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WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN VERBAL COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE, Muhammad…

WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN VERBAL COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE

Human Language: Distinctive Feature and Rule Pattern

Distinctive Language Features

Arbitrariness (Language is viewed as an arbitrary symbolic system because the words that are strung together have no innate meaning)

Abstractness (Language, however, also allows humans to engage in abstract thoughts or hypothetical thinking. Because of this unique feature, we can plan for our intercultural journey, daydream, and fantasize about the infinite possibilities of our potential experience abroad)

Meaning-Centeredness (To understand a cultural stranger’s language usage, we must acquire both the dictionary meaning of a word and the subjective meaning of a word or phrase. In any language, two levels of meaning exist: denotative meaning and connotative meaning. The denotative meaning of a word emphasizes its objective, dictionary defi nition shared and recognized by the majority members of a linguistic community. The connotative meaning, on the other hand, stresses the subjective, interpretive meanings of a word constructed by individual members based on their cultural and personalized language experience)

Creativity (There are three distinctive elements in the linguistic creativity feature: productivity, displacement, and the metacommunicative feature (Crystal, 2010).

Multiple Rule Patterns

Phonological Rules (The phonological rules (or phonology) of a language refer to the different accepted procedures for combining phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest sound units of a word.)

Morphological Rules The term morphological rules (or morphology) refers to how combinations of different sounds make up a meaningful word or part of a word (e.g., “lead” and “er-ship” form “lead-er-ship”; or words such as “caff-eine” and “fl ow-er”). In English and many other European languages, morphemes that are required by grammar are often put at the end of words as suffixes.

Syntactic Rules The syntactic rules (or syntactics) of a language refer to how words are sequenced together in accordance with the grammatical practices of the linguistic community. The order of the words helps to establish the meaning of an utterance.

Semantic Rules The semantic rules (or semantics) of a language concern the features of meaning we attach to words. Words themselves do not have self-evident meanings. It is people within a cultural language community who consensually establish shared meanings for specific words and phrases.

Pragmatic Rules The pragmatic rules (or pragmatics) of a language refer to the contextual rules that govern language usage in a particular culture. Pragmatics concerns the rules of “how to say what to whom and under what situational conditions” in a speech community (Hymes, 1972).

Appreciating Diverse Language Function

The Cultural Worldview Function (Worldview refers to our larger philosophical outlook or ways of perceiving the world and how this outlook, in turn, affects our thinking and reasoning patterns. Intercultural experts have proposed two worldviews that divide Western and non-Western cultures: the linear worldview and the relational worldview (Stewart & Bennett, 2005). A linear worldview emphasizes rational or analytical thinking that is based on an objective reality. A relational worldview emphasizes holistic or connected thinking that is based on a contextual reality. The language systems of the linear worldview tend to emphasize beginning with either facts and fi gures or models and theories and uses two reasoning patterns: inductive and deductive reasoning.

The Everyday Social Reality Function  (Everyday language serves as a prism or mirror through which individuals emphasize “important” versus “unimportant” events out there or “interesting” versus “uninteresting” value priorities in a cultural speech community)

The Cognitive Shaping Function (Language also serves as a strong fi lter between what we think and how our thinking pattern is shaped by the grammatical structure of our language system. Benjamin Whorf (1952, 1956), drawing from the work of his mentor, Edward Sapir (1921), tested the “language is a shaper of ideas” hypothesis. By comparing the Hopi Indian language with European languages, Whorf (1952) found that language is not only a vehicle for voicing ideas but also “the shaper of ideas.”)

The Group Membership Identity Function (Language represents a rallying point for evoking group sentiment and shared identity. Language serves the larger cultural–ethnic identity function because it is an emblem of group solidarity. The core symbols and linguistic categories of a group often express ethnic and nationalistic sentiment. By virtue of its powerful and visible symbolism, language maintenance issues are worth fi ghting and dying for—from many ethnic groups’ perspectives)

The Social Change Function (Twenty years ago, we did not have words like texting, ipad, and refudiate or use Facebook or Google as verbs. They are now part of our everyday vocabulary.As innovative social beings, we are the creators of the social tool of human language. We are also at times trapped by the habits of our own linguistic system)