Overview

Overview of language, culture, and society:

What is the relation among language, culture, and society?

Terms:
1. Language and culture
2. language and society
3. language in culture and society
4. language in cultural and social contexts
 1. What is language?
• A system of communications
• Codes of symbols whose uses and interpretations are agreed upon among its speakers
• Consists of:
✤ Vocabulary (lexicon)
✤ Meaningful units (morphemes): books [bʊks] = /bʊk/+ /s/
✤ Sound segments (phonetic entities): [p]/[b], [f]/[v], [t]/[d], [k]/[g], [l], [m], [n], [ñ/ɲ], [ɹ, ɾ, r, R],
[a], [i], [u], [e], [o]
✤ Conventions:
✓ Conventions of the relation between sounds and meaning:
house (E)/maison (F)/casa (S)/chip (K)
✓ Conventions on how the sound segments are pronounced in sequence (phonology): park
[pʰark], spark [spark], water [wɑɾər]
✓ Conventions of combinations and uses of meaningful units (morphology): books [bʊks],
boys [bɔɪz]; liked [laɪkt], warned [wɔrnd], wanted [wɔnəd]
✓ Conventions on how to combine words to form larger structural units (clauses, sentences)
(syntax):
E: I like apples. Do you like apples? What fruits do you like?
K: na(-nŭn) sakwa(-lŭl) cohahae.
N (-nŭn) sakwa(-lŭl) cohaha-ni?
N (-nŭn) musŭn kwail(-ŭl) cohaha-ni?
✓ Conventions on organizations and interpretations of meanings (semantics):
here/there (E), aqui/ahí/allá (S), y ki ‘here’/k ki ‘there’/c ki ‘over there’(K)
✓ Conventions on uses of connected utterances in context (discourse and pragmatics): Mom,
can I have coke? Can you pass me the salt?
• Uses and interpretations are negotiated among the users and change through time
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Two views on language:

• Rule or form-focused: a xed rule system, linguistic competence, innate UG (Chomsky)

• Use or function-focused: communicative competence (Hymes), language as social action, linguistic
structure shaped by use, much uid, adaptive and evolving; moving toward structure at best

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2. What is culture?
• Wardaugh (1998/2002): cf. High culture vs. popular culture
"Whatever a person must know in order to function in a particular society.”

• Tyler (1871:1):
". . . the complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, custom,
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a member of a society.”

• Brooks (1975) quoted in Sohn (p. 5)":

"Olympian culture or culture MLA (music, literature, art) vs. heartstone culture or
culture BBV (Beliefs, Behaviors, Values)" "aspects of daily living”

• Seelye (1994), quoted in Sohn (p. 5):

". . . all aspects of life.”

• National Standards of ACTFL (1996:43-6), quoted by Sohn p. 5): 3 P’s

✓ Perspectives (=world view): values, norms, beliefs, assumptions, cultural
meanings, held by the society
✓ Practices: patterns of social interactions (rites of passage, the use of forms of
discourse, the social “pecking order,” use of space
✓ Products: tangible and intangible cultural items
3. What is society?

• Sohn (p. 4):

". . . a broad grouping of people with common tradition, institutions, and collective
activities and interests.”

• Shaul and Furbe (1998), quoted in Sohn (p. 4):

". . . the actual grouping or array of humans that has its own language and culture”

Sohn (p. 4)
“. . . a society consists of various institutions, social contexts, and social factors, as
well as one or more languages and cultures.”

Language and culture can be across national boundaries, and a nation can be a
multi-language and multi-cultural society.

• Multi-language country/society
• Multi-cultural society
• Transnational languages
• Transnational cultures

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To what extent are languages shaped by '[universal] human nature' and to what extent
are they shaped by [speech community-speci c] culture?

[Link] are the two opposite views on this question?

[Link] is Whorf's view of language, known as 'Sapir-Whorf hypothesis' of cultural/

Linguistic relativity? What is cultural relativity?

[Link]'s view on the relation between language and culture is represented by the term
'linguistic determinism.' What does it mean?

[Link] you think of examples that support or work against his view?

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Two opposite views on the relation between language and culture/society:

Universalism (variation constrained)

Chomsky (1987):
Language and thoughts . . . follow a largely predetermined course (much like
biological properties) . . by the innate structure of the mind.

. . . the conceptual resources of the lexicon are largely xed by the language faculty
with only minor variation possible

Wierzbica (1992):
"Human understanding is based on a universal, and presumably innate "alphabet of
human thoughts" (Leibniz 1903: 430)"

"Alphabet of human thoughts: the catalogue of those concepts which can be

understood by themselves, and by whose combination all our other ideas are found."

"Simple ideas, on which human speech and human thought are based, are presumably
the same for all people on earth.

Searches for lexical universals, concepts which have been lexicalized in all the
language of the world

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Cultural or Linguistic relativism (exploring variation):

Sapir (1949):

Language is a guide to social reality.

It powerfully conditions all our thinking about social problem and processes.

No objective world; the real world to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language
habits of the group.

Two languages are not suf ciently similar.

Whorf (1956):

Language is the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual mental activity

The world is presented in a kaleidoscopic ux of impressions which has to be organized

by our minds . . . by the linguistic system in our minds.

Although language patterns and cultural norms in uence each other, in this partnership the
nature of the language is the factor that limits free plasticity and rigidi es channels of
development in the more autocratic way.
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Franz Boas

Is it true that Eskimo has a unusually large number of vocabulary referring to snow?

Inuit word roots for snow:

• qaniɣ 'falling snow’
• aniɣu 'fallen snow’
• apun 'snow on the ground'

Group activities: Come up with all the snow terms in English

[Link]
 avalanche ( nun-sathae)
blizzard ( nunbora)
urry ( nun-pal)
frost ( s li)
hail ( ubak)
sleet ( chinnunkkaepi)
*****************
igloo (Inuit iglu 'house')
pingo (Inuit pingu(q) 'ice lens')
*****************
dusting
hardpack
powder
crusty
slushsnow
*****************
snowman
snow ake ( nun-songi)
snowstorm ( nunpora)
snow bank
snow cornice
snow fort
snow house
snow-mixed-with-rain?
blowing snow
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Rice culture vs. Bread culture

Korean rice-related (Sohn, Ch1: 5):

mo ‘rice seedling'
py / narak ‘rice plant, unhusked rice'
ssal ‘husked rice'
ssaragi ‘broken bits of husked rice'
pap ‘cooked rice’
nwi ‘unhusked rice mixed with husked rice’
olby ‘early ripening rice plant or its unhusked rice’,
ipssal ‘white husked rice’,
ch’apssal ‘glutinous husked rice’,
mepssal ‘nonglutinous husked rice’
tt k ‘rice cake’
y t ‘rice candy’

English terms for bread

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Korean Words for carrying:

chi-ta 'carry an object on the back'

p-ta 'carry a person on the back'
me-ta 'carry on the shoulder'
i-ta 'carry on the head'
tŭl-ta 'carry (in hands), lift up something with hands’
k lchi-ta 'slip on, have something hang over’
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Linguistic Determinism Language “shapes” the way we think.

[Link]
 Whorf (1956: 212-4):
’. . .A new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same
physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic
backgrounds are similar, or can in someway be calibrated.

. . . The structure of a language determines [not merely re ect] the way in which
speakers of that language view the world.’ (Wardaugh 1998: 216)

’. . . The background linguistic system . . . of each language . . . is itself the shaper of

ideas, the program and guide for the individual’s mental activity, for his analysis of
impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade. . . . We dissect nature along
lines laid down by our native language. . . The world is presented in a kaleidoscopic
ux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds --and this means
largely by the linguistic system in our mind’

“Although language patterns and cultural norms in uence each other, in this
partnership the nature of the language is the factor that limits free plasticity and
rigidi es channels of development in the more autocratic way.”

"Empty gasoline drum" & "spun limestone" (Whorf 1956: 135-137)

Wardhaugh (1998:217-8):
‘Different speakers will . . . experience the world differently’
‘. . . it [the world] is presented through the screen of this language or that.’
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How Korean language affects the way its speakers behave:
• Cats’ crying: / (n)yaong vs. meow
• The romanization controversy: e.g., Pusan or Busan?
• Honori c language: Korean people need to ask about or gure out the other
person's age:
chukha (congratulations) ha-p-ni-ta vs. chukha tŭri-p-ni-ta
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Are there any universal concepts at all?

• Onomatopoeic expressions: e.g., Animal cries

• Concepts of body parts: head, face, nose, arms, hands, feet, legs, stomach/
belly, back, chest, heart
• Concepts of nature: sun, moon, stars, water, mountains, rivers
• Basic human needs (physiological, psychological and social needs).
Problems:
“Language does not reflect the world directly; it reflects human conceptualization, human
interpretation of the world" (Wierzbica 1992:7)
Speakers of different languages may conceptualize and organize the external world differently,
largely due to their language.
Many languages may differentiate different kinds of wind, cloud, snow without a general word
referring to the category:

Why matters?

’. . . If speakers of one language have certain words to describe things and speakers of
another language lack similar words, then speakers of the rst language will nd it easier to
talk about those things. . . . Those who use the rst language will more readily perceive the
differences in their environment which such linguistic distinctions draw attention
to.’ (Wardhaugh (1998:218):

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Animal Cries

Can you guess what the following Korean expressions express? Find an English
equivalent.

m ng-m ng bow-wow

nyaong meow*

kkokkodaek kkokko cock-a-doodle-doo

ummae moo

hihing neigh

kkaak kkaak caw

kkul-kkul oink

Ccaek-ccaek chirp

maem maem chirp

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Body Parts Do you know any example or examples that show that concepts in
one language do not match those in another language?

Korean word m li can refer to either head, brain, or hair:

m li-ka khu-ta 'One has a big head.'

( ) m li-ka coh-ta 'One is smart. [Lit. the brain is good]'

m li-ka kil-ta 'One has a long hair.'

Korean words Maŭm and kasŭm

Kasŭm may refer to heart or chest:

/*
kasŭm/(X)maŭm-i ttwi-n-ta 'My heart is pounding.'

/
kasŭm/maŭm-i aphŭ-ta 'My heart hurts/aches.' or 'I have pain on
my chest.'
No distinction between mind and heart (?):

(mind)/*
maŭm/(X)kasŭm-ŭl m k(eat)-ta 'to make up one's mind'

Back vs. waist:

My back hurts. H li-ka aphŭ-ta [Lit. My waist aches.]
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 Body Parts Do you know any example or examples that show that concepts in
one language do not match those in another language?

Korean word m li can refer to either head, brain, or hair:

m li-ka khu-ta 'One has a big head.'

( )

m li-ka coh-ta 'One is smart. [Lit. the brain is good]'

m li-ka kil-ta 'One has a long hair.'

Korean words Maŭm and kasŭm

Kasŭm may refer to heart or chest:

/*
kasŭm/(X)maŭm-i ttwi-n-ta 'My heart is pounding.'

/
kasŭm/maŭm-i aphŭ-ta 'My heart hurts/aches.' or 'I have pain on
my chest.'
No distinction between mind and heart (?):

(mind)/*
maŭm/(X)kasŭm-ŭl m k(eat)-ta 'to make up one's mind'

Back vs. waist:

My back hurts. H li-ka aphŭ-ta [Lit. My waist aches.]
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 So-koki ‘beef’ [Lit. cow-meat]
Twaeci-koki ‘pork’ [Lit. pig-meat]
Talk-kaki ‘chicken’ [Lit. chicken-meat]

water
 • Polish: grayish cloud (chmura) and white cloud (oblok)
• Nyawaygi (Australian): sun low in the sky in the morning and in the evening vs. Hot sun when
overhead. Also no word for moon; instead, full moon and new moon

=> Will the speakers of these languages have a general concept of cloud and moon, respectively?
Cf. Korean: tal; 보름 porŭmddal (full moon), 초승 chosungddal (waxing crescent moon), 반
pandal (half moon), 그믐 kumumtddal (waning crescent moon); cf. gibbous moon

• The morning star is the evening star.

Cf. Yin-Yang theory
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?
Paitŭn-ŭn my ch-p n-ccae taethongly ng-i -e -yo
Biden-TOP -number-rank president -be-IE-POL
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Perceptions
I see the library. tos kwan-i po-i-n-ta. [Lit. The library is seen (to me).]

I hear the bell. pel-sori-ka tŭl-li-n-ta. [Lit. The bell sound is heard (to me)]

I am looking forward to it. kitae-ka toe-n-ta. [Lit. It becomes an excep on.]

I am worried/I am worrying. k kc ng-i toe-n-ta. [Lit. It becomes an worry.]

Cf. k kc ng ha-ta ‘to worry’ [has a sign of worrying]
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 What are the examples of Korean that
re ect Korean culture and society?

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Where can you nd the native stocks of Korean language?
Concepts essential to the maintenance of basic human life and indicative of the
time-honored culture of traditional Korea
• Body parts
• Natural objects
• Flora and fauna
• Core kinship terms
• Personal pronouns
• Low-level numerals
• Times of the day
• Seasons,
• Basic actions of all sorts
• Physical and psychological states,
• Culinary actions
• Items relating to essential food, clothing, and shelter
• Basic color terms
• Terms for agriculture and shery
• Honori c expressions
• Ideophones or mimetic expressions
• Grammatical relations (function words)
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How are the native stocks of Korean vocabulary related to Korean culture?
• Agriculture: rice terms, manual method of carrying
• Implicit vs. explicit:
‣ no plural marking
‣ covert reference of nominal arguments
• Development of number concepts: on ‘100’
On : on-sesang/ on-nuri (all over the world),
on-thong (wholly, entirely), on-kac (all kinds of)
• Hierarchical social structure: honori c expressions
• Collectivism and interdependency: Korean people tend to say 'our family,' 'our school,'
'our country,' etc., instead of saying 'my family,' 'my school,' 'my country.' What does this
phenomenon tell about Korean culture?
• Shape and function-oriented perception of objects: numeral classi er
‣ my ng:
‣ mali:
‣ kale:
‣ cang paper, pancake
‣ kw n: books
‣ tae: computer, car, machine
‣ calu: pencil, umbrella
‣ can: coffee, tea, drinks
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What do the following Korean proverbs tell about Korean culture? Sohn (Ch 1, 7-8)

a. Ch nnyang pit-to mal-lo kam-nŭn-da.

. (< )
'A million-dollar debt can be repaid by words.'
[Used to encourage polite and strategic language use.]

b. py ruk-to natjjag-i iss-ta.

.
'Even a ea has a face.'
[Refers to a shameless person, stressing the importance of social face.]

c. Amthalk-i ul-my n chib-an-i mangha-n-da.

.
'If a hen cackles, the house will be ruined.'
[Used to indicate that a woman should be quiet/of no opinion, i.e., obey her husband.]
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Korean language has developed an elaborate system of honori c expressions. Based on Sohn (Ch1),
how (Where in Korean language) are honori cs linguistically manifested in Korean language?

Compare the two utterances given in (4) (Sohn, Ch 1:12) of saying 'Have your
meal.':
Daughter-in-law:
chinji chapsu-se -yo .
meal take-HONOR:INFORMAL-POLITE

Father-in-law:
pap mog- ra.
meal eat-IMPERATIVE

Notice that no single element of the utterance is the same.

Compared to the motivation for the politeness strategies in English, what does the
existence of honori c language in Korean tell about Korean culture?
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