Culture and language (racial relations)

SIGNIFICANCE: Culture and the language that expresses it are intertwined, making it hard to determine which has more influence over the other. Whether a culture’s perception and ordering of the world is determined by its language or a culture’s language is solely a result of the way the society orders its world is still a matter of debate.

Language and culture are expressions of the world that are found in all societies. The nature of their interrelationship and influence on each other is not easily grasped. For the social scientist, the study of language within a culture is a means of looking at that culture’s social structure and interpersonal relationships, since it is language that expresses the various aspects of culture, such as labeling, kinship, actions, and beliefs.

Definitions of Language and Culture

Language, the spoken communication of a cultural group, is the means by which most human thought is communicated. Also, much of social and cultural behavior is expressed by the means of the spoken word. Language is a cultural universal, and within each language are universals: greetings, farewells, formal language, and politeness. Language is an oral expression of concrete forms that also carries symbolic meaningwhat one says may not be what one means. Thus, in addition to naming the world, language expresses relationships among things. This means that although a word such as “tomorrow” may be translatable from one language to another, it may not have the same meaning in both languages. In one, “tomorrow” may mean “the next day,” while in another “tomorrow” may mean “some time in the future.”

Culture is the overt and covert expression of the behavior and beliefs of a group of people. Culture is expressed in the traditions and customs of that people. It includes but is not limited to knowledge of the physical world, beliefs and rituals, moral direction, law, and artistic expression. One of the most important aspects of culture is that it gives order to the world in which its participants live. Colors, actions, kinship, and familial relationships are all a part of culture. These relationships are expressed by language, although they may be expressed differently in each cultural setting. In one setting, cats and snakes may be grouped together, since both have similar eye types, large mouths with fangs, and slithery bodies, and both make hissing sounds. In another setting, there may be no relationship between the two creatures.

Language, as a means of communication, has a twofold role in a society. Language is a source of information about a culture and a society, and it is a means by which members of a society socialize or interact. Linguist Irving M. Copi discusses the three basic functions of language within a culture. The first is to communicate information. The second is to express emotion (to communicate feelings), and the third is to give commands or requests. He states that these three groups of expression are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The interaction that is facilitated by language use enables individuals in a society to work together more effectively and eases social pressure.

The Relationship Between Language and Culture

The nature of the relationship between language and culture is not entirely understood. Ronald Wardhaugh has suggested at least four possible correlations of language and culture: (1) social structure may influence linguistic structure (for example, there may be gender-based differences in speech); (2) linguistic structure may determine social structure (it is the language itself, not the speakers of the language, that is gender-biased); (3) language and societal influences are bidirectional—that is, they may influence each other; (4) there is no relationship between language and culture. Most ethnolinguistic studies have eliminated the possibility that the last relationship is valid. They hold that there must be some relationship between language and culture.

Language has many functions within each culture. It is the primary means of the retrieval of sociocultural knowledge for each group. Language is also the agent of socialization within a culture, teaching each member his or her place within that society. In addition, language is used as an agent of power, distinguishing social rank, which is slightly different from simple socialization. Finally, as world communication develops and languages become less isolated, language planning is coming into prominence as a means of adaptation to increasing lingual and cultural encounters.

The study of the relationship between language and culture is valuable in leading to an understanding of the cognitive processes of various societies. Since each language is the medium by which its speakers express their organization of the world, each language system must be equally valid. One language is not “better” than another. Each language is valid because it expresses complex relationships in the world of its speakers. The “simple, primitive” language does not exist.

A child in any society usually grasps the main aspects of the primary language before the age of five years. The babbling of infants includes the sounds of many human languages, some of which do not occur in the language of the child’s family or society. Positive reinforcement encourages the child to continue certain sounds and delete others from the babbling repertoire. Later learning extends to grammar, meaning, and symbolism. All this is achieved without formal instruction. Language, however, is not culturally bound. A person is not born with a genetic tendency to speak a language. A person of Yakima Indian ancestry does not “naturally” speak the Sahaptin language. If he or she has learned English as a primary language, his or her genetic structure does not make the learning of Sahaptin any easier.

In addition to rules of grammar, a child learns the appropriate social use of language, including his or her place in society. Often this relationship is indicated by “honorifics.” Honorifics include terms of address to others that vary by gender, age, and family position, and terms that indicate social distance to those persons outside one’s family. In English, social distance is indicated, for example, by the use of Mr., Mrs., and Ms. in combination with the surname of the addressee. A person addressing a close acquaintance would generally use a given name or nickname to identify the person. Social distance may be maintained by persons of differing age groups, social status, duration of acquaintance, or kinship. In Spanish and other languages, other formal terms of address are used in addition to a formal or informal version of the language. As one increases in age and/or social status, one’s linguistic patterns change in accordance with the culture’s standards.

While power as expressed in verbal communication in society may be related to social distance and rank, it also has a broader application. Language as a means of social power occurs in groups that use “jargon,” or a specialized vocabulary or way of speaking. Black English is sometimes included in such a category where persons outside the “in” group may not be able to understand what is being said.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, British sociologist Basil Bernstein suggested that although the relationship of language and culture is reciprocal, culture has the greater influence on language. According to this theory, it would be the speakers of the language, not the language, who were gender-biased.

Linguist Noam Chomsky asserted that language is a universal innate facility. He produced some seminal works in the field of ethnolinguistics (Reflections on Language, 1975). British sociologist Basil Bernstein has been interested in the role of language in the socialization process. He examines the ways in which members of various social groups develop language dialects as a means of communicating with one another. He suggests that it is culture that has the greater effect on language.

In the digital age, language continues to evolve rapidly, challenged by global communication technologies and social media. Emerging linguistic phenomena such as internet slang, emoji communication, and cross-cultural language mixing demonstrate the dynamic nature of language as a living, adaptive system. These new forms of communication not only reflect cultural changes but also actively shape how people interact, understand, and express themselves across diverse global communities.

Implications for Intergroup Relations

Ethnolinguistics seems to be moving toward a concern for language planning and political correctness. Issues of bilingual education —the adoption of English as the official language in the United States, the use of French in Quebec, the acknowledgment of formerly low-status languages in Africa—are coming to the fore as studies in ethnolinguistics. Such issues as these affect the view that each individual in the societies involved has of himself or herself, and they may direct the focus of ethnolinguistics. 

Bibliography

Bonvillain, Nancy. Language, Culture, and Communication. Prentice, 1993.

Chomsky, Noam. Reflections on Language. Pantheon, 1975.

Giannoulis, Elena, and Lukas RA Wilde, editors. Emoticons, Kaomoji, and Emoji. Routledge, 2020.

Baugh, John, and Joe Sherzer, editors. Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics. Prentice, 1984.

Leech, Geoffrey N. The Pragmatics of Politeness. Oxford UP, 2014.

Spier, Leslie A., et al. Language, Culture, and Personality: Essays in Memory of Edward Sapir. Sapir, 1941.