Language, Culture and Communication: Introduction
Communicative Interactions
Meanings transmitted through language Situational , Social and Cultural
Situational Meanings: Conveyed through the form of language depending on context Example: formal and informal encounters
Social Meanings: Transmitted by members of different social sectors through a particular use of language Example: gender differentiation, occupation, social class position, etc
Cultural Meanings: When words carry specific symbolic meaning or cultural specific meanings. Transmitted by a particular use of language Example: language expressions
The act of speaking is action
The importance of the links between language and culture To understand the importance of human communication To understand social and cultural behaviors Cultural contexts in which language is used
Cultural Model A cultural model is a construction of reality that is created, shared, and transmitted by members of a group (similar to an ideology)
Speech Community A group of people who speak the same language, share norms about appropriate uses of language, and share social attitudes toward language ant its use.
Characteristics of Human Communication Productivity: the ability to communicate many messages efficiently Displacement: the ability to think in the past, the future and the present
The Properties of Languages Sounds --Phoneme: a minimal unit of sound that functions to differentiate the meaning of words Vocabulary Grammar: rules for combining sounds into sequences that carry meaning
The Origins of Languages 50,000 Started as paralanguage: non-verbal communication (body posture, voice tone, touch, smell and facial movements) All languages equally efficient (semantically and grammatically) Semantics: the study of meaning in language, including the analysis of meaning of words and sentences