Sociolinguistic

Sociolinguistic
Words and culture
P.222->P.241
Student :
Huynh Ngoc Thinh
Nguyen Nhut HoangThien
Tran Gia Quynh
 Introduction
• In this lecture, we will look 6 various ways in
which language and culture have been said to
be related.
1. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
2. Kinship
3. Taxonomies
4. Color
5. Prototypes
6. Taboo and Euphemisms
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Sapir–Whorf hypothesis

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 Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
The structure of a language determines the way
in which speakers of that language view the
world.

• “Language relativity”
• “Language determinism”

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How many chickens?

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Piraha people

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Guguu Yimithirr people

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 Kinship

• Kinship systems are a universal feature of

languages, because kinship is so important in
social organization.

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Taxonomy structure

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• Specific taxonomies include: Natural
sciences, computing, business & economics,
education and so on,…
• Folk taxonomy: a folk taxonomy is a way of
classifying a certain part of reality so that it
makes some kind of sense to those who have
to deal with it.

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 Color
Every language in the world can be described 11
basic color terms: black, white, gray, red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and brown. The
human eye can physically perceive millions of
colors. But we don’t all recognize these colors in
the same way.

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 Color in words and culture:

VN: con chó mực = con chó màu đen

 Anh ta có 1 Trái tim vàng = anh ta tốt bụng, thương
người.
 Gần mực thì đen gần đèn thì sáng
Thành ngữ tiếng Anh về màu sắc:
 blue blood: dòng giống hoàng tộc
 Boys in blue: cảnh sát
 grey matter: chất xám
 feeling blue = cảm giác không vui
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Importance of colors in different countries:

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 Prototypes

• A prototype is a mental structure that

reflects what is perceived to be a
typical example of a category.

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Birds?

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Birds?

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 Prototypes
• Prototypes are influenced by many factors
including one’s language, social background,
and cultural background.

• Different people may have different perception

and interpretation of same words.

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In Western culture

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In Eastern culture

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 Taboo and Euphemism

• Taboo: things that people do not talk about.

• Euphemism: things people talk in a

roundabout way.

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