The relationship between language and culture 语言与文化的关系.docx

1、The relationship between language and culture 语言与文化的关系The relationship between language and cultureIntroduction Language is the important means of communication, and it is the carrier of culture and a part of culture, any language was born with formation of its culture, develops with the development

2、 of culture, and in most cases, perishes with death of its culture.1. Language, as a concrete system of signs, has its own significance in the culture communicationIt has long been recognized that language is an essential and important part of a given culture and that the importance of culture upon

3、a given language is something indispensable.1.1 Language is a systemThe important of language to the study intercultural communication is clearly captured in the American poet Ralph Waldo Emersons simple sentence “Language is the archives of history.” His declaration takes on added significance when

4、 we realize that one of the major characteristics identifying us as human is our ability to use language to make sounds and marks serve as substitutes for things and feelings.Over millions of years, we have evolved the anatomy necessary to produce and receive sounds have taken on meaning by represen

5、ting things, feelings, and ideas. This combination of evolution and culture has led to the development of a four-part process that enables us share our internal states with other human beings. In short, we can receive, store, manipulate, and generate symbols to represent our personalized realities.1

6、.2 The importance of language Language is extremely important to human interaction because it is how we reach out to make contract with our surroundings. If we were to survey a normal day, we would soon see that we use words for a wide variety of purposes we may use language when we first awake: “Go

7、od morning!” We use words as a way to write with the outside world. Or we may use words to share an unpleasant experience and to get support from other: “Let me tell you about the horrible dream I had last night.” This example also demonstrates how we employ words to relate to the past, that is, to

8、talk about something that has already happened.We use words so that we can experience some control over the present: “please pass me the salt and pepper.” We each seek to affect our environment, to influence many lf the daily situations in which we find ourselves. Words, and how we manipulate them,

9、permit us to make those alterations through symbolic transactions with others.We also use words to form images of the future: “I have meet with Jane at work today, but I dread seeing her, because I know shes going to be upset about the changes Im making in her work schedule.” Our wording ability all

10、ows us to predict and describe the future .We use words to persuade to exchange ideas, to exchange ideas, to express views, to seek information, and to express feelings. When we study another language, we soon discover that the symbols, the sounds for those symbols, and the rules for using those sym

11、bols and sounds are different.2. Language, as a culture institution, is born with culture. It develops and interacts with the cultureTo preserve the language of a nation is to preserve its special culture and history. When people can not understand the old language, they will be less tightly connect

12、ed to or even gradually lose their cultures and histories. Their enemies know much more clearly than themselves as to this point. We still remember that in the famous article The Last Lesson, the first thing Prussians did when they intruded France, was to replace French with Prussian in the school e

13、ducation. Japanese also took the same strategy in order to cut off the connection between people and their histories and cultures. This evil refused to only stay in peoples memory and is still threatening certain cultures and nations. Thus both Jews and Tibetans are still fighting to preserve their

14、languages for the sake of their cultures and histories at the edge of being extinguished.2.1 Explain the meaning of the cultureWhen delivering daily speech, the word culture refers to pursuits such as literature and music. More broadly, we can define culture as all the modes of thought, behavior, an

15、d production that are handed down from one generation to the next by means of communicative interaction speech, gesture, epic, construction, and all other communication among humans rather than by genetic transmission or heredity. Culture is an essential concept for it is what makes humans unique in

16、 the animal kingdom. All familiar forms of social organizations, ranging from the simplest family to the most sophisticated corporation depend upon culture for their existence. Nevertheless, society and culture might be confusing for one to distinguish. Society is population that is organized to carry out the major function of life. A societys culture consists of all the ways in which its members think about it among themselvesCulture