FINAL EXAMINATION

Subject:
Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

Topic:
The Role of Language in the Preservation and Transmission of Cultural Heritage

Submitted to:

Ma’am Aiza Bheal Kitani

Submitted by:

Cabannag, Joan P.

Leo, Joy Erica C.

Perez, Zhwitzel Rjlhyne A.

Date Submitted:

May 25, 2023

Abstract

Language plays a major role in the transmission of cultural heritage; this is achieved
when preservation is done from one generation to another. Language has a significant
influence on culture and social transformation. Culture is the social transformation of any
aspect of a society. A piece of civilization is lost when language is lost. In the same way, when
a language is maintained, the norms and traditions live on in the minds and hearts of people
who can understand it. The descriptive summary from the documentary analysis in the paper
mainly focuses on the positive and communicational role of language to establish the
foundation of cultural landscape through the continuous representation and transmission of
diverse cultural characteristics such as people’s thoughts, behaviors, cultural histories,
traditions, values, principles and boundaries within a socio-cultural context. Moreover, the
paper indicates that language as a linguistic channel navigates people’s commonality and
unity framing them in a single pattern of cultural identity. It is suggested that every language
as a powerful source of introducing cultural politics requires continuous transmission,
preservation and promotion by the nation as an opportunity for the new generations to be
born with distinct cultural identity.

Keywords: culture, cultural heritage, cultural identity, language learning, cultural

representation

Introduction

Language is primarily a means of communication. It is one of the most valuable gifts

of the God to man which distinguishes him from animal. We can express our feeling,
thoughts, emotions, experiences, ideas and so on through language. When a speaker
communicates a particular language people may speculate about the origin, nationality,
culture, religion and ethnicity of the speaker as language reflects embedded cultural
identities of people within a language.
According to Kridalaksana (Hasan, 2018) said language as an arbitrary symbol system
that a society uses to work together, interact, and identify themselves. In another sense of
language is a system used by humans to communicate with one another, a language system
that is expressed through an arrangement of sounds or structured written expressions to
form more units, such as morphemes, words, and sentences.
Furthermore, there are thousands of languages in this world and every language has
its own system called grammar. There are Indonesian grammar, English grammar, Korean
grammar, Russian grammar, Japanese grammar, and so on. Although communication can
be done with other tools besides language, in principle, humans prefer to communicate using
language, Propper (Darsana, 2017).
(1) Stimulus, meaning that language functions as a stimulus that can bring up a
response.
(2) Expressive; means that language can be used to express feelings, ideas to others.
(3) Descriptive: meaning that language functions to describe, explain, and describe
something to someone else.
(4) Argumentative; meaning that through language humans can argue on other
people.

On the other hand, culture is a way of life includes beliefs, symbols, behavior,
knowledge, attitude, and values which characterized people or organization. Newmark
(1988:94) defines culture “as the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a
community that uses a particular language as its means of expression”. Culture is the
foundation of knowledge and humanities. A variety of different or diverse culture called
cultural diversity. Cultural expressions are words and phrases conditioned by the cultural
diversity. There are some cultural categories to classify the cultural expressions. Newmark
(1988:94-103) “divided cultural categories into five, they are ecology (plants, animals,
mountains), material culture (food, clothes, housing, transport), social culture (work and
leisure), organizations, customs, ideas (political, social, legal), gestures and habits (non-
linguistic features).
Language is one of the determiners of understanding people‘s culture in the world. Hall
(1997) states that language represents the shared meanings of a particular culture and
culture exchanges the meaning through language with the society members. Primarily,
language and culture continuously co-create cultural values, traditions and identities
through human interaction (Maine et al., 2019). Language is the key to understand a culture
and a media to widespread the culture. If we learn a language, we also learn the culture. Also
language can reveal the different hidden social and cultural realities of the people when they
develop a certain lifestyle and culture with the family members and society through
languages from early life. Bucholtz and Hall (2005) state that a person‘s identity results in
linguistic interaction as a social and cultural phenomenon rather than an internal and
psychological one. Therefore, the linguistic performance of individuals distinguishes their
cultural identity as they use distinct language to talk and perceive the world.
Likewise, Kinzler et al. (2011) interpreted the role of mother tongue as one of the social
and cultural identity markers as more than 6000 mutually unintelligible human languages
were mostly learnable in early childhood. However, some researchers argue that language
transmission within a particular culture can be challenging for establishing a separate
cultural identity if the language speakers migrated from one nation or culture to the next as
Bhugra (2004) contradicted that when individuals from a particular sociocultural
background migrated to another linguistic and cultural background, they might feel socio-
economically disadvantaged, culturally discriminated and alienated. Learning language and
shaping a new cultural identity can be a problem for people in the new socio-cultural context,
on the contrary, the findings of Miller and Collette (2019) emphasized that people improved
their multicultural identity and life standard developing the required skills to function in the
multicultural society after learning the international languages with a sense of satisfaction
in the target culture and the pride of one‘s culture at the same time.
Several aspects of culture, including social way of life and customs and traditions, are
the components of culture. Culture, which is a unifying element in society, could be
sustained throughout time. The preserved cultural structures could be considered as cultural
heritage. Cultural heritage elements are significant since they reflect society and its social
characteristics. According to Kokko & Dillon (2011), humans have produced certain elements
to sustain their lives. The traditional elements sustained throughout history and connect the
society to a particular way of life and could be called the cultural heritage. According to Tweed
& Sutherland (2017), cultural heritage is an urban feature that reflects the unique structure
of a city and provides a sense of belongingness for the people.
Furthermore, cultural heritage could be both physical and non-physical. There are
tangible or intangible cultural heritage elements that reflect the unique characteristics of a
society, including visible, tangible elements that reflect that culture in physical structures.
Among these elements there are historical architectural buildings for example. Non-physical
cultural heritage items include traditions and customs, ideas and ways of life particular to
that culture. According to Gürbüz (2019), physical cultural heritage elements include
historical buildings and sites, and non-physical cultural heritage elements include traditions,
weddings, customs, and holidays. Cultural elements provide information about our past and
civilization according to Deren (2006).Cultural heritage may include archaeological
structures, buildings, natural resources, religious elements, traditions, oral and written
works, and handicrafts. According to Ar (2015), non-physical cultural heritage elements
reflect the way of life in a society. Thus, they shape society. Cultural heritage elements are
not permanent according to Şentürk (2012). It depends on the period they were created. Each
period has a particular cultural heritage perspective.
In addition, the importance of cultural heritage for the perpetuity of society is
indisputable. Thus, efforts to preserve the cultural heritage and raise awareness have
accelerated in recent years. The cultural heritage topic was included in several courses given
through the education system, and raising awareness from early ages was prioritized.
This study seeks to investigate whether there is any relationship between language and
culture, and if so, what the connection between language and culture is. In other words, if
there is relationship between language and culture, how they can have this association.
Another main purpose of this paper is to explore the question of how the role of language is
in shaping the cultural identity of people as well as in preserving and transmitting cultural
heritage.

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

Language is a key factor in preserving and transmitting cultural heritage. Language is

essential for the dissemination of culture, values, beliefs, and history from one generation to
the next. It enables us to communicate shared experiences, understand each other’s
perspectives, and form collective identities. (Klainerman, 2008) Language is a tool that can
be used to harness the intellectual and humanistic development of people. It is a symbol of
nationality, of the people, of its suffering, its destiny, its grandeur, its triumphs; the primary
instrument of conception, expression, assimilation and communication of these experiences
therefore ends up being considered as their very sum and substance.
Noam Chomsky's Language Theory believed that children are born with all of the
structures necessary to create language and that they instinctively know how to use them.
Each child has the ability to acquire further language and structures because the categories
for language already exist within their brains. For Chomsky, children would never acquire
language strictly from practice, because language acquisition alone does not give a child the
tools they need. The same basic language structure in children carries over if an adult seeks
to acquire another language. Language structures can get reset and evolve, Chomsky said,
through cultural interactions. A single cultural shift could create changes in language. An
example of this would be the inclusion of many Spanish words in our national language
which is Filipino, those words are in the language because the Spanish colonized our country
for 333 years in the year 1565 to 1898. One of the most obvious ways that the era of the
Spanish Philippines still affects the country is with language. About one-third (4,000) of the
words in Tagalog are of Spanish origin, and around 6,000 words in other Filipino languages
come from Spanish. (Reid, 2020)
Furthermore, the colonization of Americans brought impact to our language and
culture. The significant penetration of the English language into the Philippines has resulted
in a strong similarity between the Philippine and American educational systems. As a result,
literacy doubled to about half by the 1930's and a fourth of the educated population could
speak English. This was a massive influence for the Filipino culture, as English became the
dominate language alongside the official Filipino language of Tagalog. One such policy was
the introduction of the American system of education, and so pervasive and far-reaching was
its impact and influence on the life and culture of the Filipino during and after the colonial
period that it is generally regarded as the "greatest contribution" of American colonialism in
the Philippines. (Masanga, 2021)
On the other hand, Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory states that culture is
significant in learning and language is the root of culture. Lev Vygotsky, a psychologist who
lived and worked in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, wrote that language and
culture are closely interrelated. In fact, Vygotsky said that language and cultural connections
precede learning and cognitive development. According to Vygotsky, social interactions
between people watching and learning from other speakers is how a child (or anyone learning
a language) acquires knowledge. For this reason, some children come to school with more
cognitive skills because of the culture and environment they live in and the language models
they had around them. The more experiences children have to watch and model behavior,
the greater their cognitive skills and language. Also, Vygotsky believed that each culture has
specific "tools" that are used for social interactions and are specific to each culture. Language
is a tool that can be used to harness the intellectual and humanistic development of people.
The language influences our culture and even our thought processes. (Culture, 2014).
Moreover, language is an integral part of our cultural heritage. While it’s good to be
able to use the lingua franca of English to access knowledge across the world and in more
formal spaces like education and government, and it’s good to be able to use the lingua franca
of Ilokano, the most spoken language in the Cordillera, to be able to communicate with one
another in Northern Luzon, it’s also good for us to be able to master how to communicate
with one another in our native languages. The Cordillera Region is the ancestral homeland
of the Cordillera indigenous peoples, collectively referred to as the “igorots”, meaning “people
of the mountain”. There are seven (7) major ethnolinguistic groups or peoples, namely the
Kankanaeys, the Ibaloys, the Bontocs, the Kalingas, the Ifugaos, the Tingguians, and the
Apayao or Isneg. However, these are the popular reference to indigenous groups, but there
are more “peoples” as distinct as “ili”. “Ili” is a self-identifying group of indigenous people,
with their own defined territory as their ancestral land, and their own indigenous socio-
cultural systems.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the role of language in the preservation and transmission
of cultural heritage. Specifically, it intends to answer the following questions:
1. How does language help in the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage?
2. Why is it important to preserve and transmit our cultural heritage?

Paradigm of the Study

Qualitative interviews and Language and Culture

data collection Development

Research Design

This study will be using Qualitative Research specifically Case Study which is a
research methodology that helps in exploration of a phenomenon within some particular
context through various data sources, and it undertakes the exploration through variety of
lenses in order to reveal multiple facets of the phenomenon (Jack, 2008). The researchers
will also gather data by interviewing respondents and collecting information from reliable
sources such as the internet, past researches, books, and articles.
Intendent Respondents

The respondents of this study are 10 individuals from different ethnic tribes.
(5 highlanders and 5 lowlanders)

Results and Discussions

Language plays an essential role in the preservation of culture. It helps us express our
identities and connect with the past while also providing a means for preserving traditional
knowledge and building empathy between different cultures. By protecting and promoting
native languages, we can help ensure that future generations will be able to experience the
same cultural richness that we do today. The truth is that, Filipino language is a
manifestation of cultural identity that embraces all dialects in the Philippines. The studies of
Regional languages and provincial dialects are important because they remain the lingua
franca (common language) outside of Metro Manila. At the same time, learning Filipino and
Regional language may be the key to national development, but preserving the different
dialects is the key to preserving our heritage. This includes native songs and dances,
folktales, beliefs, traditions and others. All efforts must be made to preserve our heritage by
translating them in Filipino and propagating them through the different parts of the country.
Language, as a tool of cultural transmission, is used to convey the traditions of one
generation to the next. Our future generations will be able to learn from our values, beliefs,
and customs as a result. Engaging with a new culture is a way to learn more about it. People
who are adapting to new cultures are constantly learning new things through it. Holiday
decorations, for example, are an example of cultural transmission. At this time of year, many
cultures come together to celebrate the holidays. It is possible for cultures to share their
holiday traditions by decorating their homes. The transmission of cultural values can be
accomplished in a variety of ways. When parents pass on cultural values to their children,
this is referred to as vertical transmission. When a culture’s values are passed down through
media, they are indirectly conveyed to the next generation. A horizontal transmission occurs
when cultural values are shared by multiple groups of people. Language is one of the most
important tools for cultural communication. Through the medium of language, we can share
our culture with others. We can help others by sharing our history and creating a bridge
connecting the past and the future.
Conclusion

The language as a social interactional tool plays a crucial role to shape the cultural
identity representing and framing people‘s linguistic and cultural backgrounds to exchange
their personal experiences, social realities, cultural norms and historical traditions among
the members of a specific group establishing an enriched socio-cultural life within a country.
The paper illustrates that communicating in a language means understanding and
interpreting the in-depth social and cultural standards, values, lifestyle, signs, symbols and
directions related to a particular culture to reveal a separate cultural identity. Similarly,
culture as a social system nurtures language development in society and largely frames the
expressions of human narratives in their family and society. The paper reflects that people
with a distinct language and cultural identity feel proud to celebrate their linguistic and
cultural solidarity as language establishes the system of representation and transmission of
cultures over the generations. Furthermore, the promotion and preservation of languages
develop the notion of multiculturalism with the sound socio-political and cultural
environment in the country. The recognition of linguistic elements promotes cultural identity
as national pride. As presented in the studies, languages upraise the cultural positioning of
a community generating development opportunities in different fields such as socio-politics,
education, media and economics.
Additionally, language functions as a cognitive tool to express and internalize the
linguistic terms relevant to the cultural background therefore the change of linguistic region
may result in individuals’ adaptation to the new culture reframing linguistic diversity with
cultural identity. The different features and levels of mother tongue interconnect thoughts,
cultural ethics and social happenings in the form of cultural identity in the community. The
content analysis of the different themes highlight that a language creates the environment to
reflect the culture and culture provides the field to language practice therefore language
learning and transmission for cultural representation as a whole characterize the role of
language in shaping and maintaining a distinct cultural identity in the changing world. All
human beings need to be responsible to save the languages for shaping cultural identity.
Our internal thoughts and emotions may not be always ours, rather communicated and
shaped by the lens of our culture.
Recommendations

“Saving a language is also preserving a culture”

One of the most effective ways to preserve a language is to continue using it, whether in
written or spoken form. It is also a way to raise awareness. Language matters spiritually,
culturally, emotionally. Written and spoken words are an art form, a way for values and
traditions to be passed down for generations. When a language is lost, part of that culture is
lost. By the same measure, when language is preserved, the traditions and customs continue
living in the hearts and minds of those who understand it. Language is more than the sum
of its parts: it’s not just sentence-structure and grammar, language is history and discourse,
customs and heritage. The survival of our language means the survival of our way of life and
the preservation of our history.

“Keeping in Touch with Mother tongue”

Although International Mother Language Day comes once a year on February 21st, does not
mean languages should only be preserved once a year. Every day, we should strive for equal
opportunity. With the technology and resources available today, mother languages can be
preserved and used through language solutions like translation, localization and interpreting.

“Preventing the Extinction of a Language”

The disappearance of languages is preventable. Taking language or culture classes, speaking
your native language whenever you can and handing down memories and stories to friends
and future generations are all feasible ways to stop the risk of a language and culture from
going extinct. In addition, many students aren't taught their mother language in schools
because it's not recorded in textbooks. Offering reading and writing mother language courses
in educational settings is an important step to preserving endangered dialects and languages.
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