Is language also influenced by culture?Discuss

Language and Culture
A different language is not just a dictionary of words, sounds, and syntax. It is a different way of interpreting reality, refined by the generations that developed the language.
Federico Fellini, Italian filmmaker and director

The invasion of English words is a more serious threat to Gallic identify than the Nazi occupation of World War II. General De Gaulle made it a point of pride to never speak a word of English.
The future of French

There are two ways of looking at the language and culture relationships.
1. Language influences culture,
Language is an expression of culture. The structure of language has a significant influence on perception and categorisation.
Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression in that society.
(Sapir, 1921)
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (1929)
Language imposes a structure on our way of thinking that leads to different ways of experiencing the world and, as a result, different worldviews.
• the way people think is strongly affected by their native languages.
• there are certain thoughts of an individual in one language that cannot be understood by those who live in another language.

As a result of differences in language, people in different cultures will think about, perceive, and behave toward the world differently. Reality itself is already embedded in language and therefore comes preformed. Language determines, enabling and constraining, what is perceived and attended to in a culture, as well as the upper limits of knowledge.

2. Language reflects culture
Language a person speaks is part of the culture in which she or he grows up. The language reflects all manifestations of culture, its expressions, and values. As a result of differences in language, people in different cultures will think about, perceive, and behave toward the world differently. Reality itself is already embedded in language and therefore comes preformed.

The use of words which may be highly effective at conveying meaning within a particular culture often communicate unintended meanings across cultures. Advertising messages carrying cultural values are difficult to translate.

Question
Is language also influenced by culture?

English as a global lingua franca
English has become the language of technology, the language of education and the language to conduct global business even for traditionally non-English-speaking countries. English is so dominant in business that when Koreans go to China, English is the language they use to conduct business. However, the level of proficiency may be limited among non-native speakers of English.

Americans abroad make a big mistake in thinking that people who speak English always understand what is being said. Comprehension can be fairly superficial.

Problem in the UK
• Dramatic decline in the number of students studying foreign languages
• UK at the bottom of the league table of learning second language
• UK businesses face serious disadvantage

The limits of my language are the limits of my world (Wittgenstein, 1922). Language shapes our perception of reality, our attitude towards others, and others’ perception of us. Language is not merely a tool of communication; it is the means by which one accesses a culture. It is the expression of a culture. Language holds the key to the understanding of another culture. In other words, to understand a people, it is necessary to speak their own language, not the one they are using for our benefit. In the era of globalisation, we should not expect everyone to speak our language.

Linguistic imperialism
The transfer of a dominant language (and aspects of its culture) to speakers of other languages, which often presents a serious threat to the local language.
• English is the language of international air control
• 75 percent of academic journals are first published in English
• 85 percent of international organisations use English as an official language
• 1/3 of newspapers are published in countries where English has special status
David Crystal (2003) English as a Global Language.

An example is the way English is seeping into Japanese, often taking the place of perfectly good native words as users try to be fashionable. Of greater concern is what happens when more people become fluent in English. Will English become the language of business (even in Japan) – and of scientific, technological and intellectual discourse? Will parents push their children to learn English at the expense of Japanese? Will the market for printed Japanese materials shrink?

Important questions
• Is there a danger that these countries will lose their own cultural identity over time by succumbing to the charm the English-speaking nations yield?
• Will they lose their own traditions and customs, replacing them with the more “superior” one as a result of this intervention?

The biggest barrier in cross-cultural communication
Spoken or written language is a frequent cause of miscommunication, stemming from the sender’s inability to speak the local language, a poor or too-literal translation, a speaker’s failure to explain idioms, or the receiver missing the meaning conveyed through body language or certain symbols.

Non-verbal behaviour can play a crucial role in interaction
All cultures use forms of body language to communicate, but the meaning of these forms is subject to different interpretations according to the cultural background of the interpreter/decoder. Non-verbal communication can play a crucial role in communications. Those communicating across cultures must therefore be careful not to assume that certain gestures they perceive do not have the same meaning as in their own culture.

An example: “I’ve had enough!”

Use of arms by the Dutch, compared to use of the whole upper part of body by the French. The Dutch may perceive French as very emotional and excited since the Dutch only use gestures made by the French when they feel deeply emotional.

Silence
In western cultures, silence marks pauses in a discourse. In oriental cultures silences are an integral part of communication. Silences can indicate:
• Respect, of agreement or disagreement,
• Modesty (avoid improper use of words)
Values paradox (de Mooij)
Culture is the complex and elaborate system of meaning and behaviour that defines the way of life for a group or society, while values refer to beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional investment.
Although there is evidence of converging economic and demographic systems in Europe, there is no evidence of converging value systems. On the contrary, there is evidence that consumer behaviour is diverging in Europe as reflected in the consumption, ownership and use of many products and services. Paradoxical values are found within cultures and between cultures. Every culture has its opposing values.

Value paradoxes are part of people’s systems; they reflect the desirable versus the desired in life. On the one hand, one should not sin; on the other hand most of us do sin now and again. We don’t want to be fat, we should eat healthy food, yet we do eat chocolate or drink beer and we do get fat.

Because the important value paradoxes vary by culture, value-adding advertising cannot be exported from one culture to another. Value paradoxes must be understood or you delude yourself and think that the world is becoming one global culture with similar values.

Differences in cultural values (language): comparisons

American Japanese
Freedom
Independence
Self-reliance
Equality
Individualism
Competition
Efficiency
Time
Directness
Openness Belonging
Group harmony
Collectiveness
Age/seniority
Group consciousness
Cooperation
Quality
Patience
Indirectness
Go-between

Similar or different – what do you want to see?
Freedom, what freedom? 50 shades of “freedom”?
• USA: freedom/belonging
• Germany: freedom/order
• Holland: freedom/affiliation
• France: freedom/dependence

Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is inherent to any membership of a socio-cultural, ethnic or national group. Perception of the other always is based on one’s own culture. It is the intrinsic mechanism separating ‘mine’ from ‘yours’. Our perceptions are made through a barrier which is unconsciously made up of our own values. Ethnocentrism is responsible for prejudices and stereotypes, a big barrier in cross-cultural communication.

Every culture sees its own system of values in a positive light (??)
If confronted with negative stereotypes of themselves by other nationalities, people
• will not recognise themselves
• will react strongly since they feel under attack
• defend their own personal identity
• see their national identity more in terms of ‘them’ than ‘us’

If people could place another culture in its own context and avoid judging it according to their own ‘system’, i.e. SRC, stereotypes would eventually disappear.

Differences in values as reflected in advertising
Many visual elements commonly found in print advertisements (size of the visual, use of photographs, use of black and white advertisements, presentation of children) vary across countries. Cutler et al. (1992) investigated the visual component of print advertising across five countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Korea and India) through a detailed content analysis of about 250 advertisements per country.
• Indian advertisements use significantly more black and white and show more children than those in any other country;
• Korean advertisements show price two or three times as frequently as those in other countries, and represent more elderly persons whose wisdom is valued in Far Eastern cultures;
• French advertisements are by far the most oriented towards aesthetics: five times more than US, Korean or Indian advertisements, but only twice as much as British advertisements.
• US advertisements appear by far the most comparative, ten times more frequently than those in France for instance.
• US advertisements depict children in more idealistic settings – clean and smiling – than French advertisements, where they are more likely to appear quite realistic (Hall and Hall, 1989).

Self-Study Tasks
1. This is an excellent website that contains a rich set of information about colour, from symbolism to science and marketing/branding.
http://www.colormatters.com/color-symbolism/color-and-culture-matters
http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-marketing/color-and-branding

2. The World Value Survey
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp