Language, Cognition and
Culture
Language refers to a system of symbols that is used to communicateinformation and knowledge.Cognition
can be thought of as the act or
process of obtaining knowledge,including perceiving, recognizing, reasoning,
and judging. It involves thinking, knowing, remembering,
categorizing,and problem solving. Culturalinfluence, mental
processes, and language are dynamic processes that occursimultaneously. This
means that constant social interaction with thosearound us helps shape the quality
of mental abilities and language at variousages.
The way a person speaks
generally signals at least some social information about their background such
as what kind of social group or class they belong to. Language not only reflect
and express our membership of social categories, it also contributes to the
construction of our social identity. In addition, language also reflects
society’s attitudes and value, so it can strongly influence perception and
behaviour.
In conclusion, both language and cognition are
cultural phenomena. Consequently, languageand culture are both part of a
person’s ecological system where theycontribute jointly to an individual’s
experience.
Language
and perception
It has been said that
“bad girls get babies, but good girls get myomata” Surgery is also indicated
when… hormone… treatment has failed to control the symptoms…
Since
many women erroneously believe that following hysterectomy, their sexual urge
ceases, that coitus is not possible and that obesity is usual, the physician
must example that removal of the uterus has no side-effects ….
Perhaps the most
obvious feature of the text it its impersonal and detached tone which is
achieved through the use of agent less passive construction (surgery....is indicated) impersonal nouns
(the physician, the patient), and formal devices such as nominalizations. So
for example, surgery is indicated, rather than doctors think that people need
surgery when ............. or even think that..... This construction also
permits the author to neatly avoid drawing attention to reason for the failure
o the treatment to control symptoms.
Hysterectomy is described as the treatment of choice, allowing the
author to avoid the issue of whose choice. Women are depicted as at least
ignorant, if not gullible with their ‘erroneous’ beliefs, and primarily in
their role as potential child-bearers, since invasive surgery is to be avoided
as long as the woman’s reproductive function needs to be maintained. And the
opening sentence present a patronizing , if no insulting, saying as if it is
common knowledge, although its technical word myomata (benign fibroid tumor of
the uterus)indicates it could only have been produced by physicians. In
conclusion, language reflects society’s attitudes and value and it may also
determine what people notice, what categories they establish, what choices they
believe and available and consequently the way they behave. Thus we can
conclude that language can strongly influence perception and behavior.
Verbal
Hygiene
Verbal hygiene
is the thought-provoking term used by Deborah Cameron to describe how the
people respond to the urge to meddle in matters of language. It covers range of
activities from writing letters to the editor complaining about the
deterioration and abuse of language through prescriptions and proscriptions
about what constitutes proper, correct and acceptable usage in a context to use
language as a political weapon.
Vocabulary
and cognition
The relationship
between language, thought and ‘reality’ has fascinated linguists and
philosopher for centuries.Whorf was an anthropological linguist who began his
career as a chemical engineer working for a fire insurance company.
We dissert nature along
lines laid by our native languages. the categories and types that we isolate
from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every
observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a
kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized in our minds - and
this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up,
organized it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because
we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way- an agreement that
hold throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our
language. The agreement is of course an implicit and unstated one, but its
terms are absolutely obligatory; we cannot talk at all except by subscribing to
the organization and classification of data which the agreement decrees.
Base on example above
and illustrate of example 5 on the book that around gasoline drums labeled as
‘empty’, people would smoke or even toss in cigarette stubs despite the fact
that they were full of potentially explosive vapor. Thus for conclusion, the
particular words (vocabulary) selected to describe or label objects often
influenced people perceptions and behavior.
Linguistic
Determinism: The Medium is The Message
The people from
different cultures think differently because of differences in their language.
Few sociolinguists would accept such a strong claim, but most of them accept
that the weaker claim of linguistic relativity that language influence
perceptions thought and at least potentially behavior. The categories provided
by a language may favor certain ways of perceiving reality or the world and
make certain behavior easier. However we must also recognize the limitations of
such evidence.
Grammar
and Cognition
Grammatical categories
such as tenses, aspect, and gender encode aspects of reality differently in
different language. Whorf’s analysis of the Hopi verb system let him to argue
that the Hopi conception of time is fundamentally different from that of
western cultures. Speakers of European languages often conceive time as a road,
for instance with the future ahead and the past behind. Whorf suggested this
reflects the verb tense system of indo-European languages. Appropriately
conjugating Hopi verbs, however requires an analysis of events in term of
dynamic motion, expressed by aspect markers, rather than by tenses marking,
their distribution in time. This led Whorf to conclude that the Hopi think in
term of cycle of events and set of processes rather than units of time. He even
argued that Hopi was better equipped to deal with the wave processes and
vibrations of modern physics than English was. These basic concepts of physic
for which English needed metaphor such as waves and vibrations, were directly
and obligatorily coded in the verb morphology of Hopi and this, according to
Whorf, “practically forced the Hopi to notice vibratory phenomena”.
In fact, later analysis
of Hopi indicated that Hopi does have tenses and words for time units. But,
while Whorf detailed claims do not hold up, most sociolinguists consider that
his general point is an interesting one with implications for the way speakers
of different languages and cultures filters or cut up reality. It is widely
accepted that certain concepts may be more cod able or easier to express in some
languages than in others.
Linguistic
categories and culture
Native American and
Australian Aboriginal languages are often cited as exampleswhich roundly refute
popular misconceptions about primitive language. French requires every noun to
be assigned to one of two gender, Dyirbal and Australian Aboriginal language,
has four such categories. Using western criteria, the traditional nomadic
lifestyle of the aboriginal people of Australia seems very simple. Their
culture, however, is thousands of years old and their languages are amongst the
most interesting and grammatically complex that have been researched. Every
noun in Dyirbal belongs to one of four classes. Consequently whenever a Dyirbal
speaker uses a noun in a sentence the noun must be preceded by one of four
classifiers: baby, balan, balam, or bala.
I
Bayi
|
II
balan
|
III
balam
|
IV
Bala
|
Men women edible fruits parts of the body
Kangaroos bandicoots fruit meet
Possums dogs tubers bees
Snakes platypus ferns bud
Fishes birds
cigarettes
grass
Insect spears wine noise
Storms water cakes language
The moon fire honey
fishing spears stars
boomerangs sun
|
Particular types of
experience establish associations which determine the class membership of some
items. Dyirbal myths and cultural belief also make a contribution to class
allocation. The system is of course totally automatic for Dyirbal speakers, and
should not necessarily expect a speaker to be able to explain it to an
outsider. Language provides a means of
encoding a community’s knowledge, beliefs, and value or its culture.
Discourse patterns and culture
Culture differences and
the discourse patterns of the majority and minority culture can often have
serious consequences, as the research of Diana Eades, comparing Aboriginal and
Non-Aboriginal Australians. Both groups apparently use the same language,
culturally different patterns of interaction can be a source of
misunderstanding. Aboriginal society throughout Australia places great
importance on indirectness, it is important to avoid being intrusive. This
involves giving other people interactional privacy, a crucial mechanism in a
society where there is frequently little physical privacy. In Aboriginal
society, some kinds of information are not freely shared, but may be restricted
to those who have the right to it, and silence is much more common as an
acceptable component of interaction than in non – Aboriginal exchange. Since
non – Aboriginal norms dominate Australian society, Aboriginal people often disadvantaged
and misunderstood or misinterpreted in interaction. This is especially true in
contexts such as law courts where direct questions are the norm, and silence
can be interpreted as evasive and even as evidence of guilt. Cross-cultural
differences between in way of interacting shown that where there is a power
imbalance between the groups involved can create serious communication problems
for minority group members.
Culture described as
‘positive politeness’ or solidarity-oriented cultures value involvement with
others, while ‘negative politeness’ cultures emphasis respect and minimize
intrusion. On the basis of descriptions
so far, Aboriginal society seems a classic negative politeness culture. In
fact, however Aboriginal society is characterized by high interactional
involvement, on going – serial, open-ended conversation, and place great value
on group activities which build solidarity. Things are never as simple as they
seem, and the analysis of interaction patterns in Aboriginal communities raises
questions about the adequacy of the simple negative/positive politeness
framework.
Aboriginal interaction
give personal relationships priority over information-oriented goals, they
prioritize the affective over the referential dimension. It seems that discourse
patterns and linguistic usage may reflect and even influence a particular view
of social reality and socio-cultural relationships.
Language,
Social Class, and Cognition
Researchers began to
examine features of working-class children’s speech, looking for an explanation
there. Unfortunately, they assumed that the kind of language working-class
children used in a formal interview situation to a middle-class adult was an
accurate representation of their sociolinguistic competence. In such situation,
not surprisingly, the children used short, even monosyllabic, responses which
suggested to the interviewers that their linguistic resources were
‘restricted’.
Bernstein suggested
that a ‘restricted code’ might constrain the cognitive abilities of those who
used it. In other words, extending the principle of linguistic determinism. He
argued that the language children use might affect what they are capable of
perceiving and even their thinking abilities.
Bernstein hypotheses
forced sociolinguists to examine Whorf’s claims about the relationship between
language, thought and society really thoroughly. One of the benefits was a more
detailed study of vernacular varieties, and a very clear recognition that the
dialect differences was comparatively superficial aspects of language which
could not conceivably have consequences for different ways of thinking. Though
Bernstein phrased his claims with care, they were often oversimplified and
misinterpreted. His research appeared to support a view of working-class
children as linguistically deprived, and their use of vernacular forms as
evidence of cognitive deficit.
Conclusion
Language influences our
perceptions of reality and it clearly influences perception in such cases. On
the other hand, the language and discourse patterns associated with a
particular culture may not only reflect existing social relationships, they may
also influence the way one group interact with others. The language is also a
valuable source of insight into the perceptions, values, beliefs and attitudes
of a community.
