Int. J. Intercultural Rel., Vol. 19,No.

2, 143-153,1995
Copyright 0 1995ElsevierScienceLtd
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Introduction and Overview

INTRODUCTION -LANGUAGE, CULTURE

AND WORLD VIEW: EXPLORING THE NEXUS

ALVIN0 E. FANTINI
Guest Editor

School for International Training

THE GOAL OF THIS SPECIAL ISSUE

It would seem that a shared goal of most researchers, trainers, and
educators in the intercultural and language fields would be the develop-
ment of intercultural competence (ICC). A Special Issue of IJIR (Martin,
1989) and a more recent endeavor (Wiseman & Koester, 1993) attempted
to gather works on just this topic. Although many aspects of competence
are discussed, three themes emerge: (a) the ability to establish relations,
(b) the ability to communicate with minimal loss or distortion, and (c)
the ability to achieve or attain a level of compliance among those in-
volved. Stated this way, these seem desirable, if not altogether necessary,
for everyone everywhere. Not only are these aspects part of “intercultural
relations,” they are also germane to “interpersonal relations.” What com-
plicates matters at the intercultural level, of course, is that when interact-
ing across cultures, we share less and less commonalities with other
individuals while other variables increase. Clearly, the languages, cul-
tures, and world views that mediate our interaction differ. For this rea-
son, both language educators and interculturalists are needed to help
expand and develop one’s native abilities into intercultural competence
for use in a wider arena.
The goal, then, of intercultural competence, concerns both language
and intercultural areas. With rare exception (see Ting-Toomey 8~ Kor-
zenny, 1989), interculturalists often overlook (or leave to language teach-

Requests for reprints should be sent to Alvin0 E. Fantini, School for International Train-
ing, Brattleboro, VT 05302.

143
144 A. E. Fantini

ers) the task of developing language competence, just as language teach-

ers overlook (or leave to interculturalists) the task of developing
intercultural abilities despite wide acknowledgment that language and
culture are dimensions of each other, interrelated and inseparable. Lan-
guage, in fact, both reflects and affects one’s world view, serving as a
sort of road map to how one perceives, interprets and thinks, and ex-
presses about the world. This intertwining demands a fresh look at how
language educators and interculturalists conceptualize what is meant by
world view, its components and their interrelationships, and how lan-
guage and culture mediate all (inter)cultural processes.
Stated this way, ICC is also an obvious goal of several other kindred
groups. It is the ardent concern of those laboring in bilingual education,
multicultural education, ethnic heritage and ethnic revival education,
foreign and second language education, and international and global
education. All strive to develop the awareness, attitudes, skills, and
knowledge (A + ASK) that take one beyond one’s native paradigm while
grappling with another that is intrinsically and provocatively different.

LINGUISTICS AND THE INTERCULTURAL FIELD

Since linguistics predates the intercultural field, it has had many more
years to develop concepts about language and language use which can be
helpful toward informing interculturalists about their own work. Sur-
prisingly, too few interculturalists have linguistics as part of their forma-
tion; more surprising still, is to find interculturalists without proficiency
in a second language. More than the actual attainment of language profi-
ciency is the fact that without a second language experience, they have
not grappled with the most fundamental paradigm of all-language, and
the benefits that derive from this process. For all of the research and
concepts about other cultures and world views, the monolingual intercul-
turalist engages mostly in intellectualized endeavors when concepts are
not also accompanied by direct experiences of other cultures and lan-
guages on their own terms. Without an alternative form of communica-
tion, we are constrained to continue perception, conceptualization, for-
mulation, and expression of our thoughts from a single vantage point.
Despite our ability to discuss ad infinitum intercultural concepts in our
own tongue, our experiences remain vicarious and intellectualized, lack-
ing the multiple perspectives that Fishman (1976) characterized as “. . .
monocular vision . . . which can lead to narrow smugness and a smug
narrowness.”
Since language is considerably more tangible and easier to document
than culture, linguists are often better able to analyze and understand
their data. Yet, much of what is gleaned from a linguistic perspective
about languages can inform an understanding of culture. Since language
 Introduction: Langauge, Culture, and World View 14s

reflects and affects culture, and both languages and cultures are human
inventions, it is not surprising this should be so. A linguistic concept
illustrating this point and widely used in intercultural work (cf., e.g.,
Gudykunst & Nishida, 1989) is the notion of etic and emit perspectives.
The utility of linguistic insight to intercultural thought is probably best
exemplified in the works of Edward Hall and may explain his proposi-
tion that: “Culture is communication.” (Hall, 1973, p. 97), just as, we
might add, “communication is culture.
When analyzed further, the depth of this simple comment becomes
more apparent. It is often said that the anthropoid is transformed into a
human being through language acquisition. Language, i.e., our total
communicative ability, allows us to develop “human” qualities by learn-
ing from vicarious and symbolic experiences (as well as direct), to help
formulate our thoughts, and to convey them to someone else. Without
language, none of this would be possible. Put another way, communica-
tive ability allows culture development through interaction and commu-
nication with other individuals. Language becomes the construct that
aids the development of culture.
Studies of wolf and feral children, as well as studies of older individu-
als reared from childhood in isolation, attest to the incredible constraints
that lack of a communication system exerts on their development as
human beings (Brown, 1958; Curtiss, 1977; Lane, 1976; Rymer, 1993;
Schaller, 1991, among others). But for those who undergo “normal”
development, language affects and reflects culture just as culture affects
and reflects what is encoded in language. Although language and culture
are not a perfect mirror of each other, a dynamic tension nonetheless
exists between the two. Whorf and Piaget observed such influences al-
though each parted from a different starting point. (Spencer Pulaski,
1971; Steinfatt, 1989; Whorf, 1956).

A LANGUAGE-CULTURE PARADIGM

A linguistic construct that depicts how language exteriorizes one’s per-

ceptions of the world (as it helps in turn to develop one’s internalized view
in the first place), is the input-output framework shown in Figure 1.
To elaborate further, we find ourselves in a given context (external
world). However, each individual (in accordance with one’s language,
culture and experiences) selectively attends to (i.e., perceives) various
aspects of that context. Perceptions (apprehended through the various
senses) are formulated into concepts or thoughts, essentially a mental
process. However, communication of one’s thoughts to another person
requires reformulation of thoughts into some tangible manifestation (in
accordance with one’s available language systems). Thoughts are “rein-
terpreted” while grouped by semantic features (which eventually become
146 A. E. Fantini

Interlocutor I (external world) Interlocutor 2

INPUT selective perception OUTPUT

formulation of concepts/thoughts

semantic clusters

morphology and syntax

phonology/graphemeslsignsletc.

OUTPUT -- INPUT

FIGURE 1. How language exteriorizes perceptions.

words or signs), shaped (i.e., given morphological form), ordered se-

quentially (since language can be conveyed only linearly; i.e., one word
placed after another in accordance with the available syntactic system),
couched within existing symbols (sounds, script, gestures, and so forth),
and then expressed physically. The mental aspect of this process is what
Chomsky termed competence, while the physical expression is one’s per-
formance (corresponding to deep and surface structures).
Whereas one gathers input through perception, one’s expression
through tangible symbols provides the output. Input and output are
interconnected within each speaker through mental processes, which are
affected at both deep and surface levels by the particular language of the
speaker. Moreover, language symbols provide substance, which allows
thought to be exteriorized. Assuming two interlocutors share a similar
language-culture background, output from the first provides comprehen-
sible input for the second. In this way, they can continually reverse the
process during dialog, at times moving from perception to thought to
expression (from input to output); and at others, receiving someone
else’s symbolic output as input, which is reversed to create a facsimile of
the other’s mental representations (providing an alternate way of experi-
encing and “knowing”). However, this process of converting perception
to thought and thought to language necessarily requires breaking down
and fragmenting wholistic experience in accordance with the word cate-
gories available in one’s own language, since each language system con-
sists of discrete units conveyed one symbol at a time.
In this way language serves as a primary classificatory system, seg-
 Introduction: Langauge, Culture, and World View 147

menting and fragmenting our notions about the world while also group-
ing and combining word categories, ranging from wider classifications
to narrower specifications based on semantic criteria, which are clustered
and form their meaning. Moreover, words cohere in hierarchies (from
general to specific) with other words sharing many of the same semantic
features (Anglin, 1970), while hierarchies mesh into hetararchies (a hier-
archy of hierarchies). As we learn our native tongue, we learn to general-
ize and specify about the things of the world as we encode concepts into
the words of language and as the words of language in turn lead us to
concepts.
More intriguing still is to recognize that each language-culture estab-
lishes its own hetararchy. Hall (1973, pp. 97-98) says as much when
he points out that “. . . there is no necessary connection between these
symbolizations and what occurred. Talking is a highly selective process
. . . highlighting some things at the expense of some other things.” He
alludes, of course, to language-thought connections as arbitrary conven-
tion or conventionalized arbitrariness, a concept advanced a century ago
by Saussure (1961, pp. 130-131). Yet, once a relationship is established,
it remains rather fixed. This relationship between experience, thought,
and expression, then, speaks to how language and culture mediate world
view, serving as our most fundamental paradigm.

LANGUAGE UNAWARENESS

Why is it then that we take our own language for granted, unaware
that our native tongue is not merely a “neutral” communication system,
but a pervasive medium that directly influences every aspect of our lives?
It may be because we seldom need to reflect on our use of language; it
has always been there for as long as we can remember. And therein lies
the power of a different cultural experience. While providing a chance to
learn about another way of life, it provokes even more questions about
one’s own language, culture, and world view.
By 5 years of age, children have already become effective members of
their culture, displaying amazing language ability. They use this ability
to explore, to learn, to communicate, and to formulate simple and some-
times very profound questions. Unaware of their own accomplish-
ments-mastery of complex patterns of sounds (or signs), forms and
syntax-children acquire their native tongue unthinkingly, its acquisition
incidental to their need to perform all that they do with language. (Fan-
tini, 1982, 1985).
Moreover, language is species specific. Animals do not acquire lan-
guage; only humans do. All human children everywhere develop
speech-with ease, untutored, and in similar stages. This may explain
the Biblical statement: “In the beginning was the Word . . . ” (John 1:
148 A. E. Fantini

1). Yet, the language paradigm is our most basic metaphor, since word
creations substitute for the thing signified. As we master words, we often
fail to distinguish between verbal symbols and the reality for which they
stand. But words can evoke only conceptually what is meant, thereby
providing vicarious mental experiences for speaker and hearer. Once
acquired, however, words have the power to mediate what we think, say,
and do. Through language, we have the power to recreate events, to talk
of things we “know” only indirectly through symbols. Language aids
(and sometimes limits) imagination, fantasy, the make-believe. Real or
imagined, language can bring into existence even that which may not
exist at all. And once experienced, directly or indirectly, language be-
comes a repository for our collective human memory- or at least of
those who share the same tongue-generation after generation.

LANGUAGE-A TWO-EDGED SWORD

Language is a double-edged sword. While language communicates, it
also ex-communicates; that is, it includes only those who share the sys-
tem, all others are excluded. Likewise, language both liberates and con-
strains. Our ability to symbolize, for example, allows us to move freely,
albeit conceptually, through time and space. We can recall and tell of
things past or project into the future, merely by using words. So great is
our faith in words that we can viscerally experience the “reality” of
something we never experienced directly at all, whether in the past or the
future. Yet, there is no way to retrieve past or to insure future; we can
only symbolize about them while remaining always only in the present
moment and space.
Just as language conveys thoughts and experiences, it can also con-
strain and contradict them. Through language we learn, for example,
that things are not always what they seem. In fact, much of what we
learn and “know” we really do not “know” at all-that is, directly.
Knowledge is tremendously augmented through language use. Much of
schooling and other learning in life is accomplished through language,
expanding the limits of what we can know through direct experience
alone. Language permits contemplating the impossible and exploring the
unfathomable. We talk about concepts as difficult and as abstract as
“death,” for example, which we can never know directly, at least not in
life. It is difficult to imagine what life might be like without our human
ability to symbolize, just as it is difficult to imagine how we might think
or know differently if we spoke a language other than our native tongue,
or in addition to it.

LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

By giving tangible expression to thought, language enables communi-
cation with others. Although speech signals are often part of communi-
 Introduction: Langauge, Culture, and World View 149

cative ability, other forms exist as well- written symbols, signed lan-
guage, and other means. Whichever are used, these usually constitute
only part of several interrelated systems:

1. A linguistic component (sounds, signs and/or graphemes, forms, and

grammar of language)
2. A paralinguistic component (tone, pitch, volume, speed, and affective
aspects)
3. An extralinguistic component (nonverbal aspects such as gestures,
movements, grimaces, etc.)
4. A sociolinguistic dimension (a repertoire of styles each appropriate for
different situations)

All are mastered in overlapping stages as part of one’s native compe-

tence. Understanding the multiple dimensions and their interrelatedness
elucidates what is involved when developing competence in a second or
third system.
During the past quarter of a century, the notion of communicative
competence has increasingly commanded the attention of language
teachers and interculturalists alike (Pyke, 1966). For language teachers,
it suggests that teaching “language” means more than the linguistic (i.e.,
grammar) component alone. In practice, however, linguistic considera-
tions often continue to preempt the major portion of time in classroom
teaching. For interculturalists, on the other hand, a common approach
to communicative competence includes culture-specific ethnographic
studies based on the work of Hymes’s (1972) framework (cf. Carbaugh,
1990); as well as attempts to extend this sociolinguistic framework to
intercultural interaction (cf. Collier, 1989). In these endeavors, however,
the language component is often superseded by a focus on the communi-
cative rules of interaction.
The term, nonetheless, serves as a reminder of the whole and therein
helps to insure that both language educators and interculturalists address
all aspects of the communication process. In a similar vein, language
and culture may also require a broader label, a superordinate term that
connotes and insures their inseparability. The term linguaculture has
served this purpose in my own work; more recently, a second writer
introduced the word languaculture (Agar, 1994, p. 231). Both reflect
attempts to link the inextricable phenomena of language and culture
conceptually and operationally.

LANGUAGE AND WORLD VIEW

Language, i.e., communicative competence (our expanded definition
of language), reflects and reinforces a particular view we hold of the
world. In linguistic terms, the influence of language on culture and world
150 A. E. Fantini

view is called language determinism and relativity; i.e., the language we

acquire influences the way we construct our model of the worid (hence,
determinism). If this is so, other languages convey differing visions of
that same world (relativity). This long debated theory, known as the
Sapir-Whorfian hypothesis, raises intriguing issues related to cross-
cultural effectiveness (Steinfatt, 1989; Whorf, 1956). To this, Hall adds:
“Man is the model-making organism par excellence . . . grammars and
writing systems are models of language,” while cautioning that “. . . all
models are incomplete. By definition, they are abstractions and leave
things out” (1976, pp. 10-11).
How effective and appropriate can an individual be in an intercultural
context with-and without -ability in the target language? (cf. Kealey,
1990). Notions of “effectiveness” and “appropriateness” help to suggest
two views of the issue. Whereas effectiveness is often a judgment from
one’s own perspective, appropriateness is clearly based on judgments
from the host perspective. Although communication across cultures may
occur in one’s own language (especially where English or another domi-
nant language is involved), there is a qualitative difference between com-
municating in one’s own language and/or in the language of one’s hosts.
Whichever the case, second language (L2) proficiency is critical to func-
tioning effectively and appropriately in cross-cultural situations, plus the
added benefit that exposure to a second linguaculture (LC2) affords an
opportunity to develop a different or at least, an expanded, vision of the
world. Needless to say, developing an LC3 or LC4 is even better in that
it demands reconfiguring the polarization that commonly occurs in the
experience of the bilingual-bicultural individual.
Figure 2 delineates how components of each linguaculture form a
cohesive world view and how world views differ from each other. These
interrelated components form the basis for each,world view construct,
and because they vary in detail from culture to culture, they result in a
differing realization of the world for each group of speakers. This ex-
plains why development of an LC2 (i.e., becoming bilingual and bicul-
tural) involves more than mastery of language as tool (the surface fea-
tures), it also involves grasping how the components themselves are
reconfigured. The result of such a transformation impacts on one’s view
of the world, changing and expanding it. While each world view differs
(in particularist aspects), areas where triangles overlap represent aspects
shared by all human beings (universals). Despite the marvelous diversity
and creativity across the linguacultures of the world, the darkened core
suggests the existence of universals across all, an aspect that researchers
are only beginning to investigate seriously. These universals may result
from our common humanity insured by similar biological and physical
possibilities and constraints.
Success with our native linguaculture (LCl), unfortunately, does not
 Introduction: Langauge, Culture, and World View 151

- Pam-linguistic component

- so&-linguistic component

FIGURE 2. Cohesive world views can differ from each other.

always insure equal success with an LC2. In fact, an individual’s LCl

often becomes the biggest impediment to acquiring a second. Establish-
ment of one paradigm, especially in adult learners, commonly prevents
developing a second, at least not without serious questions, deep scru-
tiny, and reflection, unlike young children raised bilingually and bicul-
turally (Fantini, 1982, 1985). Clearly, we need to expand our communi-
cative abilities; we need to develop “intercultural” competence, but for
older individuals, it comes with a cost, with challenges, with reserva-
tions; and as anyone knows who has undergone an intercultural experi-
ence, our choices bear consequences for ourselves and for those with
whom we interact (Adler, 1976).

THE POTENTIAL-TRANSCENDING

Developing intercultural competence for ourselves and for others is a

shared challenge - for researchers, educators, and trainers-but its at-
tainment promises rewards. Intercultural competence offers the possibil-
ity of transcending the limitations of one’s singular world view. “If you
want to know about water, don’t ask a goldfish,” is a saying frequently
heard among interculturalists. Those who have never experienced an-
other culture or labored to communicate through a second language are,
152 A. E. Fantini

like the goldfish, often unaware of the milieu in which they have always
existed.
Contact with other world views can result in a shift of perspective,
along with a concomitant appreciation for the diversity and richness of
human beings. This paradigm shift is the kind that one writer has de-
scribed as “the greatest revolution in the world . . . one which occurs
with the head, within the mind” (Ferguson, 1980, pp. 17-20).
We may indeed have a significant role in that revolution. Our concern
with cross-cultural effectiveness and appropriateness will hopefully lead
beyond tolerance and understanding to genuine appreciation. For this to
happen, we need to develop the awareness, attitudes, skills, and knowl-
edge that will make us better participants on a global level, able to
empathize with others in new ways. Exposure to more than one lan-
guage, culture, and world view, in a positive context, offers such a
promise. This special issue attempts to help us understand why this is so.

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