Language and Culture

Abstract As the carrier of culture， language is considered as the main expressional form of culture which develops with nation， country and society’s development. Language is a part of a nation’s culture. The different nations own their unique cultures， history， manners and customs and so on. However， various cultural characteristics can be displayed in the form of language. This article， by analyzing the influence and the difference of historical culture， regional culture and custom culture， mainly reveals the relationship between language and culture which is interdependent and interactive. What’s more， a better comprehension of this relationship prevents us from misunderstanding in cross-culture communication.

Key words Language; culture; communication

中圖分類號：H0 文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識碼：A

1 Introduction

Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. However， the relationship between the two is more complex than the relationship between the part and the whole. On the one hand， language is the carrier and container of culture. All the components of culture， such as beliefs， customs， institutions， objects， arts and techniques， can be described and evaluated by language. People’s experience about them is transmitted by language as well. On the other hand， language is influenced and shaped by culture and it reflects culture. The two interact， and the understanding of one requires the learning of the other. In general， language is the symbolic image of a person， and it comprises his or her historical and religious backgrounds as well as the way of living and thinking. Culture emerged just at the moment language appeared and they developed at the same place in human history. Language brought about cultural advance and made record of its steps at the same time. In order to make sure how these two elements interact with each other， the following part tries to analyze the reasons of differences existing between them with adequate examples from three aspects: the difference of historical culture， the difference of regional culture and the difference of custom culture.

2 Content

2.1 Difference of historical culture

Due to the different historical development of each nation and country， culture is different from each other forming after a long historical period. It is well-known that Chinese belongs to Sino-Tibetan Family and English belongs to Indo-European Family. The archaian Chinese was a kind of ideographic script which conveyed thought and ideas by images and symbols. This is the so-called pictograph which revealed the original picture of ancient people， object and natural phenomena. Because of the rapid development of human civilization， the increasing emergence of indicative character， associative character and morpheme-phonetic character turns Chinese into ideographic-oriented syllabic script. Chinese is a figurative language and it reflects reflect the close relationship between Chinese people and the objective nature. However， the beauty and the association of this language can never be translated into any other foreign languages adequately. Not only the archaian characters are difficult to understand for people from other historical culture backgrounds， but many trendy characters are hard to recognize， especially those netspeaks we frequently use nowadays. For example: “頂” means supporting others， “汗” indicates veneration， “暈” indicates astonishment， “555” means the state of crying， “88” refers to saying goodbye to others and “ps” is the abbreviation of “photoshop”， If we seldom surf the Internet and are isolated from the current tendency， lacking of the popular language and the knowledge can only make a big influence on getting information and communication.

2.2 Difference of regional culture

Culture contains the way of living. People living in different regions developed various culture forms which embodied particular language. Chinese ancestors inhabited in the temperate zones in the east of Asia. The climate there is rather mild with few attacks of hurricane， typhoon and tsunami. Both the continental geographical environment and the autarkic small-scale peasant economy benefited the development of the philosophical idea of “the Unity of Man and Heaven” in China. People respect harmony so strongly that they believed in the coexistence of human beings and nature and the correspondence of both subject and object. Therefore， Chinese emphasize more on ethics and realizations. On the contrary， most of European ancestors dwelt in dry plain or near the seashore where they always suffered atrocious weather over the years. It was impossible to forecast the phantasmagoric nature especially in undeveloped era. To survive， European people had to be confronted with nature and even tried to fight against it. As time passed by， those people were used to observing nature， analyzing nature and controlling nature as an enemy to human beings. The cognition of the hostile relationship between mankind and nature becomes the fundamental notion of western culture.

The difference of regional culture reveals in language as well is attaching great importance to genes and agnation is a core part of Chinese ethical concept. Consequently， the appellation of kinfolks in Chinese is very complicated; however it is relatively brief and simple in English. For instance: there is a sentence going like this “Li Ming and Zhang Hong are cousins. Li Ming’s mother is Zhang Hong’s aunt who is the sister of Zhang Hong’s father， while Zhang Hong’s mother is Li Ming’s aunt who is the wife of Li Ming’s mother’s brother.” Though both of the meaning and relationship are reflected clearly， the English will be hesitant to clarify the relationship which is much easier to understand by Chinese. However， western countries adore individualism and pursue independence and equality. In English， no matter the lady is the sister of your father or mother or the wife of your uncle， she is called “aunt”. If it is necessary to make a distinction among relatives， they only add the name after the appellation like “Aunt Wang Mei” or “Aunt Li Hua”. Hence， their less attention to the agnation is a typical case which reflects how regional culture affects language.

2.3 Difference in custom culture

Custom is a particular social phenomena containing profound cultural meaning. A nation has its own custom and feature which can be found through the way people communicate. In China， people consider humility as a pleasant virtue of expressing kindness and easy-going characteristics. Being praised or admired， Chinese tend to reject and even be self-deprecating like using “哪里，哪里”， “不敢當(dāng)，不敢當(dāng)”， “過獎了，過獎了”. Conversely， accepting the compliment is considered as being snooty. In stark contrast， western people will accept liberally and respond “Thank you” and “Thanks” which indicates the wholeheartedness and the politeness of others’ praises. Now，we know， when communicating with foreigners， we should show our thanks for their compliments， in stead of being misunderstood as hypocritical people.

Moreover， the word dragon is another ambiguous example. It is a kind of mystical animal with long body， squama and horn existing in ancient time which means power and good luck in China. However， the West cultures consider dragon as a large fierce animal with wings and a long tail， which can breathe out fire without any symbolic meaning. It is clear that， knowing more about the diverse custom cultures avoids embarrassment in intercultural communication indeed.

3 Conclusion

Through what has been analyzed from these three aspects， we may completely recognize original reasons for those differences existing between different cultures and how it is shown through daily languages. In a word， Language is the carrier of culture， the main expressional form of culture which develops along with society’s development. Language and culture are closely related to and depend on each other through their history， region and custom. The native language is acquired along with the ways， attitudes and patterns of behaving of the social group. And these ways， attitudes and patterns of behaving find their expression through language. From this point， we can know that language is an inseparable and integral part of culture， and the medium through which culture is acquired. The better people accept different culture， the better communication will be gained.

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