Language and Culture

Culture:total way of people's life(in a broad sense);local beliefs,customs etc(narrow sense)

Two kinds:material(visible,observable) and spritual(natured)

Correlationship:mutual dependence.

eg,dog has different meaning in different culture like Amr and HK.

Thus,Language expresses its cultural reality,reflecting people's attitude.

Culture liberate and limite language use,eg discource community.Culture is passed down through language.

Culture includes language as a subsystem.Thus part-to-whole relationship.

Sapir-whorf hypothesis:Two trusts.The structure determines or influence one's way of thinking,which is language determism.Similarity between language is relative,which is language relativity.

Two versions:(strong)language patterns determine one's way of thinking and behaviour.(Weak)Language influences it.eg Esikomos' names of various snows.

Two sights:context is of great importance to understand a word.

Meanings:denotative,connotative,Iconic(associative).eg rose,Its denotive meaning is a kind of flower.connotative is love,associative meaning can be a beautiful lady.eg龙。its iconic meaning is positive in China while negative in Amr.

Cases:greeting,China (吃饭了吗？)，Amr(How are you ?).

terms of address,China(姨妈，姑妈)，Amr(aunt).

Thanks and compliments,

Color words:green-eyed.嫉妒红了脸。

Privace and taboos；age and salary.abuse.

Rounding off numbers

specific connotations,idioms,proverbs and metaphor.

The role culture play in teaching and learning.It enhances communicative competence.

Cultural overlap or difusion:eg word-borrowing and the celebration of western holidays,resulting linguistic imperiliasm or nationalism.

Cross-culture communication: