【2013年春季】文化人类学（第四讲）
(2013-05-12 23:54:56)
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第四讲 语言、文化与世界观
关键议题：语言实践与人类学的文化观与语言实践的多样性
参考材料：
语言作为人类使用的符号交流和通讯系统的独特性和多样性
l 文化发展和人类存在的特征
l 语言与世界观–
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (words & worlds)
l 语言作为文化过程的一个要素
-
社会语言学意义上的身份认同
-
社会和文化现实的区分
-
社会和文化资源
l 田野研究期间文化分析的语言学工具
人类语言的属性
l 13
个“设计特点” (Charles Hockett 1960)
1)
多媒体的潜质
- Linguistic messages transmitted through a variety of media (writing techniques; ASL; Morse code, Internet, etc.)
2)
互不关联性
-Combine discrete units according to rules.
3))
任意性 (the relationship between sounds and meanings of words)
Ex: I love you (Te amo; Je tai me;)
4)
产生能力
- Speakers’ ability to create totally novel sentences and a listener’s ability to comprehend them
5)
可替换性
-Ability to talk about objects, people, things, and events that are remote in time and space (E.T., ghost, ancestors, goblins)
*
人类语言作为最精确和最复杂的交流系统
非文字交流形式
Is our interpretation of stated and implied language inherent or derived from our culture?
l real vs. implied meanings of hand gesture while driving.
l Example: Giving someone
“the finger” in U.S. culture has specific connotations (road rage), but does the same gesture have similar meaning in China?
案例：中国手语实践 （取自张梅胤硕士论文）
Seeing Voices
（于无声处的人类学体验）
What Really Happens
Communication
Methods
| Context
Field Settings
| Linguistic Forms
|
Sign Languages used by the real deaf people
| Used for communication between the deaf
Or between the deaf and those “who could hear”(听人)
| “Natural Sign Language”
自然手语
|
CSL
(Chinese Sign
Language)
| For “those who could hear” only
Ex. Television News; Showcases such as Expo
| Official Chinese Sign Language
|
CSL + Oral Expression
| People who could hear but could barely use CSL
| CSL + Oral Expression
|
Written Language
| Those who have no knowledge of CSL
| Written Chinese
|
What Really Matters
l The discrepancies between two systems of knowledge
l The official CSL as a standardized form of linguistic communication
l A form of
“paralanguage” that is
1
）extremely context-dependent
2
）facial expression & body languages
3
）flexible and improvising
4) Strong indication of
“adaptive wisdom”
“软数据”的效度
l “参与式观察”
-immersing oneself in the local community (long-term residence)
-working through the native language
l 田野研究的目标
“
grasp the native point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world”
(Malinowski 1922: 25)
文化的象征性（符号特征）
l As is true of all symbols, such as flags, the association between a symbol (water) and what is symbolized (holiness) is arbitrary and conventional.
l Language is based on arbitrary, learned association between words and the things for which they stand
能指与所指之间的任意关系
l 红、绿的符号意义
Traffic light (stop / go)
Christmas
Fashion statement
Colors of a European Flag
语言与思维过程
*
“语言相对性” (文化相对主义的一种表现形式)
Example: problems of
“word-for- word” translation (Eskimo words for “snow”)
Strong version:
“语言决定论”
Example: patterns of thought and culture as patterns of grammar (Gender marked nouns)
The arbitrary relationship between the signifier and the signified
l 语言与语境
l Be familiar with the central argument of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or the theory of linguistic relativity
l Know what sociolinguists study: gender speech patterns; how social stratification manifests itself in language; how social variables influence people’s use of language
语言与世界
l “
The limits of our worlds are the limits of our words.” – Wittgenstein
l Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:
-language structures the cognition of reality and contributes to cultural differences
l Ex.
“your are what you speak/write”
语言与思维过程
l Color terminology: number of basic/key color terms a language might have is highly variable.
l Calendars (solar vs. lunar calendars)
l Naming practices
l English Counting Words
例：中国阴历
12 animals represent a 12-year cycle based on the lunar calendar: Rat, Cattle, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Each animal has different underlying personalities that it passes to people born during that year.
例：颜色表达
English terminologies: 11
African and Latin
American terminologies: 2, 3, or 4 basic color terms
例：量词
l Quantity / units used for uncountable nouns (liquid, seed, food, etc)
l Specific quantity/unit words used with predetermined countable nouns: a of lions, a of geese, a of pheasants, a of oxen; a of sheep; a of birds, a of cattle; a of fish; a of kittens
例：数字“
8”的意义
What shall we make of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
l Can it be tested?
l If a language shapes the way we perceive and think about the world, we would expect a people
’s worldview to change at a rate roughly comparable to the rate their language changes.
l The weaker version of linguistic relativity can help us understand the relationship between language, thought, and culture.
语言与权力
-Sociolinguistics: study of the relation between linguistic performance and the SOCIAL CONTEXT of that performance
-Linguistic Diversity
-Gender Speech Contrasts
- Stratification and Symbolic Domination
EX. Japanese Honorifics
l A complicated set of contextual norms governs the degree of formality and politeness people normally use to show respect to those of higher social position. For instance, verbs and personal nouns have several alternative forms that speakers must choose between in addressing others. Women often address men with the honorific verb forms that symbolically express
“male superiority.”
l Different forms of personal nouns to reflect the relative status of the parties.
语言与阶层地位
l Status-linked dialects affect the economic and social prospects of the people who speak them, a situation to which Bourdieu applies the term
symbolic capital (ex. a form of cultural capital).
P. BOURDIEU 1984 DISTINCTION
l Two forms of capital:
-Economic
-Symbolic (Social & CULTURAL)
l The value of a dialect
– its standing in a “linguistic market” – depends on the extent to which it provides access to desired positions in the labor market.
案例
: My Fair Lady （根据肖伯纳《卖花女》改编的音乐剧）
l Professor Higgins teaches Eliza how to speak like an English aristocrat (the acquisition of
“cultural capital.”
l “
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.”
语言与权力（续）
例：方言与方音
1) "A dialect is a language with a losing army.
”
Ex. Shanghainese & Cantonese dialects
2) Black English Vernacular (BEV) & the Great Ebonics Controversy (discussed in the Haviland Book)
3) Linguistic Nationalism (an attempt by whole countries to proclaim their independence by purging their vocabularies of
“foreign” terms).
Ex. Former colonial countries of Africa, French attempt to purge Americanism, revival of Hebrew as Israel
’s first language (vs. Yiddish).
例：英语的外来语
Words borrowed into English…
Chinese: tea/chai, ketchup, ginseng, lichee, typhoon, fengshui, kowtow
…
Japanese: tsunami, geisha, judo, sake, kimono, karaoke, sushi, tempura, and WALKMAN!
Turkish: yogurt
Malay: bamboo
Scots Gaelic: whisky
Norwegian: ski; Finnish: sauna
India: curry, punch (drink), cashmere, shampoo
语码转换（
Code switching）
l The process of changing from one level of language to another or from one dialect of a language to another.
Ex. Martin Luther King
’skill at code switching between Standard English& Afro-american vernacular English.
Ex. The complexity of Navajo language and its use as code by U.S. Marines in the Pacific during WWII.
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