General about language and culture

Key Ideas of Unit 1

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General about language and
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1 Key points about understanding what is a language. 2

2 What exactly is culture? 3

3 The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 5

4 Phonology and Morphology 6

5 Phonetics & phonology 8

6 General conclusions 10
7 Bibliography 11

Developing
Key points about understanding what is a language.
A learner’s understanding of the language and culture relationship is essential. Culture and
language are inextricably linked. You can’t understand a culture without first learning a
language.
A specific language is usually associated with a particular group of people. You interact with
the culture of the language’s speaker when you communicate in their language.
Learning a foreign language entail learning the alphabet, word order, and grammar rules.
Also, learning about the culture and norms of the target community.
When learning or teaching a language, it’s vital to understand the culture in which it’s spoken
since language is deeply rooted in culture.
Language is a system of “speech, manual, or written symbols” that humans use to
communicate. It enables us to communicate, interpret, and play. Language helps us to share
with others and identify ourselves.
The roots of human language remain a mystery. Linguists agree that the first humans,
the homo sapiens, used some spoken language. Yet, there is no record of this early language
to show us how the speech started.
Who invented language?

Language came about and evolved over time in order for humans to survive and develop. It
was first invented and used by Homo sapiens, but researchers don’t know exactly when.
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Language likely began somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago.
How did language evolve?
Animals may not be able to form words, but they can certainly communicate. Birds use songs
and calls, and other animals use a combination of sounds and movements to communicate.
Primates have an advanced system of communication that includes vocalization, hand
gestures and body language. But even primates stop short of what man has been able to
achieve -- spoken language. Our ability to form a limitless number of thoughts into spoken
word is one of the things that separates us from animals.
The other competing theory, posed by linguist Noam Chomsky and evolutionary biologist
Stephen Jay Gould, is that language evolved as a result of other evolutionary processes,
essentially making it a byproduct of evolution and not a specific adaptation. (By: Charles
W. Bryant Updated: Apr 29, 2021.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/language-
evolve.htm#:~:text=Chomsky%20and%20Gould%20hypothesize%20that,also%20good%2
0for%20complex%20communication.)
What Exactly Is Culture?
A group of people’s characteristics and patterns of behavior define their culture. Language,
arts, and customs are the basic categories we use to characterize culture.
Culture, on either side, is much more than that. Culture teaches us how to think,
communicate with others, and perceive our surroundings. This is your cultural perspective.

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What Is The Relation Between Culture And Language?

 Depending on where you grew up, the paralanguage will be different..
 Body language that conveys conflict in one country sometimes views as supportive in
another. This is why it could trigger miscommunication between ethnic groups.
 Pitch, intonation, speech rate, facial expressions, and hesitation noises are examples
of paralanguage. It has a significant influence on the language you use.
 If you’re bilingual, you’ve noticed how your voice “shifts” when you speak many
languages. You can also note that your gestures or even attitudes change as a result of
this.

Language, on the other hand, is a resource that allows you to communicate your
culture. In reality, language uses to convey cultural ideas and beliefs.
Furthermore, both culture and language allow us to look backward in history. Also,
it helps to shape our thoughts.

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Language And Culture Relationship – Final Thoughts

The more you think about a language’s cultural context, the faster you will learn it. If
you aim to learn a foreign language, keep in mind that cultural awareness will be an
essential part of the learning process.
You must understand socio-cultural factors. And learn how to approach people in
that foreign language to get language skills. To summarize a long story, language
and culture are closely related.

 The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, also known as the linguistic relativity hypothesis,
refers to the proposal that the particular language one speaks influences the way one
thinks about reality. Linguistic relativity stands in close relation to semiotic-level
concerns with the general relation of language and thought, and to discourse-level
concerns with how patterns of language use in cultural context can affect thought.
Linguistic relativity is distinguished both from simple linguistic diversity and from
strict linguistic determinism. The long history of the hypothesis is sketched with an
emphasis on the hierarchical formulations’ characteristic of most early efforts. This
is followed by a description of the work of Sapir and Whorf which departs markedly
from this earlier tradition and has been influential in the contemporary period, hence
the association of their names with the issue. Whorf's basic argument about
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analogical influences is outlined in some detail. Despite widespread interest, quality

empirical research has been in short supply. Recent efforts to remedy this are
described. The research is divided into structure-centered, domain-centered, and
behavior-centered types, depending on their manner of approaching the problem. The
contemporary period has seen a rapid improvement in the quality of some of these
efforts. Current trends likely to characterize future research are briefly characterized.
Sourse: J.A. Lucy, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral
Sciences, 2001
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/sapir-whorf-
hypothesis#:~:text=The%20Sapir%E2%80%93Whorf%20hypothesis%2C%20also,
way%20one%20thinks%20about%20reality.

Phonology and Morphology

Major Branches of Linguistics

This diagram below outlines the various subfields of linguistics, the study of
language. These include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and
pragmatics. And today we are going to talk about phonology and morphology.

 Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects

systematically organize their sounds (or constituent parts of signs, in sign languages).
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The term also refers to the sound or sign system of any particular language variety.
At one time, the study of phonology only related to the study of the systems of
phonemes in spoken languages.
 Every language has an organized sound system. Phonology is concerned with
processes in the mind, determining the rules of a language and how we organize,
study and form sounds in speech.


Source: https://study.com/academy/lesson/morphemes-examples-definition-types.html
Morphology – the internal structure of words
Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words and forms a core part of linguistic study
today.

The term morphology is Greek and is a makeup of morph- meaning ‘shape, form’, and -ology
which means ‘the study of something’.
Morphology as a sub-discipline of linguistics was named for the first time in 1859 by the German
linguist August Schleicher who used the term for the study of the form of words.
What is a word? Smallest independent units of language.

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Source: https://www.englishfn.com/morphology-definition-types-function-of-morpheme/

Morphology is the study of the smallest units of grammatical combination. That are interpreted in
form (sound) and meaning. It covers the study of etymology of the words. ie. known formation as
word formation in linguistical language. It covers too, the smallest to largest aspects of the words in
language. The study of morphology takes all these aspects to linguistical study in total.

Author: Reymond Hickey

Source: https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/REV_Levels_Chart.htm

Phonetics & phonology

Both are concerned with the same aspect of language - the speech sounds. But they differ in their approach
and focus.
Phonetics is of general nature. It is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages. Phonology
is concerned with the sound system of a particular language. It is language specific.
Phonetics aims to answer questions like: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what

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phonetic features they have, how they can be classified, etc. Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds
in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.

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General conclusions
How other languages inform our own
People speak roughly 7,000 languages worldwide. Although there is a lot in common among
languages, each one is unique, both in its structure and in the way it reflects the culture of the
people who speak it. Language can play a big role in how we and others perceive the world, and
linguists work to discover what words and phrases can influence us, unknowingly.

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Bibliography

1. Ariel Vázquez Carranza. Language and thought. The relationship between language,
thought, and culture. (2017). https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-relationship-
between-language-thought-and-culture_fig2_317372213
2. Bloomfield Leonard. An introduction to the study of languages. New York 1914.
3. Bryce S. Morphemes Types, Features, Examples, and What is Morpheme in English?
(2020). https://study.com/academy/lesson/morphemes-examples-definition-types.html
4.
5. Charles W. Bryant (2001) How did language evolve?
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/language-
evolve.htm#:~:text=Chomsky%20and%20Gould%20hypothesize%20that,also%20goo
d%20for%20complex%20communication.)
6. CompoLing. What is linguistics, Description vs Prescription, Scope of Linguistics?
(2021). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPrg6hciujQ
7. Edward T. Hall’s Cultural Iceberg Model (1976)
https://www.spps.org/cms/lib/MN01910242/Centricity/Domain/125/iceberg_model_3.
pdf
8. J.A. Lucy, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/sapir-whorf-
hypothesis#:~:text=The%20Sapir%E2%80%93Whorf%20hypothesis%2C%20also,wa
y%20one%20thinks%20about%20reality.

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