跨文化交际上课内容unit4

Review

1. What is the Hofstede model of cultural pattern?

2. What is high-context communication and what is low-context communication? How about the major differences between a high-context culture and a low-context one?

Unit Four Language and Culture

I.Warm Up

Please read the humorous dialogues on page 118, then try to translate them into Chinese. Can they be rendered in Chinese as humorous as the original?

nguage and Culture

1.Read the article of “How Is Language Related to Culture”. What do you

think is the relationship between language and culture?

1)the relationship between language and culture: Culture and

language are intertwined相互交错and shape each other. It is impossible to separate the two. Language is not a matter of neutral codes and grammatical rules. Each time we select words, form sentences, and send a message, either oral or written, we also make cultural choices. Thus, we have to be aware of the cultural implications of the phrase if we want to avoid attributing a very different meaning to it or interpret解释it literally.

2)Functions of language:

e.g. questions: asking for information – information questions

a lubricant 润滑剂to move the conversation forward –social questions

Examples: How are you? 吃了吗?

3)The meaning of the words comes out of the context, the cultural

usage用法.

①Language reflects the environment in which we live.

Example: self-introduction of Germans and Americans

②Language reflects cultural values.

4)Problems:

①There are no such equivalents between languages, and we

translate concepts from a foreign language and culture with words that fit our priorities优先顺序. Therefore to communicate concepts effectively, cultural knowledge is as important as linguistic knowledge.

Examples: manana/tomorrow kinship terms 亲属称谓(E &

C)p125-126

②Sometimes different cultures use identical完全相同words that

have rather different meanings.

Examples: administration, director, force majeure

5)Language changes over time. Words and phrases that are used

commonly at one time may be discontinued or their meaning may change over time.

6) A language, if spoken in different parts of the globe, ultimately will

develop differently.

Examples; pidgin Englishes

2.Read the article of “Language-and-Culture, Two Sides of the Same

Coin”. How does language reflect the culture?

1)Language and culture are clearly fused混合; one reflects the other.

2)Language-and-Culture: It is coined创造by Byram and Morgan in

1994 in order to reflect the relationship between language and culture – both unification 同一and separation.

3)Language embodies体现the products, perspectives, communities,

and persons of a culture. Members of the culture have created the language to carry out all their cultural practices, to identify and organize all their cultural products, and to name the underlying cultural perspectives in all the various communities that comprise their culture.

①Language and cultural products:

Many cultural products – literature, tax codes, telephone directories, operating instructions, passports – consist entirely of language.

Language is a cultural product in and of itself.

②Language and cultural practices: