Language,

Culture and
Society
Facultad de Lenguas
y Educación
 Culture

“We use the term culture to refer to all the ideas and assumptions about
the nature of things and people that we learn when we become members
of social groups. It can be defined as “socially acquired knowledge.” kind
of knowledge that, like our first language, we initially acquire without
conscious awareness.
With the words we acquire, we learn to recognize the types of category
distinctions that are relevant in our social world. In native cultures of the
Pacific, there were no horses and, not surprisingly, there were no words
for them. In order to use words such as dog or horse, rain or snow, father
or uncle, week or weekend, we must have a conceptual system that
includes these people, things and ideas as distinct and identifiable
categories.
Foll o wi ng Yule , in The Stu dy of E ng lis h , “W e us e the term c ulture to r ef er to al l t he id eas and
as s um ptions a bou t th e na tu r e of thin gs and pe op le t hat we l ear n when we bec om e m em bers of
s oc ial gro ups . It c an be defi ned as “ s oc ial l y acqu ir ed k no wle dge .” T his is the k ind of k nowle dge
that, l ik e our fi rs t la ng ua g e, we i nit ia ll y ac qu ir e with out c o ns c ious a ware nes s . W e dev elo p
a waren es s of our k no wl edg e, a nd henc e of our c ult ure, on l y af ter ha v ing de ve lo pe d l ang uag e.
T he par tic ul ar la ngu age we lear n t hrou gh th e proc es s of c ultural tra ns m is s ion provi des us , at
leas t i nit ia ll y, wi th a r ead y- m ade s y s tem of c ategor i zin g the worl d arou nd us and o ur ex per ienc e
of it. W ith the words we ac quir e, we lear n to r ec og ni z e th e t y p es of c at egor y dis t inc ti ons t hat
are r ele va nt in our s oc ia l world. Ver y y o ung c h il dren may n ot i nit ia ll y th ink of “ dog” and “ hor s e”
as dif f erent ty p es of ent iti es an d ref er t o bot h as bo w - w o w. As t he y de ve lop a m ore e la bor ate d
c onc eptu al s y s t em along with Eng lis h as the ir fi rs t lan guag e, th e y le arn to c a teg ori ze d is tinc t
ty p es of c r eatures as a do g or a ho r s e. In nat iv e c ult ures of the Pac ifi c , th ere were no h ors es
and, not s urpr is in gl y , t her e were no words f or th em . In order to us e words s uc h as dog or hor s e ,
r ain or s no w, f ath er or unc le , week or week end, we m us t hav e a c onc ep tua l s ys tem that i nc lu des
thes e p eop le, th ings a nd id eas as d is tinc t and id ent ifi a ble ca teg ories . ” ( Yule , 2 010 , 267) .

Pragmatics 2
Language and Culture

Language, Culture and Society 3

• language does not exist apart from culture, that is, from the socially
inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the
texture of our lives (Sapir, 1970, p. 207).
• culture in terms of the participatory responsibilities of its members.
He states that a society’s culture is made up of whatever it is one
has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable
to its members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one
of themselves.
• Culture: the context of how the members of a culture operate, both
individually and as a group.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k&ab_
channel=TED

4
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• recognized the close relationship between language and culture,

concluding that it was not possible to understand or appreciate one
without knowledge of the other
• The structure of a language determines the way in which speakers of that
language view the world.
• we see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because
the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of
interpretation
• The culture of a people finds reflection in the language they employ:
because they value certain things and do them in a certain way, they come
to use their language in ways that reflect what they value and what they do

5
• Wardhaugh also notes that people who speak languages with
different structures (e.g. Germans and Hungarians) can share
similar cultural characteristics, and people who have different
cultures can also possess similar structures in language (e.g.
Hungarians and Finns).
• The idea that language, to some extent, determines the way we
think about the world around us is known as linguistic determinism,
with ‘strong’ determinism stating that language actually determines
thought, and ‘weak’ determinism implying that our thought is
merely influenced by our language.
• Strong linguistic determinism and the idea that difference in
language results in difference in thought, or linguistic relativity,
were the basic propositions for the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

6
• Hanunóo, a language from the Philippines, has four terms that seem to
refer to what we would call white, black, green, and red but which under
further analysis turn out to mean roughly lightness, darkness, wetness, and
dryness. Such observations imply that some cultures interpret colours
based on their language, such as with Hanunóo, where it appears that
speakers view the colour red as more of a feeling than a colour.
• If a language is set to respond to perceptions in a specific way, then the
thoughts of those who employ that language would seemingly also be
restricted.
• Though linguistic norms differ between cultures, demonstrating respect
towards others is an important function of language. To help clarify this
point, politically correct and sexist language has been studied in order to
understand whether this language determines the perceptions of the users.
And, in spite of claims to the affirmative, it is not conclusive whether
certain language causes sexism or vice versa

7
• Kinship systems have similarly been studied to discover how language is
related to thought through the ways in which the use of terms like father,
brother, or older brother reflect how people behave toward these people
• Seminole Indians of Florida and Oklahoma recognize a ‘father’s brother’ to
also be ‘father’, as the Seminole recognize same sex siblings to fulfill the
same role. While one culture may distinguish between father and uncle,
another may not. The use of the term ‘father’ in a conversation between a
native English speaker and a Seminole Indian would logically produce a
different image for both people, as culturally each may classify the roles
and image of this person differently.

8
Implications for language education and language policy

• The ultimate goals of language education for both learners and instructors
revolve around the acquisition of competency. As illustrated above,
language and thought interact constantly and linguistic competence is not
enough for learners to be competent in that language.
• Understanding that languages and their cultures do possess relationships
central to the acquisition of linguistic and cultural competency is a good
starting point for any approach to language education. The creation and
enforcement of an integrated language policy that reflects the need for
learners to be educated about both target culture(s) and language(s) is
needed if language learners are to be expected to achieve any degree of
real competency in any language.

9
• Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so
to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It is
always in the background, right from day one… challenging (learners’)
ability to make sense of the world around them.
• For instructors and learners alike, the concepts of linguistic and cultural
competence must be introduced into the classroom together.
• Showing language in its natural environment is no easy task in many
foreign language classrooms, beginning foreign language students want to
feel, touch, smell, and see the foreign peoples and not just hear their
language.
• For language programs, a language policy would best be implemented in
the form of required curriculum emphasizing the integrated study of
language and culture.
• While the focus of foreign language learning is clearly on the foreign
language and culture, language policy should also include a study
concerning the awareness of learners’ native language and culture: foreign
language teachers should be foreign culture teachers, and possess the
ability to experience and analyze both the home and target cultures.

10
Categories
• Although there is a lot of variation among all the individual “dogs” in our
experience, we can use the word dog to talk about any one of them as a
member of the category.
• A category is a group with certain features in common and we can think of
the vocabulary we learn as an inherited set of category labels.
• Some languages may have lots of different words for types of “rain” or
kinds of “coconut” and other languages may have only one or two.

11
Time concepts

• In the Hopi language, spoken in Arizona, there were traditionally no terms

equivalent to most of our time words and phrases (two hours, thirty
minutes) because our terms express concepts from a culture operating on
“clock time.” Perhaps for a similar reason there was no term for a unit of
seven days. There was no “week,” nor was there a term for “Saturday and
Sunday” combined as a unit of time. There was no “weekend.
• when we learn a word such as week or weekend, we are inheriting a
conceptual system that operates with amounts of time as common
categories. Having words for units of time such as “two days” or “seven
days” shows that we can think of time (i.e. something abstract) in amounts,
using noun phrases, in the same way as “two people” or “seven books” (i.e.
something physical).

12
Gender
• In Sidamo, spoken in Ethiopia, there are some words used only by men and
some used only by women, so that the translation of “milk” would be ado
by a man, but gurda by a woman. Many Native American languages, such
as Gros Ventre (in Montana) and Koasati (in Louisiana), are reported to
have had different versions used by men and women. In Japanese, when
referring to themselves (“I”), men have traditionally used boku and women
watashi or atashi. In Portuguese, saying “thank you” is obrigado if you’re a
man and obrigada if you’re a woman.

13
• the words for men are “normal” and the words for women are
“special additions.” Pairs such as hero–heroine or actor–
actress illustrate the derivation of terms for the woman’s role
from the man’s. Marking this type of difference through
gendered words has decreased in contemporary American
English as firemen and policemen have become firefighters
and police officers, but there is still a strong tendency to treat
forms for the man (his) as the normal means of reference
when speaking generally: Each student is required to buy his
own dictionary. However, alternatives that include both
genders (his or her), or avoid gendered usage (their) are
becoming more common.

14
• the more frequent use of hedges (sort of, kind of) and tag questions (It’s
kind of cold in here, isn’t it?) have all been identified as characteristic of
women’s speech. Tag questions are short questions consisting of an
auxiliary (don’t, isn’t) and a pronoun (it, you), added to the end of a
statement (I hate it when it rains all day, don’t you?). They are used more
often by women when expressing opinions. These features of women’s
speech all seem to be ways of inviting agreement with an idea rather than
asserting it. Men tend to use more assertive forms and “strong” language
(It’s too damn cold in here!). Other researchers have pointed to a
preference among women, in same-gender groups, for indirect speech acts
(Could I see that photo?) rather than the direct speech acts (Gimme that
photo) heard more often from men in same-gender groups. It is important
to pay attention to the concept of “same-gender” talk in describing features
in the speech of men and women because much of our socialization takes
place in such groups.

15
• Boys socialize in larger groups, often in competitive
activities, establishing and maintaining hierarchical
relationships (I’m Spiderman and you have to follow
me). Girls socialize in smaller groups, more often in
cooperative activities, establishing reciprocal
relationships and exchanging roles (You can be the
doctor now and I’ll be ill). In many societies, this same-
gender socialization is reinforced through separate
educational experiences, creating young men and
women who may interact with each other only rarely
outside family settings. Not surprisingly, there are
differences in the way each gender approaches
interaction with the other.

16
• Many of the features already identified in women’s speech (e.g. frequent
question-type forms) facilitate the exchange of turns, allowing others to speak,
with the effect that interaction becomes a shared activity. Interaction among
men appears to be organized in a more hierarchical way, with the right to speak
or “having the floor” being treated as the goal. Men generally take longer turns
at speaking and, in many social contexts (e.g. religious events), may be the only
ones allowed to talk. One effect of the different styles developed by men and
women is that certain features become very salient in cross-gender
interactions. For example, in same-gender discussions, there is little difference
in the number of times speakers interrupt each other. However, in cross-gender
interactions, men are much more likely to interrupt women, with 96 percent of
the identified interruptions being attributed to men in one study involving
American college students. In same-gender conversations, women produce
more back-channels as indicators of listening and paying attention. The term
back-channels describes the use of words (yeah, really?) or sounds (hmm, oh)
by listeners while someone else is speaking. Men not only produce fewer back-
channels, but appear to treat them, when produced by others, as indications of
agreement. In cross-gender interaction, the absence of backchannels from men
tends to make women think the men are not paying attention to them. The more
frequent production of back-channels by women leads men to think that the
women are agreeing with what they’re saying. Other features have been
identified as distinctive aspects of men’s or women’s ways of using language in
interaction.

17