Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ARRANGED BY :
GROUP 3
LAKIDENDE UNIVERSITY
KONAWE
2020
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………2
PREFACE…………………………………………………………………3
CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION ……………………………………… 4
A. Background …………………………………………………………4
B. Problem Formulation……………………………………………..4
A. Conclusion …………………………………………………………17
B. Suggestion ………………………………………………………...…17
REFERENCE ……………………………………………………………18
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PREFACE
Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah who has given his bless to us so that can finish this
paper. Blessing and greetings may remain poured out to the Prophet SAW, the role model
that has brought us from the era of stupid ignorance that is full of science.
We have prepared this paper with the intention of becoming an additional guide for
students, teachers or lecturers in various circles. In this paper we include detailed
explanations so that readers can understand language behavior in Sociolinguistics. For this
reason, readers are expected to have a comprehensive understanding of Sociolinguistics
especially about “LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND THOUGHT”
Even so, no human is perfect. Therefore, any errors and mistakes that exist please
understand.
AUTHOR
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
B. Problem Formulation
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CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
According to Anthropology, culture is the whole system of ideas, actions and results of
human work in the life of society which is made to belong to human beings by learning.
Although there are some who say that the relationship between language and culture is a
coordinative relationship, but from the various responses from linguists almost all agree that
the relationship between language and culture is sub-ordinative by making culture a main
system (system of superiors) and language is its subsystem.
If the relationship between language and culture is agreed to be subordinate then
automatically there is a relationship with the mind. Because it is this mind that forms a
culture, whereas in culture there is language. So between mind, language and culture there is
a relationship or a relationship that is mutually sustainable. It can be simply described as
follows: Western culture is different from Indonesian culture. The difference is due to
differences in views (thoughts) of each which is then contained in the language. For example,
Westerners refer to "table" as "table" whether the table is round, square, or other forms they
still refer to with the same designation regardless of shape, color, and appearance. Unlike the
case with Indonesian people who pay attention to shape, color, and appearance even though
the function is the same. For example, Indonesian people call a round shape as "round table".
Because according to the minds of Indonesians different forms will cause differences in
names in the language. Although the results are related to learning Arabic, it is important to
know Arabic culture because this language is a part of their culture.
SAPIR – WHORF
Edward Sapir (1884 - 1939) was a respected and respected American linguist. He also
understood very well the linguistic concepts put forward by European scholars. Benjamin Lee
Whorf (1897 - 1941) was one of Edward Sapir's students. At first he was not a professional in
psycholinguistic studies, but later actively studied linguistics and gave his opinions which
had enriched his thoughts about linguistics. He and his teacher, Edward Sapir, studied many
Indian languages, and wrote extensive results of his research.
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a) THE WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS
Language is seen as intertwined with culture, for a long time people have talked about
it. Likewise the fact that a person's language, culture, and way of thinking are considered to
be tightly rigged, has long been debated by many circles
The view drawn from the postulation of his cultural hypothesis Sapir-Whorf, which is
then known as the theory of relativity and cultural determination. With his hypothesis, Sapir-
Whorf postulates that language has a big influence on culture. In many ways, language
determines the forms of its culture. Language is seen as having a big influence on the culture
that embraces it because language is the determinant of the way of thinking of individuals.
Creative is not creative every citizen, is strongly influenced by the figure of language under
their control. This idea came to be known as a weak version of the Sapir-Whorf cultural
theory. What is considered strong is that language not only influences the way of thinking of
citizens, not only does it have a minimal contribution to the forms of culture that encompass
it, but more than all that language is the main determinant of cultural forms.
Language determines the style of a society, or society determines the style of a
language. In general, people are more likely to choose the second idea. But it is different with
Whorf and Sapir. These two experts determined a famous hypothesis called the "Whorf-Sapir
Hypothesis". According to this hypothesis language determines the style of a society.
In this hypothesis it is stated that language not only determines the style of culture,
but also determines the ways and ways of the human mind; and therefore also influences his
behavior. In other words, a nation whose language is different from other nations will have a
different cultural style and way of thinking. So, cultural differences and the way of human
thought originated from differences in language, or without the existence of human language
can not have any way of thinking at all. If language influences human culture and way of
thinking, the characteristics that exist in a language will be reflected in the attitudes and
culture of its speakers.
Edward Sapir (1884 - 1939) American linguist has a similar opinion with Von
Humboldt. Sapir said that humans live in this world under the "compassion" of their
language, which has become an introductory tool in their social life. According to Sapir it has
become a fact that a society is partly "founded" on the characteristics and characteristics of
that language. For this reason, no two languages are the same so that they can be considered
to represent the same society. Firmly Sapir also said that what we saw, we heard, we
experienced, and we do now is because the traits of our language have outlined it first.
Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897 - 1941), Sapir's student, rejects the classical view of the
relationship of language and thinking which says that language and thinking are two things
that stand alone. The classical view also says that although each language has different
sounds, they all state the same formulations based on the same thoughts and observations.
Thus all languages are ways of expressing thoughts that are parallel and can be translated to
one another.
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf are linguists who hypothesize something like
this: the mother tongue (native language; mother tongue) of a speaker forms categories that
act as a kind of bars (lattices). Through the lattice the speaker sees the "external world" (the
world outside himself). Because the speaker's "vision" is blocked by the lattice, his view of
the outside world becomes as if governed by the lattice. The lattice forces the speaker to
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classify and form concepts of various phenomena in the outside world based on his mother
tongue. Thus, mother tongue can influence and even control the views of speakers of the
outside world.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which states that differences in thinking caused by
differences in language, will cause Arabs to see reality differently from Japanese, because
Arabic is not the same as Japanese. Whorf stressed that reality is not just displayed in front of
us, then we give names one by one. What actually happens according to Whorf is the
opposite, we make a map of reality, which is done on the basis of our language, and not on
the basis of that reality. For example the kinds of colors all over the world are the same, but
why do every nation with a different language see it as something different. The English for
example, recognize the basic colors of white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink,
orange, and gray; but speakers of the Hunaco language in the Philippines only know four
colors, namely mabiru, black and other dark colors ’, skyfully‘ white and bright red ’,
applying for a red group’, and malatuy ‘yellow, light green and light brown’
Although the ideas put forward by Sapir and Whorf are the result of long-standing
research and put forward in essays of very high scientific weight, it turns out their ideas
mentioned in his hypothesis are very controversial with the opinions of most scholars
b) KINSHIP SYSTEM
One thing that can show the way people use language in everyday life and show the
relationship between language and culture is in terms of kinship systems. Kinship system is a
universal feature of language because it is very important in social organizations. Some
systems are far richer than others, but all systems utilize factors such as gender, age,
generation, blood, and marriage. Different kinship systems will bring ideas about how such
people should call and behave towards other people in the community who use the system.
This can be demonstrated through the vocabulary used in different languages. For example,
the word 'family' in English has the same meaning as 'family' in Indonesian. For English, the
word 'family' includes husband, wife and children. Conversely, in Indonesian the word
'family' includes more than husband, wife and children. This includes grandparents, uncles,
aunts, cousins, nieces and so on (Sumarsono, 2009, p. 62)
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Broadly speaking, Indonesia recognizes three forms of kinship systems, namely
matrilineal, patrilineal, and bilateral. The matrilineal kinship system draws a lineage from the
woman (mother), for example the Minangkabau. While the patrilineal kinship system draws a
lineage from the male (father), for example the Batak tribe. While bilateral draws bloodlines
from both parties, father and mother, for example the Javanese. Kinship consists of father,
mother, child, son-in-law, grandchildren, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandfather,
grandmother and so on.
c) TAXONOMIES
Taxonomies come from Greek. Consists of 2 words, namely taxis and nomos. Taxis
means to arrange or arrange something while nomos means habits or rules. So Taxonomies
can be interpreted as rules for compiling or regulating.
For example :
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d) COLOR TERMINOLOGY
1) The Definition of Color Terminology
Color Terminology is the terms that used by the people to describe color
(Wardhaugh, 2002:233). Different cultures have different terms for colors, and may
also assign some color terms to slightly different parts of the human color space: for
instance, the Chinese character 青 (pronounced qīng in Mandarin and ao in Japanese)
has a meaning that covers both blue and green; blue and green are traditionally
considered shades of "青." Japanese also has two terms that refer specifically to the
color green, midori which is derived from the classical Japanese descriptive verb
midoru 'to be in leaf, to flourish' in reference to trees and グリーン (guriin, which is
derived from the English word 'green'). However, in Japan, although the traffic lights
have the same colored lights that other countries have, the green light is called using
the same word for blue, "aoi", because green is considered a shade of aoi, similarly
green variants of certain fruits and vegetable such as green apples, green shiso (as
opposed to red apples and red shiso) will be described with the word "aoi".
On the other explanation color is all around but it is not everywhere treated in
the same way. We sometimes cannot directly translate color words from one language
to another without introducing from subtle changes in meaning, e.g., English brown,
French brun and Indonesia coklat. That means every place around the world has its
own term for describing color whether it has some similarities or not.
3) Abstract Color
Color words in a language can also be divided into abstract color words and
descriptive color words, though the distinction is blurry in many cases. Abstract color
words are words that only refer to a color. In English white, black, red, yellow, green,
blue, brown, and gray are definitely abstract color words. These words also happen to
be 'basic color terms' in English as described above, but colors like maroon and
magenta are also abstract though they may not be considered 'basic color terms' either
because they are considered by native speakers to be too rare, too specific, or to be
subordinate hues to a higher 'basic color term', in this case red (or maybe purple).
4) Descriptive Color
Descriptive color words are words that are secondarily used to describe a color
but primarily used to refer to an object or phenomenon that has that color. For
instance: when we say about “rose”, it is identical with “red”, although not all of the
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kinds of rose are red. "Salmon", "rose", "saffron", and "lilac" are descriptive color
words in English because their use as color words is derived in reference to natural
colors of salmon flesh, rose flowers, infusions of saffron pistils, and lilac blossoms
respectively. Often a descriptive color word will be a subordinate hyponym of a 'basic
color term' (salmon and rose [descriptive] are both hues of pink). The status of some
color words as abstract or descriptive is debatable. The color "pink" was originally a
descriptive color word derived from the name of a flower called a "pink" (see
dianthus); however, because the word "pink" (flower) has become very rare whereas
"pink" (color) has become very common, many native speakers of English use "pink"
as an abstract color word alone and furthermore consider it to be one of the 'basic
color terms' of English. "purple" is another example of this, as it was originally a
word that referred to a dye (see Tyrian purple).
Berlin and Kay said that the basic color terms found in a wide variety of language
reveals certain very interesting patterns. Here are the patterns of basic language, such
as:
a. If a language has only two terms, they for equivalents to black and white (or dark or
light).
b. If a third is added, it is red. So they become black, white and red
c. The fourth and fifth terms will be yellow and green, but the order may be reversed.
So they become black, white, red, yellow and green.
d. The sixth and seventh terms are blue and brown. So they become black, white, red,
yellow, green, blue and brown.
e. Finally, as in English, come terms like grey, pink, orange, purple, but not in any
particular order. So they become black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, brown, grey,
pink, orange and purple.
f. For the comparison Italian and Russian have twelve basic colors, distinguishing
blue and azure. That doesn't mean English speakers cannot describe the difference of
the two colors, of course; however, in English, azure is not a basic color term because
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one can say bright sky blue instead, while pink is basic because speakers do not say
light red.
6) Color Spectrum
The color spectrum is physical continuum showing no breaks at all. Yet we
parcel if out in bits and pieces and assign names to the various component parts:
green, blue, yellow, red, and so on.
One approach to investigating color terminology in languages is predicated on
the scientific. Fact that the color spectrum is an objective reality: it is’ out there’
waiting to be dealt with perceptually and cognitively and if you ask speakers of a
language to mane chip from the Munsell array of color chips you can access their
knowledge of what color means to them. The claim here is that human cognition is so
alike everywhere that everyone approaches the spectrum in the same way. Moreover,
as cultural and technological changes occur, it becomes more and more necessary for
people to differentiate within the color spectrum. Instead of picking bits and pieces of
the spectrum at random as it were and naming them, people, no matter what languages
they speak, progressively sub-divide the whole spectrum in a systematic way, the
similar naming practiced appear to follow from human cognitive needs that are the
same everywhere.
Lucy (1997) is highly critical of the above claim, declaring that you cannot
find out what ‘color’ means to speakers by simply asking them to label Munsell color
chips. He says (p.341):’color is not “out there” in the light but in our perceptual
interpretation of light, communicatively relevant encodings of visual experience do
not lie “in there “ in the biology but in socially anchored linguistic systems. In this
alternate view, color system is social constructions rather than biologically
determined ones. The issue is still unresolved.
We do know that if speakers of any language are asked to identify the parts of
the spectrum, they find one system of such identification much easier to part of the
spectrum they would call yellow from that part they would call orange, or similarly to
separate blue from green. That is, assigning precise borders, or marking
discontinuities, between neighboring colors is neither an easy task for individuals nor
one on which groups of individuals achieve a remarkable consensus. However, they
do find it easy, and they do reach a better consensus, if they are required to indicate
some part of the spectrum they would call typically orange, typically blue, or typically
green. That is they have consistent and uniform ideas about ‘typical colors’. Speakers
of different languages exhibit such behavior, always provided that the appropriate
color terms are in their language. As we will in the following section, we can use this
idea that people can and do classify in such a way to propose still another approach to
relating language and culture. Another example show that the people at Tukadsumaga
Village have their own language to express about color. They say gadang (blue),
pelung (unggu) but in the other place the color words above unacceptable (they say
“blue” with pelung and gadang for say “green”).
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An attempt has been made to relate the extent of color terminology in specific
languages with the level of cultural and technical complexity of those societies in
which these languages are spoken. There is some reason to believe that communities
that show little technological development employ the fewest color terms; e.g., the
Jale of New Gumea have words corresponding to dark and light alone. On the other
hands, technologically advanced societies have term corresponding to all eleven
mentioned above. Societies in intermediate stages have intermediate numbers:
for example, The Tiv of Nigeria has three terms; The Garo of Assam, and The
Hanunoo of the Philippines have four; and The Burmese has seven.
For example the people in Sepang Village only know and use the terms of
colors : selem (black), barak (red), putih (white), pelung (blue), kuning (yellow). But
the people in Singaraja know the terms of colors like: selem (black), barak (red), putih
(white), ijo (green), pink (pink), kuning (yellow), unggu, merah marun (maroon).
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Islands, and for aborigines of Australia. Rand McNally's 1944 map of races describes
Amerindians as being the copper race or copper people.
e) PROTOTYPE THEORY
1) The Definition of Prototype Theory
Prototype theory is a mode of graded categorization in cognitive science,
where some members of a category are more central than others. For example, when
asked to give an example of the concept furniture, chair is more frequently cited than,
say, computer desk.
As formulated in the 1970s by Eleanor Rosch and others, prototype theory was
a radical departure from traditional necessary and sufficient conditions as in
Aristotelian logic, which led to set-theoretic approaches of extensional or intensional
semantics. Thus instead of a definition based model - e.g. a bird may be defined as
elements with the features [+feathers], [+beak] and [+ability to fly], prototype theory
would consider a category like bird as consisting of different elements which have
unequal status - e.g. a robin is more prototypical of a bird than, say a penguin. This
leads to a graded notion of categories, which is a central notion in many models of
cognitive science and cognitive semantics, e.g. in the work of George Lakoff
(Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, 1987) or Ronald Langacker (Foundations of
Cognitive Grammar, vol. 1/2 1987/1991).
The term prototype has been defined in Eleanor Rosch's study "Natural
Categories" (1973) and was first defined as a stimulus, which takes a salient position
in the formation of a category as it is the first stimulus to be associated with that
category. Later, she redefined it as the most central member of a category.
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Prototype theory, then, offers us a possible way of looking not only at how
concepts may be formed, i.e., at the cognitive dimensions of linguistic behavior, but
also at how we achieve our social competence in the use of language. We judge
circumstance as being typically this or typically that and we place people in the same
way. We then tailor our language to fit, making it appropriate to the situation and the
participants as we view these.
4). Stereotype
Streotype is a popular concept of the speech of a particular group of people
(Richard, 1992:353). It also can be said as the stuff of bad comedians' jokes. People
laugh at them because everyone recognizes stereotypes; people use them as lazy
generalizations of whole groups of people. Stereotypes are often part of bigotry. For
instances :
- When people say “ Bungkulan “ in Buleleng, it would be get the negative respects
- When people say “ Las Vegas “, it would be get the negative respect automatically
Taboo words emerge at least because of three things, namely the existence of
something frightening (taboo of fear), something that makes you feel bad (taboo of delicacy),
and something that is not polite and inappropriate (taboo of propriety).
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1) Taboo of Fear
Everything that brings a frightening and trustworthy power that can endanger life is
included in this category of taboo. Likewise, the direct disclosure of the names of God and
spirits is classified as a taboo of fear. For example Jews are forbidden to mention the name of
their Lord directly. For this reason, they use other words that are parallel to the meaning of
the word ‘master‘ in English. In England and France successively the word Lord and
Seigneur are used instead of the word God.
In certain groups of people, words that have a religious connotation are considered
inappropriate if used outside formal religious ceremonies. Christians are forbidden to use the
name of God carelessly. This ban then developed into a ban on the use of curses, which are
believed to have magical powers. The words hell and damn are changed to heck and darn,
with the hope and belief that the change in pronunciation will trick the "power generated"
from the word.
In Indonesia, the South Coast of Java island views taboo against anyone who travels
or relaxes on the beach wearing red clothes. This is because they believe that the supernatural
creature of the South Sea Ruler, Nyi Roro Kidul, known as the Queen of the South Coast,
does not like / is angry with visitors wearing red shirts and is certainly believed to have an
adverse effect on the offender. Examples of cases of this kind are certainly often found,
especially in Indonesia as a multi-ethnic, religious, cultural and cultural country.
2) Taboo of Delicacy
Disease suffered by someone is something that is not pleasant for the sufferer.
Diseases whose referents are disgusting are usually avoided by mentioning their desphemistic
(words that are taboo or uncomfortable to mention), and should be replaced by their
euphemistic form. Disclosure of the type of illness that brings shame and disgrace to a person
will certainly not be pleasant to be heard, such as epilepsy, scabies, ulcers, cancer. Therefore,
it is better if the names of the diseases are replaced by euphemistic forms such as epilepsy,
scabies, abscesses and CAs to replace the word cancer. Some names of diseases that are
congenital defects such as blindness, deafness, mute, and crazy can be successively replaced
with the word visually impaired, deaf, , and mentally disabled. Those who suffer from this
disability will be uncomfortable or disrespectful if they are said to be disabled, but should be
replaced by persons with disabilities.
Death are very taboo in Western civilization. In various European societies there are a
large number of euphemisms related to death, because death is considered frightening so it is
classified as taboo. People do not like to hear or use the word die (died) and are more likely
to like the words pass on or pass away. The person who takes care of the funeral is more
often referred to as a funeral director (funeral organizer) rather than the word mortician
(owner of the funeral firm) or undertaker (the person who takes care of the funeral)
3) Taboo Propriety
This type of taboo relates to sex, certain body parts and their functions, as well as
some swear words which are all inappropriate or impolite to express. In French, the mention
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of the word fille relating to 'daughter' is still honored. However, if it is intended for 'young
women', people must use the word jeune fille because the word fille itself is often used as a
euphemistic form for 'prostitutes'.
Likewise, the word vagina is considered more "good / clean" while the word cunt is
considered "dirty" and taboo to pronounce; or the word prick or cock is taboo while the word
penis is accepted as a term in the anatomy of men and is appropriate for use. . The word
defecate can be used for everyone but in abusive people the word shit is used. The British
public also avoids using other impolite words such as breast, intercourse, and testicles as well
as the synonyms of the words namely tits, fuck, and ball (penis).
Hass (1951) emphasized that the pronunciation of certain taboo (linguistic taboo)
words originated from bilingual situations. He gave an example to the Creek community in
Oklahoma, where similar avoidance was seen in Thai students learning English in a country
where people use English as their daily language. They avoid the pronunciation of the words
phage (tight clothes) and phrig (chili), because they have phonetic sounds that are similar and
almost the same as the words taboo in English namely fuck and prick. Conversely, Thai
people are also often difficult to pronounce the word yet and key because it has a phonetic
sound similar to the word jed which in Thai means "to have sex" and khîi which means
"poop". In certain situations, a person to change his name is caused only because the name
causes shame when pronounced, for example in Malaysia the word needs to be taboo because
it is considered pornographic. Pakistan's former prime minister named Ali Bhutto whose
name is similar to the word need is then called or pronounced Ali Bhatto.
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CHAPTER III
FINAL
A. Conclusion
Language has close relationship with culture. They cannot be separated because the
dynamic interaction of human to other human, the users of language, is always related to the
culture they have. The language the humans utter including the structure, intonation, diction
and others, gives information indirectly about their culture and how the behave and think
about everything happen in this world. The way they behave to the other family members, the
language they use as folk taxonomy, the prototype theory that help them to use language, and
the way they say and do not say something that is believed as taboo are the reflection of
language and culture close relationship
B. Suggestions
We realize that the author is far from perfect words, the future of the author will be
more focused and details in explaining the above papers with more sources - sources that can
be in accountability.
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REFERENCE
http://blogkita-sudicyberspace.blogspot.com/2011/05/sociolinguistic-on-color-term-
prototype.html?m=1#:~:text=Color%20Terminology%20is%20the%20terms,Wardhaugh
%2C%202002%3A233).&text=Color%20words%20in%20a%20language,only%20refer
%20to%20a%20color.
https://mufatismaqdum.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/hipotesis-sapir-whorf-dalam-bahasa-
indonesia-dan-bahasa-bahasa-di-indonesia/
http://rimajonsotlikova.blogspot.com/2013/06/bahasa-dan-budaya.html?m=1
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/wardahazzefira/bab-i-32883458
https://nanoazza.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/tabu-dan-eufemisme/
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