PAPER

CROSS CULTURE UNDERSTANDING

‘’Language and Culture ’’

By:

Group 3

Aan Mujizat (40300118031)

Ilma Faridah (40300118024)

Uty Ardita (40300118022)

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

ADAB AND HUMANITIEST FACULTY
ALAUDDIN STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERCITY OF MAKASSAR
2019/2020
 PREFACE

With all the praise and thanks to God the Almighty, who has given His love
and mercy so that a paper entitled " Language and Culture" can we finish well. The
paper is structured to meet one of the tasks of the courses Sociolinguistic.

On this occasion, we would like to thank profusely to all those who have
helped us in completing the writing of this paper, to Dr. Serliah Nur, S.Pd, M.Hum,
M.Ed.,. as lecturer in Cross Culture Understanding for the support and motivation and
also to friends who have contributed their ideas and motivation for writing this paper.
We are fully aware that the many flaws in the writing of this paper, interms of
material, technical and presentation material. Therefore, we expectcriticism and
constructive suggestions to further refine the writing of this paper.Finally, we hope
that the writing of this paper can be useful for readers.

Gowa, 24th March 2020

The writer

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE.............................................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION..........................................................................
A. Background........................................................................................... 1
B. Problem formulation............................................................................. 1
C. Purpose of the paper.............................................................................. 1
CHAPTER II: DISCUSSION................................................................................
A. Language Universal Across Culture..................................................... 2
B. Language, Culture and Thought………….…………………………. 3
C.Assumption and Misunderstanding........................................................ 8
CHAPTER III: CONCLUSION............................................................................
A. Conclusion............................................................................................ 10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................... iv

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background
Language is a system of communication which consists of a set of
sound and written symbol wich are used by the people of a particulary
country of region for talking or writing. Language is nothing but human
subject manifest in meaningful intentional purpose of the individual
speaker.a language, on the contrary, is study coming from outside, from
the speech community, something offered to the speaking subject from the
tradition in the technique in speaking. The speech act is the performance
of intuition by the subject both individual and social.1
During study about language we also study about the relation with
the culture and also thought. In this paper we will talk about it farther
more. Not just it, but we will talk about the assumption that can make
someone misunderstand about what we have said.
B. Problem Statement
1. Is language universal cross culture?
2. What is the relationship between language, culture and thought?
3. How assumption can lead misunderstanding in language
communication?

C. Objective of the Paper

1. The readers can understand the language as universal cross culture.
2. The readers can open minded about the relationship between language,
culture and thought
3. The readers can get the reason about the different assumption can lead
misunderstanding in language communication

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Jesus martine Del Castillo,”The speech act as an act of knowing”, international Journal og
Language and Linguistics. Vol.3, No. 6-1, 2015
 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A. Language Universal Across Culture

A group of extraterrestrial observing our planet might assume that all
human beings rely on the same communication system, but from our
perspective as human, we tend to notice the differences among human
language. As a result we overlook the remarkable consistency across
human language (Hocket:1966). Noted a number of characteristics that
language share, this are often describe as a linguistic universals. Human
language is distinguished by these features from other system of
communication. Example for linguistic universals include the following :
1. Language is describe any two different sentences that we choose to
compare will differ in one or more specific feature. I ate a handful
of beans different from I ate a mouthful of beans in that morpheme
has changed.
2. Language is hierarchial, meaning, that small units are combined
into larger ones. Phonemes are combined into morphemes, which
combined into a phrase, which combined into a sentence.
3. All human language contain words that fall into different
grammatical categories, such as noun and verbs.
4. All language provide a way to create new sentences, making
number of possible sentences in any language infinite. This
creative property of language is a consequance of its discrete and
heararchial nature. Language contain rules about how to combine
discrete units. A new sentence always be created by adding a
phrase to an existing sentence.
5. Language have to be acquired . in other words, they are transmitted
culturally. As a human, we are not born knowing a particular
language, instead, we are born with ability to learn language based
on input from the environment.

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 The assumption is that our brain come prepared to learn
communication system that is discrete and heararchial, contains
grammatical categories, and so on. Language differ, in this view, only in
the details. The universality of language may extend to nonverbal gesture
that babies use to communicate. Studied the development of gesture of
infants from different culture, changes the use of different types of gesture
were as similar across groups.
B. Language, Culture and Thought
a. Language and Culture
Traditionally, language has been viewed as a vehicle of thought, a
system of expression that a person mediates the transfer of thought
from one person to another. (Finegan, Besiner, Blair, and Collins,
1992. p.3) Linguistically, language is defined as an arbitrary vocal
system used by human beings to communicate with one another.
( 1992. p. 9) Awhile, culture, in this context, is defined in the sense of
whatever a person must know in order to function in a particular
society, not in the sense of `high culture` like the appreciation of
music, literature, the arts, etc. Goodenough ( 1957, p. 167) gives the
definition of culture as ` a society`s culture consists of whatever it is
one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable
to its member, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one of
themselves.` In other words, culture is the `know how` that a person
must possess to get through the task of daily living. (Wardhaugh, 1998,
p. 215). There are some opinion that talks about language and culture
those are:
1. The Whorfian Hypothesis
One of the existed theories concerning the relationship
between language and culture was founded by Edward Sapir and
his student Benjamin Lee Whorf. This theory is known as Sapir-
Whorf hypothesis. Some sociolinguists tend to use the term
`Whorfian hypothesis` because the claim seems to be much more

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 concerned with Whorf than it does to Sapir. Based on this
hypothesis, the structure of a native language determines the way
in which speakers of that language view the world. The way of
thought of society is really determined by the language used.
(Wardhaugh, 216) Sapir in his book `Language` (1929, p. 207) as
quoted by Wardhaugh stated that human beings do not live in the
objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as
ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the
particular language which has become the medium of expression
for their society. (p. 216) This idea was extended and strengthened
by his student Benjamin Lee Whorf. Whorf stated that the
background linguistics system called `grammar` of each language
is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather
is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the
individual`s mental activity, for his analysis of impression, for his
synthesis for his mental stock in trade. Formulation of ideas is not
an independent process, strictly rational in the old sense, but is
part of a particular grammar, and differs from slightly to greatly,
between different grammar. (Carroll, 1956, pp. 212)
2. Kinship System
One thing that can show the way in which people use
language in daily living and show the relation between language
and culture is in the case of kinship system. Kinship system is a
universal feature of language because it is so important in social
organization. Some systems are much richer than others, but all
systems make use of such factors as sex, age, generation, blood,
and marriage. Different kinship system will carry idea on how
such people ought to call and behave towards others in the society
that uses that system. This can be shown through the vocabularies
used in different language. For example,the word ` family` in
English has the same meaning as `keluarga` in Indonesian. For

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 English, the word` family` includes husband, wife, and children.
In contrast, in Indonesian the word `keluarga` includes more than
husband, wife, and children. It rather includes grandparents,
uncle, aunt, cousin, niece, nephew and so on.(Sumarsono, 2009, p.
62)
3. Color Terminology
Color terminology has also been used to explore the
relationship between different language and culture. Sometimes
we cannot directly translate color words from one language to
another without introducing subtle changes in meaning, e.g.,
English `brown` and French `brun`.
All languages make use of basic color term. A basic color
term must be a single word, e.g., blue or yellow, not some
combination of words, e.g.,light blue or pole yellow. According to
Berlin and Kay (1969) in Wardaugh, an analysis of the basic color
terms found in a wide variety of languages reveals certain very
interesting patterns. If a language has only two terms, they are for
equivalents to black and white (or dark and light). If a third is
added, it is red. The fourth and fifth terms will be yellow and
green, but the other may be reserved. The sixth and seventh terms
are blue and brown. Finally, as in English, come terms like grey,
pink, orange, and purple, but not in any particular order. In this
view there are only eleven basic color terms. All other terms for
colors are combinations like greyish-brown, variation like scarlet,
modifications like fire-engine red, and finally the kinds of
designations favored by paint and cosmetic manufacturers.
Wardaugh, 1998. Pp. 230)
Two points about color terminology seem particularly
interesting. The color spectrum is an objective fact: it is “out
there”, waiting to be dealt with cognitively. Apparently, human
cognition is so alike everywhere that every one approaches the

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 spectrum in the same way. Moreover, as cultural and
technological change occur, it becomes more and more necessary
for people to differentiate within the color spectrum. Instead of
picking bits and pieces of spectrum at random as it were and
naming them, people, no matter what languages they speak,
progressively sub-devide the whole spectrum in a systematic way.
The second points are 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 manipulate than another. They find it
difficult to draw a line to separate that 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
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 parts 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 a behaviour always provided that
the appropriate color terms are in their languages.(Wardaugh,
231)
b. Language and Thought
The most widely discussed idea about the relationship between
though and language was proposed by Whorf (Carrol, 1956). Whorf
proposed that the way we think about the world could be affected by
the language that we know. Knowledge of a particular language could
limit the sort of concept and ideas about wich we can think. Base on
the research There different statement about language and thought.
First group explain that language as the basis of thought. Second group
explain that thought as basis of Language.

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1. Language and Speech As The Basis Of Thought
The opinion as explained by Edward Sapir supported by his
student, Benjamin Lee Whorf. Both explain that the language
affect to the thought. In other words, better people to mastery
language, better too the quality of thinking and to speak well.
Accordingly this statement, thought is not something different
from speech, but is actually a kind of speech that is not spoken
aloud. It is speech that controls what and how we think, thought
does not control we say. The reason of its opinion is In speech,
understanding come first than production. Normal children
learning a language understand speech before they are able to
meaningfully produce it. Researcher studying children have found
that the children understanding of speech is well in progress than
their ability to produce it. For example in one study children who
could say only single words such as ‘ball’, ‘truck’ ,’kiss’ and
‘smell’ could understand and entirely new structures composed of
more than one word, example ‘kiss ball’ and ‘smell truck’. We
know the children understood what was said to them because they
did what they were told to do-unusual acts of kissing a ball and
smelling a truck, things they had never done before. From this
research, it can conclude that speech production is not basis of
thought.
The other reason is that speech understanding by people with
speech disabilities. Those born without the ability to speak, they
have intellectually like a normal people. They can learn to
understand speech even though they cannot produce any. For
example the case of a 3 years old Japanese girl who was dumb
from birth but could hear and was normal in all other respects. The
fact that she could respond correctly to a variety of complex
commands proved that she could understand what was being said
to her. If someone said, “rie, put the red paper under the table“, “or

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 bring me a banana from the cupboard”, she could do it. In facts,
while she has never had the ability to produce speech, she can
think more creatively than a large majority of the speaking
population.
2. Thought As The Basis Of Language
The second groups have opinion, the mind is determines the
quality of language. This opinion is explained by Noam Chomsky.
Since human is born, people have supplied with thought and
language competence (language competence). In other words, the
basic language competence is innate by nature not as the result of a
learning process. The argument that support that opinion is Deaf
children without language can think. There are many deaf children
who do not begin to acquire language until a rather late age, often
after 3 or 4 years when they begin to attend special school.
However, if you were to observe young deaf children playing in a
playground, you would not notice much difference between them
and ordinary hearing children. They are not animalistic creatures.
At play and when participating in activities around the home, they
behave just as intelligently and rationally with respect to their
environment as do hearing children.

C. Assumption and Misunderstanding

Assumption is something that is believed to be true without proof.

A theory, guess, conjecture or hypothesis or supposition. While
misunderstanding is a failure to understand or interpret something
correctly caused by misinterpretation, misreading or delusion. When you
tell another person anything regarding what you will do you have to have
integrity between what you say you are going to do and what you actually
do. When this is lacking you will certainly set up a situation where
assumptions will be made and misunderstanding will occur.

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 Should we make assumption? And why do we make assumptions?
For starters we don't like uncertainty. We would rather create a story in
our own mind, no matter how false, about what is happening or might
happen than have this emptiness inside of our mind. Often these inner
stories have nothing to do with what is really going on but with time we
begin to convince ourselves that even though it's just that – a story we
have created or made up – that it's true. Another reason is that we lack the
ability or courage to just ask others for their reality. Keep in mind that
each of us has our own specific reality based on a number of factors. No
two people share exactly the same reality even if they have been married
for fifty years. Still another reason is our unwillingness to manage the fear
that fills everyone's mind and takes its toll in a variety of ways. These
fears are our way of trying to make sense of what we don't know. We
allow them to rule our inner thoughts and therefore our actions regardless
of whether they are true or not. They are just stories we tell ourselves to
try and have some degree of control of our uncertaint.

A misunderstanding is nothing more than our projection of what

we want to hear, believe is true or in some way, agrees with our personal
beliefs, opinions, values or mindsets. All misunderstanding is caused by
our inner perceptual filter that causes us to avoid what we don't accept,
believe or agree with. We want to hear X and the other person tells us their
X and we interpret it as Y. Misunderstanding is one of the most common
communication issues in all relationships. She said, he heard, he
responded, she reacted etc. He believes so he says, she wants to hear
something else so doesn't hear what he says but what she thinks he said or
wanted to believe he said. For example. The employee says he will get the
project done by Friday. The boss wants it done by today. So he interprets
Friday to mean the other person as saying as soon as I can or today. When
today ends and the project isn't complete – well you get the picture

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 CHAPTER III
CONCLUSSION
A. Conclussion
Base on the material we can understand that language differ, in this
view, only in the details. The universality of language may extend to
nonverbal gesture that babies use to communicate. Studied the
development of gesture of infants from different culture, changes the use
of different types of gesture were as similar across groups. About the
relation between language and culture we can see one of the hypothesis by
Whorfian said that the structure of a native language determines the way in
which speakers of that language view the world. Or we can learn also by
the kinshp language theory or color terminology theory. In other side we
can understand also about the relation between language an thought that
someone said that language is the basic of thought or the opposite. The last
we can open minded about assumption that can make us misunderstanding
about the meaning of the word. In case of sample, like if someone make a
wrong pronounciation when mention a word.

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 REFERENCES

Nur, Serliah.2016.” Cross Cultural Understanding”Makassar: Alauddin Univeruty Press.

Finegan, Edward, Besiner, Niko, Blair, David and Collins, Peter. 1992. “Language
`It`s Structure and Use`” .Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Group Ltd. Australia.

Wardhaugh, Ronald. 1998. “An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Third edition”.

Blackwell Publishers Ltd. UK

Sumarsono, M.Ed, Dr, Prof. 2009. “Sosiolinguistik”. Pustaka Fajar, Sabda. Cileban
Timur, Yogyakarta.

Mifflin,H.2000 `Taxonomy Life` taken from http://www.

Answers.com/topic/Taxonomy.xzz lackyqih B/;Monday, October 3th, 09.00 PM.