-
姓名：郭亚西
班级：英本二班
学号：
12280214
The relationship between
language and culture
Abstract:
Language
is
a
communication
tool,
but
it
does
not
exist
independently,
it
is
closely connected with
culture, making complement with each other. It is
also deeply
entrenched in the national
culture, is a part of culture. Language plays an
important
role in promoting the
development of culture, it is influenced and
restricted by culture,
and
simultaneously
reflects
the
culture.
So,
understanding
the
related
cultural
background
is
indispensable
to
learn
a
foreign
language,
by
which
one
can
comprehend the essence of the language
more efficiently.
Based on
a
discussion on
the
cultural
discrepancy
between
different
languages
and
the
causes
and
representations of the
discrepancy, it found that an incorrect or a
reverse meaning or
expression
will
be
a
huge
barrier
in
foreign
language
learning
because
of
lacking
understanding of cultural background.
It is revealed that it is of significance to study
a
language
by
combining
the
language
and
culture
background.
If
so,
the
foreign
language learning
can make one exciting and fruitful without a
tiresome feeling due to
memorizing
words and grammar mechanically.
Key
words:
culture
language
subsume
react
carrier
Introduction
：
Obviously, language is relatively
separable with culture. But nowadays, many a
people begin to ignore the relationship
between the two items. In my university, just
in
the
third
year
of
English
study,
we
begin
to
open
the
literature
lesson.
Actually,
culture is the
essential part for language learning. In order to
acquaint learners with
significance
of
comprehension
to
the
relationship
between
language
and
corresponding
culture,
based
on
the
definition
of
language
and
culture
and
for
the
sake of making the
foreign language study more effectively. Writer
will elaborate the
relationship between
language and culture in following aspects.
Text
：
Ⅰ
Language itself is a kind
of special culture.
Before we explore
the relationship between language and culture. We
have to get
a brief comprehension to
the definition of the two items. Firstly,
What is language?
Language
is the most important means of communication for
human beings.
Modern
linguistics have proposed various
definitions of language,
“language is the institution whereby
humans communicate and interact with each other
by means of habitually used
oral-
auditory arbitrary symbols ”(Hall,
1968).
Besides this one,
there is another one more specific I think.
“From now on I will
consider language to be a set(finite or infinite)
of
sentences , each
finite in length and constructed out of
a finite set of elements.”(Chomsky, 1957)
Each
has
its
own
special
emphasis,
such
emphasis
are
embraced
in
the
next
generally accepted
definition,
“language is a
system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human
communication.”
And
what
is
culture?
Most
early,
the
Britain
anthropologist
Edward
Burnett
Tylor(
泰勒
) pointed
that:
“culture
is
that
complex
whole
which
includes
knowledge,
belief,
art,
morals,
law,
customs and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of society.”
Obliviously, in a broad
sense, culture is a combination of social
formation and
the
social
system,
organization
structure
that
matching
with
such
social
formation.
From this aspect,
language has became a kind of culture with
specific. For different
nationalities
have different languages, different languages
represent different language
customs.
For
example,
XieHouyu
is
a
Chinese
language
custom
which
is
formed
owing
to
Chinese
characteristics.
Different
language
customs
reflect
the
different
ideology. The culture differences
caused by language directly penetrated into
people
’s
life, became a part
of social culture.
If viewed from the
content rather than its scope, there are generally
two types of
culture:
material
and
spiritual.
In
the
19th
century
German
linguist
Humboldt
once
said:
顾嘉祖
,
2000:235).”
From this aspect, the language itself
is a kind of culture, the spiritual culture,
the crystallization of human beings.
The birth of language means the birth of human
culture. Language is the main
characteristic that making the human beings differ
from
animals.
Only with
the languages, can human beings
communicate with
each other,
can
human
beings
live
an
organized
social
life
and
become
the
people
that
full
of
“culture”.
Ⅱ
language carries culture
(culture acts on language)
Firstly,
language symbolizes culture reality. when we come
across a new word,
we tend to look for
its meaning in a dictionary first. Yet in addition
to its dictionary
meanings, the same
word may stir up different associations in people
with different
cultural backgrounds.
Take the word
red
for
example. In China, the word
red
in most
instances conjures up an image of
joyful or good luck. Such as, we called the people
that promote other people
’s
marriage as “
红娘
”. And
i
n celebration activities or happy
occasions,
people
will
hang red
lanterns and paste
red
character.
And
“Red”
becomes a symbol of
revolution” and “socialism” in modern times.
However, in some
other areas of the
world,
red
are considered as
bloodiness. It always concerns people
of danger and and anger. Such as
“like a red rag to bull”, this phase
refer “something
that
makes
people
angry
”.
“red
revenge”
means
“cruel
revenge”
and
“a
red
flag”
means
“a
flag
that
symbolizes
danger”.
Therefore,
the
word
red
elicits
a
quiet
different association because of the
culture experiences. More, in west, The dog is the
embodiment
of
loyalty
and
friendship,
and
the
dogs
always
are
regarded
as
accompanies
or
family
members
to
human
beings.
But
in
China,
dog
doesn
’t
have
such
rich
meanings.
So
many
Chinese
people
can
not
perceive
why
the
relative
English translation of traditional
idiom
“
爱屋及乌
” is
“love me, love my dog”.
The
carrier
for
culture
not
only
reflected
in
the
culture
reality,
but
also
in
the
aspect of customs,
beliefs, natural geography and so on. Take the
natural geography
for
another
example.
All
the
European
countries
are
in
the
temperate:
temperate continental climate,
temperate maritime climate,
and
the
Mediterranean climate. Especially
England, it is a typical temperate maritime
climate
country. Such kind of
temperature stirs up many English words relating
to rain. Such
as
“it
never
rains
but
pours”,
“it
rains
cats
and
dogs”.
In
addition,
as
we
all
know,
London is famous as a city of frog, so
in English, there are some phases
“in a
fog” and
“not have the foggiest” and so
on.
These
examples
demonstrate
that
language
not
only
express
facts,
events,
or
ideas,
natural
environment
but
also
reflects
the
people
’s
attitude,
belief,
and
world-outlook. In a
word, language is the carrier of culture and it
will have diverse
meaning due to
diverse culture.
Ⅲ
The language reacts on the culture
When the culture is throwing up the
power upon the language, the language is
also
influence
the
culture.
In
another
word,
the
culture
also
develops
with
the
development
of
language.
The
most
influential
example
is
the
network
language.
Concerned this topic, firstly, the
network language influences the traditional
etiquette
and custom. China is regarded
as a state of ceremonies, etiquette is everywhere.
In the
old times, people are particular
about the respect and politeness. Early in
“Three Gang
Six
Ji
” Written by BanGu in Han dynasty, it
pointed that
“Monarch to
minister classes, father to son, husband to wife”,
(Three Gang Six Ji)
.
that is
to say, the latter one has to obey the fellow one.
Maybe because of such
strict rules,
people
are pursuing some
ways
to
relieve.
As a
result, people enter the
internet world to liberate themselves
by using the internet language word freely. And
gradually, the internet languages
infiltrated in the daily life. People have formed
their
own
world-outlook
influenced
by
the
network
languages.
So
when
they
faced
the
elders,
if they think that the elders did not match their
judgment standards, they will
not
show
their
respect
to
the
elders.
And
besides
this
condition,
furthermore,
our
culture tend to be too
open influenced by network languages. Everywhere
you
’ll hear
“Dear”, “I love
you”, and “Honey” such obscure appellation.
Probably, many people
who
used
to
retaining
traditional
concepts
have
had
no
restriction
for
the
obscure
appellation more now. Secondly, network
languages
impact
the
moral and ethical
of
the
society.
Confucius,
the
founder
of
Confucianism,
constructed
the
first
complete
ethics system and
formed the relative system of ethical thoughts on
the basis of ethics