ENG 151: LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND SOCIETY

HANDOUTS

TOPIC 1:
Introduction to Language, Culture and Society & Sources on the Origin of Language

Importance of Language to Culture and Society

 Language is basically a system of communication where sounds or signs convey objects, actions
and ideas. Language is the key to human lives. According to Aristotle, man is a rational animal that
what sets him apart, what raises him above the animals, is that he has the ability to reason, and it’s
very clear that he cannot reason without language.
 Language is a means of forming and storing ideas as reflections of reality and exchanging them in
the process of human intercourse. It grows and develop together with the development of society.
 Stalin observes about language, “It arises and develops with the rise and development of a society.
It dies when the society dies. Apart from society there is no language.”
 The words that we speak influence society and culture and society and culture influence the
words we speak. We arrive meaning through conversational interaction, which follows many social
norms and rules.

Sources on the Origin of Language

The Divine Source

In the biblical tradition, as described in the book of Genesis, God created Adam and “whatsoever Adam
called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” Alternatively, following a Hindu tradition, language
came from Sarasvati, wife of Brahma, creator of the universe. In most religions, there appears to be a divine
source who provides humans with language. In an attempt to rediscover this original divine language, a few
experiments have been carried out, with rather conflicting results.

11. The Greek writer Herodotus reported the story of an Egyptian pharaoh named
Psammetichus (or Psamtik) who tried the experiment with two newborn babies more than 2,500
years ago. After two years of isolation except for the company of goats and a mute shepherd, the
children were reported to have spontaneously uttered, not an Egyptian word, but something that
was identified as the Phrygian word bekos, meaning “bread.”
1.2King James the Fourth of Scotland carried out a similar experiment around the year 1500
and the children were reported to have spontaneously started speaking Hebrew, confirming the
King’s belief that Hebrew had indeed been the language of the Garden of Eden.

The Natural Sound Source

 A quite different view of the beginnings of language is based on the concept of natural sounds.
The basic idea is that primitive words could have been imitations of the natural sounds which
early men and women heard around them. When an object flew by, making a coo-coo sound,
the early human tried to imitate the sound and used it to refer to the thing associated with the
sound.
 In English, in addition to cuckoo, we have splash, bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss, screech, and
forms such as bow-wow. In fact, this type of view has been called the “bow-wow theory” of
language origin. Words that sound similar to the noises they describe are examples of
onomatopeia.

The Social Interaction Source

 Another proposal involving natural sounds has been called the “yo-he-ho” theory. The idea is
that the sounds of a person involved in physical effort could be the source of our language,
especially when that physical effort involved several people and the interaction had to be
coordinated.
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The Physical Adaptation Source

 We look at the types of physical features humans possess, especially those that are distinct
from other creatures, which may have been able to support speech production. We can start
with the observation that, at some early stage, our ancestors made a very significant transition
to an upright posture, with bipedal (on two feet) locomotion, and a revised role for the front
limbs.

The Genetic Source

 As a solution to the puzzle of the origins of language, this innateness hypothesis would seem to
point to something in human genetics, possibly a crucial mutation, as the source. This seems to
indicate that human offspring are born with a special capacity for language.

TOPIC #2:
Language: A Social and Cultural Phenomenon & Varieties of Language

Language: A Social and Cultural Phenomenon

Language is Social
Language is one of the most important human behavior and sociolinguists believe that speaking is
almost always a social act. Language is social when it is used in a social group that involves at least wo
persons, the speaker and the listener. Oweyo (2000) believes that the three most important functions of
language in communication are:

1) To reveal the self,

2) To express feeling and values, and
3) To convey meaningful messages

Language is Cultural
There is a variation in language and it comes in many forms. The variations can be caused by
various possible social, cultural, educational and political impact and these variations can create cultural
diversity. Homes (1992) emphasized the role of language in a variety of social context and considers
both how language works and how it can be used to signal and interpret various aspects of social
identity. Every community, cultural group or ethnic group has its own values, beliefs, and ways of living,
and language is part of a person’s cultural heritage.

Varieties of Language

 Understanding language in society means that one also has to understand the social networks in
which language is embedded.

 In sociolinguistics, language variety—also called lect—is a general term for any distinctive
form of a language or linguistic expression. Linguists commonly use language variety (or
simply variety) as a cover term for any of the overlapping subcategories of a language,
including dialect, register, jargon, and idiolect.
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Dialect
A dialect is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar,
and/or vocabulary.
The term dialect is often used to characterize any way of speaking that differs from
the standard variety of a language which is largely considered to be dialect-free.

In addition to geographical variation, the social background of a speaker will also influence the
variety of English that person speaks: two children may grow up in the same Yorkshire village, but if one
is born into a wealthy family and attends an expensive private school, while the other is born into a less
well-off family and attends the local state school, the two are likely to end up speaking rather different
varieties of English. It is this combination of regional and social variation that refers to as dialect.
(Hodson, 2014)

Two Types of Dialect

1. Regional dialect, the distinct form of a language spoken in a certain geographical area.

2. Social dialect, the distinct form of a language spoken by members of a specific socioeconomic class,
such as the working-class dialects in England. (Akmajian 2001).

Distinctions Between Language and Dialect

 The very fact that 'language' and 'dialect' persist as separate concepts implies that linguists can
make tidy distinctions for speech varieties worldwide but in fact, there is no objective difference
between the two.
 English tempts one with a tidy dialect-language distinction based on 'intelligibility': If you can
understand it without training, it’s a dialect of your own language; if you can’t, it’s a different
language.

Distinctions Between Dialect and Accent

 Accents have to be distinguished from dialects. An accent is a person's distinctive

pronunciation. A dialect is a much broader notion: it refers to the distinctive vocabulary and
grammar of someone's use of language. If you say eether and I say iyther, that's accent.

Idiolect

An idiolect is a variety of a language unique to an individual. It is manifested by patterns of word

selection and grammar, or words, phrases, idioms, or pronunciations that are unique to that individual.

Difference Between Idiolect and Dialect

A person's idiolect also includes the levels of diction or language that he or she uses in different
social situations. Almost all speakers make use of several idiolects, depending on the circumstances of
communication.

Sociolect

Different groups of people have distinct styles of language use. These are created to mark an
identity and induce a sense of belonging. There are several factors that influence the style of language
including:

 socio-economic status (ex. language of high class is different from that of low class)
 age (ex. adults and teens do not have the same style of language)
 occupation (ex. certain professions such as lawyer or doctor have their very own jargon and
sentence structure)
 gender (ex. men tend to use slang and swear words more than woman)
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TOPIC #3
Varieties of Language & Language Contact

Varieties of Language

Accent
 An accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.
 An accent may be identified with the locality in which its speakers reside

Diglossia
 A situation in which two varieties of the same language are used under different conditions
within a community.

Low Variety
 The speakers don’t formally learn its grammar or how to write in that language. It’s merely
learned as a spoken language.

High Variety
 It is the language used for formal situations. This language is learned at school, formally.
Speakers learn how to write in that language and they learn its formal grammar rules.

Colloquial Words
 It is an expression used in informal conversation. It is commonly used in regional or local
dialects.

Jargons
 It is defined as the use of specific phrases and words in a particular situation, profession, or
trade.

Acute- a condition that comes suddenly

Negative- a result of a test that indicate a tested condition is not present
Atypical- something that is not completely normal

Language Contact

Pidgin
 A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more
groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as trade.
 Pidgins are not the native language of any speech community, but are, instead, learned as second
languages. Pidgins usually have low prestige with respect to other languages.
 Pidginization happens when a pidgin usually requires prolonged, regular contact between the
different language communities and a need to communicate between them.
 Hymes (1971) suggests that pidgins need three languages to form, with one (the superstrate) being
clearly dominant over the others.
 Creoles can then replace the existing mix of languages to become the native language of a
community (such as Krio in Sierra Leone and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea).

There are identifiable common traits among pidgins. Since a pidgin strives to be a simple and
effective form of communication, the grammar, phonology, etc. are as simple as possible, and
usually consist of:

i. A Subject-Verb-Object word order in a sentence

ii. Uncomplicated clausal structure (i.e., no embedded clauses, etc)
iii. Reduction or elimination of syllable codas
iv. Reduction of consonant clusters or breaking them with epenthesis
v. Basic vowels, like /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/
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vi. No tones, such as those found in West African and Asian

languages
vii. Use of separate words to indicate tense, usually preceding the
verb
viii. Use of reduplication to represent plurals, superlatives, and other
parts of speech that represent the concept being increased
ix. A lack of morphophonemic variation.

Creole

 When a pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade or contact language and becomes the first
language of a social community, it is described as a creole.
 Just as there was development from a pidgin to a creole, known as creolization, there is now
often a retreat from the use of the creole by those who have greater contact with a standard
variety of the language
 Creolization did not refer centrally to mixture, but just to the adaptive effects of living in a new
environment.

Below are the characteristics of creole:

i. creoles descended from a pidgin language
ii. spoken by native speakers
iii. more complex language
iv. spoken as a mother-tongue by children

Some of the creole languages are the following:

 Tok Pisin Creole (English-based creole, the official language of Papua Gelinea, originated
from travel

 Haiti Creole (French-based creole, one of the official languages of Haiti, originated from
slaves)

 Papiamentu Creole (Portuguese-based creole, spoken on the Caribbean islands of Curacao,

Aruba and Bonaire)

 Chabacano (Spanish-based creole, spoken on Zamboanga City, Philippines)

TOPIC #4
Speech Acts and Events

Language Change

 Language can change and develop by itself slowly. Language can change and development
because of adaptation of development and pattern change and system of society life, such as level
of education, social, culture and technology mastery.
 Language change and development can occur internally and externally.
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How and why does language change?

 There are many different routes to language change. Changes can take originate in language
learning, or through language contact, social differentiation, and natural processes in
usage.

Language learning:

 Language is transformed as it is transmitted from one generation to the next. Each individual
must re-create a grammar and lexicon based on input received from parents, older siblings and
other members of the speech community.

Language contact:

 Migration, conquest and trade bring speakers of one language into contact with speakers of
another language

Social differentiation.

 Social groups adopt distinctive norms of dress, adornment, gesture and so forth; language is
part of the package.

Natural processes in usage.

 Rapid or casual speech naturally produces processes such
as assimilation, dissimilation, syncope and apocope.
 Word meaning change in a similar way, through conventionalization of processes
like metaphor and metonymy.

There are two factors in language change; they are internal and external factor.

Internal language change

 Changes internally occurred in the behavior of speakers in their everyday lives to adjust to each
other, and followed by a tendency to innovate in groups of people who are already familiar,
then followed by other changes in sequence, which ultimately makes a language different each
other, although originally derived from a single language family.

External language change

 It is the examining and looking at changes and developments that language is influenced by
socio-cultural factors that occur in society.

Types of Changes
 Incremental
Used for inventions or items of knowledge until it becomes standard.
Example/s: selfie, emoji (added on dictionaries)

 Decremental
Words are not used anymore because of the less usage of the object.
Example/s: words related to swordfighting are not used often

 Replacement
Replaces words or structures that coexist in language.
Example/s: half- halfs- halves
rise- rose- raised
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 Levels of Change
Changes occur on the following levels:

Phonological
- In a number of changes from Middle to Modern English, some sounds disappeared from the
pronunciation of certain words, in a process simply described as sound loss. The initial [h] of many Old
English words was lost, as in hlud → loud and hlaford →lord.

acsian → ask frist → first brinnan → beornan (burn)

bridd → bird hros → horse wæps → wasp

Syntactic Change

- Some noticeable differences between the structure of sentences in Old and Modern English involve
word order. In Old English texts, we find the Subject-Verb-Object order most common in Modern English,
but we can also find a number of different orders that are no longer used.

Semantic Change
- The most obvious way in which Modern English differs from Old English is in the number of borrowed
words that have come into the language since the Old English period.

Two other processes are described as “broadening” and “narrowing” of meaning.

TOPIC 5:
Language Attitude & Speech Communities

Language Attitude

 Language attitudes are the feelings people have about their own language variety or the
languages or language varieties of others.

What are language attitudes?

“Women talk too much.”
“Children can’t speak or write properly anymore.”

 Attitudes cannot be observed directly but are demonstrated through actual behavior – for
example, how people treat speakers of other languages (avoidance, approach), or in their
desire (or not) to learn another language.
 Attitudinal studies aid in identifying how people of one language group view the personal
character and social status of speakers of another language and how they form associations
about other languages.

Components of Language Attitude

Cognition
 Refers to an individual’s cognitive processes in regard to a certain attitude object. It is based on
positive or negative attributes associated with an object. Kristiansen et al, (2005:16)
Affective
 It is what people feel about an attitude object. There are two levels of emotional orientation:
 that towards the attitude object itself
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According to Communication Accomodation Theory, there are two important concepts when speaking;
convergence and divergence.

 Convergence: refers to the positive attitude shown by a speaker towards the listener by adjusting
the features of his/her language (pronunciation, accent, vocabulary, structure) so that he/she is
understand and accepted.

 Divergence: a concept reflecting a language attitude that takes an opposite direction from the
convergence. It refers to a separation shown by a speaker from the listener’s language.

Speech Communities

 Speech community is the principal unit of analysis in the ethnography of community. A

speech community is a group of speakers who share a language and patterns of language
use.

Social Network
 A social network is an abstract mechanism that denotes the social relationships the individual
contracts with other individuals in a society. If society as a whole is viewed as the macro-level, then
social networks can be described as ‘micro-level social clusters’ (cf. Chambers 1995: 67): families,
friends, neighborhoods, etc., i.e. particular patterns of social organization within society as a whole.

 Research on social networks in sociolinguistics has proliferated in the last few decades, but is most
directly linked to Milroy (1980, 1987; Milroy and Llamas 2013).

Intersecting Communities

- People do use expressions indicates that they have some idea of how a ‘typical’ person from each
place speaks to be a member of a particular speech community. (E.g.: New York speech, London
speech, South African speech)
Rosen (2002) claims that cities cannot be thought of as a linguistic patchwork maps because:
i. Languages and dialects have no simple geographical distribution and
ii. Interaction between them blurs whatever boundaries might be drawn

‘Community of Practice
-Community of Practice is an aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagements
in some common endeavor; ways of doing things, ways of talking, beliefs, values, power relations, in
short, practices emerge in the course of their joint activity around that endeavor.

TOPIC #6
Speech Acts and Events

Speech Acts and Speech Events

Speech acts are verbal actions that accomplish something: we greet, insult, compliment, plead, flirt,
supply information, and get work done.
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Types of Speech Acts

 Representatives: assertions, statements, claims, hypotheses, descriptions, suggestions.

 Commissives: promises, oaths, pledges, threats, vows.
 Directives: commands, requests, challenges, invitations, orders, summons, entreaties, dares.
 Declarations: blessings, firings, baptisms, arrests, marrying, juridial speech acts such as
sentencings, declaring a mistrial, declaring s.o.out of order, etc.
 Expressives: Speech acts that make assessments of psychological states or attitudes:
greetings, apologies, congratulations, condolences, thanksgivings...
 Verdictives: rankings, assessments, appraising, condoning (combinations such as
representational declarations: You're out!)

Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary

 Locutionary: the utterance act. Sentences have a grammatical structure and a literal linguistic
meaning; the bald, literal force of the act: what did the person say? (Not, what did the person
mean?)

“The black cat!” Something is referenced but no communication.

 Illocutionary: the speaker's intention of what is to be accomplished by the speech act.

“The black cat is lost.” Intends to communicate and interact to a listener.

Compare: How'd you like to hand me that wrench? (locution: a question) has the illocutionary
force of a command namely: Hand me the wrench!

Can I get you to open the window? has a structure (locutionary force) and a linguistic meaning (`will
I be able to be successful in getting your cooperation in opening the window?') but
its illocutionary force is different: it has the force of a polite imperative : Please open the window!

Every sentence has both a locutionary force and an illocutionary force.

 Perlocutionary: happens when what the speaker says have an effect on the listener.

“Please find the lost black cat.” Attempts to get someone else to do something.

Distinguishing among speech acts

 How do we know what the force of a speech act is? By the context or the setting and by using their
judgement and background knowledge of the language and the culture.

Appropriateness conditions and Successful Declarations

 There are conventions that tell us that a particular locution probably has a particular force.

The Cooperative Principle

There is unspoken agreement that people will cooperate in communicating with each other, and
speakers rely on this agreement.
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Maxim of Quantity

Give as much information as is necessary, but not more. (Don't overdo it.)

Maxim of Relevance

Be relevant; don't overload the conversation with superfluous or irrelevant material (as in the
previous exchange).

Maxim of Manner

Be orderly and clear; avoid ambiguity and obscurity.

Maxim of Quality

Be truthful and provide evidence for statements:

Violations of the Cooperative Principles

o Indirect Speech Acts and shared knowledge.

Politeness conventions

 Positive Politeness

Making utterances that are conventionally polite, flattering, being very cooperative, etc.

 Negative Politeness

Avoid saying things that are inappropriate, avoiding excessive intrusion, interruption, or
inquisitiveness; using appropriate body language; avoiding particular gazes.

Speech Events

The Organization of Conversation

Adjacency Pairs
 Typically, certain kinds of turns have specific follow-ups: a question is typically followed by an
answer; a invitation by an acceptance or an explanation of why it can't be accepted; an
assessment is followed by agreement or disagreement; an apology is followed by
acknowledgement of the apology:

Opening Sequences
 People ordinarily begin in conventional ways: greetings, general questions or comments about
the weather, sports, etc.

Closing Sequences
 People conventionally prepare to end a conversations by summing up, using other locutions
(Okay, all right then; well, that's about it; so umh; fine, then; ) followed by several repetitions of
farewells: okay, goodbye then; okay bye; nice talkin' to you; see ya soon; thanks for
calling/dropping by; good to see you! take care! alright(y).
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Conversational Routines

Cross-Cultural Communication
 Politeness and all of the other speech act formulae vary from culture to culture; what is polite in
one may be considered brusque or rude, or on the other hand too evasive, too formal, too
obsequious in another.

TOPIC #7:
Code Switching

Code Switching

 Code switching is when a speaker alternates between two or more languages (or dialects or
varieties of language) in one conversation. This phenomenon can be observed in the following
examples.

What Are Some Examples of Code Switching?

 If you have an exam next week, şimdiden çalışmaya başlamalısın. (English + Turkish)
 Gracias for the lovely gift. Está awesome! (Spanish + English)
 Pwede ba tayo mag dinner sa Barney's Burgers later? I want protein! (Tagalog + English)

 Code switching occurs mostly in bilingual communities.

 As Aranoff and Miller (2003:523) indicate, many linguists have stressed the point that switching
between languages is a communicative option available to a bilingual member of a speech
community, just as switching between styles or dialects is an option for the monolingual speaker.

Reasons Speakers Use Code Switching

There are number of possible reasons for switching from one language to another; three are
described below.

To Fulfill a Need.
A speaker who may not be able to express him/herself in one language might switch to another to
compensate for the deficiency

To Express Solidarity.
Switching also commonly occurs when an individual wishes to express solidarity with a particular
social group.

To Exclude Others.
Code switching may also be used to exclude others from a conversation who do not speak the
second language.
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Is Code Switching a Bad Thing?

As Skiba (1997) comments, code switching is not a language interference on the basis that it
supplements speech. Where it is used due to an inability of expression, code switching provides
continuity in speech rather than presenting an interference in language.

When is code switching helpful?

The socio-linguistic benefits of code switching include communicating solidarity with or
affiliation to a particular social group, so code switching can be viewed as a means of providing a
linguistic advantage rather than an obstruction to communication.

Types of Code Switching

1. Inter-Sentential
In inter-sentential code switching, the language switch is done at sentence boundaries—words
or phrases at the beginning or end of a sentence.

2. Intra-Sentential
In intra-sentential code switching, the shift is done in the middle of a sentence, with no
interruptions, hesitations, or pauses to indicate a shift.

3. Extra-Sentential or Tag Switching

This is the switching of either a single word or a tag phrase (or both) from one language to
another.

TOPIC 8:
Language and Gender

Exploring Texts Reflecting Different Cultures

 Speakers of different varieties of English have different ways of pronouncing words.

 Kachru and Nelson (2006) claimed that in terms of pronunciation, most of the Outer- and
Expanding- Circle varieties display differences from the Inner-Circle varieties, similar to those found
between regional dialects within the Inner-Circle varieties. These differences may lead to
grammatical consequences affecting comprehension.
 In Philippine languages, every vowel is pronounced with a full, distinct sound. Filipinos pronounce
words as they are written or spelled-out making it syllable-timed and not stressed-time.

examples:
American English: Gotcha!
Philippine English: Got you!

American English: Watche say?

Philippine English: What did she say?

 A cultural barrier does not only pertain to differing languages. It may also be in the form of cultural
practice or even a bodily gesture. For instance, in English-speaking countries and even in the
Philippines, the thumbs-up gesture signals approval.
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TOPIC 9:
Language and Social Class

Language and Social Class

Social Class
 A status hierarchy in which individuals are divided into groups/classes with similar
socioeconomic standing within the society based on the level of income, education, and
occupation.

Class Structure
 Three primary social classes exist in the Philippines: the low-income class, the middle-income
class, and the high-income class. The latest Family Income and Expenditure Survey by the
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shows that majority (58.4%) of Filipinos belong to the
low-income class, while the middle class comprises around 40% of the population. Only 1.4%
fall in the high-income class.

Social Language Codes

 Basil Bernstein, a well-known British sociolinguist, devised in his book, Elaborated and
Restricted Codes: Their Social Origins and Some Consequences, a social code system which
he used to classify the various speech patterns for different social classes.
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 Restricted code
In Basil Bernstein’s theory, the restricted code was an example of the speech patterns used by
the working-class.

 Elaborated code
Bernstein also studied what he named the 'elaborated code', explaining that in this type of
speech pattern the middle and upper classes use this language style to gain access to education
and career advancement.

 Achieved Status
One can earn their social status by their own achievement.

 Ascribed Status
Placed in the stratification system by their inherited position.

Language and Prestige

High Prestige and Low Prestige Varieties

Certain speech habits are assigned a positive or a negative value, which is then applied to the
speaker. This can operate on many levels.

Covert Prestige
It is generally assumed that non-standard language is low prestige language. However, in
certain groups, such as traditional working class neighborhoods, standard language may be
considered undesirable in many contexts.

TOPIC 10:
Language and Gender

Language and Gender

 Gender
 sex--- meaning one of the two forms of most organisms that are characterized by differences in
reproductive organs and related structures.
 The use of the term gender rather than sex avoids the misleading association with sexuality,
but mainly it acknowledges that gender is a social construct that is likely to vary from one
society to the next, or even from one social group to another within an embracing society or
culture.
 The study of language and gender includes two very different things: (1)how language reveals,
embodies and sustains attitudes to gender; (2)how language users speak or write in (different
and distinctive) ways that reflect their sex.

Tannen’s Contrasts of Male/ Female Language Use

Professor Deborah Tannen has summarised her book You Just Don’t Understand in an article
in which she represents male and female language use in a series of six contrasts. In each case,
the male characteristic (that is, the one that is judged to be more typically male) comes first. What
are these distinctions? They include:
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Status versus Support

Men grow up in a world in which conversation is competitive – they seek to achieve the upper
hand or to prevent others from dominating them. For women, however, talking is often a way to gain
confirmation and support for their ideas. Men see the world as a place where people try to gain
status and keep it. Women see the world as a network of connections seeking support and
consensus.

Independence versus Intimacy

 Women often think in terms of closeness and support, and struggle to preserve intimacy.
 Men, concerned with status, tend to focus more on independence.

Advice versus Understanding

To many men a complaint is a challenge to find a solution: When my mother tells my father she
doesn’t feel well, he invariably offers to take her to the doctor.

Information versus Feelings

A young man makes a brief phone call. His mother overhears it as a series of grunts. Later she
asks him about it – it emerges that he has arranged to go to a specific place, where he will play
football with various people and he has to take the ball. A young woman makes a phone call – it
lasts half an hour or more.

Orders versus Proposals

Women often suggest that people do things in indirect ways –“let's”, “why don’t we?” or “wouldn't it
be good, if we...?” Men may use, and prefer to hear, a direct imperative.

Conflict versus Compromise

In trying to prevent fights, notes Professor Tannen, some women refuse to oppose the will of others
openly.

Gender, Language and Society

There have been marked indices of gender language in every society. Some of the identifiable
markers of gender in a typical enlightened society include:

 Names and Titles

 Occupational Lexis
 Semantic non-equivalences
 Patronizing, controlling and insulting
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TOPIC: 11
Language and Culture

Language and Culture

 During the first four decades of the 20th century, language was viewed by sociolinguists and
anthropologists as being more important than it actually is in shaping our perception of reality.
 This was mostly due to Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf who said that language
pre-determines what we see in the world around us
 language acts like a polarising lens on a camera in filtering reality – we see the real world only
in the categories of our language.
 According to Sapir (1968), language is an entirely human and non-intrinsic method of
communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced
symbols.
 Culture on the other hand, Goodenough’s (1957), said that culture is consist of whatever it is
one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members and to do
so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves.

Characteristics of Culture

 Culture is Learned
 Culture is Abstract
 Culture Includes Attitudes, Values, and Knowledge
 Culture also Includes Material Objects
 Culture is Shared by the Members of Society
 Culture is Pervasive
 Culture is Idealistic
 Culture is Continually Changing
 Culture is Dynamic
 Culture is Transmissive
 Culture Varies from Society to Society
 Culture is Gratifying

Language Affects Culture

 The terminology used by a culture primarily reflects that culture’s interests and concerns.

Culture Affects Language

 Culture not only changes people’s values and habits, but also affects people’s language and
behaviors.
 Cultural knowledge is crucial in achieving linguistic proficiency, and the culture of a society can
be changed depending upon the language used.
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TOPIC #12
Language and Ethnicity

What does ethnicity mean?

 Fredrik Barth (2016) defined ethnicity as a social boundary, distinction that individuals make in
their everyday lives and that shapes their actions and mental orientation toward others. It
relates to cultural factors such as nationality, culture, ancestry, language and belief.

Racist Discourse
 A form of discriminatory social practice that manifest itself in text, talk and communication that
contributes to the reproduction of racism as a form of ethnic domination as a result of
expressing and legitimizing racist attitudes of the dominant ethnic group.

Two Major Forms of Racist Discourse

1. Racist discourse directed at ethnically different others

 using slurs and insults
 avoiding eye contact

2. Racist discourse about ethnically different others

 denying or mitigating racism
 portraying others negatively

Stereotype

 stereotype is any commonly known public belief about a certain social group or a type of
individual.
 Stereotypes are often confused with prejudices, because, like prejudices, a stereotype is based
on a prior assumption.

Common stereotypes

 Racial Profiling- saying that all Blacks are good at sports is a stereotype
 Gender Profiling- Men are strong and do all the work.
 Cultures- Stereotypes also exist about cultures and countries as a whole.
 Groups of Individuals- Goths wear black clothes, black makeup, are depressed and
hated by society.

TOPIC #13
Language of the Millennials

Language of the Millennials

 language has existed, it has changed, morphed, and warped as the world and people’s
references around them have changed.
 Language, of course, is for communication and in this world that is more open
 People can communicate their ideas and observations easier than ever before, it has adapted
to reflect that.
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Language Inevitably Changes

 While linguistic change is certain, another thing that’s never too far behind it is people
complaining about these changes, be they speakers of Japanese, Welsh, or English.

Neologism

 Neologisms are newly coined terms, words, or phrases, that may be commonly used in
everyday life but have yet to be formally accepted as constituting mainstream language.

Types of Neologism

1. Portmanteaus or Blend Words

A specific type of neologism, portmanteaus do just what they say: blend together two words to
create a new word which combines their meanings. Here are a few examples of blend words:
smoke + fog = smog
spoon + fork = spork

Derived words
Derived words are words that use ancient Greek and Latin phrases naturalized to match the
English language.

2. Transferred words

 Transferred words take derived words to a whole new level, as they encompass words taken
from another language and used in an adjusted form in English.

 New words come from creativity and invention, merging of existing words, and borrowing from
other cultures and languages.

-"Netflix and chill." It's the more polite way of saying "Let's turn on this movie we have no
intention of watching and then fool around on the couch."

-"Sorry not sorry"It's when you want to make it crystal clear to somebody exactly how
un-remorseful you really are about something.

- "Woke" You're woke, so now things are, you know, real.

- "The struggle is real" They're saying that the thing you're taking so seriously, that you consider
such an egregious tragedy, might not be as bad as you think.

- "On fleek"Just another way of saying something is "on point."

-“TBH”‘TBH’ is an acronym for the phrase ‘To be honest’.

-“Yaaas” A very enthusiastic Yes!

ENG 151: LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND SOCIETY
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Prepared by:
Group 2 BSED-ENG 4

Members:
ASUM, NAJMA
ELBAMBO, JOY JOY
HALLASGO, GREATHE
LONOY,KENNLHEY
MABAO, JESSAMIE
TUTO, ARMIE GRACE