LANGUAGE AND
CULTURE
The basic concept of language as a culture
product
"Language is the expression of ideas
by means of speech-sounds
DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE combined into words. Words are
combined into sentences, this
This can be seen combination answering to that of
in some of the ideas into thoughts." Henry Sweet
definitions of the Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager,
on the other hand, had this to say, "A
concept : language is a system of arbitrary
vocal symbols by means of which a
social group cooperates."
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia,
defines the concept in the following
words: .
"A language is a system of signs for
encoding and decoding information."
"Language refers to the cognitive
faculty that enables humans to learn
.
and use systems of complex
communication."
Relationship between language and culture
1. Homologous Relationship
There is a prominent homologous relationship between language and culture. They
appeared and developed together long before people were able to write or be
aware of themselves.
“The phrase “language is culture and culture is language” is very meaningful.
There are not only various interconnections between the two but a lot of history.
Language and culture developed together, influencing the lives of people just as
much as one another.
2. Transmission
Language is primarily learned through oral communication rather than written.
Children grasp the basic concepts of structure and grammar before they even go to
school. Their primary sources at this age are parents. Once they go to pre-school,
kids are taught the basics of their first language. But when they go to school, they
are taught more complicated structures and concepts about their first or second
language. However, the foundation is still laid out even before school. Similarly to
language, culture is sort of inherited from the child’s surroundings. Not only is the
family responsible for it, but also the country with its customs, traditions, and
citizens. The child absorbs the information he or she sees and hears, even on an
unconscious level.
Once the child has grown up a little, another source of cultural and linguistic
learning is the written one.
3. Assimilation And Social Interactions
Before so many languages were present on our planet, there were several main
primary languages spoken by large groups of people. With time the people evolved
as well as their cultures and the language they spoke. This is usually attributed to
the fact that they felt they needed to adapt to new circumstances and assimilate.
4. Diversity
The linguistic varieties of a language can be categorized into geographical, social,
and functional. Geographical differences happen when a form of the language is
used in certain parts of a community. For example, the language spoken in the
Eastern part of a country may differ from the one spoken in the West. Social
differences are influenced by gender, age, and occupation. For example, a
professor will talk differently from a politician or an office worker.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, language and culture are
definitely an integral part of our life.
There are many differences we share
due to our different identities and
individualities, but there also many
similarities that we have thanks to
the connections between our
cultures and languages we speak.
THANK YOU