THEORETICAL FOUNDATION TO LINGUACULTUROLOGY

LECTURE 1

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

1. Language and culture

2. Interaction and interrelation

3. Approaches to study language and culture

4. Functions of language and culture

Questions for self-examination:

1. Give definitions to the notion of culture and language.

2. Prove the idea of the interconnection and interrelation character of culture and language.

3. What are the basic functions of culture and language?

4. Give example on the influence of language in advertising.

5. Characterize USA/GB/Kazakhstan discourse communities.

In recent decades, the works of Western culturologists A.J. Toynbee, T.Parsons, K.Levi-Strauss and Russian scientists D.S.Likhachev, L.N.Gumilev, V.V.Vorobyev, V.A.Maslova, E.I.Kukushkina, E.M.Vereshchagin, V.G. Kostomarov, Yu.V.Rozhdestvensky, Kazakhstan linguists M. Kashgary, Ch.Valihanov, I.Altynsarin, E.N.Zhanpeisov, A.T.Kaydarov, D.Shokparov, Zh.A.Mankeeva gave a broad scientific understanding of culture and language. The prominent scholars of the XIX (W.von Humboldt, A.A.Potebnya) understood language as a spiritual force. Language is considered our environment, without which we cannot live. By W.von Humboldt, language is "world that lies between the world of external phenomena and the inner world of man"

S. Stepanov wrote that the term culture has two main meanings:

1) totality of the achievements of people in all spheres of life, not to consider separately, but together - in industrial, social, and spiritual spheres

2) high, up-to-date level of all human achievements.

Language is one of the components of culture, which is reflected through culture, but at the same time, language is an independent system.

Language - a fact of culture because:

1) it is an integral part of culture we inherit from our ancestors;

2) language - the main tool by to learn the culture;

3) language - the most important of all the phenomena of cultural order, because if we want to understand the essence of the culture - science, religion, literature, you should consider these phenomena as the codes formed in language, so the conceptual understanding of culture can only happen through natural language.

According to N.D.Arutiunova, "Language is developing system of discrete (articulate) sound marks, arisen spontaneously in human society and serving for the purposes of communication and to express the totality of knowledge and understanding about the world". According to E.Sapir, "language is a communicative process in its pure form in every society known to us." "Culture can be defined by what the society is doing and thinking. Language is also the way people think ".

The variety of approaches to understanding the culture offered by V.A.Maslova, extended and supplemented in the following classification.

1) The social approach.

The essence of the social approach is to consider culture separate from nature, from the biological and physiological background, not just relevant to an individual, but relevant to the group of people connected by communication. In this approach, the focus is on the fact that people are not born with a particular culture, but acquire it in the course of communication, on the basis of social activities (V.Osvalt)

2) The cognitive approach to understanding the culture focuses on culture as knowledge and learning. Culture is not a material phenomenon; it does not consist of things, people, behavior or emotions. It is rather an organization of these things. Culture consists of its members willing to learn and get knowledge according to their abilities and level (V.Gudinaff).

3) The dialogic in which culture - a "dialogue of cultures" - a form of communication and interaction of its constituent parts. There are ethnic and national cultures created by individuals, people, and nations. The national cultures are divided into subcultures. This is the culture of certain social level and groups (subculture of the youth, criminals etc.). There is also meta-culture, which brings together different peoples, such as the Christian culture. All these cultures come together in dialogue. The more developed national culture, the more it tends to dialogue with other cultures (S.S. Averinsev, B.A.Uspensky).

4) Informational. The culture is presented as a system of creating, storing, using and transferring of information, it is - a system of symbols used by the society in which social information is encoded, i.e. the meaning and content invested by people themselves (Yu.M. Lotman). Hence, culture - is informational provision of society, social information, which is stored in a society with the help of sign systems.

5) The spiritual. Proponents of this approach define the culture as the spiritual life of society, as the flow of ideas and other products of the spiritual creativity. Spiritual existence of society and culture (L.Kertman).

6) The active approach, in which culture is understood as a peculiar way to meet the needs of a person, as a particular kind of activity. This approach has its origins in B.Malinovsky, and the Marxist theory of culture: culture as a way of human activity (Y.Sorokin, E.F.Tarasov).

7) Normative, where culture is - a set of rules and regulations governing the lives of people, a living program (V.N.Sagatovsky). These concepts also developed by Y.M. Lotman and B.A.Uspensky who understand culture as a system inherited collective memory, which is manifested in certain systems of prohibitions and regulations.

8) The typological (M.Mamadashvily, S.S.Averintsev). Meeting with other people, people tend to perceive their behavior from the perspective of their own culture, that is, as it were, "to measure them to your own background." For example, when Europeans who come into contact with the Japanese, Japanese speak with smile when they talk about the death of loved ones, which Europeans see as a sign of callousness and cruelty. From the standpoint of a Japanese culture - is exquisite politeness, the reluctance to disturb the other people with their problems.

9) The hermeneutic, which relates the culture as a variety of texts. Culture is a set of texts, to be exact - the mechanism that creates a set of texts (Y. M.Lotman). Texts - the essence of culture. They can be viewed as a repository of information that needs to be removed, and as a unique generated by originality of the author's personality masterpiece, which is valuable in itself. The disadvantage of this approach - the impossibility of a clear understanding of the text.

10) Descriptive, which lists the individual elements and expressions of culture - a custom, activities, values, ideals, etc., by this approach, culture is defined as a set of institutions and achievements, which differs us from the life of the animal-like ancestors (Z. Freud). The disadvantage of this approach - obviously an incomplete list of manifestations of culture.

11) The symbolic approach focuses on the use of symbols in the culture. Culture - a "symbolic universe" (Y. M.Lotman). Some of its elements, acquiring particular ethnic sense, become symbols of nations a white birch, cabbage, samovar, sandals, balalayka - for Russian, oatmeal and legends about ghosts in castles - for the English; spaghetti - for Italians, beer and sausage - for the Germans and etc.

12) Functional approach, which characterizes the culture through functions that it performs in society: information, adaptive, communicative, regulatory, normative, evaluative, integrative, socialization, etc. The disadvantage of this approach is the absence of common definitions and classification.

13) A system of values, in which culture is treated as a set of spiritual and material values created by people. Every person should aware of values, their classification, and typology, before create and understand them.

14) The semiotic approach to the definition of culture is based on understanding it, first of all, as a system of signs, representing the world, which can then be used as a means of communication. The culture is a set of symbols that embodies and represents the understanding, message, and knowledge of its nation.

As we can see, the above mentioned 14 approaches define the notion of culture to full extent. Language is a way of verbal culture existence, and at the same time the cultural-historical phenomenon, therefore language and culture is interconnected and intersected.

W.von Humboldt believed that language is universal in its core and is nationalistic in various forms of expression. He claimed that every single language is “the only product of linguistic consciousness of the nation ... and, therefore, the main questions about the origins of language and the inner life cannot be properly answered, not rising to the point of view of spiritual power and national identity”.

Basic concept of W.von Humboldt can be summarized as follows:

1) material and spiritual culture is embodied in the language;

2) every culture is national, its national character is expressed in language by means of a special reference of the world, every language has a specific to each language inner form;

3) The inner form - is an expression of "national spirit", its culture;

4) Language is a mediator between man and the world around him.

The concept of W.von Humboldt has original interpretation in the works of A.A. Potebnya, Sh.Bally, Zh.Vandries, Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, R.O.Yakobson and other researchers.

Speaking of the interaction of language and culture, one should point linguistic sciences dealing with these issues. They are Ethno-Linguistics, Lingua-countrystudy, and Linguaculturology.

Z.K.Sabitova believes that the commonality of these two phenomena (language and culture) is due to their nature (human nature), functions and conditions of origin. Language and culture are united in the genetic aspect (originated simultaneously), material (they have a semiotic character), and functional aspects.

According to V.N.Teliya:

1) Culture as well as language - a form of consciousness, reflecting the worldview of a person;

2) Language and culture exist in dialogue with each other;

3) The subject of culture and language - is always an individual or a society, a person or community;

4) Normative character - common feature for both the language and culture;

5) Historicism - one of the essential qualities of culture and language;

6) Language and culture characterized by antinomy "dynamics - statics".

The relationship between language and culture is often characterized by metaphors that emphasize the crucial role of language in describing culture: the language is the foundation of culture, building material, the demiurge - V.N.Toporov, D.B.Gudkov, instrument of culture, the reality of the spirit, the hypostasis, the storage of culture - W.von Humboldt, a cultural phenomenon, a manifestation, the face of culture - V.A.Maslova; a factor of development, the condition of the existence of culture - K.Levi-Strauss; guide to culture - E.Sapir etc.

Let us consider essence of the basic functions of language and culture.

1. Cognitive (epistemological) function of culture is manifested most in its implementations, such as science, scientific and technological progress. Cognition is carried out basically through language, through the language we understand the world and themselves, as the language calls and expresses knowledge and cognition. Studying the works of language, we master previous eras and cultures of other people (social and ethnic communities).

2. Informational function of culture is to record the results of material and spiritual activities of the people and transfer them in time and space, which in its turn ensures the continuity of generations and thus the development of human society. Whereas, the language - a repository of knowledge, the store of language texts and information about all the achievements of the human experience. At the same time, the language - it is a means of sharing experience, recorded in texts.

3. Semiotic function of culture is manifested in the fact that any product of culture can become a symbol, a sign of a particular national culture.

For example, шаңырақ - a symbol of the Kazakh people, күй,домбыра - a symbol of Kazakh folk music. Semiotic function of language is also based on the fact that language signs can symbolize various notions.

4. The communicative function of culture is based on the representativeness of the culture, it carries out the exchange of the benefits of culture between different human communities and individuals, making it possible to cross-cultural communication. The language is a means of exchange and cross-cultural communication.

5. Axiological (estimated) function of culture is specific in the sense that it is relative in content, since all ethnic groups and nations systems of values are different. Language is a means of realization of the axiological function of culture.

6. Regulatory (normative) function is based on the axiological. Some cultural researchers (the U.S., including Parsons) consider it basic, fundamental. It manifests itself at different levels of culture and has varying degrees of commitment. The regulatory function of culture supports the balance in society, conflict prevention, providing a normal existence in society.

The language is also characterized by the regulatory function, but it concerns the speech of a society which is graded from the rigid rules of spelling and Orphoepics to less rigid stylistic norms. Thus, the regulatory functions of the culture and language are interrelated.

7. Expressive and emotional function common to many species and varieties of culture: religious genres such as prayer, preaching, sacred texts, folklore texts. Sometimes this is called magic, because it acts as a spell, ritual dances, etc.

8. Integrative and differentiating function of culture is manifested in the fact that, on the one hand, culture is the basis for the differentiation of people according to their social, ethnic, age, territorial and other parameters (see, for example, the Kazakh culture, Russian culture, European culture, youth culture, elite culture, mass culture, etc.). This function is also typical to language, reflected in the form of the theory of national-linguistic world picture, the theory of translatability / translatability of vocabulary, phraseology, and the theory of bilingualism, etc.

9. Socializing, individualizing function of culture can make a transition from socialization to individualization. The function helps an individual to discover and develop their abilities and use them in the society.

The combination of group (national-social) and individual in the language, the transition from the first to the second and from the second to the first provides the formation of natural languages and, at the same time, the creation of individual languages as idiolects and even idiostyle that was the basis to the formation of the theory of linguistic identity.

The influence of language on thought and behavior can perhaps best be seen in the world of advertising. The culture - beliefs, attitudes, overt and covert aspirations, pragmatic designs and fantasies, actions and reactions - is studied by advertisers around the world to find the basis for the concepts and language that will inspire the people of any given locale to buy a product of one manufacturer rather than that of another. What sells in Chicago may also sell in Kyoto, but not through the same advertising. Language is the principal means whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.

To begin with, the words people utter refer to common experience. They express facts, ideas or events that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge about the world that other people share. Words also reflect their authors' attitudes and beliefs, their point of view that are also those of others. In both cases, language expresses cultural reality.

But members of a community or social group do not only express experience; they also create experience through language. They give meaning to it through the medium they choose to communicate with one another, for example, speaking on the telephone or face-to-face, writing a letter or sending an e-mail message, reading the newspaper or interpreting a graph or a chart. The way in which people use the spoken, written, or visual medium itself creates meanings that are understandable to the group they belong to, for example, through a speaker's tone of voice, accent, conversational style, gestures and facial expressions. Through all its verbal and non-verbal aspects, language embodies cultural reality.

Finally, language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value. Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language; they view their language as a symbol of their social identity. The prohibition of its use is often perceived by its speakers as a rejection of their social group and their culture. Thus we can say that language symbolizes cultural reality.

People who identify themselves as members of a social group (family, neighborhood, professional or ethnic affiliation, and nation) acquire common ways of viewing the world through their interactions with other members of the same group. These views are reinforced through institutions like the family, the school, the workplace, the church, the government, and other sites of socialization throughout their lives. Common attitudes, beliefs, and values are reflected in the way members of the group use language; for example, what they choose to say or not to say and how they say it. Thus, in addition to the notion of speech community composed of people who use the same linguistic code, we can speak of discourse communities to refer to the common ways in which members of a social group use language to meet their social needs. Not only the grammatical, lexical, and phonological features of their language (for example, teenage talk, professional jargon, political rhetoric) differentiate them from others, but also the topics they choose to talk about, the way they present information, the style with which they interact, in other words, their discourse accent. For instance, Americans have been socialized into responding 'Thank you' to any compliment, as if they were acknowledging a friendly gift: 'I like your sweater!''Oh, thank you!' The French, who tend to perceive such a compliment as an intrusion into their privacy, would rather downplay the compliment and minimize its value: 'Oh really? It's already quite old!' The reactions of both groups are based on the differing values given to compliments in both cultures, and on the differing degrees of embarrassment caused by personal comments. This is a view of culture that focuses on the ways of thinking, behaving, and valuing currently shared by members of the same discourse community.

LECTURE 2

THEORETICAL FOUNDATION TO LINGUACULTUROLOGY

1. Anthropological linguistics

2. Cognitive semantics

3. Cultural anthropology

4. Psycho-linguistics

5. Lingua-country study

6. Ethno-linguistics

Questions for self-examination:

1. What areas of Linguistics are closely connected with LC?

2. What culturological trends in Linguistics and Psychology deal with human nature?

    3. What is the future perspective ofLC in FLT?

The modern science of language develop such areas of Linguistics as Cognitive semantics, Cultural anthropology, Social psycho-linguistics, Ethno Psycho-linguistics, Linguo-countrystudy, Ethnosemiotic, Ethnopsychology and Linguaculturology. All these areas have successfully developed and united by a common methodological basis of Anthropological linguistics. Language can be studied from several angles. The focus on the relation between language, thought and culture is known as Anthropological linguistics. Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relations between language and culture and the relations between human biology, cognition and language. This strongly overlaps the field of linguistic anthropology, which is the branch of anthropology that studies humans through the languages that they use. It is an interdisciplinary field which studies language as a cultural resource and speaking as a cultural practice.

Cognitive semantics is part of the Сognitive linguistics movement. Cognitive semantics is typically used as a tool for lexical studies such as those put forth by L.Talmy, G.Lakoff, D.Geeraerts and B.W.Hawkins, R.Langaker.

As part of the field of Сognitive linguistics, the cognitive semantics approach rejects the formal traditions modularization of Linguistics into phonology, syntax, pragmatics, etc. Instead it divides semantics (meaning) into meaning-construction and knowledge representation. Therefore, Cognitive semantics studies much of the area traditionally devoted to pragmatics as well as semantics.

Cognitive semantic theories are typically built on the argument that lexical meaning is conceptual. That is, the meaning of a lexeme is not reference to the entity or relation in the "real world" that the lexeme refers to, but to a concept in the mind based on experiences with that entity or relation. An implication of this is that semantics is not objective and also that semantic knowledge is not isolatable from encyclopedic knowledge.

Moreover, Cognitive semantics theories are also typically built upon the idea that semantics is amenable to the same mental processes as encyclopedic knowledge. They thus involve many theories from Cognitive psychology and Cognitive anthropology such as prototypicality, which Cognitive semanticists argue is the basic cause of polysemy.

Another trait of cognitive semantics is the recognition that lexical meaning is not fixed but a matter of construal and conventionalization. The processes of linguistic construal, it is argued, are the same psychological processes involved in the processing of encyclopedic knowledge and in perception.

Many cognitive semantic frameworks, such as that developed by L.Talmy take into account syntactic structures as well, while others focus mainly on lexical entities.

The 4 tenets of Cognitive semantics are:

1. Semantic structure is conceptual structure

2. Conceptual structure is embodied

3. Meaning representation is encyclopedic

4. Meaning-construction is conceptualization

Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation, interviews and surveys. Their research is often called fieldwork because it involves the anthropologist spending an extended period of time at the research location.

This branch of Anthropology dealing with the origins, history, and development of human culture, and including in its scope the fields of Archaeology, Ethnology, and Ethnography is also called Social anthropology. The discipline uses the methods, concepts, and data of Archaeology, Ethnography, folklore, Linguistics, and related fields in its descriptions and analyses of the diverse peoples of the world. This field of research was until the mid-20th century largely restricted to the small-scale (or "primitive"), non-Western societies that first began to be identified during the age of discovery. Today the field extends to all forms of human association, from village communities to corporate cultures to urban gangs. Two key perspectives used are those of holism (understanding society as a complex, interactive whole) and cultural relativism (the appreciation of cultural phenomena within their own context). Areas of study traditionally include social structure, law, politics, religion, magic, art, and technology.

By the beginning of the 20th century, many cultural anthropologists had already begun to turn toward what might be called a more pluralistic viewpoint. To account for the variety of societies and cultures and the broadening of the differences that separated them, they suggested taking the total circumstances of each human group into account by considering the whole of its history, the contacts that it had had with other groups, and the favourable or unfavourable circumstances that had weighed on its development. Such a view was distinguished by a marked relativism: each culture represented an original development, conditioned as much by its social as by its geographical environment and by the manner in which it used and enriched the cultural materials that came to it from neighbors or others (through “diffusion”) or from its own creativity (through “invention” and “adaptation”).

 Psycho-linguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language. Initial forays into Psycho-linguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the human brain functioned. Modern research makes use of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and information theory to study how the brain processes language. There are a number of sub-disciplines; for example, as non-invasive techniques for studying the neurological workings of the brain become more and more widespread, "Neuro-Linguistics" has become a field in its own right.

 Psycho-linguistics covers the cognitive processes that make it possible to generate a grammatical and meaningful sentence out of vocabulary and grammatical structures, as well as the processes that make it possible to understand utterances, words, text, etc. Developmental Psycho-linguistics studies children's ability to learn language.

 Psycho-linguistics is interdisciplinary in nature and is studied by people in a variety of fields, such as psychology, cognitive science, and Linguistics. There are several subdivisions within Psycho-linguistics that are based on the components that make up human language.

Linguistic-related areas:

* Phonetics and phonology are concerned with the study of speech sounds. Within Psycho-linguistics, research focuses on how the brain processes and understands these sounds.

* Morphology is the study of word structures, especially the relationships between related words (such as "dog" and "dogs") and the formation of words based on rules (such as plural formation).

* Syntax is the study of the patterns which dictate how words are combined together to form sentences.

* Semantics deals with the meaning of words and sentences. Where syntax is concerned with the formal structure of sentences, semantics deals with the actual meaning of sentences.

* Pragmatics is concerned with the role of in the interpretation of meaning.

Psychology-related areas:

* The study of word recognition and reading examines the processes involved in the extraction of orthographic, morphological, phonological, and semantic information from patterns in printed text.

* Developmental Psycho-linguistics studies infants' and children's ability to learn language, usually with experimental or at least quantitative methods (as opposed to naturalistic observations such as those made by Jean Piaget in his research on the development of children).

The research in Lingua-country study (E.M.Vereshchagin; V.G.Kostomarov; G.D. Tomakhin; V.V.Oshchepkova, etc.) has an applied character and it isconsidered as a valuable source of information, which reflects the interrelation of language and culture. There are two approaches in teaching culture in the process of teaching foreign languages: social and philosophical. The first approach is based on discipline, traditionally related to the study of any foreign language. A country study is understood as a complex educational discipline which comprises various information about the country of target language. Unlike fundamental sciences which it is based on, Country study includes information of fragmentary character and determined as a discipline is in the system of geographical sciences, engaged in the complex study of materials, countries, large districts.

The theories of Lingua-culturological studies underline that it is a direction which combines a teaching of language with certain information about the country of target language. The main LC task is a study of language units which clearly reflect national cultural features. Realities (specific subject definitions), connotative notions (words having the same meaning but different cultural associations), basic notions (those having the analogues in comparative countries but different in use or exploitation) are among them.

We can definitely state that this combination of two aspects is very important for future teachers because it broadens their mind, develop their communicative skills, their freedom of speaking. It seems obvious that learning language in the strong connection with the study of country’s culture, history and traditions is much more effective. The students perceive such knowledge with great interest.

Besides, the results of teaching practice demonstrate that students’ motivation of studying increases greatly on condition that language learning is combined with the studying of the cultural background of the native speakers.

Thus we can conclude that nowadays there is a strong need for the integration of knowledge about the structure of the language which is being learned and the knowledge about the culture of the countries where this language is used as a means of communication and education. Students, teachers and schools all participate in cultural communities that represent systems of values, beliefs, and ways of knowing that guide daily life. Culture affects how people learn, remember, reason, solve problems, and language is in need to communicate; thus, country study is part and parcel future teachers’ intellectual and social development.

Ethno-linguistics (A.S.Gerd, A.M.Kopylenko, N.I.Tolstoy etc.) is a branch of Linguistics, which studies the language in its connection with ethnicity and is closely linked with Socio-linguistics. N. I. Tolstoy emphasizes that for Ethno-Linguistics it is important to discuss not only and not so much the reflections of folk culture, psychology, and mythological perceptions in language, but also the constructive role of language, its influence on the formation of folk culture, folk psychology, and folk creative art. He suggests two definitions of Ethno-linguistics:

1) a branch of Linguistics , which studies language in its relation to folk culture; investigates the reflection in language of cultural, psychological, and mythological notions and experiences;

2) a complex discipline, which studies the content of culture, folk psychology and mythology, irrespective of the means and ways of their formal implementation (word, object, ritual, visual image, etc.). N. I. Tolstoy believes that such study "can be carried out predominantly or exclusively by linguistic methods".

The listed above culturological trends in Linguistics and Psychology, in one way or another connected with the study of the "human factor", the human person in the language, culture and social life.

LECTURE 3