4.5 The cultural context

Question 1

Understanding written and spoken discourse not only relies on knowledge of vocabulary, syntax and discourse structure. What else?

Answer 1

Cultural knowledge also plays an
essential role. We constantly rely on this to infer the meaning of words, sentences and texts. Text carry cultural meaning. (miner bath example). texts are
inseparable from the cultural context in which they were created and therefore cannot be fully understood without drawing upon the relevant cultural knowledge. Second, that even though cultures are often associated with certain territories, nations, languages or historical periods, these are not
necessarily the features that make cultures what they are. Culture may also be defined in terms of occupation, social class and a variety of other aspects a fair amount of information can be drawn from the text to help you work out its context. Readers with different backgrounds will be able to infer varying amounts of additional information
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Question 2

Culture-specific

Answer 2

Culture-specific items are concepts that are specific for a certain culture. These concepts can refer to domains such as flora, fauna, music, food, clothes, housing, work, leisure, politics, law, and religion among others

Question 3

how does the miners text show that culture is not always about language, nationality or geographical location?

Answer 3

Despite the obvious references to Northumbrian culture in Waddell’s writing, the fact that the communities are based in Northumbria or Northern France does not make them fundamentally different from each other, nor does it matter whether the action is set in the 19th or 20th century. The common denominator is the fact that in both families the breadwinners work in a coal
mine. In fact, a modern-day coal miner from Poland might have a deeper cultural understanding of these texts than would a middle-class office worker from London or Paris.