英语系毕业论文(语言与文化的关系)

The relationship between language and culture

Introduction

Language is the important means of communication, and it is the carrier of culture and a part of culture, any language was born with formation of its culture, develops with the development of culture, and in most cases, perishes with death of its culture.

1. Language, as a concrete system of signs, has its own significance in the culture communication

It has long been recognized that language is an essential and important part of a given culture and that the importance of culture upon a given language is something indispensable.

1.1 Language is a system

The important of language to the study intercultural communication is clearly captured in the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s simple sentence “Language is the archives of history.” His declaration takes on added significance when we realize that one of the major characteristics identifying us as human is our ability to use language –to make sounds and marks serve as substitutes for things and feelings.

Over millions of years, we have evolved the anatomy necessary to produce and receive sounds have taken on meaning by representing things, feelings, and ideas. This combination of evolution and culture has led to the development of a four-part process that enables us share our internal states with other human beings. In short, we can receive, store, manipulate, and generate symbols to represent our personalized realities.

1.2 The importance of language

Language is extremely important to human interaction because it is how we reach out to make contract with our surroundings. If we were to survey a normal day, we would soon see that we use words for a wide variety of purposes we may use language when we first awake: “Good morning!” We use words as a wa y to write with the outside world. Or we may use words to share an unpleasant experience and to get support from other: “Let me tell you about the horrible dream I had last night.” This example also demonstrates how we employ words to relate to the past, that is, to talk about something that has already happened.

We use words so that we can experience some control over the present: “please pass me the

salt and pepper.” We each seek to affect our environment, to influence many lf the daily situations in which we find ourselves. Words, and how we manipulate them, permit us to make those alterations through symbolic transactions with others.

We also use words to form images of the future: “I have meet with Jane at work today, but I dread seeing her, because I k now she’s going to be upset about the changes I’m making in her work schedule.” Our wording ability allows us to predict and describe the future .We use words to persuade to exchange ideas, to exchange ideas, to express views, to seek information, and to express feelings. When we study another language, we soon discover that the symbols, the sounds for those symbols, and the rules for using those symbols and sounds are different.

2. Language, as a culture institution, is born with culture. It develops and interacts with the culture

To preserve the language of a nation is to preserve its special culture and history. When people can not understand the old language, they will be less tightly connected to or even gradually lose their cultures and histories. Their enemies know much more clearly than themselves as to this point.

We still remember that in the famous article The Last Lesson, the first thing Prussians did when they intruded France, was to replace French with Prussian in the school education. Japanese also took the same strategy in order to cut off the connection between people and their histories and cultures. This evil refused to only stay in people's memory and is still threatening certain cultures and nations. Thus both Jews and Tibetans are still fighting to preserve their languages for the sake of their cultures and histories at the edge of being extinguished.

2.1 Explain the meaning of the culture

When delivering daily speech, the word "culture" refers to pursuits such as literature and music. More broadly, we can define "culture" as all the modes of thought, behavior, and production that are handed down from one generation to the next by means of communicative interaction── speech, gesture, epic, construction, and all other communication among hu mans── rather than by genetic transmission or heredity. "Culture" is an essential concept for it is what makes humans unique in the animal kingdom. All familiar forms of social organizations, ranging from the simplest family to the most sophisticated corporation depend upon "culture" for their existence. Nevertheless, "society" and "culture" might be confusing for

one to distinguish. "Society" is population that is organized to carry out the major function of life.

A society's "culture" consists of all the ways in which its members think about it among themselves

Culture, in a broad sense, means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community. As culture is so inclusive, it permeates virtually every aspect of human life and influences predominantly people’s behavior, including linguistic behavior. In a narrow sense, culture may refer to local or specific practice, belief or customs, which can be mostly found in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture etc.

Generally speaking, there are two types of culture: material and spiritual. While material culture, as the term itself suggests, is concrete, substantial and observable, most of spiritual culture, the products of mind, is abstract, ambiguous, and hidden. In contrast with nature in the sense of what is born and grows, culture refers to what has been grown and brought up with, in other words, what can be nurtured. Culture, especially material culture, is reproduced and preserved through the maintaining of beliefs, traditions, education and other institution mechanisms, mean while, it changes slowly with the development of the society.

2.2 The relationship between language and culture

We begin our preview of language by noting that it is impossible to separate our use if language from our culture. In its most basic sense, language is a set of symbols and the rules for combining those symbols that are used and understood by a large community of people. When we study another language, we soon discover that not only are the symbol and sounds for those symbols different, but so are the rules (phonology, grammar, syntax, and intonation) for using those symbols and sounds.

Word different are obvious in various language. In English, we live in a house. In Spanish, we live on a case. In Thai we live in a ban. Phonology also varies culturally. In English, we have 21 consonant sounds and 5 vowels that combine to from 38 various sounds. “Vie tnamese has 34 segmental phonemes consisting of vowels, semivowels and consonants.” The Filipino language has 16 consonants and 10 vowels forming 26 phonemes. Portuguese has 21 consonants and 13 vowels that form 34 basic phonemes. Grammatical structures are unique to each language as well. In English verb tenses express contrast between past, present, and future acts, but in Vietnamese, the same verb reflects all three and the time of action is inferred from the context. Syntax, or the

word order and structure of sentences, also varies depending on the language. The normal woes order for simple sentences in Filipino is the reverse of the word order in English. That is, the predicate is followed by the subject. For example, the English sentence “The teacher died” would be “Namatay ang guro” or “died the teacher” in Filipino. In English, the subject is followed by a verb and then an object, but in Korean, the subject is followed by the object and then the verb. So in English we might say, “The cat ate the mouse,” but in Korean, “Cat mouse ate” would be correct.

These examples indicate that if we want to communicate in another language, it is important for us to know not only the symbols of that language, but also the rules for using those symbols. As you know language is much more than a symbol and rule system that allows us to communicate with another person-language also shapes the process by which people became introduced to the order of the physical and social environment. As Nanda indicates, “language, therefore, would seem to have major impact on the way an individual perceives and conceptualizes the world.”

2.2.1Language not only express a person’s meaning but also express a nation’s culture

We can have different meanings for the same word. For instance, to one person, the woes grass might mean something in front of then house that is green, has to be watered, and must be mowed once a week: to another person, grass may mean something that is rolled in paper and smoked. All people, drawing on their backgrounds, decide what a word means. People have similar meanings only to the experience includes baseball, to us a rope is a line driver. If our background lies in the world of jazz music, the word ax does not indicate something used to chop wood but any horn or woodwind instrument. And it is likely that we and a physician respond differently to the woes cancer.

If we include culture as a variable on the process of abstracting meaning, the problems became all the more acute, for culture teaches us both the symbol and what the symbol represents. When you are communicating with someone from your own culture, the process of using words to represent your experience is much easier because within a culture people share many similar experiences. But when communication is between people from distinct cultures, different experiences are involved and the process is more troublesome. Objects, events, experiences, and feelings have the labels or names they do because a community id people arbitrarily decided to so name them. If we extent this notion to the intercultural setting, we can see that diverse cultures can have both different symbols and different responses.

There are even differences between British and American usage in word meanings. Although some words are spelled and pronounced the same, they have different meanings. For instance, the words boot, bonnet, lift, and biscuit in British English translate into American English as car trunk, car hood, elevator, and cookie. In the area of business, there are also some interesting differences. For example, the British term annual gunnel meeting translates in American English as annual meeting of shareholders; scheme translates as pension plan. From these examples, we see that culture exerts an enormous influence on language because culture teaches not rules for using those symbols and rules for using those symbols, but more important, the meaning associate with the symbols. Further, culture influences the way people use language.

2.2.2 Language and its culture influence are exemplified in the theoretical formulations of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Language and its culture influence are exemplified in the theoretical formulations of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which in essence states that language is a guide to “social reality.” T his hypothesis implies that language is not simply a means of reporting experience but, more important, it is a way of defining experience. Sapir wrote:

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 …The real world is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached. Nanda provides an excellent example if the Sapir-Whorf concept in practice: If my language has only one term-brother-in-law- that is applied to my sister’s husband, my husband’s brothers, and my husband’s sisters’ husbands, I am led by my language to perceive all of these relatives in a similar way. Vocabulary, through what it groups together under one label and what it differentiates with different labels, is one way in which language shapes our perception of the world.

3. Linguistic evidence of cultural difference

Any linguistic may be simultaneously of a denotative, connotative, or iconic kind of meanings. To begin with, any sign has a meaning that can be found in a dictionary, this is the denotative meaning. For example, “rose” is a flower that has a pleasant smell and is usually red,

pink, white, or yellow etc. On most occasions “rose” means more than a flower, it also triggers many associations mostly good ones such as love, fragrance, passion and beauty etc. These are its connotations or connotative meanings. Moreover, the word “rose” also invok es image to people. The famous line “my love is a red rose” stirs up vividly the imagination if a beautiful young lady. This is the iconic meanings.

All these types of meanings are bound with culture encodings from their associations. Each language has its own metaphors that provide semantic cohesion within its boundaries. Motivated by the need and desire to influence others, people choose to use words which emphasize denotative meaning, connotative meaning or iconic meanings or all of them, during the same process its cultural meanings are created.

The following are some illustrations of the cultural differences in language use which we may often come across in our daily life.

3.1 A Comparison of Chinese and British Hospitality in Treating Guests

In China, people’s hospitality is shown by the number of the dishes offered as well as by the eagerness to impress the guest with the most expensive and nutritious food.

While in Britain, people value equality. Their hospitality is shown by treating the guest as an equal with the host. Believing in simplicity regarding food, they may offer their guest the same type of meal they usually eat. Part of the reason is their egalitarianism and other reason is that the host wants to introduce the foreign guest to British food and eating customs, and make the guest feed comfortable.

The foreign guest might think of the saying. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

3.2Different Topics between China and West Common topics in China

3.2.1Common topic in China

Since there is not much privacy that is found in China. People feel free to ask almost any question without being offensive. The most common topics are age, income, property, family life, especially children, politics and religion. Also, when a purchase, is made, Chinese people will often ask or voluntarily tell the item’s price in order to share the happiness of shopping. But most Westerns feel it very inappropriate to talk about the price of products they have purchased. That information is considered private, so question about price should not be asked.

Elderly people are highly respected in China, of “old” means wisdom and experience, the

older the better. Males especially will often ask about each other’s age to show respect for the elder one. And the elder one feels very happy to be addressed as “lao” plus surname.

Today, more and more Chinese women, who have been influence by the Western cultures, do not want to give their ages.

However, it is very rude for person to address the senior or the elder only by their family names. Some topics concerning the death will always be avoided.

3.2.2 Common topics in the west

People in the West like to talk about the weather, sports, news, traveling, interests and hobbies. Do not ask personal questions about age, weight, illness, income, property, religion and politics. In general conversations asking about these political issues. Beware that politics is an “emotionally changed” topic because the people in the conversation may have differing viewpoints within the group.

General question about family can be asked to start a conversation. You may ask if a person is single or married. Depending on how the conversation is going, you can either ask directly by saying, “Are you single?” or “Are you married?” or indirectly by saying, “Do yo u have a family?”

3.3 Friendship

3.3.1 Friendship in China

In China most people expert their friends to do for then when they are in need. There is an obligation to a friendship. People feel obligated and a duty to do for their friends. We have a lot for Chinese sayings concerning friendship:“为朋友两肋插刀”(people can take any risks, even risk of their lives, especially among male friends, to do everything for their friends disregarding whether it’s right or wrong);“有难同当，有福同享” (people can not only share bitterness ,hardships but also happiness with their friends). Other proverb and sayings such as “一个篱笆三个桩，一个好汉三个帮”(As one fence needs three stakes, a good guy needs three fellows.)“在家靠父母，出门靠朋友”(It is your parents that you can rely on at home, but it is your friends that you can count in when out in the society ), show that friendship really counts or is very important to a person in the society.

Having friends reflects having a good personality you have and more sociable you are. Your life will be better if you have more friends, and will be worse without friends. One needs a friend to help him or her out when difficulties occur, and one needs a friend to offer financial support

when there is a lack of money. So in other words, one cannot be without friends in his or her life. Actually, there is a lot to say about Chinese friendships, and I am sure you have more explanations you can add to this list because of a better understanding of your own personal friendships.

3.3.2Friendship in the United States

In general, American has causal, friendly relationships with many people, but deeper, closer friendships with only a few. Friendship requires time and commitment (The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons) and depending on the American is commitment to family, which is a priority, and time require for work or school, various types of friendships will be developed.

3.3.3 Different ways of Expressing Friendship

People in the west apologize to their friends over things like asking for help in some small matter or telephoning late at night. They tend to use polite forms such as “could you”, and “would you” even with their friends. They may sound cold and distant when they feel perfectly friendly.

Chinese people tend to make more direct requests to their friends. They address those they know quite well in a very direct way. They may sound rude and demanding when they intend to sound friendly.

3.4 Greetings and term of address

It is estimated that in English there are at least a dozen different g reetings, from “Hi” and “Hello” to more specific and longer ones like “How are you getting on?” or “How is everything with you?” People choose the proper one to greet different people they meet on different occasions. For example, people greet a new acquai ntance with “How do you do?” and expect the same in answer, but they greet an old friend differently. When friends meet, you may find more than once they are uttering” How are you?” at the same time to each other, and they both answer “Fine, thank you.” Di fferently, a Chinese speaker may greet his friends or new acquaintance with “Nin hao” or “Nihao”, whether they meet for the first time or anytime in the day.

Another noticeable difference between the two greeting systems is that most Chinese people tend to greet acquaintances with “have you eaten?” or “Where are you heading for?” Obviously, if we greet the native speakers of English in this way, it will certainly cause misunderstanding.

Sometimes different terms of address can be equally misleading for Chinese learners of

English or English learners of Chinese. While in China “Tongzhi” was once used for all people irrespective of sex, position or marital status, in English –speaking communities “Mr.” “Mrs.” “Miss.” “Ms.” would be appropriate in similar situa tions. It is also interesting to note that in recent years “Mr.” and “Miss.” Are picked up again to replace “Tongzhi” with the changes in society. Meanwhile “shifu” is frequently used to show respect for strangers. English speakers, on similar occasions, w ould use “Sir” or “Madam”.

The extension of kinship term is another feature of Chinese culture . Term such as “uncle, aunt, grandpa, and granny” are used as honorific titles for senior people or strangers, as in “ Granny Li” and “Uncle “Zhang”. Native spea kers of English would be puzzled if they are addressed in this way by people outside the immediate family. Similarly, the use of respectful titles-Chair-man Jiang, Premier Zhou, Director Ma-to indicate people’s influential status is typical of Chinese culture. Such practice, however, is less common in English –speaking cultures.

3.5 Natural environment

In Chinese, "the east wind" makes one feel warm genial, the grass long hawk flies, mixed peanut tree, but "the west wind" then just right is opposite, some one kind the flavor which sends the human to the bone to inter the body or bones of a monk. Yan Shu had written that “last night the west wind withered the blue tree”, Ma Zhiyuan had written that “ancient road, the west wind and thin horse.” All these are illustrations. However English situation is actually different from Chinese. We can read to Samuel Butler’s poem that” biting east winds”. Charles Dickens had written that “How many winter days have I seen him. Standing blue nosed in the snow and east win d! “About the west wind, then has John Milton’s line from his poem” And west winds with musky wing”. John Masefield had written that “It is a want wind the west wind full of birds ' cries. “The meaning of the two kinds of wind association of summer is so d ifference in Chinese and English people’s mind. The reason is also the geographical position. China is located in the Asian mainland. Because of the continental climate in China, the four seasons are distinct. In summer the most obvious characteristic is a scorching sun and unendurable hot. But England is located in the North temperate zone. Because of the marine climate, the summer in England is so beautiful, temperate and satisfied.

3.6 manners and customs

In English there is only a word “cousin” but in Chinese there male cousin, younger male cousin, younger female cousin to express the same meaning. We can find that, Chinese relates unexpectedly the cousin obtains so strictly. It must say the sex and branch out the size. That is different from using only one word in English .The reason of this language phenomenon should attribute to the Chinese 23,000 years long time feudal rule. This kind of feudalism patriarchal society takes the blood relationship relations highly. It emphasized specially rank difference, and advocated the precedence and maintained between seniors and juniors. Westerner’s ideal is everybody pursues equality .They want to obtain the equal standing with the dialogue person. So westerners always directly shout the name of their sisters, brothers even their father and mother.

3.7 Thanks and compliments

Culture differences are also evident in the ways gratitude and compliments are expressed. It is noted that people in the West tend to verbalize their gratitude and compliments more than Chinese speakers and that the westerners tend to accept thanks and compliments more directly and frankly than we Chinese do.

When a native English speaker expresses to us his gratitude, a Chinese speaker may feel embarrassed and would sometimes say “no, no” t o decline whatever expressions of gratitude. However, English speakers, in a similar situation , would say something like “I am glad to hear it “ or “I am glad to be of help “ to acknowledge and accept the thanks. To native speakers of Chinese, expressions like “Not at all” or “It is nothing” which are sometimes used by Englishmen to turn down thanks may sometime lead to misunderstanding.

Similarly, many native Chinese speakers will feel embarrassed when they hear compliments like “you speak excellence English” or “You have acquired a native English speaker accent.” To show their modesty and that they do not deserve a compliment, is sincere, they tend to use an emphatic “no”. English speaking people, unlike Chinese, will accept compliment. Therefore, they think it is inappropriate to show false humility, or pretended modesty.

3.8 Privacy and taboos

Although people of different culture have many common areas of privacy or taboos, there are also areas where our culture differs from western culture. As the sa ying goes “A man’s home is high value on privacy. It is not appropriate for us to ask questions about personal information like age, family background, salary, or questions on personal activities. It is advisable we should

not talk about such things, when conversing with English –speaking people unless they indicate clearly that they do not mind or they talk about them first themselves. Some of these questions are listed below:

How old are you?

What are your wages?

How much do you earn?

You make a lot of mo ney, don’t you?

What’s you name?

How much did that pair of shoes cost you?

Moreover, we should be careful to avoid expressions related sexual intercourse, some organ of human body, four-letter words and racism etc.

In China when two people first meet each other, they will ask many questions to each other. After three minutes, they will know each other very well. They have got much privacy information clearly from each other. Include family situation, individual condition. This also is the different cultural context which both sides locates is having an effect. The English beautiful women pay great attention to individual privacy specially. They thought individual matter shouldn’t let others know. And they wouldn’t others to intervene. Since 1100 years Chines e people live in a village near to each other and contact each other very often. So their privacy affair was difficult to let other persons know. Therefore they very are willing to understand others good and bad in life, others also want honestly to consider.

3.9 Culture –relate idioms, proverbs and metaphors

Different languages may reflect different culture, different cultures entail different language expressions. Idioms, proverbs and saying and metaphors in different languages, derived from different origins, also demonstrate cultural differences. Different languages may have different idioms owing to different living environments, social conventions and literature tradition etc. A constellation of examples could be picked up from different levels of language analysis to illustrate the interplay of language and culture.

When you get your hands dirty, it does not necessarily mean in the American culture that you have done some manual work and need to wash your hand.

When you have enough dumbbells, it does not necessarily mean that you keep pair if this instrument for regular physical practices.

Another example that since English people view dog as human being’s best friend, we can find more English people view dog as human being’s best friend, we can find more English expressions with dog than in Chinese.

Luck dog: a luck person

Clever dog: a clever boy or smart lad

Dumb dog: silent person or a person who keeps secrets

Lead a dog’s life: to live an exhausted and unhappy life

Put on the dog: put in air

And some proverbs and saying with dogs are listed as fellows.

Every dog has his day.

Dog does not eat dog.

Give a dog an ill name and hang him.

Barking dogs seldom bite.

Beware of a silent dog and still water.

Love me, love my dog.

As to metaphor, we can easi ly find that in Chinese anger id compared with “liquid” or “qiti” as in “wo qi si le”(I am anger to death)while in English anger is more compared with “fire” as in “he is outraged.” “His face turned red with anger.” “She lost her temper.”, to mention just a few.

3.10 Color word

There are many color words in our language, such as red, white, black, yellow, purple and so forth, which are used frequently. In the first place, I’d like to introduce the common usages of the color words.

English abounds with phrases containing color words. Colors may convey different messages to people of different cultures. Due to the respective cultural background and tradition, some phrases containing color words have far surpassed their original meanings, forming different connotations.

What does see red mean? If he is in a blue mood, what kind of mood is he in? Is he happy, sad, or what? Obviously, red and blue do not mean just the color. Each has additional meanings-certain cultural associations-that are hidden behind the word. The following part will be devoted to the discussion of cultural differences of certain color words.

In both Chinese and English, red is usually associated with happy occasions. On calendar,

we can find that holidays such as Spring Festival are printed i n red, which is called “red-letter days”, while ordinary days are in black. Besides, “to paint the town red” is to celebrate wildly, to enjoy oneself to one’s heart’s content. Another example is to “roll out the red carpet for someone”, meaning to give a h ospitable and formal reception. Similarly, Chinese people traditionally cut red couplets and applique to celebrate occasions like wedding and New Year. Besides, We have a very famous trademark “double red happiness” (红双喜) which is symbolic of good fortune.

I believe the above-mentioned examples amply illustrate the point. On many occasions, it is not the basic meaning of the color that functions, but the profound cultural associations related to the color that functions. That is to say, the differences in using color words between Chinese and English stand out when the color words themselves don’t play an important part. Two factors may help to illustrate. First is the language itself. There are many differences in the characteristics of both languages. English words are characterized by flexibility. One word is likely to have different meanings in different contexts. Comparatively speaking, the meaning of Chinese words remains fixed. Chinese is featured by standard, rigor and preciseness in choosing the word s. Let’s take the word green for example. Green gains certain new meaning when associated with the phrase green revolution and when it is used alone, it still carries that meaning. However, green in Chinese will lose the meaning unless it is combined with revolution or other words in similar. Second is the factor beyond the language, which includes the cultural factors such as different customs, traditions and cultural background. Wherever the above-mentioned differences exist, the using of the color words can not be the same. Therefore, special attention should be paid in using the color words.

Conclusion

Language and culture, intrinsically dependent on each other, have evolved together through the history. Their mutual interdependence can find proof in the rise of civilization, the development of writing and human communication.

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