Language Reflecting Our Culture And Reality Cultural Studies Essay

oral communication Reflecting Our Culture And Reality Cultural Studies EssayLanguage is a system of symbols that completelyows members of a golf-club to communicate with unmatched a nonher. It is more(prenominal)(prenominal) than just a mean of communication. It can also be viewed as an important element in shaping our conclusion and the perception of introductionly concern. This story will focus on the relationship among diction, stopping point and frankness also how media and sex activity culture have modulates on the relationship. With the help of contrastive scholars view, we can analysis how linguistic process reflect our culture and realism.Linguists have examine the relationship between manner of speaking and culture by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It accounts the differences in talking to across culture. harmonize to the hypothesis, language is a guide to hearty public which state that language is attaching to the real conception. Sapir-Whorf hypothe sis indicates the strong relationships among culture, language and realness into a cohesive whole.The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis shows that batch perceive the world d unmatchable the cultural lens of language which can be easily tacit with the diagram below.In other words, language acts standardised the lens on a camera in filtering reality, Language is the medium by which one views the world, culture, reality and thought. This example is best to illustrate the crux of the hypothesis reality for a culture is discoverable in its language.There are cardinal important aspects in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, they are verbiage and grammar and syntax of a language. let me give a personal experience to state the above concept. I was an exchange student after graduating from secondary school and stayed in a host family in the United States. People thither love to company and are addicted to alcohol. They get contrastive words referring to different forms of alcohol, including liquor, bre w, booze, wine, beer, drink, firewater, shooter, etcetera The point of telling my experience is that these terms are rarely apply in Hong Kong because we rarely encounter alcohol other than beer and wine.We can insure that it has a particularly rich vocabulary for alcohol, which shows that it is an important thing in American culture.Culture is evident not only in the vocabulary only if also the grammar and syntax. I studied German during that exchange year, and be that the grammar and context is so different between Chinese and German. There are no articles, a, an, the counted with the noun in Chinese. In German, each noun must be reason as either feminine or masculine with the collocation of the articles der, die, and das. This shows us that the grammatical gender is an essential part in German culture.However, on that point are arguments that against the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, one is do by Fiona Cowie, There are in the grammar observations that apply to all languages the se observations constitute what one calls general grammar. In examining this thought, approximately cultures and languages are related to each other and have similarities. It contradicts with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which states that all cultures see the world differently according to their language.In addition, Tomas Tsoi argued that language carries small-scale tendency in our thinking, and it cannot constitute with what Sapir-Whorf has suggested to be habitual thought. His evidences are if language indeed reflects world view, there are totally different world views among the same linguistic group, while people speaking different languages parcel of land similar world views. Besides, he also argues that how does a multilingual holds his world view if it is dependent on languages, because it will lead to contradiction.How do people come to get word the reality? The cultural environment that people grow up in can have surprising effects on how they interpret the world around them. This happens by track of different agents of sociableization. Media is one of the important kindlyization in reinforcing the cultural environment and the perception of reality, but so are family, school and peers. Media showers partnership with languages and images everyday. These images are delivered to the public through a variety of mediums, such(prenominal) as television, radio, newspaper.Language is a basal medium in the establishment of reality. Media act as a conduit in transmitting the image of reality. In other words, language reflects the culture and reality of its users. Media are never neutral for providing information. The images which we think depictions of reality are in reality shaped, because they are filtered through media to the general public. The mass media acts as a interpreter and bridges the gap. Racism, prejudice and discrimination are all perpetrated through media discourse. This is wherefore people need to have a high potential of media com petence to decode what is cosmos said.From the essay which is written by Ray Surette, he stated that the social construction of reality have influences on different individual. People construct their social reality based upon their interaction with an accusing reality with their first hand experiences. Thus, the information they receive from a cultures reality, such as language and the media create a subjective reality that directs their social behavior.In urbanized societies, the mass media play a crucial voice in the social construction of reality because knowledge of many social phenomena is obtained solely through the media. The mass media has become the dominant player in America. Furthermore, when other sources of knowledge are not available, the media play a great role in the construction and dissemination of social reality.In fact, media subscribe different ideologies. Under the influences of powerful groups, it is hard for media to strike balance between facts and diff erent ideologies. Therefore, audiences should bear the responsibility to distinguish message that are being delivered.The concept of media literacy is found to overcome the distortion of the truth from the messages that are created by the media. It is a process of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms. According to Jane Tallim, media literacyis the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. By activating the concept of media literacy, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation, especially through commericals and public relations techniques, and to understand the role of mass media in constructing views of reality.Moreover, media conveys a distinct message regarding gender and gender roles which leads us to the topic of language and gender. Males represent face-isms, their faces are shown more often than their bodies, which is associated with character and intellect. Since women are being objectitfication as a stir appeal product, females represent body-isms or partial-isms which is associated with weight and emotion.The topic of language and gender concerns in which men and women use their language differently and how the structure of language reflects or promotes gender division within a society. All of us have different styles of communicating with other people. The styles that men and women use to communicate have been described as debate vs. relate, report-talk vs. rapport-talk, or competitive vs. cooperative. work force often seek straightforward solutions to problems whereas women tend to establish intimacy by discussing problems with the frequency usage of tag questions.Dale Spender writes males, the dominant group, have constructed sexism and authentic a language trap in their own interest. This makes the male in the superior position and lead to sexism in language. Men have made their world out of their reality, and women are forced to live with these meanings. Another scholar, Shiela Rowbotham says If she enters creation she loses herself to himshe represents a woman but he is mankind. Women lose their roles in society because they are considered to go along with the rest of mankind, instead of womankind.The Interpretation conduct was an act that was passed in England in 1850 that simplified the language that was used in statutes, legally enabling he to be written instead of he or she. This Act was passed in order to promote the primacy of the male. At that time, there were no women in Parliament to vote against this Act, so it was being passed. It constructed that females had to adhere to a male reality for the world.Spender suggests, In order for the women of today to make their own reality, they must understand how the creation of this world is accomplished. The counseling to accomplish the above thought is to explore the relationship between language, culture and reality . Therefore, gender equality is a reality many people would like to bring out and our language should reflect this. According to Spender, By ever-changing our language we help change reality in a way that makes our language more accurate. If we change our language, we are to some extent manipulating the social reality. That is an ideology matter and somehow a paradox of socially constructed realities. Our language and society reflect one another, it is important for us to recognize and measure change in the meaning and the acceptability of words.As a conclusion, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has changed the way many people look at language. Elaine Chaika states Language and society are so intertwined that it is impossible to understand one without the other. There is no human society that does not depend on, is not shaped by, and does not itself shape language This statement best defines the relationship between languages, culture and reality. Language does not only shape the way rea lity is perceive but reality also shapes language.For my standpoint there is no practiced system to reflect our culture and reality through language. Language does influence culture and perception of reality but language does not regulate culture or reality.