledge and beliefs that constitute a people’s culture are habitually encoded and transmitted in L.

Anthropological study of linguistics: study of language in a sociocultural context. London School: B. Malinowski & J. Firth North American School: F. Boas, E. Sapir & B.L. Whorf

London School: Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942): The meaning of a word greatly depends upon its occurrence in a given context. Language functions as a link in human activity, a mode of action. The word wood on the Trobriand Islands off eastern New Guinea Speech community 言语社区

London School: J. R. Firth (1890-1960): theory of the context of situation(情景语境理论) The relevant features of the participants, persons, personalities. The verbal action of the participants The non-verbal action of the participants The relevant objects. The effects of the verbal action. “who speaks what to whom and when and to what end”

London School: Halliday(1925- ) Study language from a social semiotic or interactional perspective Functional interpretation of grammar as a resource for meaning potential Linguistic model in the study of literature

North American School: Historical Background---disappearance of Native Indian’s tribes and cultures Anthropologist tried to reconstruct the American Native languages. Such as F. Boas, E. Sapir & B.L. Whorf, and D. Hymes field work, first-hand evidence

Dell Hymes (1927- ): Ethnography of communication(交际民俗学) Speech community. Situation, event, and act. SPEAKING: situation, participants, ends, act sequence, key, instrumentalities, norms, and genres

1.2 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Edward Sapir (1884 - 1939) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941) Our language helps mould our way of thinking and, consequently, different languages may probably express speakers’ unique ways of understanding the world. Two points in his theory: Language determines our thinking patterns Similarity between languages is relative. The greater their structural differentiations, the more diverse their conceptualization of the world will be.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Linguistic determinism(语言决定论):语言决定思维 Linguistic relativity (语言相对论)：思维相对于语言，思维模式随着语言的不同而不同。--- expounded by Wilhelm von Humboldt, a German ethnologist Eugene Nida: a linguist and translation theorist As translators, if we want to do a good job in CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION, we should always be aware of some types of sub-culture.

More about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: The strong version(强式说): Emphasizes the decisive role of language as the shaper of our thinking patterns The weak version (弱式说): Suggest that there is a correlation between language, culture, and thought, the cross-cultural differences produced in our ways of thinking are relative, rather than categorical.

The Eskimos have countless words for snow. The Arabs, for camels. English: horseshoe French: fer a cheval —— iron for horse German: hufeisen —— hoof iron The Eskimos have countless words for snow. The Arabs, for camels.

Other Linguistic evidences of cultural differences Terms of address Greetings Thanks and compliments Privacy and taboos Color words

印欧语言：严式语言----→严式思维轨迹----→构造分析----→逻辑演绎----→智性精神 汉语：宽式语言----→宽式思维轨迹----→整体领悟----→类比联想----→悟性精神

A lively controversy about the hypothesis: Two examples to show the complexity and controversy of the theory: One is quoted from Hopi, an American native language spoken in Arizona; the other is taken from a language spoken in the central highlands of Irian Jaya (伊里安岛，太平洋). The first example serves to show how languages may differ from each other. The second example serves to challenge the hypothesis.

In Hopi, there is something very special about its grammar. One of the features that separate it from other languages is that it does not use the same means to express time, and hence is called as a “timeless language”(没有时间的语言). Do not recognize time as a linear dimension. Hopi verbs do not have tenses of time and no concept of speed.

Two American scholars conducted a large cross-linguistic investigation of basic color vocabulary. The finding is that color word systems in different languages are not like what has been assumed by the Sapir and Whorf hypothesis, being culturally determined and hence absolutely different from one another.

Different languages might well undergo a universal evolutionary process of development which made the basic color system in one language different from that in another only in terms of the stages of their evolution. See the basic evolutionary stages of basic color words on Page 165. According to this evolutionary theory, English has all the eleven basic color words so it reaches the last stage of evolution. This theory correctly captures a kind of generalization in color words cross-culturally.

This evolutionary theory finds a good example in the second example of the Irian language, a language which has become well known for its very restricted system of basic color words. There are only two basic color words in this language: modla for light, bright, hence, white, and mili for dark, dull, hence, black. What will native Irian language speaker do if he/she wants to designate colors other than black and white? Or do white and black always mean white and black cross-linguistically?

The investigation revealed that native speakers of this culture use this White versus Black contrast to convey more messages about their color perception. They use modla as a general color term to include all warm colors such as red and yellow and use mili as another umbrella color word to cover all the cold colors. Therefore, the contrast between modla and mili in fact is a contrast between “whitewarmness” versus “blackcoldness”.

The color word system in the Irian language is still in its first stage of evolution and by means of using this whitewarmness and blackcoldness contrast and other types of color words derived from object names, animals, plants and so on, the speakers from this culture can successfully express any colors labelled by distinct color words in another culture.

语言具有普遍性的理论。认知科学强调人类认知的共性，这跟语言相对论恰好针锋相对。强调人类认知的基础是人的遗传天赋。常举的一个例子是颜色词的研究。从表面上看各种语言的颜色词各不相同，但Berlin和Kay的研究（1969）发现它们有共性。任何语言至少都有两个颜色词（白和黑），新几内亚高地语只有“白”和“黑”两个颜色词。英语有11个颜色词。有右边的颜色词，就必有其左边的颜色词。这就是语言的共性，并且认知语言学家认为这种共性是有生理基础的，那就是白色跟黑色具有最强的聚焦性，因为眼睛对这两种光频最敏感。 杨永林，色彩语码研究-----进化论与相对论之争，《外语教学与研究》2000年第3期，第190-195页。

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis We must be careful and do not rush to ay hasty conclusion before we really obtain some reliable evidence to support or reject the hypothesis. Do not always evaluate a language system against the criteria in our mother tongue. The strong version has very few adherents today.

Culture-loaded words 烫手的山芋 vs. hot potato 雨后春笋 vs. spring like mushroom 大鱼大肉 vs. meat and potatoes 酒肉朋友 vs. fair-weather friend kill the goose that lays the golden eggs vs. 杀鸡取卵

Cultural overlap and diffusion Through communication, some elements of culture A enter culture B and becomes part of culture B. Loan words in Chinese and English. 肥皂剧、卡通、布丁、苹果派、雀巢、巴士、耐克、因特网、KTV、EMAIL Typhoon, kongfu, tofu, tea, etc.

Netspeak 网络语言 顶(支持) 555(呜呜呜) 粉丝(fans) mm/MM(妹妹) LZ(楼主) DD/dd(弟弟) 88(拜拜) 偶(我) 马甲(ID) 沙发　　 斑竹(版主) 稀饭(喜欢) 汗或寒(敬畏) 晕(非常惊异) ps/PS(photoshop的简称) 灌水(发帖子) ddd(顶顶顶) bs/BS(鄙视) ms(貌似) 滴(的、地)

1.3 Case studies The interplay of language and culture may range from textual structure to phonological variation. Kaplan(1966): The structural organization of a text tends to be culturally specific. Nida(1998): Words are sometimes “idiomatically-governed” and “culturally-specific”.

杨永林(1993) made several case studies through his personal exposure to the American culture. 1) When you get your hands dirty, it does not necessarily mean in the American culture that you’ve done some manual work and need to wash your hand. (practice something, be engaged in doing something) 2) When you have enough dumbbells(哑铃), it does not necessarily mean that you keep pairs of this instrument for regular physical practices. (have lots of stupid guys)

1.4 Do we need culture in our linguistic study? Yes. A study of linguistic issues in a cultural setting can greatly promote our understanding of MOTIVATION and DIRECTIONALITY in language change. 有助于对语言变化的动因和方向性进行理解。

The Watergate example: This suffix enjoys a rich productivity in American English. Words derived from this source inevitably take on a culturally pejorative implication to refer to “the disclosures of misconduct in highplaces”(被揭发出来的高层丑闻).

Tentative conclusions based on the findings 1) “Watergate”, as a word taking on a pejorative implicature to refer to any political scandal at the high rank, will stay in English for quite a long time; 2) Its structural status in the language becomes rather stable through the rich derivational processes it has undergone in word-formation; 3) The semantic implicature it has will stay with the word for quite a long time.

1.5 Culture in language teaching classroom The relationship between culture and language teaching Three objectives for us to teach culture in our language class: 1) To get students familiar with cultural differences; 2) To help students transcend their own culture and see things as the members of the target culture will; 3) To emphasize the inseparability of understanding language and understanding culture through various classroom practices.

Questions to ponder 1. What is the main idea of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis? What is your comment? 2. Make an analysis on the interplay between Language and culture.

2. Language and Society Language is not always used to exchange information as is generally assumed, but rather it is sometimes used to fulfill an important social function – to maintain social relationship between people.

How does language relate to society? Linguistics as a MONISTIC or AUTONOMOUS PURSUIT of an independent science 一元性或自治性 Linguistics as a DUALISTIC inquiry 二元性 E.g 你——您 tu ——vous

Users of the same language in a sense all speak differently Users of the same language in a sense all speak differently. What each of them chooses to use is in part determined by one’s social background. When we speak we cannot avoid giving our listeners clues about our origin and our background. The social environment can also be reflected in language, and can often have an effect on the structure and the vocabulary. For example, a society's kinship system is generally reflected in its kinship vocabulary.

A situationally and socially variationist perspective An appropriate language use in any social interaction not only has something to do with structural rules, but also involves some socially institutionalized norms in usage. The choice of one form over another is both stylistically and socially governed.

A maxim in sociolinguistics: “You are what you say.” (尔即尔所言) Some social factors that influence our language behaviour in a social context: 1) class; 2) gender; 3) age; 4) ethnic identity; 5) education background; 6) occupation; 7) religious belief William Labov (拉波夫): a famous sociolinguist He conducted a survey at several departments in the City of New York in the middle of 1960s.

The objective of his survey was to examine the relationship between speakers’ social status and their phonological VARIATIONS. The Social Stratification of English in New York City (1966) 《纽约英语的社会阶层性》 Labov explicitly delineated the patterns of stratification by class and style and successfully introduced class as an indispensable sociolinguistic variable. 调查纽约市内不同阶层的人说英语时使用元音后的[r]音的情况（保留还是脱落）。元音后[r]音的保留被认为是社会中上层人士说话的标志。

Social-class dialect, or sociolect, refers to the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class. Social dialect has to do with separation brought about by different social conditions.

Upper class: America, cake, helping, ice, lavatory, looking glass, pudding, relatives, rich, Royalties, scent, scurf, sick, sofa, spectacles, writing paper Lower class: the States, pastry, portion, ice-cream, toilet, mirror, dessert, relations, wealthy, Royals, perfume, dandruff, ill, settee, glasses, notepaper

Speaker A Speaker B I did it yesterday. I done it yesterday. He hasn’t got it. He ain’t got it. It was she that said it. It was her what said it. When we look at the language used by two speakers A and B, we can estimate roughly their relative social status.

In Britain, accent = marker of status RP: a non-localized form of pronunciation, refers to the particular way of pronouncing standard English, an indicator of a public school education and thus a high social status on the part of the speaker. EE: Estuary English, commonly used by educated people in the region around London. Less rigid than RP but more standard than Cockney. Cockney: lower class dialect of East London, considered non-standard by educated people.

Varieties related to the user are normally known as dialects and varieties related to use as registers.

It needs washed It needs washing Regional dialects are linguistic varieties used by people living in different regions. Regional dialect boundaries often coincide with geographical barriers such as mountains, rivers, or swamps. English Scottish It needs washed It needs washing

Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender, and age variations. Standard dialect: Socially prestigious dialect. By the government, mass media, schools. Any member can possibly use. Based on a selected variety. Not acquired naturally, superimposed. e.g.普通话(Mandarin)

Language and Gender Differences between women and men have always been a topic of interest to the human species.

There exists a WOMEN REGISTER There exists a WOMEN REGISTER. Its features include 1) women use more “fancy” color terms; mauve, beige, aquamarine, lavender, magenta Imagine a man and a woman both looking at the same wall, painted a pinkish shade of purple. The woman may say: The wall is mauve.

If the man should say the above sentence, one might well conclude he was imitating a woman sarcastically, or was a homosexual, or an interior decorator.

2) women use less powerful curse words (少用God damn it. Damn. Shit 2) women use less powerful curse words (少用God damn it! Damn! Shit! Fuck you! 常用Oh, dear! Goodness me!); a. Oh dear, you've put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again. b. Shit, you've put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again.

3) women use more intensifiers such as terrible, awful, so good, such fun, exquisite, lovely, divine, precious, adorable, darling, fantastic. (Neutral ones are great, terrific, cool, neat) In Chapter III in Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, Mrs Bennet, excited after participating in a party, talked to her husband about Mr. Bingley as follows:

Oh. My dear Mr. Bennet, we have had a most excellent ball Oh! My dear Mr. Bennet, we have had a most excellent ball. …Jane was so admired. Every body said how well she looked. Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, …I was so vexed to see him stand up with her. … I am quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome! …[Mr. Darcy] is a most disagreeable, horrid man. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with.

Wife: You always leave your papers about, dear! Husband: Really? Didn’t I put them in place yesterday? In a sense, the overuse of the words of absoluteness or extremity may cause changes in the meaning of a word at least in the eye of a man.

4) women use more tag questions (John is here, isn’t it?) ; 5) women use more statement questions (Dinner will be ready at seven o’clock?); 6) women’s linguistic behaviour is more indirect and more polite than men’s

Linguistic sexism语言性别歧视现象 These differences in language use are brought about by nothing less than women’s place in society. Linguistic sexism语言性别歧视现象 许多职业名称如doctor, professor, engineer等，人们习惯于把它们跟男性联系在一起，若要指称女性，往往要加上woman一词，如woman doctor。还有一些名称含有男性的语素---man， 如chairman, congressman, spokesman, salesman等，也用来指女性。Man 作为mankind的同义词指人类，男女性都包括在内。与之相呼应，英语的人称代词中， he (他)有时也可包括she (她)，例如： A professor usually sees his students during office hours.

Types of linguistic sexism (from King 1991) 1. male-as-norm (women invisible)         Each candidate should include three copies of his résumé with the application. 2. irrelevant reference to gender         That woman dentist is really excellent. 3. irrelevant reference to physical appearance or domestic relationships         Susan Dixon, a beautiful, green-eyed blonde, has just entered her first year of medical school. 4. inappropriate forms of address         Hey honey! What's wrong?

Halliday: Register L varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations. The type of L which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register.

Mode of discourse（话语方式）: the means of communication, how Field of discourse(话语范围): what is going on, purpose and subject-matter of communication, why, what Technical vs. non-technical Tenor of discourse（话语基调）: the role of relationship in the situation, who, to whom The level of formality Mode of discourse（话语方式）: the means of communication, how A lecture on biology

Martin Joos: Degree of formality Frozen Formal Consultative Casual Intimate Formal <------------------------------> Informal

Visitors would make their way at once to the upper floor by way of the staircase. (frozen) Visitors should go up the stairs at once. (formal) Would you mind going upstairs please? (consultative) Time you all went upstairs now. (casual) Up you go, Chaps! (intimate)

What should we know more about sociolinguistics? A sociolinguistic study of society (macrosociolinguistics) and a sociolinguistic study of language(Microsociolinguistics): If we want to know more about a given society or community by examining the linguistic behaviour of its members, we are doing a sociolinguistic study of society. That is, we are doing sociolinguistics at a macro level of investigation. Topics of study may include bilingualism or multilingualism, language attitudes, language choice, language maintenance and shift, language planning and standardization, vernacular language education.

If we want to know more about some linguistic variations in language use by turning to potential sociocultural factors for a description and explanation, we are doing a sociolinguistic study of language. We are interested in examining micro linguistic phenomena such as structural variants, address forms(称呼语), gender differences, discourse analysis, Pidgin(皮钦语) and Creole(克里奥尔语) languages and other more language-related issues.

皮钦语是在殖民时期诞生的。当欧洲的商人、水手、传教士涉足亚洲、非洲、美洲、大洋州的口岸与当地人打交道时，由于彼此语言不通，就把两种语言的成分混合在一起使用，以达到沟通的目的。皮钦语大多以英语、法语、葡语等某一欧洲语言为基础，把语法规则大大地简化，没有性、数、格等变化和曲折、派生等词形。说话人借助于有限的词语和简单的词序来指称事物或传递指令。皮钦语的生长过程与社会变迁息息相关，它们的命运取决于交际环境的需要。有些皮钦语如17世纪至19世纪在我国南方沿海地区流行的“洋泾浜”英语逐渐消失了。有些皮钦语则稳定了下来，词汇和语法手段丰富了起来，扩大了使用范围和表达功能。皮钦语可成为人们的第二语言，也可发展成为克里奥尔语。当某一地区的人们把皮钦语传授给后代，变为他们的母语时，皮钦语就实现了克里奥尔化。

Bilingualism ——two languages are in contact. This contact may lead to interference. Pidgin, Creole, diglossia

Pidgin: not a native language of anyone. learned informally in contact. used esp. as trade language. involves the mixture of two or more Ls. Eg. Nigerian Pidgin English; Vietnamese Pidgin French; New Guinea Pidgin German, etc.

上海话中的洋泾浜英语 “蹩脚”（BILGE，船底污水，引申为肮脏的、下三滥的、劣质的） “大兴”（DASHY，浮华的，华而不实的，引申为假的、冒牌的、劣质的） “肮三”（ON SALE，二手货贱卖，引申为垃圾货、形容人的品质低劣） “瘪三”（BEG SIR，乞丐先生，用来形容叫花子、难民、逃荒者等各式穷人，后引申为最广泛的骂人用语之一。 “赤佬”是英语“CHEAT”（欺骗）和中文“佬”的混生词语，一个鲁迅时代最流行的洋泾浜俚语（隐语）。

From pidgin to creoles As a result of intermarriage, the pidgin is spoken at home and learned by children as a mother tongue. Pidgin is not just a contact language with limited social functions, but can deal with more. Eg. Haitian Creole, Hawaiian Creole English

Diglossia: Two distinct varieties of the same language are used, side by side, for two different sets of functions. Switzerland: High German as the standard (public, official) Swiss German as the vernacular (informal, daily)

Code-Switching: Bilinguals often switch between their two languages in the middle of a conversation. Metaphorical switching: the purpose of communication Situational switching: role-relationship Mixed code: words from new languages are used in old languages, e.g. New Zealand English

“Hi，你好呀！This morning，我们对你的case进行了discuss，我们发现，这对我们没什么benefit。所以我们不得不遗憾地告诉你：与这件事相关的所有Project都将被cancel掉。” “事实证明，Download已经不吃香了，Portal也正在逐渐没落。ISP与ICP都没有什么很Power的招数了。My God，我们的前途究竟在哪里？Pageview、Impression，我们真正缺乏的是如何让访问者Once again的内容与形式。”

“我是beast……那你呢……” “我比你少一个A, ……所以我是best。” 辛楣吃晚饭回来, ……问鸿渐道:“你在英国到过牛津、剑桥没有? 他们的tutorial system 是怎么一回事?” 这种同情比笑骂还难受, 鸿渐咬牙来个中西合璧的咒骂: “To Hell 滚你妈的蛋!”

歌曲：快乐崇拜 什么年代吹着什么样的风 我拿我的麦克风 唱出old school show yall ready to roll 70的年代 复古我最high disco fever 从来不肯say goodbye

Implication from Sociolinguistics in FLT Teaching content Innovations in materials and activities for classroom A fresh look at the nature of language development and use Empirical Research: Language in professions like court, clinic, Language variation and class, gender Language variation and style

(1) In language classrooms Grammarians or active language users Two different views of philosophy in language teaching: a process of acquiring knowledge, a process of acquiring communicative competence (2)In law courts The analysis of language data gathered as evidence The preparation of some legal documents Enrich our understanding of the relationship between the concept of power and language use.

(3) In clinic settings The analysis of the dialogue between doctors and patients How the concept of power is encoded and decoded through language use in a hierarchical society? The impact of some sociological factors upon the linguistic behavior of the members of a speech community

3. Cross-cultural communication Intercultural or cross-cultural communication is communication between people from different cultures (their cultural perceptions and symbols systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.) In cross-cultural communication, we need to pay special attention to the significant differences regarding social relations and concept of universe from different perspectives such as language, food, dress, attitude towards time, work habits, social behavior and religious belief that can cause frustrations in communications and contacts.