Thought 12/11/2017 S OCIOLINGUISTICS By Z UBAIR A. B AJWA - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Language, Culture and Thought 12/11/2017 S OCIOLINGUISTICS By  Z UBAIR A. B AJWA zbr141@gmail.com Zubair.A.Bjawa M. Phil English Linguistics (scholar) 1 Department of English, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan

W HO CAME FIRST ? 12/11/2017 2

G OALS 12/11/2017  To look at various ways in which language and culture have been said to be related  Sapir-Whorf hypothesis  Kinship terms  Taxonomies  colour  Prototypes  Taboo and Euphemism 3

L ANGUAGE AND T HOUGHT 12/11/2017 Is thought possible without language? Does our perception Does structure of our language shape the structure of shape our thinking? language? • Languages and cultures are superficial. • Language and cognition run deep 4

R EVIEWING L ANGUAGE & C ULTURE  Culture 12/11/2017 • whatever a person must know in order to function in a particular society • socially acquired • necessary behaviors are learned and do not come from any kind of genetic endowment Culture , therefore, is the ‘know - how’ that a person must possess to get through the task of daily living  Language • The identity • The vehicle to transfer culture from generation to generation • Preserves culture • Expresses culture 5

• Language is particular way of conceptualizing the world and has close ties to culture 12/11/2017 6

R ELATIONSHIPS  Sapir-Whorf hypothesis • 1930s Whorf 12/11/2017 • two basic principles Linguistic Determinism Linguistic Relativity Weaker version Strong version o not determine the world- o structure of a o Different languages view but is still extremely language determines represent different influential in the way in which ways of thinking about predisposing speakers speakers of that the world around us. of a language toward language view the adopting a particular world world-view 7

• Opposite claim: culture of a people finds reflection in the language they employ : because they value certain things and do them in a certain way. Their use of language reflects what they value and what they do 12/11/2017 • Certain cultural concepts للبح ،تریغ  Chinese ,there is only a single term luotuo, in English there is a camel. But in Arabic, there are more than 400 words for the animal .  In Eskimo language there are number of words involving snow. For example ,apun =“snow on the ground”, qanikca =“hard snow on the ground”, utak = “block of snow”. • cultural requirements do not determine the structure of a language • A third, ‘neutral,’ claim would be that there is little or no relationship between language and culture Linguistic relativity hypothesis, Sapir – Whorf hypothesis , the Whorfian hypothesis 8

• Sapir acknowledged the close relationship between language and culture that both cannot be understood without separately 12/11/2017 • Whorf extended these ideas • in Whorf’s view, the relationship between language and culture was a deterministic one Linguistic Determinism  Hopi language vs Western Languages  Days in Hopi are cyclical  “They stayed four days” cannot be said in Hopi  Must be “They left after four days” 9

• Do you think you cannot talk about something for which your language lacks vocabulary? • What is the exact middle of America? • The letter ‘ r ’ 12/11/2017 • • If there are three apples, you took two away, how many do 2 you have? • There is no • How can you lift an elephant with one hand? elephant with one finger • When do you stop at green and go at red? • Eating watermelon • A truck driver is going down a one way street the wrong • Because he is way, and passes at least ten cops. Why is he not caught? not driving; he is walking • This reflects: if language is hardwired in our brains, then our thought works according to the language. But • Paying great attention can override hardwiring to innovative thinking 10

• if speakers of one language have certain words to describe things and speakers of another language lack similar words, then speakers of the first language will find it easier to talk about those things 12/11/2017 • The strongest claim of all is that the grammatical categories available in a particular language not only help the users of that language to perceive the world in a certain way but also at the same time limit such perception. • They act as blinkers : • you perceive only what your language allows you to perceive. • Your language controls your ‘ world-view. ’ Speakers of different languages will, therefore, have different world- views  In the Whorfian view, language provides a screen or filter to reality • Gender construction in Urdu, Punjabi 11

Linguistic Relativity 12/11/2017 o Different languages represent different ways of thinking about the world around us. For example  Future and past  Aymara language Mother’s tongue vs Father’s tongue   Balti language  Reverse order of gender  Pashto 12

huṇḍeeṛáa C OMPLEX SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION (P ALULA , C HITRAL , I NDO -A RYAN ) táa a ǰ eṛáa ” here ” ” there ” índa eeṛáa oóra phareeṛáa phaareeṛáa bhuneeṛáa

12/11/2017 14 Note : These example may be useful but cannot be fully authentic as they have been taken from an unpublished term paper.

 Days of Week in Chitrali/Khowar 12/11/2017  There are only two basic terms for days. 15  Means Chitrali does not focus the names of days like Urdu. in Urdu we have separate term for each day. In other words Urdu has 7 basic terms

 S UPPORTERS ’ VIEW • language a person speaks affects that person’s relationship to the external world in one or more ways exclusive 12/11/2017 inclusive • Pronouns 16

• Article • Certain cultural concepts للبح ،تریغ 12/11/2017 • Encoding of Pluralization in Urdu Vs Arabic  Structural coding  English: singular cow-Ø, plural cow-s  No infl for sg, infl for pl  Some lgs express both sg and pl  Other lgs make no sg-pl distinction  But lgs don ’ t express singular inflectionally but not plural  Syntactic evidence can also mislead investigators • literal translation o Over-literal translation is very dangerous, particularly of metaphoric language. English is full of metaphors: ‘I see what you mean,’ ‘He grasped the idea,’ 17 ‘You’re behind the times,’ and so on

 N ON - SUPPORTERS ’ VIEW - CRITICISM • Pinker (1994) has no patience at all for any of Whorf’s ideas 12/11/2017  Linguistic Determinism is far too strong a claim and thus false. “Peoples’ thoughts and perceptions are not determined by the words and structures of their language.  We are not prisoners of our linguistic system” ( Fromkin et al. 2007)  We may not have the exact word but are able to express their ideas and thoughts using others words combinations The Dani tribe, who have only a two colour system , black/dark and white/ light  , were successfully trained to identify and name different shades of red . 18

• Broader attempts to relate types of language structure to patterns of social organization have also met with failure • Finally, the claim that it would be impossible to describe certain 12/11/2017 things in a particular language because that language lacks the necessary resources is only partially valid at best. 19

C ONCLUSION • The most valid conclusion concerning the Whorfian 12/11/2017 hypothesis is that it is still unproved • There is relationship between language and thought • But, stronger version of Sapri-Whorf Hypothesis seems to reject creativity • Has been rejected 20

Hollywood movie based on Sapir- Whorf 12/11/2017 Hypothesis 21

K INSHIP T ERMS • 12/11/2017 Kinship terms describes how people in the various parts of the world refer to relatives by blood and marriage. • Kinship systems are universal features of language , because kinship is so important in social organization. • Some systems are much richer than others , but all make use of such factors as gender, age , generation , blood ,and marriage in their organization. 22

K INSHIP T ERMS Parents’ Brothers 12/11/2017 Father ’ s/Mother ’ s Brother Mother’s Uncle Brother English Father’s Brother Mother’s Brother ںومام Urdu Father ’ s Brother اچچ Habitual ںومام Mother ’ s Brother ایات Elder brother Punjabi Father’s Brother Younger brother اچاچ 23

12/11/2017 C ONCLUSION  It is the kinship system which determines who is called what; it is not the behaviour of individuals which leads them to be called this or that. 24

T AXONOMIES • People also use language to classify and categorize various 12/11/2017 aspects of the world in which they live, but they do not always classify things the way scientists do 25