Context of Culture and Language

Teaching objectives To get to know what’s context of culture To understand the relationship between context of culture and language To understand how language is influenced by context of culture

1. Two categories of context Context of culture Context of situation ( Malinknowski, 1923)

2.Context of Culture Context of culture means the total way of life of a people, which refers to the patterns of customs, traditions, social habits, values, beliefs and languages of a society (Dai Weidong, 1989)

3.Context of Culture and Language Context of culture influences language Language reflects the environment in which people live Language is a mirror of culture Language is culture

Examples: Eskimo--- three words for snow (falling snow, fallen snow, snow packed into ice) English--- one word (snow) Hopi--- one word for anything that flies English--- aeroplane, dragonfly, butterfly Navaho--- no distinction between horse and horses English--- horse/horses

4. The impact of context of culture on language at various levels At lexical level At pragmatic level At discourse level At stylistic level

5. The denotation and connotation of words Denotation: dictionary definition Connotation: associative meanings How connotative meanings have developed: through use by people and esp. by poets and writers

6. Chinese and English words compared 1) different context of culture, similar or same connotative meaning. Fox 狐狸 Dove 鸽子 Bee 蜜蜂 White 白色 Red 红色 Rose 玫瑰

2） different context of culture, different connotative meaning Owl 猫头鹰 Dragon 龙 Dog 狗 Green 绿色 Blue 蓝色 Fat meat 肥肉

Compare the following expressions 青天 blue sky 青山 green hills 青丝 black hair 红茶 black tea 红糖 brown sugar 黑啤 dark beer

3）connotative meaning is specific for A context of culture and vacant for B context of culture Turtle 乌龟 Daffodil 黄水仙

7.Context of culture and pragmatic competence Greetings vary with contexts of culture 1) talking about eating 2) talking about weather 3) talking about actions

Put the following into Chinese 1) –Do you like the new school? – Yes, I do. 2) –Please don’t say that. - Yes, I will. 3) –I know what he wants. -Yes? - Money! 4) –Waiter! - Yes, sir. 5) – Yes? - I’d like two tickets, please. 6) –Everything will be all right soon, yes?