Relationship between English language and English culture英语专业毕业论文.docx

Relationship between English language and English cultureContentsAbstract in Chinese iAbstract in English .ii1. Introduction.2. Literature Review.3. Definition and Functions of Language.4. Definition and Levels of Culture4.1 Definition of culture.4.2 Cultural levels. 5. Conclusion.Bibliography.124667810内容摘要当我们说到语言的时候，作为平常人，我们可能会认为它是一个非常容易去理解的概念，因为我们日常生活说的话就是语言。这种说法是对的但也不是对的，因为在某种程度来说这种想法并不完全正确。至于文化，在我们脑海中的第一个想法可能就是这样：文化指的就是我们在学校通过知识渊博的老师们的教授而学到的东西。如果我们说某人是有文化的人，我们指的是他或者她是一个受过良好教育的人。我之所以将语言和文化放在一起谈是因为它们两者是紧密相关的，当我们谈到语言，事实上，我们是在不自觉的谈到文化，因为语言是一种传播文化的常见方式。然而当我们谈论文化是，语言不可避免的要被提及，因为语言是文化的一种产物。我们平常人以一种狭义的方式去理解语言和文化，以至于我们得不到关于语言和文化的完整定义。与之相反的，对于很多的研究学者来说，他们普遍承认语言是文化的一部分，而且语言在文化中起着至关重要的作用。一些社会科学家甚至认为语言是文化的基石。他们坚持认为，没有语言，文化将不复存在。另一个方面，语言由文化塑造并且受文化的影响，语言反映了文化。从最广阔的定义来看，语言是一个民族的符号性象征，它组成了民族的历史和文化背景，还有他们的生活方式以及他们的居住和思考方式。这篇论文将处理英语文化和英语语言的关系。在多种多样关于语言和文化关系的观点基础上，文章的最后将会给出结论。这将能帮助人们更好的去理解语言和文化。除此之外，英语学习者也将能懂得更多关于英语语言和英语文化之间的关系，他们也将能更简单并且更好的学习英语。关键词：文化；语言；关系；英语文化；英语语言；AbstractWhen it comes to language, as common people, we may think it is a conception that is very easy to understand, because what we say in our daily life is called language. It is true but it is also not true, because this thought is not completely right to some extent. As to culture, the first idea in our heads may be like this: Culture is referred to the knowledge that we learnt in school through teaching by our knowledgeable teachers, and if we call someone as “people with culture”, we are saying he or she is a man that is better cultivated. The reason why we I put language and culture together is that they are closely related, when we talk about language, actually we are talking about culture unconsciously since it is a common way to broadcast culture. While when we talk about culture, language cant be avoidable to be mentioned because language is a product of culture. We common people may understand language and culture in a narrow way so that we can not get a comprehensible meaning of language and culture. However, for many researchers, it is commonly accepted that language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. Some social scientists even consider language as the keystone of culture. Without language, they maintain, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture: it reflects culture. In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. This paper is going to deal with the relationship between English culture and English language. On the basis of diversity views on the relationship between culture and language, the conclusion will be given at the end of the paper to help people understand culture and language better. Whats more, English learners know more about the relationship between English culture and English language; they will learn English easier and better. Key words: culture; language; relationship; English culture; English language;1. IntroductionIn recent years, with the development of the economy in our country, we communicate with other parts of the world frequently in cultural way or economic way, more and more people realize that the whole world is actually becoming a "Globe Village". People all over the world have a more and more strong desire to get to know the world by learning foreign countries language and culture. Naturally, we learn English in school or by ourselves. More and more people, regardless of the age, are making attempt to learn English. Since English is treated as a universal language, it is of great importance for us to learn it well. In order to learn it well, it is essential for us to know English culture well in that language and culture can not be separated, they are related and beneficial to each other. At present, it is commonly accepted by various learners and researchers that language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. Some sociologists even consider language as the keystone of culture. Without language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture. In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. H. D. Brown (1994: 165) describes the two like this: "A language is a part of a culture and culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture." In a word, culture and language are inseparable. So, if we want to learn a language, we should and must be aware of the culture of its speakers. However, as we look back to see the situation in China's universities and colleges, we see that, for several decades, EFL teachers and scholars have not been able to play enough attention to the role of cultural knowledge in language teaching. Also, as English learners, most of them know little about English culture, some of them even think that there is no need to learn English culture because they just want to learn English language but not English culture. In this case, changing the old and traditional point of view on English language and English culture is essential.For decades, the relationship between language and culture has attracted lots of scholars attention. Large amounts of researches have been conducted as time goes by. They tried to employ different theories to discuss the relationship between language and culture, for example, some may put forward that language is used as tools and weapons, while others may believe that language decides culture and many other things. The debates on the relationship between language and culture will last, but the conclusion appears in a more and more mature way. This paper is try to find the relationship between language and culture on the basis of the thoughts from former researchers, and with the explanation of their relationship, the author hopes English learners and English teachers can pay more attention to the English culture during the process of learning or teaching English. The thesis is divided into six parts. The first part is an introduction, and the second part is the literature review, which reviews the previous studies of the relationship between language and culture at home and abroad. Part three deals with the definition of language. The fourth part discusses the definition of culture and classification of culture. The last part tries to draw some conclusions on the basis of the analysis in the previous part. 2. Literature ReviewIt is well acknowledged that language and culture are closely and intricately related. Culture is learned, transmitted and reflected through language, and language changes and develops along the tube of culture. In B. W. Robinett's view, language usage reflects the culture of a society (1978:133). This relationship between language and culture forms one important aspect in second language acquisition. Language usage cannot exist outside a certain society or social context. Language is not a tool of a nation, but also a means to reflect cultural features of a nation (M. A. K. Halliday 1973:41). P. P. Giglioli's view is more definite. He thinks that the premise for second language learners to communicate with native speakers and understand social meaning is to have a common cultural standard and background knowledge (1972: 6). So if we want to learn a language, we must be aware of the culture of its speakers.If we would like to describe the relationship between language and culture by using metaphors, there are all kinds of metaphors that can be used. Some people say that language is the mirror of culture, that is to say, from a language people can see its culture. Although language carries culture, it is only part of culture and can never represent the whole culture. And culture is often compared to an iceberg, for the visible part is language and a small part of culture, whereas the invisible part of culture is the greater part of it lying beneath the surface. This can also explain why many students with high language proficiency fail to have a corresponding high cognition of culture. To the author's mind, the relationship between language and culture can be conveyed through three metaphors. From a philosophical view, language plus culture equals a living organism: language is flesh and culture is blood. Without culture, language would be dead; without language, culture would have no shape. From a communicative view, communication is swimming; language is swimming skill and culture is water. Without language, communication would be very limited (in very shallow water); without culture, there would be no communication at all. From a pragmatic view, communication is like transportation: language is the vehicle and culture is the traffic light. Language makes communication easier and faster. Culture regulates, sometimes promotes and sometimes hinders communication. The relationship between language and culture has long been a controversial issue. From early time to now, there has been a wide range of views about their relationship. Among all these views, four views once exerted a relatively greater influence and have certain representativeness.Stalin's point of view Stalin once said that language works as a kind of tool or a weapon, with which people can freely exchange their messages, thoughts, and feelings, etc. in their communication. (Gu& Lu, 1990:13). In this view, language is functioned as a very effective instrument, without language, everything will be in a mess and even a simple thing like saying hello will become extremely difficult. However, Stalin seemed to take a one-side approach to the relationship between language and culture and certain obvious relations between the two were neglected; therefore, under the influence of such a point of view, people only paid attention to language system itself, including grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation; while some other important factors, such as culture, are neglected in linguistic studies (Gu, Lu&Zhen, 1990:13). Sapir-Whorf HypothesisSapir-Whorf hypothesis was once an influential view, which went like this: "The fact of the matter is that the real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation (Carroll, 1956:134)". In short, this view believes that language determines culture. Franz Boas' viewpointAs to the relationship between language and culture, Franz Boas says: "the form of the language will be moulded by the state of culture; but not in so far as a certain state of culture is conditioned by morphological traits of the language (Boas, 1966)" Moreover, he holds:"the study of language must be considered as one of the important branches of ethnological study，because, a thorough insight into ethnology can not be gained without practical knowledge of language,and because, furthermore, the peculiar characteristics of languages are clearly reflected in the views and customs of the peoples of the world (Boas, 1966)". In this point of view, Franz Boas emphasizes the influence of culture on language and at the same time, he attaches much more importance to the great significance of language in ethnological study. Therefore, Franz Boas' view has aroused general concern in linguistics and as a result, it has laid a solid foundation for the further study on the relationship between language and culture (Gu，2002:263).The current viewWe are now in a position to see language and culture in a dialectical relationship (Hu, 1999: 250): language and culture influence each other. According to the current view, culture exerts a strong influence on language and language is regarded as part of a culture. Therefore, language cannot but serve and reflect cultural needs. However, language is not a passive reflector of culture. It can reinforce and preserve a culture, including its beliefs and customs, and sometimes language even conditions culture's future course of development. Compared with the three theses mentioned above, the current view is the most reasonable one and all-sided.3. Definition and Functions of LanguageLanguage is the most important communicative tool for human beings, it is closely related to our thinking, and it is also the direct presentation of thoughts. Whats more, it is one of the basic characteristics that distinguish our human beings from animals. Language is a system that is coated with phonetics, built with vocabularies, structured and ruled by grammar. (Cihai, 1988:390) With the development of the society, the communicative function of language becomes more and more prominent and important. Wang Zongyan once generalized language into two levels of meaning: The first level of meaning is that language is a system of symbols used by human beings during their communicative process, such as English, Chinese, and French and so on. The second level of meaning referred to the words said by people during their communicative process, besides, books, letters, documents, passages written by them. These two levels of meaning both illustrate the close relationship between language and communication.According to Sapir (1921), “ Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” Language is a part of culture and a part of human behavior. It is often believed that the function of language is to express thought and to communicate information. Language also fulfills many other tasks such as greeting people, conducting religious service, etc. Krech (1962) explained the major functions of language from the following three aspects: 1) Language is the primary vehicle of communication; 2) Language reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of his history. In turn, it helps shape both personality and culture; 3) Language makes possible the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity of societies, and the effective functioning and control of social group. It is obvious that language plays a paramount role in developing, elabora