Transcript Culture and Language

Culture and Language
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WHAT IS CULTURE
Culture refers to the entire way of life of a society, “the
ways of a people”.
Culture consists of all the shared products of human
society. This means not only material things, but also
non-material things such as ideas, customs, family
patterns, languages, etc.
Language is part of culture and plays a very important
part in it. Language is influenced and shaped by culture.
It reflects culture. The two interact, understanding of one
requires understanding of the other.
Each culture is unique. Learning a language is
inseparable from learning its culture.
Meaning of words
Can we rely on bilingual dictionaries to give us exact
equivalents in meaning on words?
NO! As:
1. A term in one language does not have a counterpart in
another language.
2. Terms in both languages may appear to refer to the
same object or concept, but which actually refer to
quite different things.
3. Finer distinctions of things or concepts exist in one
language but not in the other.
4. Terms that have more or less the same primary
meaning, but may have additional meanings that are
culturally different.
No counterpart
节气，雨水，惊蛰，清明
solar terms, rain water, waking of insects, pure
and brightness
without further explanation, these terms mean
little or nothing to average English speaking
people
Revival meeting: a public religious meeting with
music, famous speakers, etc., intending to make
people interested in Christianity.
Appear the same but actually
different
Shoes for street-walking. Come in and have
a fit.
political campaign
to make one’s hair stand on end
to get a kick out of it
public school (in Britain)
busboy
Finer distinctions in one language
than in another
• Kinship terms
• drinks
• Horses: palomino, appaloosa, barb,
mustang, pony,
stallion, Mare, foal
• 副（职务）：vice, associate, assistant,
deputy, lieutenant, under (collocation)
different additional meaning –
connotation which is deeply rooted
in culture
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Peasant
Idealist, materialist
Liberal, liberalism
Do-gooder
Pay attention to cultural differences
when talking with foreigners
• Greetings and farewells: some should not be
translated literally: 吃饭了吗？ 你上哪儿啦？慢走。
走好。
• How to address people: Formal: Mr. Mrs. Miss,
Ms. Professor, doctor, Judge so-and-so. But
among Americans, using first names are more
common. Using a person’s official status to
address him is not the English way (except very
few, like Queen Ann, King George, President
Obama). Not Bureau Director Li or Manager Hu.
Professor Zhang is OK, but not Teacher Zhang.
• Responses to compliments:
Idioms, proverbs and sayings
They are an important part of the language
and culture of a society. Hard to use
correctly. Proper use of them makes
language colorful and interesting, but
overuse would be unnatural.
Idioms (1)
• Verb phrases
The hardest to learn and easiest to make mistakes for the students
of the language are 40 or so most common verbs in various
combinations with about a dozen propositions or adverbs like in, out,
up, down, on, off, …resulting in several hundred different meanings.
A student should learn not to look down on such idioms just
because they are made up of such simple and easy words. He
should look out for identical phrases with different meanings and
look them up in a dictionary if he is not sure. He is bound to run into
a lot of trouble when he first uses them, but he should not give in,
much less give up. If he keeps trying and keeps at it long enough,
he will make out and things will turn out well in the end.
Idioms (2)
• Other set phrases
Before he gets the hang of how to use them he will
make a lot of mistakes.
Some mistakes will cause people to hold their
sides with laughter, but that should not put him in
a stew. He should learn to put up with such
things. You might say that is part of the game.
dress to kill, out of the closet, a pain in the neck
Proverbs and sayings (1-a)
• They reflect a people’s geography, history, social
views, attitudes… In a word, they are closely
linked with the culture and tradition of that
society.
• But because in many ways human experiences
and observations of the world are similar,
peoples of different cultural backgrounds share
many similar proverbs and sayings.
1-b
Similar ones:
Strike while the iron is hot.
Waste makes want.
Haste makes waste.
Look before you leap.
Where there is smoke there is fire.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Spare the rod and spoil the child.
There is no royal road to learning.
Time and tide waits for no man.
Still water runs deep.
Proverbs and sayings (2)
• However, many English proverbs and sayings have no commonlyknown equivalents in Chinese (vice versa). Some may appear to
have counterparts in Chinese, but the implications can be different.
• For the former, translate the literal meaning and add explanations
瓜田李下 挂羊头卖狗肉 平时不烧香临时抱佛脚
• For the latter, don’t take things for granted.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Gilding the lily.
• Also, owing to different ways of looking at life, some proverbs are
incompatible with each other:
Absence makes the heart grow fonder / Out of sight, out of mind.
Nurture is above nature / Nature is stronger than education.
Metaphor
• To describe one thing by referring to
another, suggesting that the first has
qualities similar to the second. Often the
qualities are what people associate with
the thing. With different peoples, some
associations are similar, but often they are
different.
• Similar: ass, fox, pig, wolf …
• Different: dragon, phoenix, owl, bat …
Allusions
• References to characters or events from
their history, legends, literature, religion,
etc to make the language richer and more
vivid. Most allusions are deeply rooted in
the culture of the people and therefore not
always easy to understand by foreigners.
刘姥姥进了大观园， 空城计，潘金莲，
三顾茅庐
Humpty-Dumpty Uncle Tom Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde a Catch-22 situation
Taboos and Euphemisms
Taboos:
Some notions or things that people try to avoid
mentioning directly because they are considered
unpleasant, rude or offensive.
Also there are words or expressions that people avoid
using as they would cause strong social disapproval
because of tradition or social custom.
Euphemisms: the use of pleasant, polite or harmless terms
in the place of taboo terms.
Common taboos in English
• Death
• Physical shortcomings: crippled, fat, ugly, old, mad …
• Certain bodily functions and certain parts of the body:
wash one’s hands, go to the rest room, white / dark
meat …
• Matters strictly personal: age, income, marital status,
politics, religion …
• The notion of “politically correct” language: try to avoid
sexist or racialist language, or terms that show
discrimination.
mobility impaired, color different, mental home, sanitary
engineer, industrial action, less-developed areas
Cultural implications of formal and
informal language
• Consider the following factors when choosing your
language: the setting, the subject matter, the persons
involved (social differences).
• In Chinese, there are far more terms of respect
and humility. When talking to one’s elders or
superiors, Chinese tend to use more respectful
terms and expressions. When referring to
oneself, the Chinese tradition is to use terms of
humility. For example, in Chinese there are
terms like 您，贵姓， 令尊， 府上 ，贵校 / 鄙人，
寒舍，贱内
您有何高见？ 有空一定拜读大作，拙作
Examples of relationship between
cultural awareness and deeper
understanding
• To be allowed, no, invited, into the private lives
of strangers, and to share their joys and fears,
was a chance to exchange the Southern bitter
wormwood for a cup of mead with Beowulf or a
hot cup of tea and milk with Oliver Twist.
• No one would have thought of getting close
enough to Mrs. Flowers to ruffle her dress, let
alone snag her skin. She wore gloves, too.
• … and her hand, in her cleaned glove, was a
tiny yellowish paw.
More examples
• The veteran is going to take all the goodness of
his uniform, all the apple pie and motherhood
and medals in the service of his country, and
he’s going to place it before the people of this
country, telling it like it really is.
• The happy homemaker and the contented darky
are both stereotypes produced by prejudice.
• Then my image of her would have been
shattered like the unmendable Humpty-Dumpty.