What is “Culture”?

• Wordhaugh(1992): “whatever a person

has to know in order to function in a
particular society.”

(Wardhaugh(1997),Chapter 9, p:217)
 The Whorfian Hypothesis

• The structure of a language influences

the way that the speakers of that
language perceive the world.

– Edward Sapir
– Benjamin Lee Whorf
Sapir:
“..It is quite an illusion to imagine that one
adjusts to reality without the use of
language. ... We see and hear and otherwise
experience very largely as we do because the
language habits of our community predispose
certain choices of interpretation.”
(Wardhaugh(1997), Chapter 9, p:218)
Whorf:
We dissect nature along lines laid down by our
native languages. ... The world is presented in
a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has
to be organised by our minds – and this
means largely by the linguistic systems in our
minds.

(Wardhaugh(1997), Chapter 9, p:219)

Fishman:
If one language has certain words to describe
things and another language lack that
vocabulary, then the speakers of the first
language will speak on those things more
easily.

(Wardhaugh(1997), Chapter 9, p:220)

Fishman (cont’d):
If a language makes distinctions that another
language does not make, then the speakers
of the first language will categorize those
features more readily.
Grammatical categories in your language
helps you see the world in a certain way
but also they limit your perception to only
those categories.

(Wardhaugh(1997), Chapter 9, p:220)

Whorf acquired his ideas in two
experiences:
1. While working as a fire prevention
engineer
2. While working on American Indian
languages as Sapir’s student
• The language you speak shapes your view
of “reality” to a large extent
– The language you speak helps to form your
world-view. You do not use it simply to talk
about an experience, but it defines your
experience for you. It is not neutral but gets in
the way, imposing habits of both looking and
thinking.
(Wardhaugh(1997), Chapter 9, p:221)
Problems with Whorfian Hypothesis

Is there essentially any close relationship

between the particular types of languages
and the cultures of people who speak
them?
Boas(1911) claims that people with very
different cultures have languages with very
similar linguistic structures (e.g.
Hungarians and Finns) or people who
speak with very different linguistic
structures have very similar cultures (e.g.
Germans and Hungarians)

(Wardhaugh(1997), Chapter 9, p:223)

Boas(cont’d):
• One can not possibly claim that certain
types of languages can be associated with
‘advanced’ cultures or others indicate ‘less
advanced’ cultures.
Problems with the Whorfian Hypothesis(cont’d):

Is it possible to say that one can not describe

certain things because his/her language does
not have the necessary resources?
 Conclusion
• All languages have the resources that any
speaker might require to say anything that
he/she might want to say in that language.

• Every language has the potential to develop its

resources.

• Any speaker of any language can report

anything that he/she is willing to do, but one may
do it precisely and another may do it in an
indirect way with using circumlocution.
Language and Culture

Kinship Systems
Taxonomies
 Kinship systems
• Throughout human history people have sought to identify themselves
and others in social contexts. This identification comes, in part,
through the act of naming, which carries great social significance for
us (Trenholm, Jensen, 1992). Our name sets us apart from every
other human being. Just as our individual names connote our
uniqueness within society, so do the kinship terms applied to us.

• Kinship systems have a great effect upon the language of cultures.

Because one interesting way of using language in daily living is to
refer to various kinds of kin. There is a huge amount of literature on
kinship terminology,describing how people in various parts of the
world refer to brothers,sisters,uncles,aunts and so on…

• .
 What are these kinship terms?
• Kinship terms, according to E. R. Leach (1958), are
"category words by means of which an individual is
taught to recognize the significant groupings in the social
structure into which he is born" (p. 143). They are the
lexically identical terms and unique terminological
systems labeled with a distinctive social and cultural
nature. In different societies and cultures, there must be
different systems of kinship terms. For example,
between English and Chinese languages, only a few
basic relations such as "father," "mother," "son," and
"daughter," bear the same semantic constants which can
be expressed in similar kinship terms . But other
relations such as “ grandfather” show distinctions.
RELATION TO EGO CHINESE TERM ENGLISH TERM

Paternal grandfather Zu fu
Grandfather
Maternal grandfather Wai zu fu

Paternal grandmother Zu mu
Grandmother
Maternal grandmother Wai zu mu

Son’s son Sun zi

Grandson
Daughter’s son Wai sun
Son’s daughter Sun nu
Granddaughter
Daughter’s daughter Wai sun nu
• Each culture has defined their own set of
kinship terms and the roles they serve in
society. To be called the kinship term
"uncle" in one culture may hold a
distinctively different set of expectations
than that of "uncle" in another culture.
• These expectations may be influenced by
Sex
Age
Generation
Blood
Marriage
 Wardhaugh(1997)Chp.9,225
• Kinship terms can also be used with
people who are not kin by any criteria.
Sister,brother,uncle….
Sometimes different relationships are
described by the same term or similar
relationships are described by different
terms.
• E.g/ tio(Spanish)refers to uncle and either
father’s or mother’s male cousin.
• E.g/ Njamal man calls MoBrDa and
FaSiDa “njuba” but, he calls his MoSiDa
and FaBrDa “turda”

All of these are “cousin” in English.

 Wardhaugh(1997)Chp.9,226
• As social conditions change, we can expect
kinship systems to change to reflect the new
conditions.
E.g/ In Russian there was “yatrov” for husband’s
brother’s wife but it disappeared.
“svoyak” is used to refer to any male relative by
marriage but in the past it was used only for
wife’s sister’s husband.
 Wardhaugh(1997)Chp.9,228
• Changing family structures have removed
some of these kinship terms from daily
contact.
• The new longer phrases for such kinships
show the lack of importance in certain
kinship relations because important
relationships tend to be expressed through
single words.
 Taxonomies
• Taxonomy is tied closely to evolutionary study, and
Darwin's theory of evolution was a turning point in
the history of scientific classification. Thus,
taxonomists are concerned more with the
evolutionary patterns that link organisms than they
are with what may be only superficial similarities.
• A striking example of the difference between
scientific taxonomy and "common sense"
classification is the fact that whales and dolphins are
grouped along with other mammals (class
Mammalia) rather than with fish and other creatures
that most readily come to mind when thinking of
aquatic organisms.
 Language and taxonomy
• Language has also its own classes of
units:
vowels,consonants,nouns,verbs,statement
and questions and so on.
• People also use language to classify and
categorize various aspects of the world
they live in.
 Wardhaugh(1997)Chp.9,229
Folk taxonomy:
• A way of classifying a certain part of reality so
that it makes some kind of sense to those who
have great deal with it.
• Common terminology can be misleading but
sometimes correlations with scientific taxonomy
can be found in what is known as folk taxonomy.
Folk taxonomy is the taxonomic system applied
in relatively isolated non-Western societies
 Wardhaugh(1997)Chp.9,229
• . For example, the folk taxonomy of native
peoples in New Guinea identified 136 bird
species in the mountains of that island, a figure
that came amazingly close to the 137 species
identified by the German-born American
evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-) when
he studied New Guinea's birds using scientific
methods.
• Burling (1970,pp.14-17) applied the analysis of
part of the vocabulary of a language to the
pronoun system in Palaung,a language spoke in
Burma.
two persons More than two persons
• Ar- ( you and I) • E- (you and others)
• Yar- (I and another • Ye- (I and others but
but not you) not you)
• Pe- (you and others)
• Par- (you and
• Ge (he/she and
another)
others but not you)
• Gar-(he/she and
another but not you)
• Such an analysis indicates that we can
associate certain phonological features we find
in the pronoun system with components of
meaning:
• -ar “duality”
• -e “more than two”
• Initial y,p and g are related to various
combinations of “inclusion” and “exclusion” of
speaker and hearer.
 Wardhaugh(1997)Chp.9,231
• Analyses into taxonomies and components are
useful in that they help us to organize data in
ways that appear to indicate how speakers use
their languages to organize the world around
them.
• Evidently,language and culture are related very
closely and much of the relationship remains
hidden for most of us.
 Wardhaugh(1997)Chp.9,231
• References
• http://acjournal.org/holdings/vol3/Iss3/spec
1/huang_jia.html
• http://www.answers.com/topic/taxonomy
 Color Terminology

• Why is it so easy to translate color words among

various pairs of unrelated languages?
• According to the research of Berlin & Kay (1969)

– All languages make use of basic color terms

– A basic color term must

» Be a single word not a combination of words
» Be not an obvious sub- division of some
higher-order item
» Have quiet general use i.e not be applied
only to a very narrow range of object
» Be used by most of the population
( Wardhaugh, 1992: pg 232)
• Color terms emerge in a universal order among the
cultures.
– If a language has only two terms, they are black and
white (or dark and light)
– If a third is added, it is red.
– The fourth and fifth are yellow and green.
– The sixth and seventh terms are blue and brown.
– Then come terms like grey, pink, orange and purple
– If it contains more than eight terms, there are
• Combinations like greyish-brown
• Variations like scarlet
• Modifications like fire- engine red
( Wardhaugh, 1992: pg 232)
• Although different languages encode different
numbers of basic color terms, there is a total
universal inventory of 11 basic color categories.
– white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple,
pink, orange and grey.

• Is the number of basic color terms in a

language the evidence of the evolution of
that culture and language?
• There is a relationship between the
technological development and the number of
the color terms used by the communities.

• Prahu (Amazon tribes)-have no color terms

• Dugum Dani (New Guinea)- two terms
• Baganda (Uganda)- three terms
• Hanunoo ( Philippines)- four terms
• Paez (Colombia)- five terms

• English has all the eleven terms

( Berlin & Kay, 1999)
• Some general points…

– Human cognition is alike everywhere as there

is such an order in the development of terms.
– As cultural and technological changes occur,
a differenciation within the color spectrum is
needed.
– It is difficult to assign precise borders
between neighbouring colors.
– Typical Colors
(Wardhaugh, 1992; pg, 233)
 What are the features of a “bird”?

• Which one do you classify as a “bird” at first

sight a “Robin” or a “Penguin” ?
 Prototype Theory
• Rosch (1976) proposes that concepts are best
viewed as prototypes

• A “bird” is best defined by reference to typical

instances rather than to a set of features as
wings, warm-bloodedness etc.

• So a “prototypical bird” is more like an eagle

than an ostrich.
(Wardhaugh, 1992; pg, 234)
• According to a variety of experiments; people
classify objects of various kinds according to
what they regard as being typical instances:

– Furniture; chair vs. mirror

– Fruit; apples and oranges vs. coconuts and
olives
– Clothing; coats and trousers vs. bracelets and
purses.
• Such a theory fails to explain why some
instances are consistently held to be more
typical or central than others when all exhibit the
same set of defining features.(Wardhaugh,1992; pg, 234)

• In situations involving adjectives (e.g. tall), one

encounters the question of whether or not the
prototype of [tall] is a 6 feet tall man, or a 400
feet skyscraper [Dirven & Taylor 1988].
(http://www.blogiversity.org/linguistics/index.php?/archives/2006/03.html)
 Prototype Theory shows

• How concepts may be formed

• How we achieve our social competence

• According to Hudson;
a prototype- based concept can be learned on the basis of a
very small number of instances- perhaps a single one- and without
any kind of formal definition, whereas a feature-based definition
would be very much harder to learn since a much larger number of
cases, plus a number of non-cases, would be needed before the
learner could work out which feaures were necessary and which
were not. ( Wardhaugh, 1992; pg: 235)
• Which of the following are most and least typical
instances of the initial concept?

– Fruit- apple, coconut, tomato, olive, strawberry, fig.

– Game- soccer, chess, golf, poker, hide-and-seek.
– Profession-stockbroker, priest, dentist, boxer
– Vegetable-potato, squash, carrot, pea, watercress

• Can you give some typical instances of each of

the following and some not-so-typical instances:

“breakfast”, “war movie”, “party”, “lecture”, “excuse”

( Wardhaugh, 1992; 235)
 Taboo and Euphemism
• A taboo is a strong social prohibition against words,
objects, actions, discussions, or people that are
considered undesirable by a group, culture, or society.

• Tabooed subjects have a wide range: sex, death,

religious matters, politics, excretion, bodily functions etc.

• Breaking the taboo is usually objectionable or abhorrent.

Some taboo activities or customs are prohibited under
law and transgressions may lead to severe penalties.

• Other taboos result in embarrassment, shame and

rudeness.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo)
• There are always those who are prepared to
break the taboos in an attempt to show their
freedom from such restrictions or to expose the
taboos as irrational and unjustified in certain
moments for “free speech”.

• Linguistic taboos are also violated on occasion

to draw attention to oneself or to mock authority.
(Wardhaugh, 1992; pg:236)
 According to Haas ( 1951)
• Certain language taboos arise from bilingual
situations;
– Creeks of Oklahoma:
• fakki –soil, apiswa- meet

– Thai :
• fag- sheath and phrig- chili pepper

• yet- jed and key-khii

(Wardhaugh,1992; pg: 236)
• What tends to happen to taboo expressions
over time?
– we create similar-sounding phrases, euphemisms,
to avoid those phrases

• Some euphemisms:
– restroom for toilet room
– making love to or sleeping with for having sexual intercourse
with
– ill-advised for very poor or bad
– pre-owned vehicles for used cars
– correctional facility for prison
– the big C for cancer
– custodian or caretaker for janitor ( doormen)
– sanitation worker for "garbage man“
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism)
• Euphemism is endemic in the world, we are
constantly renaming things to sound better as in
the novel 1984 by Orwell

– negro → colored → black → African-American →

People of Color
• Some euphemisms turn into taboos in time.
• Some cultures use euphemisms as a rule in
social life
– Nupe of West Africa
 References
• Berlin, B. & Kay, P.(1999). Basic Color Terms Their
Universality and Evolution.USA: CSLI Publications
• Wardhaugh, R.(1992). An Introduction To Sociolinguistics.
Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishers
• http://www.blogiversity.org/linguistics/index.php?/archives/20
06/03.html
• http://www.answers.com/topic/prototype-theory
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_theory
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo
Language, cognition and
culture
•Language and Perception
•Verbal Hygiene
•Whorf
• YOU CANNOT draw conclusions about
what a culture values, or what speakers
perceive, or how a nation thinks, by
selective comparison of the senses of a
few lexical items. This is especially true if
the lexical items are invented as a joke by
someone who doesn't know the language
under discussion.
Geoff Pullum

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002516.html
What does this picture tell us?

•http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002516.html
• Eskimos have 108 words (or above) for
describing snow.
• The picture clearly illustrates that language is
affected by the living styles, the values of the
society where it is used.
• Jokes and comics like this one encode culturally
specific assumptions.
• Many jokes make use of the social stereotypes.
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 317)
 Now, what can you say about the
characteristics of these stereotypes?
• One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an
Irishman walked into a pub together. They each
bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were
about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies
landed in each of their pints, and were stuck in
the thick head. The Englishman pushed his beer
away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out
of his beer, and continued drinking it, as if
nothing had happened. The Irishman, too,
picked the fly out of his drink, held it out over the
beer, and started yelling, "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT
OUT YOU BAS**RD!!!!"
• 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.
• A person’s ethnicity, age and gender are
also often reflected in their linguistic
choices.
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 317)
• According to social constructionist approach,
language not only reflects and expresses our
membership of social categories, it also
contributes to the construction of our social
identity.
• People judge others in terms of the language
they use. If they find it improper, they choose not
to involve him/her in their group.
• Have you ever decided to stay away from
someone after the first time you met him/ her
just because you didn’t like his/her language?
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 317)
• We had previously mentioned that language
reflects a society’s attitudes and values.(Eskimo
example)
• It is argued that language may also determine
what people notice, what categories they
establish, what choices they believe are
available and consequently the way they
behave.
• Language may strongly influence perception and
behavior.
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 318)
 Language and Perception

1. The data provided by direct 2. We can’t tell what it is made of by

examination of samples under the looking at it under the microscope.
lens of the microscope are
insufficient for the purpose of
making a proper identification of
the components of the substance.
• Which one sounds like there is a serious
problem?
• What makes 1st text different from the
second one?
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/47/07645252/0764525247.pdf
 Exercise 2
• Analyze the following text taken from an
advice column. Dear Mrs Web’s solution to a
problem:
There are people who have committed their lives to television. They
find life without it incomprehensible and intolerable. They feel
disconnected. Life without television seems almost medieval to
them.
You should keep your commitment to no television if that is what
you and your family chooses. Give away this television too. Tell your
parents that you appreciate them trying to share this important thing
in their lives with you, but you would prefer not to have it in the
house. When they come to visit, they can stay at a motel with
television, or if you wish, you can rent or borrow one for the duration
of their visit.

http://www.dearmrsweb.com/Parents.htm
• Who is the intended audience? How can
you tell?
• Does the writer prescribe appropriate
ways to behave?
• What do the vocabulary items and the
grammatical constructions suggest about
the author’s assumptions concerning the
way the world should be arranged, or the
author’s attitudes to particular groups?
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 319)
 Verbal Hygiene
• He is 24, handsome, and has a good job. But he is
vertically challenged.
• She has a nice face and she could have been a
fotomodel if she was not horizontally challenged.
• I don’t know what he sees in her, she’s just
cosmetically different.
• My favourite story is “Melanin Impoverished and
the Seven Vertically Challenged Individuals”.
• Any idea about what these words mean?
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 320)
 Verbal Hygiene
• Verbal Hygiene is the thought provoking
term used by Deborah Cameron to
describe how people respond to the urge
to mingle in matters of language.
• A wide range of activities from writing
complaint letters of ‘deterioration’ and
‘abuse’ of language by prescriptions about
what is ‘proper’, ‘correct’, ‘acceptable’
usage to using language as a political
weapon.
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 320)
• We have mentioned that language may
influence the way people percieve things. That is
why there is “verbal hygiene”.
• The Crippled Children’s Society in New Zealand
now refers to itself with the acronym CCS.
• The term “disabled person” has been changed to
the phrase “person with a disability”.
• Why do you think there is such a change? What
is the difference between the two?
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 320)
• Maoist China provides many examples of
the co-option of language for political
purposes. Mao believed that language
plays an important role in shaping people’s
attitudes and values.
• To achieve this, powerful groups labelled
as “Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda
Teams” provided an ideal method of brain-
washing, influencing the thinking of a large
illiterate population.
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 321)
 Exercise 3:
• What labels are used in your community to refer
to
– Members of ethnic or racial groups of minority?
– Women?
– Homosexual people?
– People with an intellectual disability?
• One source of such information is the graffitis on
public walls or toilet cubicles. A recent study
shows that male toilets are more likely than
female toilets to provide such data. Is it true in
your community?
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 322)
 Whorf
• Who are Benjamin Lee Whorf and Edward
Sapir?
• Whorf was an anthropological linguist. He
first investigated Native American
languages but later studied with Edward
Sapir at Yale.
• They are famous for their investigations of
the relationship between language and
thought.
(Holmes (2001). Chapter 13 pg: 323)
Linguistic Determinism

The medium is the message

 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis claims that
behavior and thoughts of a language’s
speaker are influenced and even
determined by that language. That is, how
we perceive reality is affected by our own
language.
• And strong form of this Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis is Linguistic Determinism.
(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:324)
• According to Whorf, how a Hopi speaker
perceives the world differs from how an English
speaker perceives.
• For instance, the people speaking Hopi don’t
have reference to the past, present and the
future unlike English. They use two major tenses
in Hopi: manifested and becoming manifested.
Thus, their perception of time is different.
• And, according to Whorf, they can understand
some issues related to physics more easily. But,
it’s really questionable.
 Exercise 5:
1. What is the likely form of the name of
number 16 in French, Chinese and
Japanese?
2. How do you know?
3. What are the implications of your answer
for learners of these language?

(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:325)

• It has been suggested that Chinese and
Japanese children understand number
concepts earlier than English and French
children because of the ways their
respective languages code numbers above
10.
• And if it is true, it supports Sapir-Whorf’s
Linguistic Determinism.
(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:325)
 Discussion Questions
• Is this Sapir- Whorf argument valid
according to you? If the case were like
Whorf’s argumentation, could we mention
cross-cultural communication or today’s
international trade agreements?
• As we all speak Turkish, do we all think
same things or in the same way?
• Have you read George Orwell’s “1984”?
• As Whorf’s Linguistic Determinism argument
implies that barrier-free communication is
impossible , few linguists support it. And, there
are many examples showing that people can
understand a concept even if they don’t have
any correspondence in their own language.
• For e.g. Dani, a New Guinea tribe. They use
only two colour terms (corresponding to black
and white), but they could recognise and
distinguish among colours which their language
does not have names for.
(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:324)
 Linguistic Relativity
• Weak form of Whorf’s Hypothesis is Linguistic
Relativity. It argues that the categories provided
by the languages may make it easier to
understand certain distinctions.
• The difference among languages is only related
to how speakers categorize their vocabularies to
use while describing something.
• This weak form is supported by many more
experts because it does not argue that cross-
cultural communication is impossible. Only
categorization of vocabulary in languages is
different, and mutual intelligibility may occur.
(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:325)
• People categorize some concepts more easily if their
language provides those categories. For instance,
speakers of a language that describes colours elaborately
don’t have difficulty in categorizing them.

• The most remarkable example of how

vocabulary does not define our perception is
“Kinship Terms”.(only categorization is different.)
• For instance, the English use the term “aunt” for
their mother’s sister and their father’s sister.
However, in Turkish we use seperate terms such
as “Teyze” and “Hala”. But this does not show
that English people don’t understand the
difference between “hala” and “teyze”. They
know that the type of relatioship is different.
 Grammar and Cognition
• Suzanne Romaine argues that the world is not
simply it is, but what we make of it through
language.
• That is, for instance, Eskimos have many words
to refer “snow” and its types because snow is an
indispensable part of their lives. On the other
hand, Piraha (a language spoken in Amazon)
does not have quantifiers as everything is
abundant there.
(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:326)
 Linguistic Categories and Culture
• It is generally assumed that if a society is
simple, their language will also be simple.
This is a popular misconception.
• Dyirbal, an Australian Aborginal language,
is one of the best examples. Although the
life style is nomadic,the language has four
gender categories whereas French has
two.
(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:328)
 Gender Categories of Dyirbal
(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:328)

I- bayi II- balan III- balam IV- bala

•men •women •Fruit plant •meat
•kangaroos •dogs •cigarettes •bees
•storms •birds •wine •mud
•fish •water •cake •grass
•insects •fire •honey •wind
•The moon •stars •language
• As you can see Dyirbal has four different
gender categories, but a native speaker
can not explain why dog belongs to the
same group with women but not with men.
• It is like the case in English. We don’t
know why we use pronoun “she” for “ship”
in English.
• However, some differences can be observed
due to different cultures. For instance, the moon
is male in Dyirbal as the husband of the sun,
which is female. In Western mythology, it’s vice
versa.
• Tahitians don’t make a distinction between
“sadness” and “sickness” by using the same
word for both, but English uses many
metaphorical terms for depression. For e.g.
Feeling blue, feeling down, under the weather
etc.
(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:329)
• Kinship terms also reflect cultural
differences. For instance, Maori has a
different way of describing siblings.
Exercise 10:(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:330)
Please open page 330 in your book.
Question:
How would you expect to refer to your
cousin Mary?
Answer:(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:340)
• If you are female and she is younger, use
teina.
• If you are female and she is older, use
tuakana.
• If you are male, use tuahine.
 Conclusion

• That is, language provides us a means of

encoding a community’s knowledge,
beliefs, values and culture.

(Holmes(2001), Chapter 13, p:329)

 References:
• Holmes, Janet (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Essex:
Pearson Education Limited.
• Kramsch, Clarie (1998) Language and Culture.Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
• http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/sapir-
whorf_hypothesis.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis
• http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/whorf.html
• http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/language/whorf.html
• http://www.usingenglish.com/speaking-out/linguistic-whorfare.html
• http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/introductory/sapir
w.html
DISCOURSE PATTERNS
AND CULTURE
1. Why are there different discourse patterns in a
society?
2. In a society, how do people’s discourse patterns
differ?
3. What can be some causes of different discourse
patterns in a society?
 DISCOURSE PATTERNS AND
CULTURE
1. Why are there different discourse patterns in a
society?
- Since societies are not homogenous groups,
each and every group of people does not
express their ideas in the same way.
- Almost in every society, there are majority and
minority groups who may be speaking in
different dialects or even languages.
- So, one cannot expect a specific social group to
use same discourse patterns.
 DISCOURSE PATTERNS AND
CULTURE
2. In a society, how do people’s discourse patterns differ?
- As one can easily guess, different social groups have different
discourse patterns.
e.g. Australian majority VS Aborigines
Direct questions Indirect questions
Expressing ideas easily Interactional privacy
Positive politeness Negative politeness
(pg. 333-334)
- Discourse patterns cannot simply be categorised by “majority” or
“minority” patterns, having one’s own different idiolect may be a
reason for pattern change in the majority group of the society.
 DISCOURSE PATTERNS AND
CULTURE
3. What can be some of the consequences of different
discourse patterns in a society?
- In one case, a woman, again Aboriginal, was sentenced
to life imprisonment in a court. Since in Aboriginal
society there’s interactional privacy, that woman didn’t
defend herself in the Australian court since the people
with whom she was in interaction, namely the judges,
were too unfamiliar for her to tell what she had
experienced. So she was found guilty. (pg. 333)
- In Norway, there has been vowel patriotism: the
Norwegian language struggle has culminated for the
time being in a bitter quarrel over whether one serves
one’s country best by saying “sne” or “snø” (snow).
 LANGUAGE, SOCIAL CLASS,
AND COGNITION
1. What can be the relation between social class
and language?
2. Do higher social class people have higher
cognitive skills in speaking the language than
the lower social class people do? Do they
speak more correctly than the lower class
people?
3. What can be some examples of linguistic
patterns varying among different social
classes?
 LANGUAGE, SOCIAL CLASS,
AND COGNITION
1. What can be the relation between social class and
language?
- Various social classes may speak in different ways
when compared with other ones.
- There’s of course no reason to assume that every
instance of variation in language will correlate with
social structure in the same way or to the same extent.
- But there are specific linguistic patterns varying among
higher and middle classes in a society like the usage of
rhotic (r-pronouncing) or non-rhotic (not r-
pronouncing), /h/ in initial position or the absence of it,
and finally /t/ versus glottal stop. (Look at question
no.3)
 LANGUAGE, SOCIAL CLASS,
AND COGNITION
2. Do higher social class people have higher cognitive skills in
speaking the language than the lower social class people do? Do
they speak more correctly than the lower class people?

- Social context and intention play a role in our judgements, but

meaning is affected by our understanding of a situation.
- It’s not the case that any one particular interpretation is the
“correct” one; but rather that individuals bring different
background knowledge and different conceptual frames.
- We all have multiple conceptualisations of the “same” events
even when we are speaking the “same” language.
 LANGUAGE, SOCIAL CLASS,
AND COGNITION
3. What can be some examples of linguistic patterns varying among
different social classes?
a) Rhotic VS Non-rhotic /r/
Today in Britain accents that have lost post-vocalic /r/ as a result of
linguistic change generally have more prestige than those, like
Scottish English, that preserve it. While in US, the case is vice
versa. Let’s have a look at the table below:
Percentage of post-vocalic /r/ pronounced in NY, USA and Reading,
UK
NY, USA Reading, UK Social Class
32 0 Upper middle
20 28 Lower middle
12 44 Upper working
0 49 Lower working
 LANGUAGE, SOCIAL CLASS,
AND COGNITION
3. What can be some examples of linguistic
patterns varying among different social classes?
b) /h/ VS non-/h/
- The variable refers to alternation between /h/
and lack of /h/ in words beginning with /h/, such
as heart, hand etc.
- Most urban accents in England do not have
initial /h/. Again, the lower a person’s social
status, the more likely he/she is to drop “h”s.
- Speakers in Northern England, Scotland and
Ireland retain /h/, as American speakers do.
 LANGUAGE, SOCIAL CLASS,
AND COGNITION
3. What can be some examples of linguistic patterns
varying among different social classes?
c) /t/ VS glottal stop
- In many urban dialects of British English, glottal stops
are more widely used.
- The likelihood of occurrence of glottal stops varies
according to the following environments:
most frequent: word-final + consonant e.g. that cat
before syllabic nasal e.g. button
word-final + vowel e.g. that apple
before syllabic /l/ e.g. bottle
least frequent: word-medially e.g. butter
 References
• Romaine, Suzanne. Language in society :
an introduction to sociolinguistics,Oxford ;
New York : Oxford University Press, 1994.