In chapter seven,I learn about the relationship between language and culture 、London School、Linguists in North Americian、Malinowski Guinea 、SAPIR-WHOF HYPOTHES and sociolinguistics.
At the first,I learn the relationshp between language and culture.(1)Language is an essential and importantpart of a given culture ;the impact of culture upon a given language is something intrinsic and indispensable.(2)Culture is a wider syatem that completely includes language as a subsystem.The relation of language to culture is that of part to whole.(3)Language both expresses and embodies cultural reality.(4)Language plays a major role in perpetuating culture in part form.(5)Culture affects language.
Secondly,,I understand how language relates culture.At the beginning of the eighteenth century,they think that language is either comparative and historical or structural and formalized in ter, at the start of the 20th century ,the study of language was developed in England and North America.In the 1920s ,a school of ANTHROPOLOTICAL STUDY OF LINGUISTICS came into being in England.The meaning of a word greatly depended upon its occurrence in a given context,for example “wood’’.Malinowski created the theory of CONTEXT OF SITUA TION,and J.R.Firth developed the theory of CONTEXT OF SITUATION. M.A.K Halliday further developed this theory,who is the founder of systemic-functional linguistics.
Tirdly,I learn a very influential and controversial theory about the relationships between language and culture .Benjamin Lee Whorf is famous in hypothesis concerning language,thought,and culture.His famous theory SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHSES was developed with the help of his experience and his study of Hopi ,an American Indian language.What this hypothesis suggests is this :Our language helps mould our way of thinking and,consequently,different language may probably express speakers’ unique ways of understanding the world.Due to the theory SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHSES,two important points came into the world.one is LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM,and the other is LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY.LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM means that language may determine our thinking patterns,and LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY means that similarity between languages is ter,,Sapir-Whorf hypothesis have been developed,a strong version and a weak version.The strong version of the theory refers to the claim the original hypothesis makes ,emphasizing the decisive role of language as the shaper of our thinking patterns.The weak
version of this hypothesis claims that our ways of thinking are relaitve,rather than ter,in 1960s,two American scholars,Brent Berlin and Paul Kay conducted a large cross-linguistic investigation of basic color vocabulary.
At the end ,I learn about linguistics.Linguistics repertoire refers to the totality of linguistic varieties possessed by an individual. At the same time ,I learn the degree of formality, which are intimate,casual,consultative,formal,frozen.I also learn about the standard dialect ,which is a superimposed,socially prestigious dialect of a language.What is more,I also learn about sociolinguistics.Sociolinguistics,as an interdisciplinary study of language use,attempts to show the relationships between language and society.That is to say, in this discipline we have two important thigs to think about :structual things and their uses in a socioculture context.
In this chapter,I know the relationship between language and society ,some schools and some famous theories.At the same time ,I understand language than before and how language relates to culture.What is more ,I also fully learn more about the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and Benjamin Lee Whorf.I also fully understand that what is presented above is only a small part of the whole edifice.Much of its beauty and fascination is still waiting for more the conscious and courageous explorer to search and discover.I hope that I can contrabute to language and human culture like Bronislaw Malinowski、John P.Firth、M.A.K Halliday and Edward Sapir.。