LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL MEANING

1. LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL MEANING Cultural behavior is not essentially different from other forms of learned behavior; it is a consequence of the dynamic of social living over many generations, while individual members of the social system are replaced (Foley, 1997: 12)

2. Questions • How do members of different cultures express their worldviews? • How do members of different cultures express events, experiences, and intentions through language? • How do speakers expresstheir way of being in the world through a particular use of their languages?

3. By the way a speaker frames intentions and activities through language • Usage of contrasting words (Blue/white, good/bad) • Grammatical forms (Example: the structuring properties of sentences)

4. The framing of intentions and activities • English: I must go there. • English: I make the horse run. • Navajo: It is only good that I shall go. • Navajo: The horse is running for me.

5. Language expresses and reflects worldviews • Cultural models: shared cultural attitudes • Language: key for transmitting cultural models • Language ----Proverbs, stories, etc. -- conveying a way of being in the world --guiding human thought and action -- provides moral lessons

6. Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres.

7. Concrete and symbolic meanings • “The horse is running for me” concrete object (horse) • “Don’t cry over spilt milk” symbolic meaning, metaphorical

8. Why do we study language? • To identify cultural models • Understand the relationship between language and environment • language and society

9. The Foundations of Linguistic Anthropology • Edward Sapir (1884—1939) and his student Benjamin Whorf (1897—1941) • Linguistic research among Native Americans • Sapir: lexicon or vocabulary • Whorf: Grammatical structures

10. Edward Sapir • physical environment and social environment through the use of language • Elements of vocabulary influence speakers perceptions • Different experience of our world • The Paiute utilize unique words for valuable geographical locations

11. Sand flat, semicircular valley or hollow, spot for level ground in mountains surrounded by ridges.

12. Benjamin Whorf • Influences on though and behaviour • Grammatical structures of language • Grammatical structure and conceptualization of time, number, duration

13. Whorf studies among the Hopi • Time, number and duration fundamental for Hopi culture • Hopi: Emphasis: continuity, cyclicity and intensity: • English: Emphasis on boundedness and objectification • Morning • “While morning-phase is occurring”

14. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis • Language influences people’s perception of the world • “Weak version” • “Strong version”

15. Lexical and Cultural Categories • Taxonomic systems:The classification system that orders things in a logical hierarchical way, a system that orders by indicating natural relationships • Semantic domains: a summative of words (words put together). All sharing a core meaning, related to a specific topic: Example: Kinship terms, body-parts words, or colours

16. Language expresses • Cultural focus: cultural priorities: Horse versus chipmunk • Transformative: gun and bow • Not static; changes over time

17. Why are semantic domains important in the study of culture?

18. Semantic domains are important because: • Speaker’s perception of his/her cultural universe • Degree of cultural interest innovation, extension of semantic domains • Shows how language and meaning changes over time

19. Lexical (vocabulary) components • Kinship terminology comparison • Peoples’ priorities in social relations • Usage of words to name relatives Mother, father, son, daughter, etc

20. The analysis of these contrasts reveals that • First: there is a distinction between generations grandmother/mother,father/son • Two: there is a distinction of sex: father/mother,son/daughter • Third: there is also a distinction between direct and collateral relatives: mother/aunt,son/nephew

21. Componential analysis • Determines significance of contrast by isolating components of meanings • Example kinship terminology ---Younger generation-female-lineal= daughter ---Older generation-male-lineal = grandfather

22. Kinship terminology not a universal • (Seneca ) Iroquoian languages (Quebec, Ontario, and New York) • My Grandmother and her sister (s): one word • My Grandfather and his brother (s): one word • My Mother and her sister (s): one word • My Father and hiss brother (s): one word

23. Seneca Kinship Terminology • Different terms for for older and younger siblings • My mother’s sister’s daughter –sister • My mother’s sister’s son = brother • My Father’s brother’s daughter = sister • My father’s brother’s son – brother

24. Lexical classifications • Classification of words to make sense of speech • Degrees of complexity • Ambiguity: Whale fish or mammal • Classification indicates: cultural interest discrimination

25. Ethnoscience • A classification system in a given domain that organizes people’s knowledge of aspects of their universe, as, for example, botanical or zoological terminologies. Ethnoscientific systems are based on taxonomic hierarchies of similarity and contrast.

26. The classification of words is culturally specific • Papagos (Arizona) • Life is divided: living things and plants • Word for living = animals • Animals are the prototype (best example) of living things among the Papagos

27. Focal points and prototypes • Focal point of a word is its central sense, its best example, agreed upon by culture • Prototype: idealized, internalized conceptualization of an object, quality or activity, needs to be understood in the context of culture

28. Cultural Presuppositions . Cultural presupposition is the notion that participants in speech interactions come to interactive situations with certain cultural knowledge. . Transmitted language . Some more complex: symbolic, rhetorical

29. Summary • Members of different cultures express different worldviews through a particular use of their languages (language frames) • Cultural models are expressed and reflected primarily through language • Proverb: • “The early bird catches the worm.” • Worldviews are expressed through language use • Language frames intentions and activities • Framing accomplished through contrasting of words, classification of words

30. Discussion Question: How do cultural models provide frameworks for understanding the physical and social world we live in?