Understanding and Appreciating Culture through Language - Essay Example

General Anthropology

Anthropology Methodologies

Heading 3: Linguistics

The world is a home to approximately 7.6 billion humans spread across 195 countries and in 7 continents. Man is a social being, and one of the ways individuals interact with each other is through communication. In order to communicate, there is a need for a rapport that is established when the two communicating individuals share and use a common language to address each other. There are primary languages that are used for basic communication in a variety of cultures. However, numerous dialects are used in daily communication in the various subcultures and subtribes across the globe. Conventionally, the easiest way of understanding a particular culture is through learning and studying their language. The scientific study of language and its structure, including grammar, syntax, and phonetics, is known as linguistics (Lexico). There are various methodologies that are crucial in understanding the language of a particular people. These methodologies form the frameworks for the different branches of linguistics.

One of the frameworks upon which linguistics can be understood is studying the social factors of the various cultures. Fundamentally, sociolinguistics helps individuals understand a particular language related to social factors, based on the differences of class, regional, and occupational dialect, bilingualism, and gender differences. Of particular interest when one is studying culture is identifying the tribes and subtribes that exist therein. In essence, these tribes and subtribes may share a specific culture but have different dialects. Thus, phonology would be critical in studying how the dialects used by these tribes and subtribes systematically organize their sounds. There are pertinent characteristics that help distinguish one dialect from the other. One of the crucial elements that help differentiate among the dialects is the sound. The demystification of sound as an important factor in studying languages, more so, dialect leads researchers into distinguishing phonology and phonetics. Essentially, phonology studies the different patterns of sound found in the different languages. In contrast, phonetics studies the production of speech sounds by humans in a scenario where the researcher has no prior knowledge about the language being spoken.

As one gets more interested in studying the language of a particular culture, there is the tendency to be drawn to the origins and history of the language. The appreciation of the history and development of languages is known as historical linguistics (Campbell 1). The foundation of historical linguistics is the Uniformitarian Principle, which assumes that the same distributions and types of variation, changes, and structures existed at a particular time in the past as in the present unless one can demonstrate that there have been significant changes in the conditions of language acquisition and use between a time in the unobservable past and the present (Walkden 2). Thus, the understanding of the principle helps guide researchers into understanding and appreciating the changes in language. As one majors in historical linguistics, the need to compare the past with the present is crucial in understanding the changes, variation, and language structures. The comparison leads to one of the elements of linguistics, namely, synchronic linguistics, which is the is the study of a language at one particular period, usually the present.

The fascination of synchronic linguistics with the present often leads anthropologists into reconstructing ancient languages by comparing the contemporary descendants with their present findings regarding their study of the language. The reconstruction entails identifying the forms of the ancient language as a framework for proposing the nature of language change and drawing inferences about the history of the language (Bouchard-Côté et al. 4426). The proposal results in the formation of protolanguages through a comparative method. According to Bouchard-Côté et al., the comparative models facilitate the formation of probabilistic models of sound changes and algorithms that are crucial in performing inferences that automatically and accurately reconstructs protolanguages that eventually form the imperative for reconstructing the ancient languages (4426).

The cultural residence of individuals in their localities is critical in shaping how they view the world. Essentially, the unity derived from a sense of speaking the same language has a significant contribution in influencing how the individuals perceive the environment around them and how they interact with people from other cultures. Edward Sapir developed a hypothesis of how language is vital in determining how native speakers categorize their world experience and perceive their surroundings in 1929. Benjamin Whorf further advanced his hypothesis. The studies conducted by both researchers led to the development of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which proclaimed the influence of language on thought and perception, leading to the implication that the speakers of different languages think and perceive reality in different ways and that each language has its own world view (Hussein 642). The hypothesis's demystification reveals two basic components that are vital in understanding the link between the language structure and the native speaker's perceptions and experiences of the world around them. In essence, linguistic determinism posits that a particular language and how it is structured determine and limit human knowledge, thought, and thought processes such as memory, categorization, and perception (Hickmann 410). Thus, the understanding of determinism explains the different thought processes that distinguish individuals who speak different languages from that of the subject under review. Suffice it to say, language has a significant influence on the thought process of its native speakers. On the other hand, linguistic relativity explains that an individual's perceptions correlate with their spoken language. Essentially, a person's world view or cognition is dependent on the structure of the language that they speak.

The study of a particular language, its structure and grammar are complex for the beginner. The appreciation of a people's culture and language would entail the researchers and learners immersing themselves daily in learning new lexemes. In essence, a lexeme is the basic unit of lexical meaning that underlies a particular set of related words through inflection (Crystal 128). In linguistics, a lexeme is the basic abstract unit of meaning or the unit of morphological analysis that corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single root word. Lexemes are compiled to help guide linguistics understand the language better. Fundamentally, a lexicon is the inventory of lexemes of a particular language. The appreciation of a particular language's vocabulary spurs one into attempting to speak the language. One of the ways of ensuring that a language is fully comprehended is through speaking it. In the process of speaking the language, one is bound to make a series of mistakes. There is the tendency of an individual to use direct translation in their mind before they decode what they want to say in the new language. Direct translation often subjects one to a syntax error. In essence, the syntax is concerned with the processes, principles, and grammatical rules that govern sentences' structure in language (Omar 389). In the direct translation scenario, what may have been correctly translated may be wrong when spoken. Thus, it is imperative that as one learns a language, they take heed of the syntax to eliminate the tendency of error associated with translation.

The more an individual speaks a particular language, the more their speech is influenced towards mastery. The mastery of a language enables one to settle in a particular community or environment easily. Essentially, communication is crucial in enabling an individual to perceive and navigate through their environment and interact with others. Language facilitates the comprehension of life's situations. Without language mastery, it would be hard for individuals to have a unity of purpose within their localities. The mastery of language enables the linguist or any other interested individuals to determine the context within which they ought to use particular words when they ought to let other individuals speak during conversations, and even how they ought to organize their text in writing. In essence, pragmatics is the branch of linguistics that deals with language use and the context in which it is utilized, including matters such as turn-taking, presupposition, text organization, and implicature (Mey 6). Thus, pragmatics acts as a framework upon which the effective use and contextualization of a particular language help facilitate healthier conversations.

The study of languages introduces researchers to various concepts that are crucial in understanding and appreciating culture. The frameworks of a particular language are also crucial in facilitating communication among individuals within the culture. Thus, linguistics is an important link between language and culture.