Chapter 4 Language and Culture Time allocation: 4 hours Form of class: lecture+ Q & A

1. Chapter 4 Language and Culture • Time allocation: 4 hours • Form of class: lecture+ Q & A

2. Culture influences language. • Language is a mirror of culture • Language is culture. • Linguistic determinism: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

3. Main contents: • How to talk about the world in different cultures pp. 121-135 • Problems found in translating across cultures pp. 136-142 • Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: linguistic relativity pp. 150-158

4. Kinship terms: (p. 128) Chinese English 姑夫；姨夫；舅舅 uncles 叔叔；伯伯 堂兄；表兄；堂弟 cousins 表弟；堂姐；堂妹 表兄；表妹 连襟 妯娌

5. Translate: (p. 128) a. 林黛玉的母亲是贾宝玉的姑母，贾宝玉的母亲是林黛玉的舅母，又是薛宝钗的姨母。 b. Three cousins of the French Presidents were also to receive diamonds.

8. Translate:

9. Categorization of farm animals (p. 125-126) English • sex (male, female, castrated) • maturity (mature, immature or newborn) Amazonian Indian • Good for work (inedible): stallion, mare, gelding • Good for food (useless for work): cow, ewe, lamb, sow

10. Chinesebull:公牛steer (被阉割的)公牛 cow母牛heifer：小母牛calf: 小牛(年幼的母牛或公牛) (milk; beef;butter)way of thinking: holistic vs analytic

11. Categorizationof chairs (p. 124 ) English Chairs and couches: related to each other; both belong to the category of household furniture African Chair and spear; related to each other; both are emblems of authority

12. Distinction between dew, fog and snow in English is not found in Koyas of India (p. 124) A Koya distinguishes 7 different of bamboo (p. 124)

13. II. Problems found in translating across cultures • Lexical equivalence: (p. 137) • snow in Eskimo and English • blue in Russian and English

14. 2. Idiomatic equivalence: (p. 138) eat one’s word and SHI YAN in Chinese a fly in the ointment

15. 3. Grammatical-syntactical equivalence: (P. 138) English: third person singular, definite article, tense, plurality of nouns Chinese: 量词：一把，一架，一份，一块，一条，一 片，一头，一匹，一只

16. 4．Experiential equivalence: (P. 138) west wind and east wind Translate: When the east wind blows, neither Russel nor Shaw can flower with their pens.

17. 5. Conceptual equivalence: (P. 139) bird in English and NIAO in Chinese wear in English and CHUAN in Chinese female: NV; MU male: NAN; GONG Translate: He wears long hair. He is wearing a smile. He wears a watch. He wears glasses. (to love in Spanish; kinship terms; livestock classification)

18. Slogans and the Importance of Language---- from Dynamics of Intercultural Communication …When Pepsi was first introduced in Chinese Taiwan, the slogan “Come Alive” was translated into Chinese as a rather sacrilegious(亵渎的，罪孽的） message：“ Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.” …A number of years ago the Chevy Nova (new star in Latin), a car from the 1960s and 70s, was marketed in Mexico. Sales were miserable, and only later did exerts realize the linguistic reason: the name Nova sounds like “no va” which translates “no go”…

19. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: P150 linguistic relativity hypothesis • Language is a guide to “social reality”. Though language is not ordinarily thought of as of essential interest to the students of social science, it powerfully conditions all our thinking (it influences our thinking greatly) about social problems and processes. (Sapir)

20. Eskimo- words for snow • Hopi Indians: use the same word for "insect", "aero plane" and "pilot"