Language and CultureWords and meaning

Language and Culture:Words and meaning The Importance of LanguageThe importance of language to the study of intercultural communication is clearly captured by filmmaker Federico Fellinis simple sentence: “A different view of life.” His observation takes on added significance when you realize the one of the major characteristics identifying you as human is your ability to use language. As Cartmill point out, “People can talk. Other animal cant.” Yet language is more than just a skill; it has evolved a rich and expressive versatility that was recognized by Paul Tillich when he observed that “language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone and the word “solitude” to express the joy of being along” or by the Athenian poet Aristophanes, who glorified the beauty of words when he remarked “By words the mind winged.” Your ability to use words is indeed a remarkable gift. Over countless thousands of years, Homo sapiens has evolved the brain capacity and anatomy necessary to produce and receive sounds; in a much shorter span of time, it has created cultural systems in which those sounds have taken on meaning by representing things, feelings, and ideas. Yet there seems to be some evidence of a genetic basis tied to the use of language. The recently discovered FOXP2 gene, although not believe to have caused speech, seems to enhance the speech by permitting humans to speak more clearly, contributing to the development of superior language abilities. This combination of evolution and culture has led to the development of a four-part process that enables you to share your internal states with other human beings. In short, you can receive, store, manipulate, and generate symbols to represent your personalized realities. But, to a large degree, your language behavior is mediated by your culture. That is to say, while how you use language is highly individualistic, many of the forms of language that you use, and the purposes to which you choose to apply language, are subject to your cultural background. Everything you know and feel is inside your body and can only be shared by language. Most of this internal state is an electrochemical mlange residing in your brain. Your beliefs, values, attitudes, word views, emotions, and myriad other aspects of yourself and personality are locked up inside. You can convey some aspects of yourself nonverbally through facial expression, gestures, or touching. To state that language is important is merely to acknowledge the obvious, yet the significant influence language has on human behavior is frequently overlooked. The ability to speak and write is often taken for granted. It is through your use of sounds and symbols that you are able give life to your ideas-as Henry Ward Beecher once wrote, “Thought is the blossom; language the opening bud; action the fruit behind it.” Or as Cartmill has observed:Language lets us get vast numbers of big, smart fellow primates all working together on a single task-building the Great Wall of China or fighting World War II or flying to the moo. It lets us construct and communicate the gorgeous fantasies of literature and the profound fables of myth. It lets us cheat death by pouring out our knowledge, dreams, and memories into younger peoples minds. And it does powerful things for us inside our own minds because we do a lot of thinking by talking silently to ourselves. Without language, we would be only a sort of upright chimpanzee with funny feet and clever hands. With it, we are the self-possessed masters of the planet.Language and CultureLanguage has such a commanding influence within a culture that Edwards believes language and culture hold the power to maintain national or cultural identity. For him, language is more important in ethnic and nationalist sentiment because of its powerful and visible symbolism of national identity may be seen in the history of the Basques, an ethnic group in the north of Spain. According to Crystal, the Spanish government from 1937 to the mid-1950s made an active attempt to destroy the Basque culture and forbid the use of the Basque language. Basque could not be used in baptism ceremonies. All Basque names in official documents were translated into Spanish, and inscriptions on public building and tombstones were removed. Because of this relationship between language and culture identity, steps are often taken to limit or prohibit the influence of foreign language. Costa Rica, for instance, recently enacted a new law that restricts the use of foreign languages and imposes fines on those who break it. Under the law, companies that advertise in a foreign language also must include a Spanish translation in larger letters. Likewise, Iran has banned companies from using western names. And France has a list of thirty-five hundred foreign words that cannot be used in schools, bureaucracies, or companies.Verbal ProcessesAs we have already indicated, it is impossible to separate language from culture. In its most basic sense, Rubin says, language “is a set of characters or elements and rules for their use in relation to one another.” These characters or elements are symbols that are culturally diverse. That is, they differ from one culture to another. You may readily discover this when you study another language. Not only are the (1) words and sounds for those symbols different, but also so are the (2) rules for using those symbols and sounds.Culture and the Use of LanguageChaika believes that human language seems to be the only communication system that uses meaningless elements to create meaningful structures. Yet, as Arensberg and Niehoff observe, “nothing more clearly distinguishes one culture from another than its language.” A comedic example of this culture diversity may be seen from the various ways in which a sing announces a broken vending machine. In the United Kingdom, the sign might read “Please Understand This Machine Does Not Take 10p Coins.” In the United States, the translation would probably be “NO 10p COINS.” Although the rules and uses of a foreign language often appear arbitrary and nonsensical to nonnative speakers, to native speakers, the rules make perfect sense and seem more logical than those of other languages. For you to understand the wide range of diversity between cultures in how they actually use language, we will examine characteristics of language that include rules for (1) directness, (2) the maintenance of social customs and relationships, (3) expression of emotion, and (4) the value of “talk.” LANGUAGE DIVERSITY IN THE UNITED STATESLanguage diversity has become a prominent issue in the United States. Millions of people in the United States speak a language other than English at home. Areas of Florida, California, and the Southwest are heavily Spanish speaking