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Fatih Iþýk
20300829
ETE
Ýsmail Erton
CULTURE AS A SHAPER
We can define culture as the beliefs, values and behaviours and material objects which are shared by a particular group of people. Every society ahs different cultures.Tis cultural diversity is result of such factors as geographical location, religious beliefs and lifestyle.Culture has symbols representing objects and patterns of behaviour. Language is the most important expression of this symbolism. People, members of culture, can share beliefs, thoughts and feelings by means of language. Language is also the means of cultural transmission. Language enables human beings to transmit culture not only in the present, but also from past to the future generations. As I said, language is the mirror of our lives. All our behaviours reveal our cultures. Like this, language is also a reflection of our culture. It reflects the values and facts of our culture. Because, languageis one of the most important components of a culture. It is a communication tool. Certainly, people commun icate with each other within the borders their culture allows them. So, naturally a language reflects the facts, beliefs and values of culture to which they belong. Language is a mirror of the relationship between people in a society. Change in a culture leads to some changes in language use.
Language reflects the relationship between people in a society. How people behave each other, how they address to each other, what people value in daily relationships are all reflected on language use of a society. Since it is a tool of communication, language is always a reflector rarherthan a reflection. What is reflected by means of this mirror is restricted to the principles of culture.Since cultures differ from each other, reflections show difference proportionally. As a result, every culture reflect the place of social relationship different from each other. Maks(2003) says in his internet article that "The thought( and thus culture) of a linguistic group is mirrored in the structure and content of their language, that because they behave and understand things in a certain way, their language reflect those behaviours and understandings. " We see that the ideas, values and beliefs of people belonging to a certain culture is reflected on language. It is natural, because people convey their ideas by means of language. For example; Jpanese people give importance to hierarchy. We can see its reflections on language. People use honorific language, called keigo, to elevate a person and humble oneself. They give much importanceto this special language. According to Onish(2003), a writer of New York Times, " In Japanese, there are many ways to say I or you, calibrateted by age, circumstance, gender, social position and other factors. Verb endings, adjectives, and entire words also shift according to the situation.Mistakes have been deadly. In 1975, two workers, Kunihiro Fukuda,30, and Tomohiko Okabe,27, were having a drink in a Tokyo bar, according to magazine reports at the time.Although Mr. Okabe was younger, he had entered the company first and had taken to addressing his colleague in a manner usually reserved for someone younger, calling him Fukuda, instead of Fukuda-san. Mr. Fukuda protested. But, Mr. Okabe said, "What is wrong if a senior guy calls his junior in this way?" Enraged Mr. Fukuda grabbed his colleague by the neck and beat him to death. "As shown in the example, the relationship between people in a society reflects on language-Language is a mirror of culture. But, some people claim that language is not mirror, but a reflection. Language is a reflection on culture. They think that language determines culture. According to Wahrf, language is our guide to reality, how we see world depends on the particular language we have learned. Our perception of facts is based on words and grammatical rules of our language (1956). He claims language is determiner rather than culture. But, he doesn't think that language is only a part of culture. How can a part shape the whole structure. It seems irrational to expect this. Yes, actually some points maybe common, some parts of language may be in common with culture. But, culture completely shapes language. And language is likely to be only a tool and reflec tor. Culture is determiner and reflection of language.
Changes in a culture leads to some changes in language. Since language reflects culture, naturally it also reflects the changes in a culture. So, cultural change is the reason for the changes in a language. According to the internet article, Linguistic Thinking, the more countries become technologically advanced, the newer words and phrases become part of their languages. So, language and culture are related and changes in either one are likely to result in changes in the other (2002). That is to say, adnvaces, reforms or revolutions in a culture are the motive for the changes in a language. These two are so much connected to each other that novelties in one means novelties in another. For example, Kim (2003) states in his internet article "Culture in Language that 'the increasing use of computers has led to new words and phrases in the language. Words such as 'gigabyte' and 'RAM' [Random Access Memory] while commonplace in English today, did not exist 50 years ago.
As it is exemplified, although people didn't even heard of such words as computer, gigabyte, RAM etc. one hundred or fifty years ago, now these are the words which are nearly inescapable to use in our daily life. So, we see that changes in technology reflects on language. As a result, it leads to change in language. There is a strong relationship between language use and culture. Language is determined by culture. But, some people insist on telling language is a shaper. It shapes culture. Sapir (1929) stated that "We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation." He mans that our perceptions of the world are determined by language. That's to say he intends to say that the language we use is a determinor of our culture. The culture we have is shaped by language. He exemplifies his theory that Yukip Eskimo has dozens of words for specific varieties of snow and ice, 16 words for seal while many languages of the tropics have a single word for snow and ice." Although he uses this example as a proof for his theory, I think that this proves that culture shapes language. Because, the reason for this is the geographical conditions in those places. Geography is one of the components of culture. So, we see that Eskimos use so many words related to snow as a result of their culture. This indicates that culture determines language rather than language determines culture.
There is a strong tie between language and culture. According to this tie, culture shapes language. Our use of language is determined by culture. Our language is a reflector of our culture. Language is a mirror of relationship between people in a society. Reforms and changes in a culture result in changes in language.
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