Any discussion of the relationship between language and culture, or of the various functions of the language in the culture, should begin with some attempt to define each of these terms.

We may attempt a comprehensive definition o

Taboo and euphemism affects us all. We may not be as deeply conscious of the effects as are the Nupe, but affects us they do. We all probably have a few things we refuse to talk about and still others we do not talk about directly. We may find ¡°some thoughts too deep for words¡± ¨Csomething hard to prove¨Cbut others we definitely take care not to express at all even though we know the words, or else we express ourselves on them very indirectly. Each social group is different from every other in how it constrains linguistic behavior in this way, but constrains it in some such way it certainly does. Perhaps one linguistic universal is that no social group uses languages quite uninhibitedly. If so, it would be intriguing to hypothesize why this is the case. What useful function does such inhibition serve?

Words seem to correspond in denotative meaning, but may considerably vary in connotative meaning, emotional meaning and various sociocultural associations they may arouse in different cultural setting. The word dog, for example, may suggest different associations in different cultures. Dogs are often regarded as human beings¡¯ companions or friends in English-speaking countries, but the same word is often used with a derogatory sense, as in ¡°×ß¹·¡±£¬¡°¹·ÕÌÈËÊÆ¡±£¬¡°¹·Í·¾üʦ¡±£¬¡°¹·¼±Ìøǽ¡±¡­in Chinese. Communism, socialism, Communist Party, capitalism and many other political terms may also serve as good examples. These words may suggest quite different associations in western and Chinese cultures. Similarly, Spring Festival and Christmas would probably have different associations in Oriental and western cultures. It is no doubt that Chinese people and people of English-speaking countries would have different cultural or emotional associations and values of the two words.

It is well recognized that word meaning id directly related to man¡¯s social and cultural experiences which are unique to the members of a particular cultural group. As members of a cultural group have had similar social and cultural experiences, the meaning of a word is shared by them all, but it may be different in certain aspects from the meaning this word has for people of other cultural groups, that is, word meaning, particularly the meaning of culturally loaded words, may vary in certain aspects from culture to culture. The interrelationship between language and culture results in the fact that one-to-one equivalence can rarely be established between words in two languages.

The second point is that,. If speakers of any language are asked to identify the parts of the spectrum, they find one system of such identification much easier to manipulate than another. They find it difficult to draw a line to separate that part of the spectrum they would call yellow from that part they would call orange, or similarly to separate blue from green. That is, assigning precise borders, or making discontinuities, between neighboring colors is neither an easy task for individuals nor one on which groups of individuals achieve a remarkable consensus. However, they do find it easy, and they do reach a better consensus, if they are required to indicate some part of the spectrum they call typically yellow or typically orange, typically blue or typically green. That is, they have consistent and uniform ideas about ¡°typical¡± colors. Speakers of different language exhibit such behavior, always provided that the appropriate color terms are in their languages. As we shall see in the following section, we can use this idea that people can do classify in such a way to look at a somewhat different approach to relating language and culture.

Generative-transformational grammarians believe that a child is born with linguistic competence, which enables him to acquire his native language. But the linguistic knowledge of his mother tongue is culturally transmitted. This is why we say language is acquired by virtue

Some topics in this essay:
English Language, Culture Culture, Gone Wind, Berlin Kay, Philippines Burmese, Taboo Euphemism, Language Culture, Knowledge Language, Terminology Color, Festival Christmas, language culture, color terms, color terminology, language acquired, speakers language, social cultural, language language, relationship language culture, language acquisition, wide variety, culture culture, society own culture, particular language acquired, language acquisition process, language language culture,