1、Chapter 7 Language, Culture, and SocietyAnthropological linguistics: Often simply the study of lesser-known languages through field work. Also, more generally, of any work on language from an anthropological viewpoint: of the use of language in ritual, of vocabulary in relation to culture, of the or
2、ganization of information in a text, and so on.Sociolinguistics: Any study of language in relation to society. Commonly, from the late 1960s, of studies of variation in language by Labov and his followers. In that sense, sociolinguistics might be defined as the study of correlations between linguist
3、ic variables (e.g. the precise phonetic quality of a vowel (e.g. individuals from different social classes may pronounce ar in different ways), or the presence or absence of a certain element in a construction (e.g. Cicily: When I see a spade I call it a spade. Gwendolen: I am glad to say I have nev
4、er seen a spade. It is obvious our social sphere have been widely different.) and non-linguistic variables such as the social class of speakers, their age, sex, etc. Increasingly, from the end of the 1970s, of the range of loosely connected investigations, including Conversation Analysis (concentrat
5、es on relations between successive turns and the operation of a hypothetical turn-taking system) as conducted especially by sociologists, the study of relations in general between language and ideology (as poor as a church mouse vs 穷得房无一间, 地无一垄) or language and power, linguistic aspects of social ps
6、ychology, etc.Language and cultureCulture: the characteristics of cultivated manthe life-way of a populationthe components of culture:1） Materials to satisfy human needs2） Social institutions and organizations3） Knowledge about the world and artistic development4） Language and other communication sy
7、stems5） Customs, habits and behavioral patterns6） Value systems, world views, national traits, aesthetic standards and thinking patterns.Nida:1) ecological culture2) linguistic culture3) religious culture4) material culture5) social cultureThe anthropological orientation in the study of languageIn E
8、nglandMalinowsky: a functional anthropologist. According to him, language functions as a link in concerted human activity It is a mode of action and not an instrument of reflection. The meaning of language elements greatly depended upon the context of situation in which they occur. (Johns like a fis
9、h.)Firth: the first professor of linguistics in England and a close friend of Malinowsky. He tried to set up a model for illustrating the close relationship between language use and context of situation which contain the following components:A. the relevant features of the participants: persons, per
10、sonalities(i) The verbal action of the participants(ii) The non-verbal action of the participantsB. The relevant objectsC. The effects of the verbal actionHalliday: a student of Firth and the founder of systemic-functional linguistics that, especially the functional aspect, is also termed as sociose
11、mantics. According to Halliday, the context of situation contains three components:Field of discourse: the subject matter being discussed.Tenor of discourse: the social relations between the participants of conversationsMode of discourse: the channel of communicationAn illustrationZhao Yan： Excuse m
12、e. Id like some information on how to get into an American University.Officer: Yes, of course. Well, first, you write and get an application form. Then, you send it with a copy of your school records and an affidavit of support. And after that, you ask your teachers for some letters of recommendatio
13、n.Zhao Yan: And do I need to take any tests?Officer: yes, you have to take the TOEFL test for one, and for some schools I think you may also have to take the SATZhao Yan: And is it all right to apply to several universities at the same time?Officer: Oh, sure. No problem.The field of discourse：inform
14、ation on how to get into an American university: writing to get an application form, sending it with a copy of school records, an affidavit of support, and some letters of recommendation, taking the TOEFL test and in some cases a SAT test, and the possibility to apply to several universities simulta
15、neously.The tenor of discourse：communication between a student and an officer in American EmbassyThe mode of discourse：oral EnglishThe nature of Hallidays sociosemantics can be captured by the following table:Phonology / graphologyTransitivity: the 6 processesMode-residue structure Theme-rheme struc
16、ture Ideational meaning Interpersonal meaning Textual meaningField of discourse Tenor of discourse Mode of discourseIn the USABoas, Sapir and Whorf: the anthropological approach to the study of language which can still be felt when we talk about Ethnography of Communication. What is best remembered
17、of American Anthropological linguistics is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:Linguistic determinism: Language determines our way of thinking.Linguistic relativity: similarity between languages is relative, the greater their structural differentiation is, the more diverse their conceptualization of the worl
18、d will be.Basic color termsIn English and Chinese there are 11 basic color terms, but in some other languages there might be fewer basic color terms. The speakers of those languages which have different number of basic color terms may have different view on the color spectrum. But A universal evolut
19、ionary process of basic color terms:White red green blue brown purple black yellow pink orangegraystage I II III IV V VIBut we do not have evidence from historical studies of different languages to support the hypothesis. In the same way, we do not have evidence to support the hypothesis that Englis
20、h and Chinese are at different developmental stages. English has been moving from a synthetic language to an analytic language, while Chinese is an analytic language. Some say that Chinese manifests more developmental maturity than English.Conclusions about the hypothesis:Some view the Sapir-Whorf h
21、ypothesis as one of the greatest contributions made by scholars on language in the 20th century. But most people would say that language, culture and thought interact, each influencing and shaping the others. But language does exert influence upon thought.Case studies:“Did you see a broken headlight
22、?”“Did you see the broken headlight?”A flag: 一面旗 A river: 一条河 A pencil: 一支铅笔Political oration, newspaper editorials, advertisements are meant to influence peoples thinking.“If Aristotle had spoken Chinese his logic would have been different.”Kinship terms.Since there are more kinship term in Chinese
23、, the Chinese people can talk about kinship relations relatively easily. This strengthens the Chinese peoples concept about kinship relations.Honorifics and terms of humilityIn English: Majesty, (most) Honorable, Excellency, and a small number of titles: president, mayor, professor, etc,In Chinese:
24、您、令尊、高见、大作、贵府敝人、拙荆、犬子、寒舍This contrast may be related to the distinction between a stratified society and a mobile societyLinear vs spiral or cyclic text developmentIn English a paragraph or text may begin with the topic sentence. And the second sentence is derived from the first one. The third one i
25、s derived from the second one, and so on.In Chinese the sentences in a paragraph or text may not have readily seen formal linkages between them. E.g. 君子曰：学不可以已。青取之于蓝，而青于蓝；冰，水为之，而寒于水。木直中绳，輮以为轮，其曲中规。虽有槁曝，不复挺者，輮使之然也。But it is dangerous to try to relate all structural characteristics to culture. Languag
26、e has its own way of development.“The Chinese language is monosyllabic and uninflectional With a language so incapable of variation, a literature cannot be produced which possesses the qualities we look for and admire in literary works. Elegance, variety, beauty of imagery these must all be lacking”
27、The subjunctive mood and counterfactual thinking.Some scholars claim that since Chinese does not have formal markers for the subjunctive mood, the Chinese people are not capable of counterfactual thinking.Culture in language classroomsThe teaching of two unknowns, the target language and the target
28、culture, simultaneously.The objectives: 1) To get the students familiar with cultural differences;2) To help the students transcend their own culture and see things as the members of the target culture will;3) To emphasize the inseparability of understanding language and understanding culture throug
29、h various classroom practice.Language and societyMonistic or autonomous pursuit of an independent science: a separation of the structural study of language from its social context of usage.Dualistic view of the linguistic inquiry: the study of language as it is used in society, as an opposition to t
30、he dominant theory of Chomskyan linguistics.A situationally and socially variation perspectiveThe factors that are believed to influence language behavior in a social context include: 1) class, 2) gender, 3）age, 4) ethnic identity, 5) educational background, 6) occupation, and 7) religious belief.Wi
31、lliam Labov in his The Social Stratification of English in New York City reported that class and style were two major factors influencing the speakers choice of one phonological variant over another. For instance, in the U.S.A.Upper class Non-Upper classyesterday yesterdayVase (bars) (maize)intresti
32、ng interestingIn vocabulary, the course of meal following the main course has different names for different social classes:Pudding (upper and middle classes) Sweet (middle class) Dessert (lower middle class) afters (lower middle and lower classes) pudding (lower classes)According to Lakoff, there ex
33、ists a woman register in language that takes on the following features:1) Women use more fancy color terms such as mauve (淡紫色) and beige（米色）.2) Women use less powerful curse words.3) Women use more intensifiers such as terrible and awful.4) Women use more tag questions: Hes right, isnt he?5) Women u
34、se more statement (declarative) questions: Hes right?6) Womens linguistic behavior is more indirect and, hence, more polite than men: Could you lower your voice a little?Linguistic sexism: linguistic discrimination against women: chairman, man power, man（used to refer to the whole human race）, he (u
35、sed to refer to a person of unknown sex), gentlemen. If a man behaves strangely, one may say, “Theres a woman in it.” The proverb: Wives and children are bills of charges.Linguistic racism: linguistic discrimination against some ethnic groups: niger, negro, the black people, Afro-Americans; Chinks,
36、Japs, Dagos, kirks, Pommy, slant eyes. England will beat Argentina in the football match or Im a Dutchman. Many of the boys at the school took French leave to go to the football match.The relationship between language and societyThis relationship can be studied from two different perspectives: the s
37、ociolinguistc study of society and the sociolinguistic study of language.The sociolinguistc study of societyIf we want to know more about a given society or community by examinng the linguistic behavior of its members, we are doing a macro sociolinguistic study of society. At this level of investiga
38、tion we may be interested in the following things:Bilingualism and multilingualism: referring firstly to a speech community which makes use of two or more languages and secondly to individuals who can speak two or more languages. Sociolinguists are particularly concerned with the social status of th
39、ese languages and their role in identifying speakers with different ethnic groups. They may raise different kinds of political, educational and social problems, depending on the numbers, social standing and national feelings of the groups concerned.Language planning: There might be different languag
40、es or dialects spoken in a country. So society needs a systematic attempt to solve the communication problem and develop a realistic policy concerning the proper selection and appropriate use of these languages and dialects. This kind of deliberate, official and collective activities is called langu
41、age planning.The standard language or dialect: When a country abounds with languages and dialects of a language, a prestige language or dialect will be accepted by society as the foundation of the standard language or dialect.Language maintenance: When the younger generation of a subordinate languag
42、e community do not feel the need of using that language or deliberately avoid the use of that language, the subordinate language will fall into disuse or die out in the course time. For this reason, efforts are sometimes made to keep the language from going out. This is called language maintenanceTh
43、e sociolinguistic study of languageIf we want to know more about some linguistic variations by turning to socialcultural factors for a description and explanation, we are doing a micro sociolinguistic study of language. For example,Address forms: in English speaking countries, people get into first
44、name terms every easily. Titles plus surnames are not used very often in interpersonal communicationDiscourse analysis: the analysis of language units larger than sentences. For example, in a society people may get other peoples attention, nominate a topic, develop a topic, and terminate a topic in
45、certain ways.Pidgin: formed by two speech communities attempting to communicate, each successively approximating to the more obvious features of the others language. Pidgin languages are used for restricted purposes and are native languages of none.Creole: When a Pidgin becomes the native language o
46、f a speech community, it changes into a Creole.The implications from sociolinguistics for language teachingCommunicative competence a. linguistic competenceN. Chomsky: the speaker-hearers knowledge of his language.A set of (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out
47、of a finite set of elements.b. communicative competenceD. Hymes: Whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible.Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible, in virtue of the means of implementation available.Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy,
48、successful) in relation to the context in which it is used and evaluated.Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails.M. Canale and M. Swain: Grammatical competenceSociolinguistic competenceDiscourse competenceStrategic competencea. Socioling
49、uistics has contributed to a change of emphasis in the content of language teaching.b. It has also contributed to innovation in materials and activities for the classroom.c. It has contributed to a fresh look at the nature of language development and use.d. It has contributed to a more fruitful research in this field.
