SOCIOLINGUISTICS LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND THOUGH

 

LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND THOUGH

A.    BACKGROUND

            In the use of language ( language in use ) is not just a communication device , but even more so in the use of language is part of the message in the communication . Brown and Yule (1983 : 1 ) indicated above by the term ' transactional ' and ' interpersonal ' , while Halliday (1994 : xiii ) explores the term ' ideational ' and ' interpersonal ' and add one more function , namely the function of ' textual ' . The term refers to a transactional or ideational function of language to send ' message content ' communication , the term refers to the function of language interpesonal to form a ' social relations ' in the communication , and the term refers to the textual function ' organizing ' combined both functions .

            Language can not be separated from human life , but the language was greatly influenced by the culture or society thought of the area . Many examples can be seen clearly as Bugis or Makassar , use of language , accent , dialect , etc, those are very different , even within the same province may not necessarily be the same language . Based on the above , the formulation of the problem to be answered in this study is : " What is the relationship between language , culture and social thought ? " The purpose of writing a paper is to explain the relationship between language , culture , and social thought .

            In general , the benefits of study of this paper is that the people who use the language to understand the importance of the relationship between language , culture and social thought that occurs in social interaction . In particular , as a resource for friends of students and teachers learning the language in an effort to educate students in the future .

B.     DISCUSSION

Language

Although generally speaking both the previous section and this one deal with language use, the perspective is somewhat different. 'Language and society' emphasized the factors of the social context which affect the use of language and the disciplines studying it, whereas this section will focus on disciplines which examine particular aspects of language use – interpretation of meaning in use (pragmatics), the structure of larger chunks of language (spoken or written) in some context (discourse analysis), written and oral communication across languages and genres (contrastive rhetoric), and various areas of applied linguistics, in particular foreign and second language teaching and communication

Culture

Cultural differences have also been noted in the ways in which language is used pragmatically. In American culture, new skills are typically taught and learned through verbal instruction (Slobin, 1979). In some cultures, new skills are learned through nonverbal observation. A distinction has also been made between cultures that encourage independent learning and those that encourage cooperative learning (McLeod, 1994).

Differences in the social roles of adults and children also influence how language is used. Home and school contexts may represent different cultures, subcultures, or both and may influence language acquisition in noticeable ways. Nonverbal cues (e.g., facial expression) and contextual cues (e.g., shared experience) have different communicative roles in different cultures (Kaiser & Rasminsky, 2003). In some cultures, prelinguistic children (who are not yet verbalizing) are spoken about rather than spoken to (Heath, 1983). Children may be expected, and thus taught, to speak only when an adult addresses them. They are not encouraged to initiate conversations with adults or to join spontaneously in ongoing adult conversations. Additionally, in some cultures, children who enthusiastically volunteer answers at school are considered show-offs (Peregoy & Boyle, 1993). In some cultural settings, children are not asked recitational questions. Instead, they are asked only questions of clarification or for new information. Thus, when these children experience recitational questions in a school setting, they may be confused as to the purpose of the questioning and the expected response.

Combining the areas of study, language and culture, we come up with a seemingly ambiguous phrase 'language and culture studies'. It is actually the title of an academic course which is offered at many universities, especially in the USA, and is, most unambiguously and undisputedly, devoted to the study of the relationship between language and culture. Mostly, it is an introductory course, a prerequisite for higher courses such as Linguistic Anthropology, Sociology or even Cognitive Studies. The structure of the course may vary, as well as the particular points of emphasis, but they are chiefly comLanguageand Culture Studies

Though

Though sometimes simplistically viewed through its most obvious function of exchanging information and thought among people, i.e. through its referential, communicative aspect, language has other functions as well. One of the very important aspects is cognitive, which highlights the use of language as an instrument of thought and cognition, without necessary communicating the thoughts to others, as stressed by the very influential generative paradigm. The relationship between language, thought and reality has fascinated philosophers and linguists for centuries, so this article will necessarily be able only to outline some of the significant research. What we are primarily interested in here is whether one's language determines or is determined by one's world view. Extending a person's world view to culture in the broadest sense of the word, we shall focus on the relationship between language and its cultural aspects, rather than psychological ones, on the one hand, and human cognition, on the other.