CULTURE

THEORY
TH 603
SPRING SEMESTER 2024
FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES AND ARTS
COURSE LEADER: GWENDOLYN KULICK
TEACHING ASSISTANT: MARIAM HALIM
LECTURE 4
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
20 & 21 FEB 2024

SPRING SEMESTER 2024

FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES AND ARTS
COURSE LEADER: GWENDOLYN KULICK
TEACHING ASSISTANT: MARIAM HALIM
In this lecture

1. Popular use of language reflecting cultural characteristics

2. Different languages and the importance of preserving them
3. Summary of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s language philosophy
1.
Popular use of language reflecting
cultural characteristics
• Proverbs
• Words for cultural concepts
Proverbs

> Definition

“ A scientific definition of a proverb is too difficult ...

An incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is
proverbial and that one is not.
Hence no definition will enable us to identify
positively a sentence as proverbial, many students
of proverbs have attempted to itemize its essential

”
characteristics.
Archer Taylor
Proverb and Riddle Scholar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Proverbs > Definition

One definition attempt from Wikipedia:

“ A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) is a simple,

concrete, traditional saying that expresses a truth
based on common sense or experience.
Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic

”
language. Collectively, they form a genre of folklore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Proverbs > Origins

• Result of people pondering and crafting language, for example:

– Confucius, Plato …
• Others are taken from diverse sources such as:
– Poetry – Stories – Songs – Commercials
– Advertisements – Movies – Literature
• A number of well known sayings of e.g. Jesus, Shakespeare and
others have become proverbs, though they were original at the
time of their creation.

>> Note: Many of these sayings were not seen as proverbs when
they were first coined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Proverbs > Origins

Over 1,400 new English proverbs are said to have been coined in
the 20th century.

>> This process of creating proverbs is always ongoing, so that

possible new proverbs are being created constantly.
>> Those sayings that are adopted and used by an adequate
number of people become proverbs in that society

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Proverbs > Applications

Proverbs are used to teach:

• Cultural values
• Ethics
• Historically / traditionally acquired wisdom
• Religious morals
• Political values

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Proverbs > Applications

Political propaganda, e.g. in old Soviet proverbs:

“ Bread is given to us not by Christ, but by machines

and collective farms.
”
“ A good harvest is only by a collective farm.
”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Proverbs > Examples

Some proverbs are based on the moral of legends and stories:

Example > Belling the Cat

> Fable by Aesop & recorded in the Middle Ages

The same story illustrated in … Japan The Netherlands France

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Example > Belling the Cat

A group of mice debate plans to nullify the threat of a marauding

cat. One of them proposes placing a bell around its neck, so that
they are warned of its approach.
The plan is applauded by the others, until one mouse asks who will
volunteer to place the bell on the cat. All of them make excuses.
>> The story is used to teach the wisdom of evaluating a plan on
not only how desirable the outcome would be but also how it
can be executed.
>> It provides a moral lesson about the fundamental difference
between ideas and their feasibility, and how this affects the
value of a given plan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling_the_Cat
Counter Proverbs

Often proverbs contradict each other:

“ Look before you leap!

”
versus

“ He who hesitates is lost!

”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Meta-Proverbs

In many cultures proverbs are so important that there are

proverbs about proverbs:

“ A conversation without proverbs is like stew without salt.

Ethiopia ”
“ Proverbs finish the problem.
Ethiopia ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
Meta-Proverbs

“ Whoever has seen enough of life

will be able to tell a lot of proverbs.
Nigeria ”
“ The purest water is spring water,
the most concise speech is proverb.
China ”
“ A proverb does not lie.
Arabic of Cairo ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb
More examples
 If you are looking at the
radishes from underneath,
you are dead and buried.
Research suggests that the
origin of this idiom is
actually the more
universal “root” rather
than “radish,” and this
particular version could
well stem from literature,
not folklore. It goes into a
category with other
synonyms for dying, such
as “Kicking the bucket,”
“Pushing up the daisies,”
or “Meeting your maker.”

From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings

 Somebody sliding in on a
shrimp sandwich has
likely had it very easy
and may not have had to
work hard to get where
they are. It is similar to
the English expression
“Being born with a silver
spoon in your mouth“

From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings

 Without context, the
expression, “Horse
horse, tiger tiger”
doesn’t have much
meaning, but it’s used
to mean “so-so”—not
fantastic but not awful,
mediocre.
Words to mean “so-so”
are found in many
languages, like French
(Comme ci, comme ça).

From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings

Can you think of
Egyptian or Arabic
Proverbs?
Do you know the following?
 „You know the English
phrase, “You win some,
you lose some”? This is
(more or less) the Arabic
version but with the
addition of honey and
onions and therefore,
potentially, far more
delicious.“

From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings

Literal translation: the door can pass a camel
Meaning: the door is wide open (for someone to leave)
https://farahshafie.com/egyptian-proverbs-illustrated
Literal translation: Moon Number 14
Meaning: refers to the moon cycle, on day 14, the moon is full and bright, at its peak of beauty;
most popularly used to describe an attractive female
https://farahshafie.com/egyptian-proverbs-illustrated
Literal translation: going into the bathroom is easier than getting out of it.
Meaning: getting into a situation is easier than getting out of it.
https://farahshafie.com/egyptian-proverbs-illustrated
Words for cultural concepts
Some terms are untranslatable from one language to the other, and
sometimes we can find a term in another language that expresses
an experience that we are unable to put into words …
https://www.akademie-solitude.de/en/publication/untranslatable-words-of-cultural-practices-a-shared-
vocabulary/?fbclid=IwAR3tDpCo1-hjIIueJnrXPdiEcP7cMsJE2NPzs5uX1zOy6R-1YYd9Zej7O58
“ The words in this book may be answers
to questions you didn’t even know to ask,
and perhaps some you did. They might
pinpoint emotions and experiences that
seemed elusive and indescribable, or they
may cause you to remember a person

”
you’d long forgotten.
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
Can you think of a unique Arabic
or Egyptian expression that stands
for a cultural concept?
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
From: Ella Frances Sanders. „Lost in Translation.“
Some cultural concepts and / or expressions
form the basis for popular concepts in other
professional fields …
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
Jugaad
• Is an Indian phrase used to describe the kind of ingenuity
that enables Indians to manage the large and small
challenges of everyday life.
• The essence of Jugaad is to improvise, and to quickly and
cheaply cobble a solution together from the materials you
have at hand.
• Jugaad innovation springs directly from the very concrete
restrictions that characterize everyday life: low income, and
often miserable and unpredictable infrastructure like bad and
congested roads or intermittent supplies of electricity and
water
Jugaad > Examples

https://www.deccanherald.com/content/594823/theres-always-way.html
Jugaad > Examples

https://propakistani.pk/2008/05/27/picture-of-the-day/
 Jugaad > Examples

https://apkpure.com/ar/desi-jugaad/com.jazzyworlds.desijugaad
 Jugaad > Examples

Jugaad > Examples

https://apkpure.com/ar/desi-jugaad/com.jazzyworlds.desijugaad
https://apkpure.com/ar/desi-jugaad/com.jazzyworlds.desijugaad
Jugaad > Examples

https://www.indiatvnews.com/buzz/who-cares/best-indian-jugaad-pics-32.html
Jugaad > Examples

https://www.indiatvnews.com/buzz/who-cares/best-indian-jugaad-pics-32.html
Jugaad > Examples
 Jugaad
Principles
– Seek opportunity in adversity
– Do more with less
– Think and act flexibly
– Keep everything about the business simple
– Tap the margins of society for employees
and customers
– Follow your heart
The relevance to companies in the developed world comes from
identifying those parts of the Indian approach to innovation, which
can be used to develop solutions that have commercial potential on
a large scale.
https://techstory.in/indian-jugaad-technology/
More readings and inspiration on Jugaad:
Webpages
• www.innovationmanagement.se/2012/12/12/jugaad-innovation/
• www.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/14-pictures-that-prove-indians-
are-the-kings-of-jugaad-230904.html
• https://indianexpress.com/photos/trending-gallery/the-jugaad-technology-is-
here-to-stay-these-pictures-will-show-you-why-5336271/
Books

https://www.amazon.com/- https://www.amazon.com/Jugaad-
/de/dp/1118249747/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M Yatra-Hardcover-Dean-
%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=j
Nelson/dp/9387561259
ugaad+innovation&qid=1617278927&s=books&sr=1-1
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
From: Ella Frances Sanders: The Illustrated Book of Sayings
 Ubuntu [ùbúntú]

is a traditional African concept. The word ubuntu comes from

the Zulu and Xhola languages, and can be roughly translated as
"humanity towards others.”

The word exists in many other African languages as well and

describes a similar concept, e.g.
• Human generosity
• Have consideration and be humane towards others

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ubuntu_(philosophy)
 Ubuntu [ùbúntú]

Community has priority over individualism

• The individual’s identity is replaced by a larger societal
identity.
• The individual effectively represents the people from among
whom he or she comes.

Every individual represents a family, village, district, province and

region.

He / she must behave according to the highest standards and

exhibit … the virtues upheld by his or her society.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ubuntu_(philosophy)
 Ubuntu

It wasn't until the late 1900s with the rise and fall of apartheid
ubuntu fully transitioned into a philosophy. And is now a part or the
political ideology of Zimbabwe and South Africa.

https://steemit.com/philosophy/@alex-draw/the-african-philosophy-ubuntu-i-am-because-we-are
Ubuntu Philosophy in Politics

Desmond Tutu / Archbishop of South Africa defined it as

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming

of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and
good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from
knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is
diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when
others are tortured or oppressed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy#South_Africa
Ubuntu Philosophy in Politics

Barack Obama referred to Nelson Mandela using Ubuntu at

Madela’s funeral:

There is a word in South Africa – Ubuntu – a word that captures

Mandela’s greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound
together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a
oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing
ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/fr/content/ubuntu-south-africa-together-nelson-mandela/
Ubuntu

The name Ubuntu and this phrase are used by the popular Linux
based operating system
>> the thought is that new technology should be accessible to all
 Ubuntu [ùbúntú]
Open source computer system

https://www.macworld.co.uk/review/os-x-vs-ubuntu-linux-1604-trusty-tahr-3638906/
2.
Different languages and the
importance of preserving them
The relationship between different languages

https://content.openclass.com/eps/pearson-reader/api/item/33c1ac75-46ce-4867-ae30-
5281538f14a6/1/file/RubensteinCHG3-071415-
 The family tree of languages

• Language families with at least 9 million speakers are shown as

trunks of trees.
• Individual languages that have more than 5 million speakers are
shown as leaves.
• Some trunks divide into several branches, which logically represent
language branches.
• The branches representing Germanic, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-
Iranian divide a second time into language groups.

>> Some linguists speculate that language families were joined

together as a handful of super families tens of thousands of
years ago (shown as roots)
>> Their existence is highly controversial and speculative
https://content.openclass.com/eps/pearson-reader/api/item/33c1ac75-46ce-4867-ae30-
5281538f14a6/1/file/RubensteinCHG3-071415-
How languages impact one another

www.thinglink.com/scene/668391258422509568?buttonSource=viewLimits
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/205899014190193933/
How languages impact one another & travel
With a few minor exceptions, there are only two ways to say “tea” in the world.
> Like the English term tea, e.g. té in Spanish and tee in Afrikaans
> Variations of cha, e.g. chay in Hindi

https://qz.com/1176962/map-how-the-word-tea-spread-over-land-and-sea-to-conquer-the-world/
How languages impact one another

Loot, nirvana, pyjama, shampoo and shawl, bungalow,

jungle, pundit and thug …

… all are part of the English language nowadays, which

often remains unnoticed

www.thinglink.com/scene/668391258422509568?buttonSource=viewLimits
Example: culture, nature and language

In the arctic people have:

40 to 50 terms for snow, for example

Matsaaruti Wet snow
Pukak Crystalline powder snow that looks like salt

70 terms for ice, for example

Utuqaq Ice that lasts year after year
Siguliaksraq The patchwork layer of crystals that forms as the sea
begins to freeze
Auniq Ice that is filled with holes, like Swiss cheese.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/there-really-are-50-eskimo-words-for-
snow/2013/01/14/e0e3f4e0-59a0-11e2-beee-6e38f5215402_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f6bab97c905a
Untranslatable words for wellbeing in different languages

https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_lomas_expanding_our
_experiential_horizons_through_untranslatable_words
Untranslatable words for wellbeing in different languages

https://hifisamurai.github.io/lexicography/
The importance of preserving languages
Languages represent
– Different cultures and their specific characteristics
– Changes in culture
>> Therefore it is important to preserve languages

https://wikitongues.org/
The importance of preserving languages

https://wikitongues.org/
Language Hotspots

Language Hotspots represent areas where we find a concentration

of three logically independent factors:
– A high average level of endangerment
– A high degree of genetic diversity*
– A low average level of prior documentation

Rather than simply counting languages, hotspots take into account

the number of language families represented in an area to calculate
linguistic diversity.

* calculated on the level of language family not individual language

https://livingtongues.org/language-hotspots/
Language Hotspots

High genetic diversity

Most accounts of language diversity only look at the raw number of
languages in an area.
>> Our calculation of genetic diversity also considers how many
genetic units are represented. A genetic unit is a grouping like
the Romanic [Romanic] languages (French, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese, etc., all descended from Latin).
>> When an entire genetic unit dies we lose much more
information than if we lose one branch of a family but not its
close relatives.

https://livingtongues.org/language-hotspots/
Language Hotspots

High genetic diversity > Example

>> If all speakers of Portuguese died, we would lose a lot of
information, but we could learn a lot about the language by
studying Spanish.
>> If all the Romance [Romanic] languages vanished, though, we
would not be able to learn much about them, even by studying
more distantly related languages like German.

https://livingtongues.org/language-hotspots/
Language Hotspots

https://livingtongues.org/language-hotspots/
Language Hotspots

High levels of endangerment

Language endangerment cannot be measured precisely.
>> The number of speakers does not necessarily determine how
endangered a language is.
>> If those speakers include young children and the language is
used in all parts of daily life, then a few speakers can maintain
a language.
>> A language with only elderly speakers that has not been
passed on to younger generations may be endangered.

https://livingtongues.org/language-hotspots/
Language Hotspots

Low levels of documentation

We rank how much accessible information exists about a language.
Examples of documentation are:
– Writing systems
– Grammars
– Dictionaries
– Texts
– Audio and video materials
We only count materials that are accessible
>> Resources that have been published and are in print

https://livingtongues.org/language-hotspots/
3.
The language philosophy
of Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
1889-1951

Philosopher
and teacher
Tractatus Logico-
Philosophicus Ludwig

Wittgenstein
A philosophy of language Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s only book

published during his lifetime

> All his other books were Translated by D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness
published later With an introduction by Bertrand Russell

> He considered it the last

philosophical work as there
could be no other London and New York
philosophical works after it
1. The world is everything that is the case.
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.

2. What is the case, the fact, is the existence of atomic facts.*

Was der Fall ist, die Tatsache, ist das Bestehen von
Sachverhalten.

3. A logical picture of facts is a thought.

Das logische Bild der Tatsachen ist der Gedanke.

* State of affairs; undoubtable facts

4. A thought is a proposition with a sense.
Der Gedanke ist der sinnvolle Satz.

5. A proposition is a truth-function of elementary propositions. (An

elementary proposition is a truth-function of itself.)
Der Satz ist eine Wahrheitsfunktion der Elementarsätze.

6. The general form of a truth-function is:[ p, ξ, N, (ξ) ]*. This is the

general form of proposition.
Die allgemeine Form der Wahrheitsfunktion ist: [ p, ξ, N, (ξ) ].
Dies ist die allgemeine Form des Satzes

7. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.

* which is: [ p, ξ , N, (ξ)] This is the general form of a proposition.

What to take from the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus:

Aim of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

> to reveal the relationship between language and the world: what
can be said about it, and what can only be shown.
Wittgenstein argues that the logical structure of language provides
the limits of meaning.
> The limits of language, for Wittgenstein, are the limits of
philosophy.
> Much of philosophy involves attempts to say the unsayable:
 Illustration of
the structure of
the Tractatus.
Only primary
and secondary
statements are
reproduced,
while the
structure of the
rest is indicated
pictorially.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractatus_Logico-Philosophicus
What to take from the tractatus Logico-Philosophicus:

“ What we can say at all

can be said clearly.
”
According to Wittgenstein, anything beyond that – religion,
ethics, aesthetics, the mystical – cannot be discussed.
> They are not in themselves nonsensical, but any
statement about them must be.
The term ‘language-game’ is used to refer to:
Meanings are not separated from each other by sharp boundaries, but
blend into one another.
The concept is based on the following analogy:
The rules of language are analogous to the rules of games; thus saying
something in a language is analogous to making a move in a game.
1. Fictional examples of language use that are simpler than our own
everyday language.
2. Simple uses of language with which children are first taught
language (training in language).
3. Specific regions of our language with their own grammars and
relations to other language-games.
4. All of a natural language seen as comprising a family of language-
games.
Language-game

> The analogy between a language and a game

demonstrates that words have meaning depending on
the uses made of them in the various and multiform
activities of human life.

Note: The concept is not meant to suggest that there is

anything trivial about language, or that language is
‘just a game’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ33gAyhg2c&t=310s

Trigger warning: Brief mention of suicide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMkodJqLDw
SEE YOU
ON 4 MARCH!