Language and Culture Study Notes
Culture is
Definition (from Page 3):
An integrated system of mental elements (beliefs, values, worldview, attitudes, norms), the behaviors motivated by those mental elements, and the material items created by those behaviors.
A system shared by the members of the society.
100 percent learned, not innate.
Based on symbolic systems, the most important of which is language.
Humankind's most important adaptive mechanism.
Dynamic and constantly changing.
Implications:
Culture shapes and is shaped by human biology, development, and evolution.
Its symbolic nature means meaning is created and shared within a group.
Because culture is learned, it can be studied, transmitted, and transformed across generations.
Characteristics of Culture… And Language (Pages 4)
Humans are born with the capacity to learn the culture of any social group.
Culture is learned directly and indirectly.
Culture changes in response to internal and external factors.
Humans are not bound by culture; they can conform to it, resist it, or change it.
Culture is symbolic; meanings of symbols are created and shared within a group.
The degree to which humans rely on culture distinguishes us from other animals and has shaped our evolution.
Human culture and biology are interrelated: biology, growth, and development are influenced by culture.
Culture and Language Interdependence (Pages 5)
Culture cannot exist without language, and language cannot exist without culture.
Sentences in multiple scripts show the inseparability and co-constitution of language and culture.
Language Across Cultures (Pages 2, 6)
Multilingual cues: Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Habla Español? Parlez-vous Français? Quack? Illustrates cross-language exposure and phonetic variety.
Lexical examples across languages (e.g., No way, railroad, rainbow, window, nowhere, bueno) illustrate how words encode culture-specific concepts and emotions.
Objectivity, Ethnocentrism, and Perspective (Page 7)
Objectivity and ethnocentrism can co-occur.
Perception of language and culture is always influenced by perspective.
Key idea: how something appears depends on the observer’s frame of reference.
Language and Communication: Components (Page 8)
Language components (lexicology, syntax, morphology, phonology, pragmatics).
Speech components: articulation, fluency, voice, resonance, perception, prosody, semantics.
Non-verbal communication as a complement or alternative to spoken language.
Brain and Language: Encephalization (Page 10)
Processing, storage, production, and comprehension of language require substantial brain power.
Language is deeply tied to culture as a cognitive system.
Language Acquisition and Anatomy (Pages 11–13)
Anatomy enables unique phonetic capabilities in humans beyond other primates.
Language acquisition and speech are developed primarily in the left hemisphere:
Frontal lobe, Broca's area, Temporal lobe, Wernicke's area, Planum temporale, Parietal lobe, Occipital lobe.
Brodmann's area 44 is linked to Broca's region.
Planum temporale is involved in language processing and is often left-lateralized.
Open vs Closed Systems of Language (Page 14)
Closed system
Learned but innate; not able to create novel meanings outside taught ones.
No novelty outside existing meanings.
Open system
Learned and not innate; capable of creating new meanings and combinations.
Innate ability to learn and form abstract thoughts.
Motherese and Early Language (Page 16)
Motherese (infant-directed speech):
Higher pitch, musical variation, longer vowel sounds (timbre and pitch).
Common to primates; gains infant attention faster and longer.
Mothers tend to use it more than fathers.
Universal Grammar and Language Learning (Page 17)
Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar (UG):
Given language exposure, children innately pick up basic grammar rules.
Innate ability to differentiate nouns and verbs,
Learning a second language later: if it contains rules not present in the first language, learners may struggle to grasp those rules.
Critical Age and Language Plasticity (Pages 19–21)
Critical Age Range Hypothesis: language acquisition is optimal before puberty; after puberty, learning certain linguistic rules becomes harder.
Plasticity vs age graph (language discrimination, phonetic categories, word forms, etc.) shows language learning is more flexible in early months and declines with age.
Immigration study: mean grammar proficiency after arriving in the U.S. by age 7 matches native speakers; the older the age of arrival, the poorer the English grammar mastery; sensitive period can pass.
Language vs. Communication: Questions for Study (Page 22)
Distinctions between language and communication; breakdown into components; universal elements?
Verbal vs. written language; universal rules?
Cultural and Media References (Page 23)
Example: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, S4E10 “Hush” (1999) used to illustrate communication, silence, and nonverbal cues in narrative.
Kinesics: Body Language (Pages 24–26, 28–29)
Kinesics: all forms of human body language including:
Gestures, body position and movement, facial expressions, eye contact.
Gestures: diverse meanings; some gestures are culture-specific (e.g., call me vs. hang loose).
Offensive hand gestures: potential for miscommunication and offense across cultures.
Visual cues examples shown in media and teaching materials to illustrate nonverbal messages.
Eye contact (Page 30–31):
Good eye contact is expected in the West.
Strong eye contact is notable in Spain, Greece, Arab countries.
Finns and Japanese may feel embarrassed by prolonged eye contact; eye contact often shorter and at the beginning of conversations.
Posture, Proxemics, and Territoriality (Pages 32–33)
Proxemics: how people use space in social interactions; distance maintained varies by culture.
Body position cues and leaning:
Leaning toward: engagement and openness.
Leaning away / barrier-creating postures: anxiety or discomfort.
Crossing legs / interlacing hands: signals insecurity or confidence depending on context.
Facial expressions: universal sets and cultural variations; a chart of expressions includes happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise, contempt, anger, fear.
Facial Expressions and Universals (Pages 33–36, 58–59, 57–58)
Are there universal expressions of emotion? Research discusses cross-cultural recognition and consistency.
Facial expression charts (e.g., happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise, contempt, anger, fear).
Universals in facial actions include combinations of action units (AUs) such as AU 6 (cheek raise), AU 12 (lip corner puller), AU 25 (lips part), AU 26 (jaw drop), AU 10 (upper lip raise), AU 16 (lip corner down) among others; combinations produce specific emotions.
Prototypical examples show that certain expressions are recognized broadly across cultures, though display rules may vary.
Sign language demonstrates that language can be fully expressed through manual/visual modality with all core features of language (see Page 81).
Proxemics and Paralanguage (Pages 36–39)
Proxemics study: social use of space; personal distance governs comfort and communication.
Covid-era cultural differences: social distancing norms (e.g., 2 meters / 6 feet) and cross-cultural compliance (Tokyo example in Page 37).
Paralanguage: features of speech beyond words, including:
Pitch, loudness, tempo, duration of sounds.
Non-verbal sounds like chuckles, sighs, sobs, throat clears, and fillers like hm, oh, ah, um.
Verbal pitch and loudness examples show how emphasis changes meaning (e.g., “Come here please” vs. “YEAH!”).
Language Design Features (Hockett) and Cross-Species Communication (Pages 41–50)
Hockett’s Language Design Features (core features of human language):
1) A mode of communication using one or more sensory systems.
2) Semanticity: signs carry meaning for users.
3) Pragmatic function: signs serve practical purposes for survival and social influence.
Additional features (not universal to all systems, but common in humans):
4) Interchangeability: ability to both send and receive messages.
5) Cultural transmission: some aspects must be learned socially rather than being innate.
6) Arbitrariness: sign form is not inherently tied to its meaning.
True human language-specific features:
7) Discreteness: small set of meaningless discrete sounds (phonemes).
8) Duality of patterning: small meaningless sounds (phonemes) combine to form morphemes and words, which combine to form larger units like phrases and sentences.
9) Displacement: talk about things not present in time/place; future, past, or fictional places.
10) Productivity/creativity: ability to create and understand new messages never spoken before.
Interspecies and symbolic communication: some species show partial features (e.g., honeybees lack interchangeability; mockingbirds show cultural transmission and specific signaling).
Sign language (Page 81) demonstrates that human language can be fully realized in a visual-gestural modality while retaining all core design features.
Linguistic Components and Levels (Pages 59–63, 69–71)
Core linguistic components:
Phoneme: smallest unit of sound that can alter meaning in a word; English has phonemes.
Morpheme: smallest unit of meaning; cannot be broken down into smaller units without changing meaning.
Syntax: rules governing word order and grammatical function of morphemes.
Semantics: literal meanings of words, morphemes, and sentences.
Pragmatics: language in use; meaning in context and social aspects of communication.
Morphology: word structure and the formation of words from morphemes.
Phonology: system of sounds and their arrangements.
Phonetics: production and physical aspects of speech sounds.
Example: English has approximately phonemes; examples include /k/ /a/ /t/ in "cat" and /f/ /ō/ /n/ in "phone".
Phoneme chart and early reading (Page 62) illustrate basic phoneme-to-sound correspondences for beginners (Hooked On Phonics Level 2).
Morphemes, Syntax, and Semantics (Pages 67–76)
Morpheme examples:
One morpheme: cat, help, mean
Two morphemes: childish, helpless
Three morphemes: childishness, helpfulness
Four morphemes: childishness (multi-morphemic forms)
More than four: un + gentle + man + li + ness (example of affix stacking)
Duality of patterning (Page 69):
Level 1: meaningless phonemes combine to form morphemes/words.
Level 2: morphemes combine to form phrases and sentences; governed by syntax rules.
Displacement (Page 70): ability to communicate about things not present (time, place, hypothetical/future events).
Productivity/creativity (Page 71): ability to generate and understand novel messages.
Practical Examples in Language and Culture (Pages 52–56, 72–78, 80–83)
Arbitrary signs: many languages rely on signs whose form bears no inherent relation to meaning; cultural convention determines meaning.
Written vs spoken language (Page 80): a language need not be written to be a language; sign language demonstrates modality differences while preserving core linguistic features.
Gen X language isms (Page 72): examples of contemporary slang and colloquialisms illustrating dynamic language change.
Jokes, sarcasm, and pragmatics (Page 79): literal meaning vs intended meaning; humor relies on inferred pragmatic meaning.
Anthropomorphism (Page 47): human-like attribution to non-human agents can influence interpretation of communication systems.
Cultural Differences in Communication (Pages 31–37, 39–40, 43–44)
Eye contact norms vary by culture:
West: good eye contact expected.
Spain, Greece, Arab countries: strong eye contact is common.
Finns and Japanese: eye contact can be embarrassing; initiate eye contact at conversation start.
Proxemics reflect cultural comfort with personal space and can signal dominance, confidence, or insecurity.
Paralanguage influences interpretation of messages beyond the words themselves (tone, pitch, tempo, rhythm).
Open vs. closed systems and the flexibility of meaning across cultures affect how messages are interpreted and negotiated in intercultural encounters.
Language, Culture, and Technology in the Modern World (Pages 37–41, 55–56)
Covid-era cultural differences in social distancing illustrate how cultural norms intersect with public health practices.
Cross-cultural media references (Star Wars, Barbie, The Simpsons) demonstrate how popular culture encodes and propagates linguistic and semiotic conventions.
Visual and media literacy shows how language and culture are conveyed through multiple modalities beyond speech (images, gestures, symbols).
Interspecies and Universal Aspects (Pages 41–52)
Humans share some basic communication principles with other species (sensory modes, signs with meaning, pragmatic functions) but add unique features:
Interchangeability, cultural transmission, arbitrariness, discreteness, duality of patterning, displacement, and productivity.
Interspecies communication highlights limits and differences in signaling systems across species (e.g., some signals are not interchangeable or not learned culturally).
Examples, Case Studies, and Illustrative Notes (Pages 23–30, 56–60)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference used to discuss nonverbal communication and audience interpretation.
Idioglossia reference (Handley) used to illustrate language development and isolation phenomena in children.
Baby-learning demonstrations (MS Rachel videos) show early babbling, motherese, and early phoneme acquisition.
The Pennsylvania Dutch example (Page 75) illustrates regional syntax and semantic quirks in a dialect.
Sign Language as a Language (Page 81)
Sign language exhibits all core design features of human language:
Discreteness, duality of patterning, displacement, and productivity/creativity.
Sign language demonstrates that language is modality-independent and can be fully expressed visually/manually.
Quick Reference: Key Terms and Concepts (Glossary Highlights)
Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound that can change meaning; English has about phonemes.
Morpheme: smallest unit of meaning; can be root words or affixes.
Syntax: rules for word order and grammatical function.
Semantics: literal meaning of words and sentences.
Pragmatics: meaning in context; implied meanings and social usage.
Phonology: system of sounds and their patterns.
Phonetics: production and physical aspects of speech sounds.
Proxemics: study of how space is used in social interactions.
Kinesics: study of body language (gestures, posture, facial expressions, eye contact).
Paralinguistics: aspects of speech outside literal words (pitch, loudness, tempo).
Displacement: ability to talk about things not present in time/place.
Discreteness: language is built from discrete, separable units (phonemes).
Duality of patterning: two levels of combination (phonemes to morphemes; morphemes to phrases/sentences).
Arbitrariness: signs have meanings not inherently tied to their form.
Cultural transmission: some language aspects are learned socially rather than innate.
Open vs. Closed language systems: openness to creating new meanings vs. fixed meanings.
Critical Age / Sensitive Period: language acquisition is most efficient early in life; proficiency declines with later exposure.
Summary Takeaways
Language and culture are deeply intertwined and mutually constitutive.
Humans possess unique cognitive and neural organization (left-hemisphere language centers, Planum temporale) supporting sophisticated language capabilities.
Language is structured across multiple levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) and can be expressed across modalities (spoken, signed, written).
Communication extends beyond words through nonverbal channels (kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage) and context-dependent pragmatics.
Cultural norms influence language use, including eye contact, personal space, and gesture interpretations.
Universal features (e.g., Hockett’s design features) highlight what makes human language uniquely capable, while recognizing cross-species similarities and differences in communication systems.
Language development follows a trajectory influenced by biology, exposure, and social interaction, with early input (motherese) supporting robust acquisition.
The vocabulary of a culture expands and shifts with time, technology, and social change, illustrating the dynamic nature of language and culture.