Chapter 9: Language And Culture

1. culture : The total way of life of a person, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of human community.

2. discourse community : It refers to the common ways that members of some social group use language to meet their needs.

3. acculturation : A process in which changes on the language, culture and system of values of a group happen through interaction with another group with a different language, culture and a system of values.

4. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis : The interdependence of language and thought is now known as Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

5. linguistic relativity : A belief that the way people view the world is determined wholly or partly by the structure of their native language-----又叫Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. (06C)

6. linguistic determinism: It refers to the idea that the language we use, to some extent, determines the way in which we view and think about the world around us. (06C)

7. denotative meaning: It refers to the literal meaning, which can be found in a dictionary.

8. connotative meaning: The association of a word, apart from its primary meaning.

9. iconic meaning: The image of a word invoked to people.

10. metaphors: A figure of speech, in which no function words like like, as are used. Something is described by stating another thing with which it can be compared.

11. euphemism: a word or phrase that replace a taboo word or is used to avoid reference to certain acts or subjects, e.g. powder room for toilet.

12. cultural overlap:The situation between two societies due to some similarities in the natural environment and psychology of human being

13. cultural diffusion: Through communication, some elements of culture A enter culture B and become part of culture B, thus bringing about cultural diffusion. (05/03)

14. cultural imperialism: The situation of increasing cultural diffusion all over the world.(06C)

15. linguistics imperialism: it is a kind of kind of linguicism which can be defined as the promulgation of global ideologies through the world-wide expansion of one language. (06C)

16. linguistic nationalism: In order to protect the purity of their language, some countries have adopted special language policy. It is called linguistic nationalism.

17. intercultural communication: It is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbols are distinct enough to alter the communication event.

18. language planning: planning, usually by a government, concerning choice of national or official language(s), ways of spreading the use of a language, spelling reforms, the addition of new words to the language, and other language problems.