Review of the first half of the course

First Half of the Term Review

Here is a review of the material we’ve covered in class thus far:

Part 1: What is Culture? (Parts 1 & 2)

1) We defined culture. We talked about many different definitions of culture. The textbook’s definition of culture is: “everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society” (pg. 24).

2) We learned that symbols are: “something that stands for (represents) something else” (pg. 25). Symbols are what we gravitate toward when we go to a new culture. We gravitate toward symbols that are familiar to us. That’s why it’s such a relief to meet someone from your culture when you’re abroad. There’s a feeling of, “They get me!”

3) We learned that culture is shared. We learned that there are often subcultures that make up a whole culture.

4) We learned that culture is learned, and the process by which it is learned is called enculturation. Everything we do as members of a culture is learned.

5) We learned that we are not born with culture, but we learn culture. It is not instinctual.

6) We learned that we can take culture for granted when we assume that people will act a certain way, according to our own cultural norms.

7) We learned that our culture affects how our bodies respond to some things. For example, our bodies may respond negatively if we eat things that we are unfamiliar.

8) We learned that cultures change, and two of the ways they change are by innovations and cultural diffusion.

9) We learned that there are 3 main causes of cultural change:
-technology
-ideas & values
-physical & social environment

10) We learned that there are certain universal problems that need to be dealt with in every culture, such as the following basic needs:
-economic system
-systems of marriage and family
-educational systems
-social control system
-systems of supernatural beliefs
-systems of communication
-security systems
11) We learned that cultures are interconnected, and that not every aspect of a culture works perfectly with every other aspect, or else we would have utopias.

12) We learned that not everyone in a culture acts according to cultural norms.

Part 2: Language and Culture

1) We learned that culture can’t exist without language, that language plays a big part in teaching culture to the next generation, and that language is part of everything we do.

2) We learned that the meanings that are attached to language are completely arbitrary. Language is a system of sounds that conveys meanings. Every culture has their own system of sounds and the meanings that go with them. We also learned that:
-Sounds are symbolic. “The word cow does not look like a cow, sound like a cow, or have any particular physical connection to a cow.”
-There are approximately 6,000 languages in existence.
-A language is considered a language based on mutual unintelligibility.
-There’s a big difference in the size of the populations speaking each of the 6,000 languages. There’s a chart on pg. 114.
-5% of the earth’s languages are in danger of disappearing. Reasons for this are: repression of peoples, globalization of English, transportation, communication-like the TV and internet.
-The horrible thing about languages becoming extinct is, as the text said, “an entire way of thinking is lost each time a language becomes extinct” (pg. 113).

3) We learned that communication systems that make us stand out from animals. There are open and closed systems. We have open systems, meaning we can create new meanings. Animals have closed systems, meaning they are unable to create new meanings-to put sounds together to make new meanings. The exception: gorillas have been taught ASL, but they still can’t communicate at the same level as humans.
Another thing that makes us stand out is: displacement. We have the ability to speak in hypotheticals-things that might happen, or things that have happened, or things that will happen. We can think abstractly. Also, we can transmit language through tradition, not just experience.

4) We learned that babies start out primarily listening and getting input. They start making sounds, and noises, then gradually that turns into words or parts of words, which turns into whole words and phrases, which turns into sentences. As they go, they have to learn the grammatical structure of the language. This process is the same in all languages, and it happens at about the same age in all cultures. They learn by immersion, and by repeating while in the environment where they can attach meaning to the sounds. We modify our speech when talking with children. We talk simple about what’s here and now. According to Chomsky, every child is born with a universal grammar-“an outline of a limited set of grammatical rules” (pg. 117).

5) We learned that there are 2 aspects to the structure of language: phonology & grammar. Phonology is the study of phonemes and how phonemes are combined. Phonemes are “the minimal units of sound that signal a difference in meaning” (pg. 117). English has 46 phonemes. Some languages have just 15 phonemes, others have 100. Morphemes are combinations of phonemes that make up meaning. “The majority of words in any language are made up of two or more morphemes” (pg. 118). Free morphemes are morphemes that can stand alone with their own meaning. Bound morphemes are morphemes that cannot stand alone-they have no meaning in and of themselves. Grammar is: the rules that make the words go together. Morphology is the rules governing how morphemes are formed into words. Syntax is the rules guiding how words are arranged into phrases and sentences.

6) We learned that language changes, just like cultures change. Languages change from internal sources, like values. Languages change from external sources, like need and prestige.

7) We answered the question: are some languages superior to others? NO!

8) We learned that you can’t fully understand a culture without understanding its language. That goes both ways.

9) We learned that culture affects vocabulary. The vocabulary within a language shows cultural values. This is called cultural emphasis.

10) We learned that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is the most popular description of how language affects culture. It is still a hypothesis, and is unproven. The hypothesis is that “language is more than a vehicle for communication; it actually establishes mental categories that predispose people to see things in a certain way” (pg. 125). The idea is that “the language influences or channels perceptions as well as the content of verbal utterances” (pg. 126). The question is: does language determine culture or affect culture? Also, language shows what a particular culture values.

11) We learned that different language groups have different linguistic styles.

12) We defined sociolinguistics. We learned that language use is dependent upon social context. It is an important thing to teach. There are high and low forms of language use. There are is also the issue of Standard vs. Nonstandard English dialects.

13) We learned that language, ethnicity, and nationality are connected.

14) We learned that part of learning a language and culture is learning the non-verbal communication within that culture.