LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
In a simple thought we can define language as
a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express
our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Actually language is more than
just a means of communication. It influences our culture. Culture
is a set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of
people, but different for each individual, communicated from one generation to
the next.
The culture is learned and transmitted
through language. That is why language and culture can not be separated. They
both are fused together and known in the term culturalinguistic.
THE
CULTURALINGUISTIC SYSTEM: THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN GROUP LIFE
Although language has often been
considered a part of culture, it is certainly a part without which the whole
could neither have come into existence, nor have endure. It may, therefore, be
more accurate to say that culture is embedded in language. Language facilitates
and limits our knowledge of the world in which we live; and the spesific view
we have of our world is in part the result of the particular language or
languages we use.
The shaping of such a spesific view
begins early. A child becomes a part of a cultural sysem when he acquires a
language. As his abilities in language develop, he becomes progressively more
capable of exploring the first culturalinguistic systems to which he is exposed.
Yet, at the same time he becomes less capable of exploring those
culturalinguistic systems that are different from his.
Most linguists and social
scientists, in making a distinction between human being nd all other mamals,
attribute both language and culture to humans alone. That is to say, while other mamals may have
communicate and may have systems of behavior characteristic of the group, only
humans create a culturalinguistic reality in terms of which members of every
human group think, feel and act. Some
human groups may go one step further, their identification with their own
language and culture may be so strong at times that they deny that members of
other language and cultural groups are equally as human as they.
For every human group, it is
language that povides both a heritage and a means of transmitting culture. The
heritage may be considered as a total culturalinguistic reality which is in
principle available to every person who learns a particular language. A child
who learns French in the first few years of his life, for example has acquired
the key to French culture and to each and every expression of it, in
literature, in law, in art and in all other cultural forms. In practice,
however, each person inherits only a small fragment of the total reality; his
socio-economic circumstances, his geographic mobility, his intelligence and
aptitudes and many other factors act as constraints on his acquisition of both
language and culture. In short, no single person can know any language or culture
on its totality.
Nevertheless, the social experience
of previous generations is transmitted in any given culture with remarkable
uniformity. This may be due in part to uniformities in the language. For
example, words referring to kinship tend to be learned in terms of the general
culltural significance, without regard to personal experience. That is to say,
a person may appropiately revere “mothers” even when his own mother has
provided nothing but bitter experiences for him. The child may in fact feel
guilt because he does not love his mother as the culturalinguistic system
dictates he should.
Many specific aspects of culture
transcend linguistic boundaries. Every person heritage contains elements that
have come from experiences of other cultural groups, which may be very
different from his own and which he may not understand in terms of their
original cultural meanings. Few people in the United States, for example will
probably interpret rabbits and eggs as fertility symbols that herald the
productivity of animal and vegetable life at the beginning of spring. They may
engage in such rituals as the Easter egg hunt with little or no knowledge of
their original significance.
The inheritors of a particular culture
are often unaware of the norms that guide them, yet those norms are constantly
at work in us, shaping our behavior in the ways of our tribe. Sometimes, to be
sure, these norms are embodied in behavior that is highly visible to any
observer, such as those which stand out in speific customs: dressing, greeting,
eating, gesturing, etc. But even when the cultural part of behavior is not
quite so obvious, our behavior still characterizes us as member of our group.
For example, the observer who knows what to expect can sometimes tell what
language a speaker is using even when the language can not be heard: the
gestures that the speaker uses reveal what the language is. In the same way,
the manner and rhythm of eating, the use of instruments, and other more subtle
clues may help to identify the culture to which someone belongs, for almost
every movement and act is associated with social custom in some way.
The custom which underlies and
permeates all others, however, is language, and other behavior is generally
accompanied by linguistic customs appropiate to it. If one knows and uses a
language well, usually he is expected to honor the customs associated with
speakers of the language.
Usually training in the customs of a
culture begins in early childhood. For example,in English, formation of
undesirable habits on the part of the individual which might result in social
customs considered undesirable is inhibited by the use of the one word ‘no’.
Later, influences become so subtle that they may not even be recognized as
such. But all such responses to behavior serve not only to tune the
individual so as to be in harmony with
his culture, but also to delineate and buttress the norms of the culture. By
norm we mean a pattern of speech or other behavior that is viewed as desirable,
expected, appropiate, or required.
Interaction, however, need not be
limited to those within one culturalinguistic group, but may occur between
members of different group and may thus produce new linguistic and cultural
phenomena in either or both groups. For example some words for items were then
transferred from Spanish to English like pampa,
tomato, potato, maize, poncho and many others. Thus the ‘poncho’ was an Indian
garment with generally negative cultural connotations for the conquering group
until the item (and the word) became popular in the United States. Since then
the ponco has become fashionable in South America among non-Indians. This was
possible partly because slight physical modifications provided new connotations
for the garment and the world in Spanish. Soon, perhaps already the Indians may
be wearing ponchos made by Sears.
One of the most common uses of the
term culture is to identify a
spesific group of human being, as in the phrases western culture, black
culture, and protestant culture. In each case, we imply that members of the
designated group have something in common which is observable and identifiable,
and the identify of every member of the group is formed in part by what he
holds in common with the remainder of the group.
In many cases, that which is shared
to identify the group readily is language and dialect.
Frequently the word culture has
been expanded to include a social group’s material products as well as its
behavior, identity and beliefs. This is because many anthropologists study
groups that have disappeared and left only behind their material products.
The most important aspect of
material culture from the linguistic point of view, is communication of the
knowledge which is makes possible the production of the material objects. For
instance, getting to the moon was a culturalinguistic act. For it was made
possible only through the linguistic and cultural heritage that aided the
communication of the necessary procedures and produced the skills needed to
carry out the procedures.
Thus every culture has technics of
producing material objects, as well as the knowledge embedded in language
necessary to use.
In one traditional usage, culture
means refinement or excellence, usually as determined by dominant social
groups. The word, thus used, includes the special linguistic form called
literature, as well as a very small proportion of the items produced as art
(painting, drawning and sclupture) and music. These artistic forms are
associated in most cases with culturalinguistic boundaries: those who are
knowledgeable in the appropiate fields can identify some particular products of
art.
Some works of art represent a
structure of meaning and value that persists in the life of a society. Such
works, therefore, continue to be meaningful and become ‘classics’. Since
literature and art tend to symbolize values and structures highly
characteristic of a given culturalinguistic reality, they may exercise a
continuing influence over a long period of time. Shakespeare, for example,
represent not only the culturalinguistic reality of the people of his time, but
also that of millions of people living today, even of those who have never
heard of him. This may be a fairly accurate indication of the importance of a
great work of art in a culture.
