Chapter 9, Language and Culture

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941) was a student of Edward Sapir (1884-1939). Whorf gathered most of the evidence for the hypothesis. The hypothesis proposes two principles that link language and culture:

linguistic determinism - language determines the way we think

linguistic relativity - the distinctions encoded in one language are not found in another

Sapir's version of the hypothesis:

"Language is a guide to 'social reality.' . . . Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached. . . . We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation."

Strong version - people's cognitive categories are determined by the languages they speak

Weak version - people's behavior tends to be guided by the categories in their language

An example close to home is of English speakers learning Spanish. Since we have a single address form, and since we perceive, correctly, that use of tú is far more frequent than use of usted, we tend to use tú with everyone when we travel to a Spanish-speaking country. Students with substantial ability in Spanish who continue to use tú with everyone can be significantly misinterpreted as too forward and presumptuous.

A non-linguistic pattern from Hispanic culture is found in eye contact. Hispanic children are taught to avert their eyes, avoiding direct eye contact with adults. In the United States, children are expected to look directly at adults: "Look at me when I'm speaking to you!" We misinterpret the averted look as an attempt to cover up or hide something from us.

Another interesting example comes from Guaraní.

Guaraní	English
che aguata	I walk
nde reguata	You (singular) walk
ha’e oguata	He walks
ñande jaguata	We (inclusive) walk
ore reguata	We (exclusive) walk
pee) peguata	You (plural) walk

If you use the first person plural in Guaraní, you have no choice but to state, through use of verbs and pronouns, whether you are including the person with whom you are speaking or not. In English, we do have a way of indicating such an exclusion: perhaps in a sarcastic tone of voice you might say, "Well, we’re gonna have a blast this weekend. Too bad you have to stay in and study for your sociolinguistics test." The emphatic stress on the pronoun communicates the exclusion, but one can also avoid the change in stress and intonation and render the message ambiguous. This is is the essence of linguistic determinism. To the extent that speakers of Guaraní must use verbs, subject and object pronouns, and possessive adjectives to express themselves, they cannot avoid including or excluding the speaker when they use the first person plural. On the other hand, the category is indeed present in English, even though the mechanism is quite different.

Example - Madagascar, Vakinankaratra region, Malagasy language

Fasold (1984) illustrates linguistic relativity by summarizing the participant-observation based work of Elinor Ochs in south central Madagascar. (Madagascar, an island the size of Texas, lies off the East coast of Africa and is populated by 19 Malayan-Indonesian tribes, the largest of which is the Merina (26%). There are also African and Arabic groups in Madagascar.)

Sociocultural data on the Malagasy Village

small population; villagers all know each other; local events are public knowledge

agricultural; harvest the only occasion for significant outside contact with other

isolated from television, radio, and other outside influences

largely pre-literate population

news transmitted orally; new information highly prized

egalitarian; entire village takes blame for failed actions

individual leadership only when imposed from outside

family is the most significant social unit

ray-aman-dreny (father and mother) or village elders, handle actions of concern beyond the family

Consequences of sociocultural data for village life

new information highly prized and therefore not given up too soon or all at once

individuals avoid action that sets him or her apart from group, confrontation avoided

Information Exchange

The response in Malagasy to "Where are you going?" is vague: avaraparatra (not quite North, reduplication of avaratra). We would interpret such a response as evasive, to hide some nefarious activity. Fluent control of the language is no guarantee that such responses can be properly interpreted. Even if a Westerner understands the form of the response, the purpose (not revealing information too soon or all at once) may leave us perplexed or may be misinterpreted. The utterance of "Bosy's mother is sick," by Bosy's brother would lead the Westerner to believe that the mother is not Bosy's. Perhaps they are half-siblings! Actually, the purpose of the response is to avoid drawing attention to the individual, avoiding action that sets one apart from the group.

Circumstantial voice - used to avoid direct reference to the individual

In the following examples, note that Malagasy is a VOS language (verb, object, subject). English is a SVO language. The noun phrase at the end of the sentence is the grammatical subject. In the active sentence, Rasoa is the subject. In the passive sentence, the clothes are the subject (i.e., The clothes were washed.). In the circumstantial sentence, the soap is the subject (i.e., The soap washed the clothes.). This data could be used to defend a weak version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, since the structural features of the language lend themselves very nicely to the cultural characteristics of the village that emphasize the importance of the group and deemphasize the salience of the individual.

Active voice with subject, VOIS (verb, object, instrument, subject)

Passive voice with agent, VSIO

Passive voice with agent deleted, VIO

Circumstantial voice with agent, VSOI

Circumstantial voice with agent deleted, VOI

Fasold points out that the circumstantial voice not only avoids reference to the agent, but also minimizes the role of the theme. A similar device is found in English.

Active voice with transitive subject (subject is agent of action)

The child broke the window with the ball

Active voice with ergative subject (subject is theme of action)

The window broke.

Active voice with instrumental subject (subject is instrument of action)

The ball broke the window.

The difference from the Malagasy structure is that the active voice with instrumental subject may only be used to conceal the truth in English. If there is no reason to conceal truth, the sentence may be ungrammatical (indicated by an asterisk):

*The soap washed the clothes. (<I washed the clothes with the soap.)

*The pen wrote your letter. (<I wrote your letter with the pen.)

*The new sponge washed the car. (<I washed the car with the new sponge.)

An English speaker would not interpret the above sentences as concealing the truth, but would be puzzled or even amused by the raising of instrument to the subject position.

Existential Constructions in Malagasy - used to avoid direct reference to the individual

misy liona any Afrika

exist lion there Africa

misy Andriamanitra

exist God

misy mitomany

exist cry

misy mitady

exist look-for = (Someone) is looking for (someone).

The last sentence above could be used by a friend who knows that your brother is looking for you. If you heard this in English (Somebody is looking for you), you would assume that the person who told you did not see or know the person. In Malagasy, the subject and object are avoided simply because of the principle of avoiding individual reference.

Orders and Requests- making a request or giving an order require certain assumptions on the part of the speaker: sufficient authority or adequate solidarity. The hearer either has to serve the speaker or refuse. Passive and circumstantial voices help minimize the possibility of confrontation that a direct command leading to refusal would cause.

Passive imperative without agent (note theme in subject position, last)

Passive imperative with agent

Sasao	-nao	ny	lamba
be-washed	by-you	the	clothes
imperative passive verb	agent		theme

Circumstantial imperative without agent (note instrument in subject position, last)

Anasao	ny	lamba	ity	savony	ity
with-be-washed	the	clothes	this	soap	this
imperative circumstantial verb		theme		instrument

Circumstantial imperative with agent (note instrument in subject position, last)

Anasao	-nao	ny	lamba	ity	savony	ity
with-be-washed	by-you	the	clothes	this	soap	this
imperative circumstantial verb	theme	instrument

Direct imperative

Manasa	lamba
wash	clothes

Requests are softened by using hints instead, postponing the hint, and by dropping the hint only when fulfilling the request will benefit someone other than the person making the request. We would interpret such procedures as exasperating and time-wasting. Malagasy would consider our requests as brusque and confrontational. All of this circumspection is used less with outsiders, by women, and with trivial issues. Women, for example, usually barter, since they are expected to use a more direct style. The last form is considered extremely rude.

In English, we have a similar construction, using the imperative auxiliary 'let':

Let the battle begin!

Let the music play!

kinship terminology - Despite the proximity of Spanish-speaking countries, kinship terminology, the words in a language used to identify family relationships, presents significant differences. In general, the language reflects the prominence that extended family relationships have in Latin countries.

tío/tía carnal - "blood uncle/aunt;" brother or sister of one of one’s parents

tío/tía político/a - "uncle/aunt by marriage"

primo/a hermano/a - "brother/sister cousin;" direct offspring of the blood uncle

concuño/a - brother-in-law or sister-in-law’s brother or sister

compadre - godfather (this term does exist in English, but the relationship is often far more formal in Latin cultures

ahijado - godchild (this term is even less frequently used in the English language, but is quite common in Spanish-speaking cultures)

taxonomy - another way in which languages reflect cultures is in the taxonomies, or systems for classifying objects and beings; the Hopi, instead of dividing events into past, present, and future, divide them into Objective (manifested) and Subjective (unmanifested realms); the particle -ni is used to indicate actions or states in the subjective realm:

wari - is running, ran

wa!rik-ni - will run

wa!rik-ni-qa - a possible runner

tewa9!-ni - (I) will see, would have seen

color terminology - Guaraní illustrates the ways in which languages differ in carving up the color spectrum. The word for orange has been created from the Spanish word "naranja."

English Color	Guaraní Color
red, purple	pyta‡
violet to pink	pyta‡ngy (reddish)
orange	nara‡ry
blue to green	hovy
yellow	sayju
brown	hu‡ngy (blackish)
black	hu‡
white	moroti‡ (pale, colorless)

In an indigenous language of Southern Mexico, Tzotzil, there is a color term meaning white-pink, and another for red-orange. Children were ask to continue a pattern of white and red sticks, choosing from among sticks of four different colors: white, pink, red, and orange. They did reproduce the contrast of the white and red, but substituting pink for white on occasion, and orange for red sometimes. Then those who had made color substitutions were asked to sort a pile of sticks by color. Of the children who substituted pink for white and orange for red in the first experiment, 11 of 12 were able to put the colors into four piles correctly. This study therefore challenges linguistic determinism, since Tzotzil children do not suffer from any sort of "linguistic Daltonism" (which would be colorblindness caused by language). The data do support, however, the idea of linguistic relativity and a weak version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

euphemism - use of a similar sounding word or paraphrase to avoid a taboo expression; examples abound in English, for which you may supply the missing obscenity or profanity

prototype - a theoretical category of meaning (i.e., semantic category) which is found in all languages; examples might include such semantic roles as agent, instrument, theme, source, destination, and benefactor