LESSON 1: General Introduction

This course language and Culture will engage students in the close analysis and
interpretation of cultural representations, to learn how people make sense of
themselves and their world. Students will understand how cultural meaning are
conveyed through the various linguistic element employed by people and how
things are categorize. They will critically evaluate and develop arguments about
cultural representations or the contexts that produce them or give them meaning.
They will demonstrate skills of effective communication and analysis, and also
relate them to Nigerian languages and cultures.

LESSON 2: DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE

Language is an unlimited system of signs that are associated with meaning, use for
communicating thoughts, emotions and cognitive function by all human societies.

There is no communication and interaction without the use of language, language

plays a vital role in human interactions. It is a medium for all social relation. The
people in any society use language for many purposes. Language performs
important functions in the society, without language association communication
and meaning becomes difficult. Language system is unlimited, it keeps expanding
all the time, reason we get new variety of words every day.

Going by the relationship with people, language is a way to experience the culture
of the people. If a foreigner visits Igbo land without knowing what their culture
looks like in terms of language, dressing, arts, food, music e.t.c, it will be difficult
to be part of the people because part of the experience will not be complete without
talking with the people in their own language, identifying with them in their
cultural dress and having a taste of their food.

DEFINITION OF CULTURE

Culture is a shared pattern among a particular group of people at a particular time.

This common pattern of people makes it easier to interpret and understand the
world around them. Culture is an imprint of identity that helps human to create
their future, connect with their present and interpret their past. Culture brings about
development and change. Culture makes the society civilized and united. Through
culture the instrumental needs of the society and the symbolic and integrative
needs of both individual and the society are met.

Culture is part of people’s lives which influence their world views, value and belief
system. It’s very difficult for group of people living together without creating a
custom, art, social code. These are forms culture manifest among people.

THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Understanding the connection between Language and culture is very important to

interpretation of thought, language users, and for the understanding of the society
we live in. Both are intertwined, and one will affect the other.

Language is related to culture in that language is an aspect of culture. Other aspects

include belief system, values, customs and traditions and so on.

Language is the most important way of staying connected with people from
different cultures. Learning language opens door to socialization and links people
from different race and culture together.

Thirdly, language is an instrument used to express thought. Language expresses

cultural realities- words people utter refer to their common experience, journey
about life, belief system, of a society or their world view which is part of their
culture and are often reflected in their language.

Fourthly, language embodies cultural realities. Which means the medium human
create social experiences and values are perceived and understood through their
language medium. So meaning is given to language through the medium people
choose to communicate with others. Eg visual or audio, written, letter or face-to-
face, these means of communication create meaning that are understandable to a
group people belong.

Language symbolizes cultural realities- it’s a symbol of social identity, speaker

identify themselves and others through their use of language. As a system of sign,
it has cultural value accepted by group of speakers that use it. Each group be it
social, religious or occupational has code that identifies them. So a rejection or
prohibition in the use of such code is a rejection of the group and their culture.

Language Affecting Culture

Language is formed to represent people’s ideas or concepts; these can change

depending on which cultural elements are dominant at a given period. As language
changes overtime the culture of the people is bound to change with language
simultaneously. Just like when new words are added to a language they alter the
culture and expand its practice.

Language affecting culture in a language has a restricted interpretation. Language

do connote cultural meanings, in a situation a mere mention of the word people
would represent certain fixed cultural meaning, E.g okada rider, policeman, a
mere mention of the word one thinks the job is restricted to men, because culturally
women job roles are restricted, also cultural people think such jobs are reserved
for men. Even till date there are activities people still believe women can’t take up.
In my growing up I never saw a woman serve mason worker before in Igbo land,
my first experience of seeing women serve in construction site was in Ibadan,
labourer work was so common among women in Ibadan.

Culture Affecting Language

Culture is part of Culture creates things that need to be named and adapted for use
to identify important cultural words, E.g. Computer system came with many names
for computer related things into our lexicon like computer, HP, SAMSUNG;
Cuisine- Pizza, Burgger, Shawarma; Disease- Covid 19, HIV. So by introducing
new cultural stuff that needs to be named it changes a language as well as expand
it. All these emerged new words identify with particular cultural activities of the
people in the new environment.
EVIDENCE OF HUMAN LANGUAGE

Human language is unique among all forms of animal communication, human

system of communication includes vocalization, hand gesture or sign language,
body language. In human communication people express thoughts by combining
sets of words to form limitless number of thoughts of spoken words in sentences.
In all these communication is fundamental to human. It is so unique that it is quite
unlike any other communication system. Going by this we ask ourselves what do
we have as evidence of human language? What makes human language distinctive
in nature among other creatures?

1) Human language is verbal and vocal, it produce sounds from the mouth through
the help of organs of speech. The produced sounds form words which are
structured to form phrases, arranged to form sentences that convey some
meaningful messages.
2) Moreover, Human language is symbolic, it contains symbols, characters,
images use for communication which represent a concept, and they convey
deep meaning. Generally this mean that specific symbol, character, image can
be matched with specific meaning. This validate every human language has an
object it stands for or represents in the world.
3) Human language is systemic in nature, by systemic we mean words are
arranged in a particular system. There are rules that guide the formation of
words, sentence structure in human language. Formation of sentence are not
done haphazardly, it must conform to certain rules or combinations.
4) It’s the means of communication, human transmit messages, interact, build
relation, store knowledge, use it to express themselves in thoughts, emotion,
desires and feelings. Thus human language is a social act that yoke people,
social group together, without it human relation will difficult.
5) Furthermore, every human language is learnable, user of a language has the
ability to ‘’learn other variants of the system’’. Speakers of one language have
the capacity learn other dialects or language with easy.
LESSON 3: LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS

During conversation there are elements that help in conveying meaning and
enhance communication between interlocutors, these elements are used to
communicate ‘how we mean”, “what we say”, and “what we think we are doing at
each moment in a conversation”. These ways of speaking operate whenever people
talk with each other. They are seen as conversational devices that exist in every
human communication but may not be visible in conversation. The usage of
linguistic elements gives rise to meaning which vary from culture to culture and
affect what happens when speakers from different cultural background interact. In
most cases, difference in linguistics element brings about friction and
miscommunication. There are many areas which culture influences; they are from
geographic region, ethnic group, social class, profession, and gender, these cultural
influence affected words, expression, intonation, turn-taking habits and other
linguistic aspect of speaker’s choice and “what they mean”. According to Deborah
Tannen communication tends to be understood and enhanced when people share
expectation about the linguistic elements, but in a situation habits and expectations
are not shared the consequences are;

1). Listener may misunderstood or misinterpret what is said.

2). Secondly our intentions and ability maybe misjudged.

LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS AND HOW THEY VARY FROM CULTURE TO

CULTURE

TOPIC:- It’s what we talk about, the central point of a discussion. Topic involves
what is appropriate to discuss, what is not appropriate and the choice of words.
There are phenomena or socio cultural topics that reflect in a language. For
example In Igbo land sex topics are considered inappropriate for discussion in
certain context or totally forbidden and may hardly be discussed openly with an
outsider, but westerners are honest they openly discuss any sexual topic of their
choices free to express among themselves and this may pass as being open and real
while their African counterpart is seen as secretive and unexposed.
AGONISM:- it’s a format use during adversary to score point and perhaps win an
argument. It’s a indirect opposing an idea without literally fighting for it. We agon
our opinion or vehemently oppose ideas of someone. Such project dominance and
hegemony, most people will likely withdraw from conversation which agonism
thrives.

AMPLITUDE, PITCH, AND TONE OF VOICE:- this is the level of loudness

and quality of voice Joined with the quality of voice. It’s seen in loudness or
softness, High or low. The pitch level of people conveys meaning to hearer,
culturally in African a loud tone conveys noisiness, terror, anger, dissatisfaction to
the hearer, which means things must be done appropriately and properly. Low
pitch indicates worries, hunger or sleepy state. To a German it means enthusiasm,
passionate.

INTONATION:- this is the variation in pitch level of voice, that is the rise and
fall in pitch and tone of voice during speech. Different languages follow different
set of intonation rules as that helps in verbal understanding and to signal meaning
among speakers. In western some countries eg Uk, USA it’s used to carry shades
of meaning when an utterance ends with raising pitch it signals a question or an
invitation or signals agreement in form of reply (such as mhm or uhuh) but when
the pitch or intonation goes down its accepted as a statement. Africa don’t really
explore such linguistic element in conversation, we relatively have flat intonation.

OVERLAP/INTERRUPTION:- This meaning talking into each other during

conversation (speaking at the same time), this means snatching the floor away from
a speaker. Talking into each other during conversation could mean a Nigerian has
something important to contribute, or showing lack of patient, unlike western
culture that sees it as being rude and disrespectful.

TURN- TAKING:- This is taking turn to speak or have the floor. In conversation
turn taking is between two persons or more people, you speak the other person
speak or reply, they observe turn in speaking. People use different linguistic
elements (register/vocabulary) to signal when they done speaking to usher in next
speaker. In Igbo we such as o kwa ya, ngwanu, ihotago, eziokwu.

INDIRECTNESS:- indirect communication convey information implicitly, this is

done through references and connection that is indirectly. Here speaker may use
figurative or euphemism to convey meaning. Most African speakers use
indirectness in speech, in Igala in Kogi state, they don’t say the king is dead, its
culturally wrong or forbidden to say their king died, when referring to death they
will say “the king has embarked on a journey”, meaning “the king has died”, but
British will say “he kicked the bucket”, meaning he has died.

FRAMING- is “the way of speakers communicate what they think they are doing
in a particular interchange, and how to interpret what they say” (Deborah Tannen).
Just like we frame a picture, i.e create a border around a picture, we form an
enclosed item/object, that is how framing structures perception of a thing, concept
and society. Framing is the way we perceive or communicate our reality to our
listener. I will say Framing is a projection of a concept by a speakers.

It is a mental process that signals what a word means in conversation outside its
literal meaning. It varies from culture to culture, people from different culture
though not knowing the language may break the frame (misinterpret information)
due to lack of background knowledge.

These ways of speaking operate whenever people talk to each other, they are very
important in communication because of meaning they convey. It has been observed
that systemic differences in the use of these linguistic phenomena in conversations
have real-world consequences in communication.

LESSON 4: BASIC LEVEL CATEGORIES

Human beings are categorizing beings. When we have an encounter in our

environment, we tend to categorize things like, objects, event, organism or human.
This categorization is necessary for action and for our survival; for instance, if you
meet a tiger and you mistake it for a big domestic cat, the consequence may be
disastrous. This implies that our ability to categorize the world has survival value.
The categorization of objects and events take place unconsciously most of the time.
It is also a remarkably fast cognitive process. The conceptual categories we
establish

There is basic level of vocabulary we use in name and categorize things such as
chair, car, they are basic because they cognitively ‘basic’ in the sense that they
provide us with the most direct conceptual access to the object in the world.
(Lakoff 1987). This cognitive prominence of basic level categories is strongly
reflected in languages. Furthermore, this basic level categories are not only basic
from cognitively but from linguistic point of view. The name of the basic level
category will generally be the term most frequently used on things in natural
language.

Superordinate Category –Animals, Furniture

Specific Subordinate Category – Hawk, Dinning Table/Chair

Basic Level Category – eg Bird, Table/Chair

Basic level categories and their properties

Categories at the basic level are characterized by a number of consistent properties.

First, It is at the basic level that people are fastest in identifying category members
example chair, table, dog etc.

Second, It is the highest level at which category members have similar overall
shapes. For instance, we have a good idea of the overall shape of a chair but it is
hard to think of the shape of a furniture.

Third, it is the highest level at which we interact with category members using the
same motor actions. We do not know how to act in relation to the category of
furniture in general but we precisely know how to typically interact with chairs:
that is we can easily demonstrate the type of action we perform in connection with
chair (as when we sit on them).

Fourth, this is the communicatively most important level in a variety of ways: This
is the level with the most commonly used label for category members. Basic level
terms like cat, dog, flower and ball are probably much more common in everyday
use than either sub ordinate or super ordinate category names. The basic level is
first used by children and it is also the first level that appears historically in a
language.
Fifth, this is the highest level at which a large number of attributes are given for
categories. For instance, the attributes for chair are more likely to be listed than
that of furniture. Summarily, a category is basic in terms of five important
dimensions of experience namely identification, perception (i.e.) similar overall
shape, action, communication and knowledge.

CULTURAL CATEGORISES

They are backbone of language and thought. In addition, much of our meaning
making capacities depend on the system of conceptual categories we acquire. The
ability to categorize is shared by people everywhere no matter where they live or
the culture they belong to. Human beings categorize their environment in a wide
variety of ways. Thus while people share the same cognitive capacity to categorize,
the product of this categorization is far from being uniform.

How do we acquire categories?

The processes involved in category acquisition can be described in five (5)

steps.

The first step is to form a structural description of the entity. The keyword
here is perception. We perceive the most primitive properties of an entity we
encounter. This perceptual information may be surfaces, weight, vertical or
horizontal extension, roughness or softness etc. For example, the structural
description for chair in this sense would include surfaces like the seat, the back and
the arm.

The second step is to search for category representation similar to the

structural description. Recall the structural description for chair……. . In
searching for category representation that is similar to the description of chair,
what can we find?

The third step involves selecting the most similar category representation.
Here decision is made about the category in memory that best fits the structural
description at hand. Using the example of chair, the category representation
associated with chair will be selected to categorize the entity in question.
The fourth step is to draw inferences about the entity. Given the resulting
categorization (whether we classify the entity as bed or chair), we can draw
inferences base on the knowledge associated with the category. Thus if we classify
an entity as chair or bed or couch, we infer that we lie on the bed and sit on the
couch.

The fifth step is to store information about categorization made: Usually each
time we categorize something, the categorization process provides information that
we will make use of to update the category already in memory. We will rely on
such memories when we encounter similar entities and categorize them in a
particular way

Theories of categorization

Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized,

differentiated, and understood. Categorization implies that objects are grouped into
categories, usually for some specific purpose. Ideally, a category illuminates a
relationship between the subjects and objects of knowledge. Categorization is
fundamental in language, prediction, inference, decision making and in all kinds of
environmental interaction. The issue of category representation amounts to the
issue of the different theories of categorization

Three (3) theories of categorization namely:

*Classical categorization

*Prototype categorization

*Exemplar models

In Classical categorization, categories are defined by essential features. This

model is known as the classical view because it represents the most traditional
ideas concerning categorization which dates back to Greek antiquity. Under this
model, things in the world are described by solely essential features while
accidental or peripheral features play no role in what a category really is.
Under the model, the category man [human males] for instance, is defined by a set
of essential features such as HUMAN ADULT MALE.

Woman would have the feature HUMAN ADULT FEMALE. Given this view, it
follows that what holds a category together is that members of the category all
share the same feature. In addition, all category members have sharp and rigid
boundaries.

In Prototype categorization, what holds a category together is family resemblance

relations among the different members. This is opposed to Classical categorization.
In this model, categories are represented in the mind by prototype. A prototype
according to Barsalou (1992:28) is a single centralized category representation.
Such single centralized representation arises from properties that are
representatives of particular exemplars. For example, the category PHONE cannot
be said to have a fixed essential feature for all its members, rather members are
held together by sharing a particular property with some members and another
property with other members. The category PHONE include Iphone,
Samsung,Tecno, Infinix etc.

The third theory of categorization is the exemplar model. Under this view,
categorization is based on specific exemplar memories, that is, memories of
specific exemplars of a category. Here people do not generalize their exemplar
memories into an abstract prototype but rather they have a loose collection of
exemplar memories associated with a category name. In addition, in exemplar
model, an entity is assigned to a category on the basis of its similarity to exemplar
memories. For instance, one’s category for chair will be a loose collection of the
person’s memories of all the chairs he/she has encountered.

LESSON 5: CLASSIFIER SYSTEMS

Classifier systems - this is just a grammatical means to show the linguistic

categorization of Nouns and Norminals in a construction. To an extent it shows
‘how people categorize the world through their language in terms of universal
semantic parameter involving humanness, animacy, sex, shape, form consistency ,
and functional property’. (Aikhenvald 2000)
Classifier on its own is morphemes or words that accompanies noun and classify a
noun on the type of its referent in construction. Classifier occurs in languages
when nouns are counted, possessed, modifies another noun, on locative adposition,
acquire deictics and articles, etc.

Classifier constructions are morphosyntactic unit which occur/ maybe in noun

phrase of different kinds, verbal phrases and clauses. They must require the
presence of a particular kind of a morpheme due to the semantic characteristics of
the referent of the head of the noun phrase,

TYPES OF CLASSIFIER adopted from (Alexander Aikhenvald 2000)

Noun classifier is when a noun in an NP modifies the head noun as seen in the
Bantu, a South African language. Here it has one or more nouns that modifiers the
head word noun.

A menin-a bonit-a
ART:FEM.SG child-FEM.SG beautiful-FEM.SG
‘The beautiful girl’
Numeral classifier are special morphemes that appear next to a numeral , or a
quantifier in a sentence. They in some cases ‘categorize the referent of a noun in
terms of its animacy, shape, and other inherent properties. As seen in Yiding, an
Australian language below.

Bama waguju
CLPERSON Man
‘a man’
Possessive/ possessed classifier is a special morpheme that characterizes a
possessed noun in a possessive construction. As seen in Tarian, a South African
language.

Tfinu nu- ite

Dog 1SG.CL:ANIMATE
‘My dog’
Relational classifier is when a special morpheme in a possessive construction may
characterize the way in which the referent of a possessed noun relates to that of the
possessor. As seen in Fijian, an Austronesian language.

Na no-qu yagona
ART CL:GENERAL-my kava
My kava ( that I grew, or that I will sell.

Verbal classifier this kind of classifier appear on the verb but they categorise a
noun which is typically in S intransitive subject or direct object function in terms
of its shape, consistency, and animacy, as seen in Waris, a Pupuan language

Eg. Sa ka-m put-ra-ho-o

Coconut Iso-to VCL: ROUND-GET-BENEFACT-IMPERATIVE
‘Give me a coconut’ (lit. ‘coconut to-me round. one give’)

Locative classifier this is rare kind of classier just like Deictic classifier, it occurs
on locative adpositions.

Eg. Pi- wan min

Zso-arm on+VERT
On your (vertical) arm

Deictic classifier it’s associated with deictics and articules some examples; this,
that, you, here, on there. As seen in Mandab, a Siouan language,

Eg. De- mak

This one (lying)
LESSON 6: THE CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND FRAMING

Language, culture and framing are very important concepts in interaction, they
work together to determine meaning. We have talked about language and culture
exhaustively to an extent but let us examine framing, because it governs all the
other linguistic signals we are going to discuss.

Framing is the way speaker communicate what they think they are doing in a
particular interchange , and how to interpret what they are saying.

An anthropologist Gregory Bateson 1955 come up with the frame concept when
he went to zoo and saw how two young monkeys were playing, Bateson ask
himself how the monkeys and viewers seeing the aggressiveness to each other
(biting themselves) still arrive to the meaning that they are “playing” and not
“fighting”. So playing and fighting are alternate frames that determine how the
bite could be interpreted. So Bateson concluded that whereas the bite was the
message (the literal meaning of the action) those monkeys together communicated
to each other a metamessage (the play) that signaled how the bites were meant.
The metamessage signals a frame- the interpretation of what the monkeys were
doing which is play against what we see as fighting (bite each other).

In every conversation between people utterance is framed by a metamessage that

signals how the utterance is intended. In Nigeria people do say “I am very rich or
they have full pocket” this phrase signals a metamessage that the speaker is
“financially flat/broke”, here the participants in conversation understand not just
what is said but what is going on which means the speaker needs “urgent financial
help”. So to understand and interpret the message clearly, the conversationalist
must be part of the culture of the speaker and knows how the linguistic features
frame an utterance.

The concept of framing helps individuals understand various social issues by

showing how language and culture are intertwined, and that interpretation of
meaning can’t be through language alone, culture plays a role. One can’t interpret
meaning through language without signaling metamessage, this metamessage is
interpreted culturally, if there are culture difference among speakers interpretation
will be difficult because they don’t share same cultural knowledge.

FRAMING AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Social inequality is one of the consequences of breaking a frame
(misunderstanding meaning). It results when there are miscommunication due to
differences in Social and cultural backgrounds of speakers. Social inequality here
means the cultural differences in language use that leads to discrimination of
people from different social class. During conversation tiny linguistic feature that
frame utterances play huge part in conveying meaning and in negotiating
relationships between individuals and the between cultural groups (Tennen).It is
important to note that difference in linguistic elements contribute to
misinterpretation, misunderstanding.

LESSION 7: CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND MEANING

CREATION

Cross cultural communication and meaning creation is about the language

difference between cultures, how meaning travels across countries to create
meaning, and how language shapes ways speakers perceive and order their world.
Meaning is examined in culturally specific way or can be generalized across
cultures. Communication across cultures involves having a broader knowledge
across cultures, good values, beliefs, and perception. Cross cultural ability is very
important for meaning creation, survival and self development. It helps people to
understand different frame system, making them to be flexible in thinking and
behaviour, as well as reacting efficiently when in contact with other cultural
background. Cultural cues lead to effective cross-cultural verbal communication.

In some cultural communication meaning relies on many factors like, linguistic

elements, context, non- verbal cues as body language, silence, and pause rather
than spoken or written language-that is meaning is implied, most occurrence is in
high-context cultures, here personal relations and informal relation are important to
meaning creation, in contrast is low-context cultures where message is explicit
with spoken and written words. EXAMPLE, A white American and African have
different meaning to verbal aggression, to a white it’s threatening and offensive
whereas blacks see it as normal and a sign of engagement, provided a provocative
movement that preempts fight has not begun, but whites see intense atmosphere
with verbal abuse/insult as well as fight, while to a black its normal.

POLITENISS AND INTERACTION- in any interpersonal relationship how

words are used, what words express and how we express them determine how we
communicate and negotiate for social relationship. There are norms and
expectation on what to say, to whom and when, these vary from culture to culture.
POLITENESS is speech acts that express concern for others and minimize threats
to self-esteem (face) in particular social context (Nordquist 2020). By this we
mean politeness is an act of consciousness of the face of another individual. What
we say to people in any social interaction matters a lot, Politeness allows people to
perform some interpersonal sensitive actions in a non threatening manner.

A man entering into a room and saying “it’s a little bit hot here” has politely
passed a message that someone should “open the widow”.

POLITENESS STRTEGIES

Positive politeness strategies intend to bring about friendliness and avoid

offenses. It involves criticism with compliments, establishing common ground,
using special discourse marker (please) using jokes, nicknames, honorifics, tag
questions, using social group jargon and slang.

Negative politeness strategies are intended to avoid giving offense by displaying

deference. They include hedging, questioning and presenting disagreement as
opinion.

Face saving theory of politeness Face-saving is an action designed not to cause

embarrassment to a person while holding a negotiation or a conversation (Folger,
Poole & Stutman, 2008).In conversation speakers put in efforts to avoid
embarrassments between involved parties. It’s part of negation process that
explains the need and role of politeness in negotiation and conflict resolution as
well as how other cultures manage conflict, interact, and communicate. It shows
how people from different cultures handle conflicts. This theory revolves round the
concept of face or social value, both to one’s self and another.
CONVERSATION STYLES is the way in which we share information with
others through language. It involves using different elements like turn- taking,
indirectness, question asking, etc.

Deborah Tannen (1984) outlined two major types of conversational styles.

Conversation styles shape the communicative behaviour of individual speakers: a
high-involvement style and the opposing high-considerateness style. (please read
up from your material).

Types of conversational style

1) Direct (ASSERTIVE) is a style which includes explicit messages that

express clearly the speaker’s intentions, here individuals clearly state their
opinions and feelings firmly without violating the rights of others, they are
respectful and direct in their demand.

2) Indirect (passive) is a style in which individuals avoiding expressing their

opinions or feelings directly, use an indirect style with ambiguous messages
and mask their intentions and needs. Individuals involved do not respond
overtly to hurtful or anger-inducing situations.

CONVERSATION RITUAL is how we expect an interaction to go in general

during exchange, how we expect an utterance to follow in sequence. It’s just the
expected/recurring patterns of a conversation whose meaning or social function is
not what it appears to be.

COMPLEMENTARY SCHISMOGENESIS occurs when two speakers with

differing styles interact and drive one another to more and more extreme
expression of divergent ways of speaking in an ever-widening spiral. It is an
ambiguous (neither yes or no) reply to a direct simple question, which leads to the
initiator to look for more clarification on the answer. E.g, in a conversation
between Nigerian speakers, speaker 1 may ask “do you have transport to go
home?”, the speaker 2: will reply “do you want to give me money?”. The speaker
1: may push further by asking “are you trying to tell me you don’t have any money
with you to go home?”, The speaker 2: will reply “did you give me any money and
I reject it?”. So the conversation goes in extreme circumlocution without a definite
answer.

Complementary schismogenesis was coined by Gregory Bateson ([1935] 1972) to

describe how divergent cultures come into contact, there by each going opposite
each other in pattern of behaviour. This is an aspect of cross cultural
communication behaviour, that interferes in meaning, exposure to people from a
different culture would lead to mutual accommodation and understanding each
other better during communication.

LESSON 8: LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL RELATIVITY

The key point is whether language influence thoughts or thoughts influence

language and cultural relevance. How much does our culture influence the way we
think? To what extent do language and culture interpenetrate and influence one
another? The notion that language shapes thinking is what gave rise to Sapir-
Whorf hypothesis. In this lesson we will discuss about linguistic universalism,
Linguistic determinism, and linguistic relativity.

The Origin

The controversial theories, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is named after its original

proponent, Benjamin Lee Whorf, and his teacher, the anthropological linguist
Edward Sapir. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis holds that the particular language
we speak determines or influences our thought s and perceptions of the world.
In 1929, Sapir wrote:

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone nor 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….. We see
and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language
habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation

Theories of Language and Culture

Linguistic Determinism is a strong hypothesis of Sapir-Whorf which has the idea
that the language you speak determines how you think. The theory has been
influential in attempting to explain the relationship between culture and language
as a means of interpreting social reality. According to Lyons (2003), one’s
knowledge of one’s native language is culturally transmitted or culturally acquired
by virtue of one’s membership of a particular society. Linguistic determinism
holds that “language determines thought”. This view posits that there is an
interdependence of language and thought. In other words, since languages have
different ways of describing the world, there is a relationship between the language
you have learned and the way you perceive the world. In its extreme sense, the
language you have learned will determine the way you view the world, your social
reality. One of the examples provided to support this view is the reflection of the
type of physical environment a society lives on the lexicon. For example, the
number of words the Eskimos have to describe the term snow is significantly more
than that of the British or other geographical contexts that experience snow. In
English, there is just one word for it, but for the Eskimos there are several, and the
view is that because it is winter for them all year round, their world view is
organised around their experiences and this is reflected in the way their language is
organised. The Inuit can think more intelligently about snow because their
language contains more sophisticated and subtle words distinguishing various
forms of it. Similarly, the Bedouin Arabic has a significantly large lexicon for the
word camel compared to other similar societies.

Linguistic Relativity - is a second proposition of Sapir and Whorf hypothesis. It

was under this hypothesis that both propositions (determinism and relativity) were
brought together. Linguistic relativity posits that “there is no limit to structural
diversity of languages”, meaning that different languages encode different
categories and that speakers of different languages therefore think about the world
in different ways. This hypothesis is generally regarded as a weaker form of the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis surmises that

(1) We can only experience our world in terms of the categories and distinctions
provided by our language.
(2) The categories and distinctions in each language are unique to it and cannot be
measured with those of other language systems.

This explains that culture through language affects the way we think especially our
classification of the experienced world. The principle of linguistic relativity holds
that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its respective speakers
conceptualize their world, i.e. their world view, or otherwise influences their
cognitive processes. For instance, different languages break up the colour spectrum
at different points. In Navaho language, blue and green are one word. Zuni
language does not distinguish between yellow and orange. Languages also differ
with regards to how they express location. In Italian, you ride “in” a bicycle and
you go “in” a country but in English it is not the same, in English you ride “on” a
bicycle and go “into” a country.

As linguists and anthropologists, Edward Sapir, and his student Benjamin Whorf
developed the hypothesis based on their study of American Indians in the 1930s.
Sapir was of the view that the real world (a group’s social reality) is based on the
language habits of the group. In other words, the language of a group predisposes
the group to interpret the world in certain ways. Whorf further claimed that
language conditions the way we view our world and different language groups
view the world differently as dictated by their different languages. The significance
of this observation is that language differences bring about cultural differences. In
the study of the American Indians Whorf observed that there was a distinction
between animate and inanimate categories in the grammar of the Hopi language.
Clouds and stones were categorized as animate, and so Whorf concluded that the
Hopi viewed clouds and stones as living things by virtue of the way the language
was organized.

Linguistic universalism assumes that “human thought is significantly similar

across all cultures- that humankind shares certain “psychic unity” – and that since
language is a reflection of human thought, all languages are significantly similar as
far as their conceptual categories are concerned”. This implies that all people all
over the world basically think in the same way, meaning there are universal
linguistic concepts (linguistic conceptualization) which occur in all languages. This
theory is actually in parallel with Sapir and Whorf hypothesis.
Conclusion

From the explanation from the theories of language and culture, scholars are
arguing the universal components of language may not be culturally conditioned,
even though language shapes our thoughts. However, the content of language such
as naming of objects may be culturally conditioned to reflect the social reality of
the group. As such, the relationship between language and culture is a dynamic
one, rather than one determining the other.

References

Aikhenvald A.Y. (2000) Classifiers: A Typology of Noun Categorization Devices.

Oxford University Press.

Dumbrava, G.(2010 ) “The Concept of Framing in Cross-Cultural Business

Communication” Body Language in Business Communication, Annals of the
University of Petrosani. Economics, 10 (1), University Publishing House,
Petrosani,pp. 83-90.

Fromkin, Victoria (et al) (2003). An Introduction to Language. Seventh Edition.

U.S.A: Heinle.

Lyons, John (1981). Language and Linguistics: An Introduction. United Kingdom:

Cambridge University Press.

Yule, George (2002). The Study of Language. Cambridge University Press.

Yusuf, Ore (ed.) (1999). Introduction to Linguistics. Ilorin Texts in Linguistics,

Language and Literature. Department of Linguistics: University of Ilorin.