Ethnolinguistics

Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics)[1] is a field of linguistics that studies the relationship
between language and culture and how different ethnic groups perceive the world. It is the combination
between ethnology and linguistics. The former refers to the way of life of an entire community: all the
characteristics that distinguish one community from the other. Such characteristics make the cultural aspects of
a community or a society.

Ethnolinguists study the way perception and conceptualization influences language and show how that is
linked to different cultures and societies. An example is how spatial orientation is expressed in various
cultures.[2][3] In many societies, words for the cardinal directions east and west are derived from terms for
sunrise/sunset. The nomenclature for cardinal directions of Inuit speakers of Greenland, however, is based on
geographical landmarks such as the river system and one's position on the coast. Similarly, the Yurok lack the
idea of cardinal directions; they orient themselves with respect to their principal geographic feature, the
Klamath River.

Cultural Linguistics is a related branch of linguistics that explores the relationship between language and
cultural conceptualisations.[4] Cultural Linguistics draws on and expands the theoretical and analytical
advancements in cognitive science (including complexity science and distributed cognition) and anthropology.
Cultural linguistics examines how various features of human languages encode cultural conceptualisations,
including cultural schemas, cultural categories, and cultural metaphors.[4] In Cultural Linguistics, language is
viewed as deeply entrenched in the group-level, cultural cognition of communities of speakers. Thus far, the
approach of Cultural Linguistics has been adopted in several areas of applied linguistic research, including
intercultural communication, second language learning, Teaching English as an International Language, and
World Englishes.[5]

See also
Anthropological linguistics
Associative group analysis
Evolutionary psychology of language
Linguistic anthropology
Wilhelm von Humboldt

References
1. Ferraro, Gary (2006). Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective. Cengage Learning.
ISBN 0-495-10008-0.
2. Heine, Bernd (1997) Cognitive Foundations of Grammar. Oxford/New York: Oxford University
Press.
3. Tuan, Yi-Fu (1974) Topophilia: A study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
4. Sharifian, Farzad (2011). Cultural Conceptualisations and Language: Theoretical Framework
and Applications. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
5. Sharifian, Farzad & Palmer, Gary B. (eds.) (2007) Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for
second language learning and intercultural communication. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
Sources
Wierzbicka, Anna (1992) Semantics,
Culture, and Cognition: Universal human
concepts in culture-specific configuration.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Bartmiński, Jerzy. Aspects of Cognitive
Ethnolinguistics. Sheffield and Oakville, CT:
Equinox, 2009/2012.
(en) Madeleine Mathiot (dir.),
Ethnolinguistics : Boas, Sapir and Whorf
revisited, Mouton, La Haye, 1979, 323 p.
(ISBN 978-90-279-7597-3)
(fr) Luc Bouquiaux, Linguistique et
ethnolinguistique : anthologie d'articles
parus entre 1961 et 2003, Peeters, Louvain,
Dudley, MA, 2004, 466 p.
(fr) Christine Jourdan et Claire Lefebvre
(dir.), « L'ethnolinguistique », in
Anthropologie et sociétés, vol. 23, no 3,
1999, p. 5-173
(fr) Bernard Pottier, L'ethnolinguistique
(numéro spécial de la revue Langages),
Didier, 1970, 130 p.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Trabant, Jürgen, Humboldt ou le sens du
langage, Liège: Madarga, 1992.
Trabant, Jürgen, Traditions de Humboldt,
(German edition 1990), French edition,
Paris: Maison des sciences de l’homme,
1999.
Trabant, Jürgen, Mithridates im Paradies:
Kleine Geschichte des Sprachdenkens,
München: Beck, 2003.
Trabant, Jürgen, ‘L’antinomie linguistique:
quelques enjeux politiques’, Politiques &
Usages de la Langue en Europe, ed.
Michael Werner, Condé-sur-Noireau:
Collection du Ciera, Dialogiques, Éditions
de la Maison des sciences de l’homme,
2007.
Trabant, Jürgen, Was ist Sprache?,
München: Beck, 2008.
Vocabulaire européen des philosophes,
Dictionnaires des intraduisibles, ed. Barbara
Cassin, Paris: Robert, 2004.
Whorf, Benjamin Lee, Language, Thought
and Reality: Selected Writings (1956), ed.
John B. Caroll, Cambridge, Massachusetts:
M.I.T. Press, 1984.
Wierzbicka, Anna, Semantics, Culture and
Cognition: Universal Human Concepts in
Culture-Specific Configurations, New York,
Oxford University Press, 1992.
Wierzbicka, Anna, Understanding Cultures
through their Key Words, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1997.
Wierzbicka, Anna, Emotions across
Languages and Cultures, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Wierzbicka, Anna, Semantics: Primes and
Universals (1996), Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2004.
Wierzbicka, Anna, Experience, Evidence &
Sense: The Hidden Cultural Legacy of
English, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2010.

External links
Cultural Linguistics (http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/lsc/about-cultural-linguistics/)
Applied Cultural Linguistics (https://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=CELC
R%207)
The Jurgen Trabant Wilhelm von Humboldt Lectures (7hrs) (https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/permalin
k/c1253a18f7e5ecnge8dp/)
Farzad Sharifian, publications (http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/farzad-sharifian/publications-
content/)
Cultural Linguistics: A new multidisciplinary field of research (https://farzadsharifian.com/cultura
l-linguistics-a-new-multidisciplinary-field-of-research/,)

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