Perspective Of Cultural Linguistics Research Articles

Form, Function and Meaning of “Satua I Siap Selem” (A Cultural Linguistic Review)

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to describe the form, function (of language) and meaning of Satua (Folklore) I Siap Selem from a Cultural Linguistic perspective. Research methods: This research is descriptive qualitative in nature using primary data collected using the observation method with the help of note-taking techniques. Data were analyzed using the matching method and the agih method and the results were presented using formal and informal techniques. Results and discussion: The form of Satua I Siap Selem is a discourse in the form of fictional prose. The general function of Satua I Siap Selem is as a means of entertainment, while based on the communicative function of language its functions are informational, expressive, directive, aesthetic and phatic. The implied meaning of Satua I Siap Selem states mutual love and togetherness, mutual respect and mutual help, evil or cunning, ingenuity and responsibility, as well as stupidity. Implications: Satua I Siap Selem contains a good life philosophy and moral messages so it is very good to serve as bedtime entertainment and character education for children.

Cultural–Cognitive Study of Selected Death-Oriented Personal Names in Igbo

Working chiefly within the tenets of Cultural Linguistics (CL), this study examines the cultural and cognitive motivations that underlie selected death-oriented personal names among the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria. Based on the cultural linguistic perspective, the analytical tool for the study is shaped by insights from cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors as signifiers of ideation and social meaning. The cultural frames enable the language user to have a better understanding of the cultural and cognitive motivations that underlie the conceptualization of names and naming among the Igbo. Much has been done on the structure and sociological forms of Igbo personal names and their meanings, but only a few studies have been undertaken on the names that express the notions of death and dying in Igbo. More importantly, no previous study has used insights from Cultural Linguistics (CL) or the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) to explain the motivations for the preponderance of death-oriented names among the Igbo people. Thus, this study specifically aims to address the lacuna. The study reveals that the Igbo, like most African and other human societies, recognize and accept the inevitability of death. Consequently, they use language in diverse forms and contexts to express their perceptions of the horrors and pains associated with the inevitability of death. Songs, proverbs and ritual practices are some of the verbal and social semiotic forms through which the Igbo express their knowledge of and attitude toward death and dying. However, names and naming are the most vivid cultural cognitive patterns by which the Igbo show their understanding of the nature of death and dying and their psychological effects on the living. Constrained by space and scope, this study identified and classified six major death-oriented names among the Igbo, as follows: names that depict the overwhelming power of death; names that make an appeal to death; names that depict death as wicked/evil/terror; names that depict death as no respecter of wealth/social class; names that challenge/mock the assumed power of death; and names that depict death as an insensitive entity. Thus, the above frames constitute the major paradigms by which the Igbo express their knowledge of and attitudes toward death and dying.

The discourse of ‘falling standards’ of English in Hong Kong

AbstractThe phenomenon of the ‘complaint tradition’, expressing the belief that language standards are deteriorating in some way, has had a long and vibrant existence in discussions of English in Hong Kong. The contribution of a Cultural Linguistics perspective here highlights the nature and significance of the cultural conceptualisations of language, for example, those that are revealed by the use of metaphor. The article begins with an overview of the discourse in Hong Kong, based on a corpus of media articles. The discourse structure and content of the articles, including their metaphorical aspects, are then analysed in more detail. To help understand the persistence of the discourse I draw on the insight that metaphors constitute ‘mini‐narratives’ which construct identities and identity boundaries. The discussion considers how the prevailing conceptualisations of English—some general, and others more culturally specific—serve to reproduce dominant, standardising views and inhibit the acceptance of local variation.

A Comparative Study of Cultural Categories in American English and Vietnamese Shop Signs

There is a lack of studies on shop sign language from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. This study contributes to the approach by investigating cultural categories in American English and Vietnamese shop signs. The corpus for analysis includes 1,748 shop signs in the US and 1,585 shop signs in Vietnam. The cultural categories are analyzed and evaluated based on their prototypes and subcategories compared from three dimensions: (1) linguistic expressions and frequency of occurrence, (2) generative capacity (in combination with other categories), and (3) pragmatic meaning (other functions related to communicative reality). The results show certain variations of the cultural categories in the three dimensions between the two speech communities, making each prototype distinctive from others in the same register and its own cross-cultural equivalents. The category variations reflect the two speech communities’ typical psychology, cognition, shared knowledge, and experience.

Unraveling the Human Characters Represented in Dutch Water Proverbs: A Cultural Linguistic Perspective

This article investigates the human character represented in Dutch proverbs related to water. The research method used is a qualitative approach with a content analysis design. Data were collected from Dutch proverb dictionaries published in the Netherlands and Dutch-Indonesian dictionaries published in Indonesia. The data were analyzed using cultural linguistic theory with associative-conceptual analysis techniques. The research results showed that the proverb of water in the Dutch language represents human characters which are divided into positive and negative categories. The positive characters found describe people who are optimistic, quiet, willing to compromise, brave, and honest which are the wisdom found in Dutch society. The proverbs of water also reveal negative human characters such as people who like to insinuate, who are exaggerative, who like to look for other people’s mistakes, and who seek opportunities from the suffering of others. These human characters are the view of the Dutch in understanding the world and are used as a reflection of life with social goals as advice, morals, and teaching.

Conceptualizations of gratitude: A comparative analysis of English and Persian dissertation acknowledgements written by Persian authors

ABSTRACT The present study applies a cultural conceptualizations framework within the multidisciplinary field of Cultural Linguistics to the analysis of gratitude in dissertation acknowledgements (DAs), as a culturally-embedded genre written in Persian and English by native speakers of Persian. Benefitting from a corpus analysis approach to Cultural Linguistics, 185 English and 196 Persian DAs from language-related fields were selected randomly from DAs written in national universities in Iran as the corpus for the study. Grounded theory-driven analysis revealed a number of similar and different representations of Persian cultural schema and cultural metaphors between the sampled Persian and English DAs. Additionally, the unclosed cultural conceptualizations revealed a selective transfer of Persian cultural conceptualizations to the DAs written in English. The paper concludes with reference to the emergence of Persian English in the DAs. By complementing genre analysis with a Cultural Linguistics perspective, the study contributes to the literature on comparative genre analysis of DAs, moving it beyond move-step analysis to a more systematic in-depth cultural analysis. In addition, the findings advance the literature on Cultural Linguistics by revealing a relationship between cultural schema and cultural metaphor.

Metonymy in Traditional Marriage Discourse of Manggarai Speech Community: Cultural Linguistic Perspective

Metonymy in Traditional Marriage Discourse of Manggarai Speech Community: Cultural Linguistic Perspective

The Kazakh Concept of Soul in Abai Kunanbaev’s <i>Book of Words</i>


 
 
 This study explores conceptualisations of ??? ([jan] soul) in the Kazakh language from the perspective of cultural linguistics and its literary representation in the English translation of Book of Words by Abai Kunanbaev, a prominent Kazakh philosopher and writer. The concept of ??? (jan) was analysed from the viewpoint of philosophical and image features and their roles in the formation of the national worldview. A comparative study showed discrepancies in its realisation by Abai Kunanbaev and the English translation even though some variations in the translation cannot be complete equivalents. There is a lack of semantic and cultural identity, and the results indicate that the literal English translation of ??? (jan) does not transmit its whole cultural implications. The article also focuses on determining how different methods of translation reproduce the semantics of the analysed concept. The analysis concludes with the necessity of using structural and semantic shifts to better represent the target concept and culture.
 
 

China English and College Intercultural Education: A Cultural Linguistic Perspective

Abstract In the era of globalization, English as an international language (EIL) is also the medium of intercultural communication for the international community. Based on the theory of cultural linguistics (CL), which regards language as culture-oriented rather than structure-oriented, Sharifian (2009, p. 4) has proposed that varieties of English which constitute EIL result from the interaction between the English language and different local cultures. CL suggests that China English (CE) should be understood in this light: It is not a substandard interlanguage, but a variety of English with its own cultural value and right. This paper intends to systemically analyze the nature of CE and its value in intercultural communication so as to better understand current intercultural education. Over a long time, much emphasis has been laid on the importance of adapting to the target language culture to the neglect of home language culture in our College English classrooms, thus resulting in what is known as Chinese cultural aphasia. In the light of CL, intercultural communication competence (ICC) encompasses not only knowing English and adapting to its culture, but also using CE to introduce the native culture in which CE plays an irreplaceable role. Therefore, CE is undoubtedly a key remedy for Chinese cultural aphasia. More research on CL should be conducted as it provides felicitous disciplinary guidance for our college intercultural education.

Conceptualizastion of shtetl in American English: A Cultural Linguistic Study

This paper examines the conceptualizations of shtetl, ‘a small Jewish town or village formerly found in Eastern Europe’, in American English from the perspective of cultural linguistics. It can be observed that the concept of shtetl reflects cultural metaphors, where shtetl is viewed as a mythic Jewish idyll and, contemporarily, a metaphor for Jewish communality, for example, referring to an apartment building in an urban Jewish American neighborhood of the East Coast cities. It may be suggested that shtetl is also used to describe and categorize things such as tradition, a place of Jewish Diaspora and Yiddishkeit for, mainly, American Jewry. Therefore, this research paper presents cultural categorizations of a place that often emerges at the cultural level of cognition. Overall, the observations made in this paper reveal the potential of cultural schema theory for the studies of cultural linguistics. To recognize this role, the fundamentals of cultural linguistics and its schemes have been used to highlight the need for further research. Several cross-sectional studies have accentuated the cultural concept of a shtetl, e.g. Palmer (1996), Sharifian (2011, 2017). This study has tried to identify the key elements of a shtetl. I have applied Sharifian’s (2017) cultural conceptualization models as well as his distributed model of cultural schemas that can contribute to the knowledge of understating the concept of shtetl in Yiddish and American English, and among Holocaust survivors, first generation, second generation, and third generation American Jews.

Górnośląskie nazwy obiektów gastronomicznych motywowane nazewnictwem regionalnym – między glokalizacją a komercjalizacją

The article is a form of introduction into a complex issue of creating artificial dependencies between local culture and the culture of consumption, exploiting, for the sake of commercial aims, the cultural heritage of the region. This synthesis describes the naming tendencies peculiar to the creation of Upper Silesian gastronomical facilities by onomastic lexicon of the region. The selected chrematonyms, consist of 56 examples were noted between 2018 and 2022 from the urban sphere of Upper Silesia. The names were described from a pragmalinguistic and cultural-linguistic perspective, considering the regional and commercial determinants of their creations. On the basis of the analysis the appropriate conclusions were drawn. They refer to the interfusion of two opposing naming tendencies – traditional and innovative – presenting themselves in Upper Silesian names created by the use of various methods and techniques. The varied onymic material showed many traits of consumptionist culture which display in their structure and semantics the Upper Silesian names of gastronomical facilities.

Cultural conceptualisations ofloong(龙) in Chinese idioms

AbstractThis study investigates the abundant metaphorical meanings of the termloong(‘dragon’) in Chinese idioms and the cognitive and cultural factors that influence those meanings from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. To this end, we present a systematic categorisation of the idiomatic expressions involving the termloongin Mandarin Chinese based on three conceptual metaphors:a human being is a loong, a concrete entity is a loong, andan abstract object is a loong. We then elaborate on the cultural conceptualisations ofloongfrom three perspectives: cultural schemas, cultural categories, and cultural metaphors. The results of the study show how the metaphorical conceptualisations ofloongare profoundly influenced by Chinese culture. The resulting study is intended to add to the pool of studies which lend support to the view that a fine-grained study of the metaphors of a particular culture and their linguistic realisation can shed light on how culture influences human cognition. Finally, the study calls for a clearer integration of cultural approaches into conceptual metaphor theory and it explores some possibilities in this regard.

ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРНЫЕ КОНЦЕПТЫ ЦВЕТА В АНГЛИЙСКОМ, ФРАНЦУЗСКОМ И РУССКОМ ЯЗЫКАХ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ФРАЗЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ЕДИНИЦ С ЦВЕТОВЫМ ПРИЗНАКОМ)

The relevance of the given research can be explained by the fact that concepts of colour represent significant information about the hierarchy of values within the linguistic community and contribute to the notion «colour picture of the world». It is reasonable to conduct a research of colour from the perspective of cultural linguistics, in particular, of its branch, linguistic conceptology. The article provides a linguo-cultural analysis of the colour conceptual sphere, represented by phraseological units with colour attribute and colour words in the english, french and russian languages. The objectives of the research are to carry out a comparative analysis of phraseological units with colour attribute and colour words in the english, french and russian languages and reveal their universality, difference and their unique character in the linguistic cultures under consideration. The main methods of the research are comparative and interpretation analyses as well as etymological and quantitative methods. The main sources for the research are phraseological units with colour attribute and words denoting colour collected from english, french and russian phraseology dictionaries using the continuous sampling method. The research has led to the following conclusions: man perceives the world around through colours, because colour accompanies almost all manifestations of human life; every language culture is characterized by its own ethnic-priority and ethnic-relevant colours; colour acts as an expression of universality, difference and uniqueness in the perception of the outside world. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the development of linguistic and cultural conceptology with regard to the conceps of colour.

Differences between English and Chinese Vocabulary of Marine Animals

Chinese is the most used language in the world. The cultural traditions of various ethnic groups, especially cultural psychology, play a potential and important role in guiding and inspiring different associations produced by the same thing. Western culture advocates science and rationality. The British and Americans tend to symbolize some natural attributes of human beings rather than social attributes, and rarely use the zodiac animals to compare human thoughts. The Chinese admire the "harmony between man and nature" and the realm of things, and love to use the characteristics of the animals of the twelve zodiacs to compare the social characteristics of human beings. In other words, the Chinese have their own ideological character invisible to the twelve. On the zodiac, the symbolic words that represent these animals produce rich connotations. However, from the perspective of cultural linguistics, there are still many differences between the Chinese and English Zodiac animals. In order to analyze these differences, this paper analyzes the twelve Chinese zodiac animals in different cultures. In the form of expression, the comparison method is used to compare the animal idioms related to Chinese Zodiac in two languages.This paper makes a comparison between animal idioms and animal idioms in the two languages. It is concluded that the animal words in Chinese include both inland words and marine animals such as "whale". The conclusion is that ancient Chinese culture is more inclusive. At the same time, different cultural differences will lead to different language differences.

Culture-specific conceptualisations relating to corruption in China English

This paper examines the metaphorical conceptualisations relating to corruption in China English and explores the role of culture in shaping these conceptualisations, from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. Following a corpus-assisted cultural and discursive approach to the data of China media English between 2013 and 2018, this study finds 15 instantiations of metaphorical conceptualisations, which are subsumed under three higher-level conceptual metaphors: CORRUPTION AS HARMS TO HUMAN LIFE, ANTI-CORRUPTION AS SECURING HUMAN SURVIVAL and THE RULING PARTY AS A BENEVOLENT AND EXEMPLARY PERSON ELIMINATING THESE HARMS. These metaphorical constructions appear to be closely associated with cultural schemas CORRUPTION IS DEVIATION FROM VIRTUE, VIRTUE IS THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN LIFE and RULERS SHALL BE VIRTUE EXEMPLARS AND EXERCISE BENEVOLENT GOVERNANCE, which derive from Confucian teachings and dominant ideologies of modern China. Several cultural image schemas are also encoded in this study's data and have provided context for the metaphorical conceptualisations of corruption. The above cultural constructs mark the uniqueness of China English in lexical, conceptual and cultural aspects. They also serve the ideological purpose of building a positive image for the ruling party. This paper calls for more awareness and exploration of the cultural conceptualisations present in China English.

Love and Language in Massan: The Turbulent Romance of Toshio and Hana

ABSTRACT This article analyzes courtship between secondary characters Toshio and Hana in the televised NHK drama Massan. When viewed through the lens of sociolinguistics, their romance is fraught with linguistic and pragmatic problems. Toshio and Hana speak different non-prestigious dialects, and also spend much of their interaction arguing. However, they eventually marry. Their path to marriage and the contents of their speech are also interesting from the perspective of cultural linguistics because they reflect competing cultural models for successful (happī endo) romances derived from the analysis of romance fiction. One type of romance reflects Japanese ideals of social contextualization, while the other is based on translations from English, reflecting cultural importation.

Synonymic Traps in Selected English Lexical Semantics Terms

The paper zooms in on terminological and conceptual scrutiny of selected eight English lexical semantics terms with the aim of pointing out their terminological synonymy, which is often misrecognized by English linguistics undergraduates. Does a ‘loose synonym’ denote in lexical semantics the same thing as a ‘partial synonym’ or ‘cognitive synonym’? Is the cognitive content of the term ‘false friend’ identical with that of a ‘pseudosynonym’ or ‘paronym’? What aspects of the semantic continuum are shared and non-shared by the selected terms? These questions are at the core of this contribution which can serve didactic purposes of English linguistics teaching. The desk research findings are part of semantic and lexicographic studies and aspire to forewarn English linguistics undergraduates of conceptual misinterpretations in common lexical semantics terms. The paper operates from the perspective of cultural linguistics across the Anglophone semantic continuum. It is based on a tailored Sharifian’s premise [2015] that the metalanguage of English lexical semantics is a repository of cultural conceptualizations that leave traces in its current terminological practice. The study suggests that some English lexical semantics terms offer a considerable space for their synonymic treatment, however, to the detriment of their correct conceptual decoding. The credit of the paper lies in raising undergraduates’ awareness of metalinguistic terminology but also in increasing their conceptual fluency in the selected terms.

Gwarowy leksem gryfny jako modny komponent kultury konsumpcyjnej

The object of the analysis is the way of creating commercial utterances and functional names in which the formal indicator is the dialectal lexeme gryfnie recognized as a fashionable component of Polish language of consumption. According to the communicative practice of the creators of cultural texts, the use of the gryfny component valorizes products, identifies service objects, assesses offers and highlights the speakers of the language living in the Upper Silesia region. The analytical material coming from the advertisements spread by media and on the Internet was described from the perspective of cultural linguistics and pragmalinguistics. The references to cognitive conception of meaning fields were made taking into account the appropriate methodological solutions and the complex polisystem of commercial conditions.

A SKETCH OF THE VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE FROM SOUTHEAST ASIAN PERSPECTIVE

As a Southeast Asian nation, Vietnam is a miniature of the languages and cultures of the region thanks to its possession of the most typical features of the languages and cultures of various Southeast Asiannations. Through description and comparison using an inter-disciplinary approach, the paper points outthat due to Vietnam’s special geographical position, its language and culture do contain phenomena which reflect the boundaries of linguistic and cultural features among different subregions in Southeast Asia. Therefore, Vietnam can be regarded as the intermediary for the linguistic and cultural interchange between the North and the South. In other words, from a cultural-linguistic perspective, Vietnam is considered a gateway or a hub of contact among East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Pragmatics of Irish emigrant ballads in light of the national identity problem

The article discusses the pragmatic potential of the Irish emigrant ballads from the perspective of cultural linguistics. From the viewpoint of pragmatics, a ballad as an act of indirect communication can not only describe national traits, but also can serve as a mechanism to form national self-consciousness. The analysis of subject organization and spatial, temporal and axiological specificity of Irish emigrant ballads reveals the principles postulating the idea of national unity existing in Irish culture. Its appeal to the audience, high figurativeness and intensive usage of cultural notions allow us to consider the issue of national identity beyond the content of the text and also from the communicative perspective. The ballad performance correlates with a performative speech act where the performer verbalizes a number of the process parameters of actions accomplished by the character. This aspect is associated with the behavioural models reflecting the processes of assimilation followed by adoption of a new cultural paradigm. Therefore, the ballads of assimilative, integrative and unification orientation are distinguished. The assimilative function reflects an ability of an emigrant to become part of a new environment; the integrative function is associated with an ability to preserve the national identity in a new culture; the unification function shows correlation of the individual value categories with the native cultural values, but unlike the integrative ballads and unifying ballads it cannot potentially form a diaspora.