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2S03 > Chapter 9 - Language and Culture > Flashcards

Chapter 9 - Language and Culture Flashcards

1
Q

Define Culture

A
  • Whatever knowledge a person must have to function in a particular society
  • “making sense of the world”
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2
Q

What is high culture?

A

appreciation of music, art theatre

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3
Q

What is cultural knowledge

A
  • Socially acquired
  • Not hereditary
  • Required for daily living
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4
Q

People belonging to the same culture will…?

A
  • Interpret the world in the same ways

- Express themselves in ways understood and accepted by each other

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5
Q

What are the 4 possible types of relationships?

A
  1. L causes worldview
    - Language may predispose toward a particular worldview
  2. Worldview is reflected in the Language
    - Culture does not determine the structure of the language it simply reflects it
  3. No relationship (definitely not right)
  4. Both affect each other
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6
Q

What did Sapir and Whorf both advocate

A

That the Structure of a L determines the worldview

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7
Q

What was whorf’s example of how L determines worldview?

A
  • People continued to smoke around gas barrels that were “empty”
    • Because “empty” is interpreted this as no content, but there was still explosive vapor
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8
Q

What does Sapir claim

A
  • Language and culture are Inextricably related and one can’t be understood without the other
  • WE are at the mercy of our L
  • The real world is unconsciously built up on our language
  • L predisposes worldview
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9
Q

How did Whorf build on Sapir’s view? What were his claims?

A

• Deterministic relationship between Language and Culture

  • L shapes ideas and guides mental activity and impressions
  • everything we experience is filtered through our L
  • organize impressions through our mental linguistic system
  • Structure determines speakers worldview
  • we are constrained by our L
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10
Q

What is Whorf’s New principle of reality

A

All observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe

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11
Q

What did fishmen observe?

A
  • it is easier to talk about things in languages that have vocabulary on the topic
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12
Q

If a canadian child and an Inuit child see snow do they perceive it differently?

A

Yes according to Sapir Whorf because the inuit child will have to look for different characteristics of it.

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13
Q

why do children in asian countries do better in math

A

their counting system is easier to understand

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14
Q

What is the strongest version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

A
  • grammatical categories not only help the users to perceive the world but also limit such perception
  • You perceive what your language allows you to perceive
  • Your language controls your worldview
  • we have to make certain observations according to our L
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15
Q

The language affects a person’s relationship to the universe in several ways:

A

-Vocab:
if you have words to describe something you will perceive it different than a language that doesn’t have that description
Grammar: Distinctions in gender, time, number and Animacy

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16
Q

Who were the Hopi?

A
  • Concept of time is fundamentally different from that of western cultures
  • analysis of events in terms of dynamic motion
  • They could not understand bus schedules
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17
Q

what did whorf conclude about the Hopi

A
  • Think in terms of cycles of events & sets of processes
  • NOT in units of time
  • objects/events are not countable
  • validity is important - how the speaker came to know this information
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18
Q

Who were the Matses

A
  • live in South america (cat people)
  • most secluded culture (1st contact with western society in 1960)
  • Their L requires them to specify exactly how they came to know about the info they speak about
  • Incorrect evidentiality” = a lie
    • E.g. “how many wives do you have” (can’t say he has 2 unless he can see them)– “there were two last time I checked”
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19
Q

How can L. structure affect our observation

A
  • Gender in European Ls (neighbour)

- English you have to specify the tense more specifically

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20
Q

What are the 2 forms of the Sapir Whorf hypothesis

A

1) Linguistic determinism (the strong form) -people think differnt b/c of L
2) Linguistic relativity (the weaker claim) - L influences perception

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21
Q

What was the study cunducted by Lucy to test the sapir Whorf hypothesis?

A
  • studied Grammatical number in English and in Yucatec Maya
  • English: count and mass nouns
  • Yucatec: plural for animate nouns - optional
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22
Q

What has the hypothesis of Lucy’s study?

A

Hypothesis

1) E.speaker – more conscious of the numbers of objects they see
2) E. speakers should perceive more objects as countable

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23
Q

What was the layout of Lucy’s experiment

A
  • speaker sof two Ls shown a scene from normal village life
24
Q

Results

A
  • Similar responses for words that overlapped in both Ls
  • differences where grammars were maximally different
  • Yacatec were more consistent with animate counting
25
Q

Was Lucy’s experiment in favour or against sapir whorf hypothesis?

A

evidence for the hypothesis

26
Q

What happened in the experiment about gender in european Ls

A

o Bridges, clocks and violins:

  • More manly properties by Spanish speakers
  • Thought to be more ‘slender’ or ‘elegant’ by German speakers
27
Q

Who was the must vicious critic of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

A

Steven PInker
- says the argument is circular : there are different languages > people who speak them have differnt thoughts > there are differnt Ls

28
Q

Why do people still teach children languages they will never use

A
  • Because we believe it will open our worlview
29
Q

What is the argument against the hypothesis

A

o If language totally determines thought, there can be no thought without language (deaf, mute and young children
o Communications between speakers of different languages should not be possible?
o Expressing same idea in Language without the word (snow)
o If it’s true we would be trapped in the prison of our Language

30
Q

3 major factors in english kin system

A

1) Gender
2) Generation
3) Blood/ marriage

31
Q

What is the first approach to kinship.

A

relating kinship terms to specific words

32
Q

What are the problems with approach 1

A

1) Semantic composition (e.g. grand-father): we are re-using the same words for different relations
2) Circumlocutions - long descriptive phrases (the longer the phrase the less importance)
3) We use kin terms for people we are not related to (parent’s best friends are called aunts/uncles)

33
Q

What is approach 2

A

why do different relationships have the same term? Why do similar relationships have different terms?
e.g. hudson’s study on the multiple kinship terms
• kinship terms in use are collected
• Breakdown into The basic components of each term

34
Q

kinship terms determine what?

A

norms of behaviour

- if you call someone a brother they have an obligation to act as a brother

35
Q

Why is our kinship system failing

A

It is not adapting to social change in family structure

36
Q

What is Taxonomy

A
  • mental cateogries we use to organize what we observe in the world
  • Splitting the world into concets & arranging them into a classification
  • involve flora & fauna
37
Q

Wardhaugh’s example of taxonomy?

A

o Taxonomy of disease vocabulary among Subanun in Philippines
o The pronoun system of Palaung
IN BOOK

38
Q

why study taxonomies?

A
  • They indicate how speakers use their Ls to organize the world around them.
  • Systematic behaviour
  • cultural basis
39
Q

What is Dyirbal

A

-tribe in australia,

•All objects are classified in 4 classes: Bayi, Balan, Balam, Bala

40
Q

What effects classification in Dyirbal

A

o Similarity
o Associations (fishing associated with men)
o Cultural Beliefs: (dangerous things go with women)

41
Q

Why are color terms arbitrary?

A

• The color spectrum is a physical continuum and yet We parcel it out and assign names

42
Q

do all languages have color terms?

A

Yes

43
Q

What criteria does a color term have

A

o Single word
- Not obvious sub-division of a higher-order term (e.g. crimson & scarlet to red)
o General use (not just for hair)
o Not highly restricted

44
Q

What pattern was revealed by *Berlin and Kay (1969)? (know first several steps)

A

o If only 2 terms in a L → Black and white
o If a 3rd color = red
o 4th and 5th = yellow and green
o 6th and 7th = blue & brown
o In no order = grey, pink, orange, purple
exception: russian determines blue and light blue as seperate

45
Q

how is colour terminology related to technological development?

A

Little technological development = the fewest colour terms

o e.g., the Jalé of New Guinea = dark and light

46
Q

what is the gender difference in colour awareness?

A
  • Women distinguish more colours than men

criticism: can’t really label colours b/c each person has a different interpretation of color

47
Q

is there agreement on labelling colours?

A
  • little agreement on colour boarders

- more agreement on typical color

48
Q

What is rosh’s prototype theory

A
  • we view objects as prototypes - a bird is not a set of features, it is a reference to a typical instance
  • varies with out culture/language
  • there is fuzziness that allows creativity
  • explains why we can identify typical colours
49
Q

What else can the concept of prototypes be applied to

A

Social situations

i.e. a ‘typical’ teenager’ or a ‘typical party’

50
Q

What is “taboo”?

A

prohibition or avoidance in any society of behaviour

  • politness constraint
  • believes to be harmful
51
Q

Why might taboos be broken?

A

o To show freedom from social constraints

o To expose taboos as irrational & unjustified

52
Q

example of a taboo word

A

bloody in England, caused shock when used in a film

53
Q

example of taboo in bilingual situation

A

o Name change in Russian Mennonites in Canada

- Last name ‘dick’ → ‘dyck’

54
Q

What do euphemisms allow us to do?

A

o To talk about unpleasant/taboo things
o To make the L more presentable, polite
o T ‘Dress up’ in the L

55
Q

example of a euphemism

A
  • vintage instead of used

2S03 (10 decks)

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