Govt.

Zamindar Graduate College Gujrat

Assignment:
Sociolinguistics

Topic:
Language, Culture and Thoughts

Group Members:
Abdul Rehman Butt (509)
Ubaidullah Ranjha (562)
Jarar Mir (572)
M. Ahmed (578)
M. Usman (581)
Saqib Ali (582) (GL)
Syed Adeel Shah (588)

Class:
BS English

Semester:
2nd term (Morning)

Submitted To:
Sir Irfan Sabir

Dated:
6th November, 2023
 Language, Culture and Thoughts
1. Introduction:
As we know, language is a system of conventional spoken, manual
(signed), or written symbols by means of which human beings, as a members
of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves.
Culture can be defined as ‗shared beliefs, values and behaviours of
a social group‘, where social group can be a family at a micro level and a nation
at a macro level (Byram, 2008).
Both language and culture are related to each other.
Anthropologists have used language as a source of information in the general
study of culture. Language uses to convey cultural ideas and beliefs.
Furthermore, both culture and language allow us to look backward in history.
Also, it helps shape our thoughts. Our cultural values influence the way we
perceive, talk, communicate with others.
2. Language is socially acquired knowledge:
Language is used not just as a tool for the exchange of information,
but as a symbolic system with the power to create and shape symbolic
realities, such as values, perceptions, identities through discourse‘
(Kramsch, 2002). Our first language is initially acquired without conscious
awareness. We develop awareness of our knowledge, and hence of our
culture, only after having developed language. We learn about our language
through interaction in society. The particular language we learn through the
process of cultural transmission provides us, at least initially, with a ready-
made system of categorizing the world around us and our experience of it.
Children acquire language through interaction not only with their parents
and adults, but also with other children. All normal children who grow up in
normal households, surrounded by conversation, will acquire the language
that is being used around them.
3. Sapir Whorf hypothesis:
“Language is the very basic fabric of thought.” Wilhelm von
Humboldt.
In the 1930s among behaviorists and the 1950s among cognitive
psychologists, it was a common belief that language determines the
thought process of its speakers. One of the most famous concepts in this
 regard is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. This hypothesis was proposed by
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf Lee who worked independently and
presented their ideas. This hypothesis refers to the proposal that the
particular language one speaks influences the way one thinks about reality.
According to this, language is not merely a reproducing instrument for
voicing ideas, but is itself a shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the
individual‘s meaningful activity‘. Hence, language shapes i.e., determines
the ways by which we perceive reality (Marshall, 1998) According to the
hypothesis, thoughts are embodied in words. For example, different words
for snow and ice, Hopi‘s conception of time, different color names for
shades of blue in some Russian language, etc.
4. Versions of hypothesis:
1) Linguistic Relativity:
It is considered the weaker version. Where the speaker of different
language experiences and perceives world different from the speaker of another
language. It affects the day to day thinking, values and ideologies.
2) Linguistic Determinism:
It is considered stronger version. Language determines the thought and
speaker of a language as well as perceives, processes, and stores information on
the lines of his or her language. It is related to the cognitive structures being
determined by a language.
5. Linguistic Relativity:
Sapir (1929) stated that all languages represent a distinct
reality different from the realities that other languages project. He believed
that no two social realities could be expressed by one language or vice
versa. Even if the two languages may appear similar to the surface, they will
fail to express the same social reality. Civilizations with different native
languages are not only part of the same world having different vocabulary,
but the two languages represent two different and distinct worlds. In 1820,
the German philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt said that language
expressed the national spirit of its speakers. He believed that thoughts are
produced as a direct consequence of the dialogues going on in a person‘s
mind. These dialogues are in the same language that the persons speak.
The idea was largely accepted in Germany since it contributed to national
cohesion.
 Linguistic relativity refers to the ideas that can be relatively different in
different languages. Things that are acceptable in one language may not be
acceptable in another. Hence, may be considered taboo in the later culture.
Or, in some cases, different levels of importance are attached to the same
issue. For example, the family systems in our society, specifically elders are
respected and appreciated and so Urdu has a different name for whatever
relation. English, however, describes the title uncle and aunt only for the
relations, and consequently, joint family or large family systems are not a
part of their culture.
6. Linguistic Determinism:
Linguistic determinism is the concept that language and its
structures limit and determine human knowledge or thought, as well as
thought processes such as categorization, memory, and perception. In
terms of linguistic determinism, the language is the perception,
categorization, and memory. One clear and easy example of this is the color
recognition patterns in various languages. For example, an orange-yellow
spectrum is named using a single color by the speakers of the Zuni tribe.
English, however, uses two different words for yellow and orange. So, an
English speaker can differentiate between the two colors unlike the
speakers of the Zuni tribe‘s language. Additionally, the language of the
Piranha tribe in this regard is often quoted. It contains only three words for
counting, i.e. one, two, and many. In a series of experiments, it was evident
that these people had difficulty recounting numbers higher than three.
Hence, people of the Piranha tribe fail to accurately differentiate between
four and five objects, which meant that the tribe‘s language determines the
cognition of its speakers.
Sapir Whorf hypothesis has its arguments both in favor and in against,
presenting a balanced view of linguistic relativity as is supported by
linguistics. Researchers are more focused on to what extent language
influences thought.
7. Conclusion:
Languages appear to influence many aspects of human cognition.Further
studies have also found effects of language on people’s understanding of numbers,
colors, and shapes, events, and other minds. Considering the many ways in which
languages differ, the findings reviewed here suggest that the mental lives of people who
speak different languages may differ much more than previously thought.

Beyond showing that speakers of different languages think differently, these results
suggest that linguistic processes are pervasive in most fundamental domains of thought.