Culture and Language

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)

Same primary meaning but different additional meaning –

connotation which is deeply rooted in culture

• 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 commonly-

known 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.