Language and Culture

LIGN 42 - Will Styler

Today’s Plan

• What is culture?

• How does culture shape language?

• How does language shape culture?

We’re doing this in an American context today

• But we could do this anywhere, with any language, just as well

Languages are used in speech communities

• What are instances where a language might be mostly used in a particular…

  • Regional community

  • Racial community

  • Social community

  • Religious community

Speech communities are communities

• All circles are circular, too

Communities have specific culture

• Culture specifies that which changes when you change communities

What has ‘culture shocked’ you, and where?

• Please describe kindly and neutrally!

Culture is incredibly rich and all-encompassing

• Culture includes things like beliefs, arts, social practices, customs, laws, traditions, values, and knowledge

• Every community has a culture

  • Regional, Racial, Social, Religious, and more…

• Every culture has subcultures too

  • American nerds vs. bros

• So, every human is a part of at least one culture

‘Same’ or ‘Different’ cultures is a tough call

• It’s like ‘same or different language’: Usually mostly a sociopolitical judgement

• Better to consider it to be gradient, and talk about groups

Language is culturally transmitted

• We learn our language(s) from our linguistic and cultural surroundings

• Nobody learns their first language from Duolingo

What did you not get learning a second language in a classroom?

• What did you have to learn once actually interacting with folks?

• Where was your knowledge amusingly incomplete?

Understanding culture is important for understanding language

• What are some words which require American cultural knowledge to be understood?

• What are some words which DO NOT require any American cultural knowledge to be understood?

Other kinds of language use have even more cultural links

• What’s an idiom or saying which isn’t (fully) understandable without cultural knowledge?

How does cultural change affect language?

Changes to the culture change the language

• What general changes to American English reflect changes in American culture?

• What new words have come about as a result of cultural shifts or additions?

• What new words or language have infusions from other cultures brought into mainstream US English?

It’s very hard to change the culture without changing the language!

• They’re closely linked!

How does language change affect the culture?

Changes to language can cause cultural shifts

• There’s a chicken-and-egg problem, but words and sayings can ‘crystallize’ issues and spread ideas

• Some would argue that changes to language can change our cognition, and lead to changes in culture

What are some words or sayings that…

• Weren’t always present in the discourse

• Described something in or about our culture?

• ‘Went viral’ and caught on in the mainstream?

• Guided the debate, discourse, or progression of the culture?

• What words or sayings have changed the culture?

This isn’t always accidental

• People will use words creatively to ‘frame’ the debate

  • Tax Relief vs. Lowering tax revenue
  • Illegal Aliens vs. Undocumented People
  • Anti-Abortion vs. Pro-Life
  • ‘Tender Age Shelters’ vs. ‘Child Detention Camps’
  • “Peacekeeping Operation”

• Can you think of other ways where language was used to manipulate the culture?

Language and Culture are constantly shifting together

It’s hard to establish directionality

• Does the word ‘Karen’ reflect a recognized cultural phenomenon, or is the word ‘Karen’ creating a recognized cultural phenomenon?

• Does ‘OK Boomer’ cause disrespect, or reflect extant disrespect?

It’s hard to establish boundaries between language and cultural practice

• … so often, it’s easier to just look at the intersection and describe what’s going on there

We live in a society

Culture is everywhere, and language interlaces with it

• We are all part of many cultures

• Our language affects our culture perhaps as much as our culture affects our language

• It’s very hard to draw lines between the two phenomena

Therefore, we meme in a society, too

• … and this week, we’re going to think more about what that means and looks like

• … and how memes and the internet can change the culture!

“Memes changing the course of the culture” sounds wild, but it isn’t

• In fact, here’s a great example…

The Dean Scream

• Howard Dean, Governor of Vermont

  • US Presidential Primary Candidate in 2004, would lose to John Kerry

• Had just placed Second in the Iowa Caucus

• Gave a speech in Des Moines, Iowa

Video Credit: CNN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0

Albright-Hanna, a CNN reporter at the event, explained, “there was a sense that it was really loud, but it just felt like a typical rally. Nothing out of the usual happened. Nobody remembered a moment happening at all.”

Sauce

Then it became a meme

• TV news, late night shows, and countless remixes

• Dean slipped into the back of the pack, and now people mostly remember the scream

• It’s widely considered to be have marked (and caused) the end of his serious campaign

This dumb meme brought down a politician

• Never feel like memes are powerless!

This week, we’ll work at the intersection of language and culture

• … and think more about what culture even looks like online!