1. Context of Culture and Language

2. 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

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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 3）connotative meaning is specific for A context of culture and vacant for B context of culture
Turtle 乌龟
Daffodil 黄水仙

13. 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

14. 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?