The Link Between Language And Culture
Two days ago, I was thinking about changing my major from Economics to Linguistics. It is not because that economy is difficult to master or it is very dull, but because I do not want to find a job related to business or marketing in the future. So I searched the entire UCSB major list and found out that the major of Linguistics and Psychology attract me a lot. However, many students who are major in Psychology told me that this major was very hard for most of international students because it needs us to remember many complicated professional vocabularies, which is horrible for me so that I turn over to think about transferring to the linguistics department.
Although I know the term “Linguistics”, I do not understand what I have to learn and why should people study linguistics. Also, it drives me to ponder over what is the purpose of language.
As for me, language is used not just a tool for communication and exchanging information, but as a “symbolic system with the power to create and shape symbolic realities, such as values, perceptions, identities through discourse.” People need to express their feelings and get new information from others, so it is necessary to create a way to achieve this goal, and that’s where the language came from. It is generally agreed that the purpose of language is for converting thinking and inheriting culture. I totally endorse this opinion that language helps the emotional communication within people and the lasting of culture. Supposed that there is no language in this world, we have to live the whole life without speaking a word. What a pity! What’s more, if the language never exists, how can we tell our family that we love them? If the language never exists, how can we express to our mother that we are hunger? If the language never exists, how can we exchange opinions during the in-class discussion? With so many problems, the significance of language speaks for itself.
Furthermore, it is the relationship between culture and language that is also a complex question to think over. Culture is defined as shared beliefs, values and behaviors of a social group. I believe that the relation of culture and language is the way they share the experience, story, and knowledge. As we all know, some legends were totally documented by writers who love to travel to various places in order to record some interesting stories narrated by strangers. During this phase, it is inevitable that the writer and narrator need to communicate, so there would be a conversion happened. Sometimes the dialogue may not be very successful because those two people may speak different languages, and I believe that it’s the reason why so many cherished culture disappeared. However, if story tellers and recorder understand the language spoken by each other, the story will be recored and passed on from generation to generation, forming the local culture.
