Language, Culture and Thought

LANGUAGE
 Definitions:
 Language is a set of rules by which humans can create and understand novel sentences.
(Chomsky)
 Language is a set of shared symbols or signs that a cooperative groups of people has agreed to
use to create meaning.
bsf1704470@ue.edu.pk
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LANGUAGE
 Language is a system of symbols with standard meaning
 Mean of communication
 We interpret & organize the reality
 We categorizes the world
 We transmit our culture
 We establish and maintain the relationship
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CULTURE
 Definition:
 Culture is defined as “socially acquired knowledge: i.e. as the knowledge that someone has by virtue
of his being a member of a particular society (cf. Hudson, 1980: 74)
 Two points must be made about the use of the word “Knowledge”
 First
 Covers both practical and propositional knowledge: both knowing how to do something and
knowing that something is or is not so.
 Second
 As for propositional knowledge is concerned, it is fact that something something is held to be true
that counts, not its actual truth or falsity.
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CULTURE
 There are different cultures in the world.
 For example:
 American culture
 Pakistani culture
 Indian culture
 Chinese culture etc.
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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
 “There is an absolute relation between language and culture” (Saussure)
 Language varieties are due to cultural differences and needs
 Language is social and cultural phenomenon and inextricably tied with social and cultural
traditions.
 Language is an integral part of culture
 Culture cannot exist without language
 Through language norms, values, ideas and experiences are shared or expressed
 Linguistic diversity derived in part from cultural diversity
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 Language determines thought therefore culture
 Language and culture influence each other (Edward Sapir)
 Linguistic variation is tied very much to the existence of different cultures.
 Different cultures have different languages.
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 Different cultures have different world views.
Example 1:
 The Aztecs not only did not have a figure in their culture like Santa Claus, they did not have a word
for this figure either.
Example 2:
 In Eskimo language there are number of words involving snow. For example wet snow, powdery
snow, spring snow, etc. But in English we only have word ‘snow’ to refer to different kinds of snow.
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Example 3:
 In Tuvaluan (spoken in some central specific islands) they have man different words for types of
coconut.
Example 4:
 In pacific culture, that of Hawai’i, the traditional language had a very large number of words for
different kinds of rain.
Example 5:
 Chinese there is only a single term luoto, in English there is a camel. But in Arabic, there are more
than 400 words for the animal.
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 Does thought depend on language?
 It may seem that we cannot speak without thinking but probably not because:
 We may use a word correctly before we fully understand the concept
 We express ourselves in paralinguistic ways of gesture and facial expressions
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 Does language determines thought?
 Many psychologists believe that language dictates the way we think.
 Others say that it actually determines our ideas themselves " not only how we think but what we
think.
 Wittgenstein ‘the limits of language mean the limits of my world’
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 Different language speakers not only speak differently, they think differently.
 Whorf “we cut nature up, organize it into concepts and describe significances as we do, largely
because we are party to an agreement which holds in the pattern of our language.”
 The structure of a language determines the way in which speakers of that language view the world.
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THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
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Sapir and Whorf
 Sapir (1884-1939) American anthropologist, a leader in American structural linguistics, Author of
language and An introduction to the study of speech.
 Born in Lauenberg, Germany.
 Pupil of Franz Boas
 Teacher of Benjamin Whorf
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Sapir (1929)
 ‘Human beings do not live in the society alone. Language of the society predispose certain choices
of interpretation about how we view the world’.
Whorf (1930s)
 ‘We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages .We categorize objects in the
scheme laid by the language and if we do not subscribe to these classification we cannot talk or
communicate’.
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 The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis consist of two associated principle:
1. Linguistic Determinism
2. Linguistic Relativity
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1. Linguistic Determinism
 Language may determine our thinking patterns, the way we view and think about the world.
 Linguistic determinism also called “strong determinism”
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1. Linguistic Determinism (cont….)
 Linguistic determinism holds that differences in language cause differences in thoughts.
 Relations expected because thought is held to be determined by language not the world.
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Linguistic Determinism (cont….)
Example 1:
 In Eskimo language there are number of words involving snow. For example wet snow, powdery
snow, spring snow, etc. But in English we only have word ‘snow’ to refer to different kinds of snow.
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Example 2:
 In the grammar of Hopi Indians of Arizona there is a distinction between ‘animate’ and ‘inanimate’.
Hopi Indians believe stones and clouds are animate.
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Example 3:
 A French tribe has a language in which ‘female markings’ are used with stone and door. They use the
term la femme (woman), la pierre (stone) and la porte (door).
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 The les similar the languages more diverse their conceptualization of the world
 Different languages view the world differently.
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 Language influences thinking
 Linguistic differences between cultures are associated with cultural difference in thinking
 View points vary from language to language
 Humans are at the mercy of the particular language the speak
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Linguistic Relativity Vs Linguistic Determinism
 Linguistic relativity is the idea that the language a person speaks shapes and influences the way he
thinks.
 No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social
reality
 Linguistic determinism is the idea that the things a person thinks are fully determined by the
language that they speak.
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 Two versions of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:
1. Strong version
2. Weak version
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1. Strong version
 Language determines thought, We are prisoners of language.
2. Weak Version
 Language influences but does not determine thought.
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Criticism:
 Number of arguments have been presented against this view. Here is one from Sampson: A French
tribe has a language in which ‘female markings’ are used with stone and door. They use the term la
femme (woman), la pierre (stone) and la porte (door).
 Do all the French believe that stones and doors are female?
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 Criticism:
 Users of language do not inherit a fixed set of patterns to use.
 Users inherit the ability to manipulate and create with a language.
 If thinking and perception were totally determined by language, then the concept of language
change would be impossible.
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Criticism:
Example 1:
 If a young Hopi boy had no word in his language for the object known to us as a computer, would
he fail to perceive the object?
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Criticism:
Example 2:
 Returning to Eskimos and ‘snow’ we realize that English does not have a large number of single
terms for different kinds of snow. However, English speakers can create expressions, by manipulating
their language, to refer to wet snow, powdery snow, spring snow, etc.
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