Culture and language. A mutual relationship

Culture and language. A mutual relationship.Prof. Nadya Tolaba.Prof. Agustina Giacinti. (**)

Las Profesoras Nadya Tolaba y Agustina Giacinti pertenecen a la cohorte 2010 del INSTITUTO DE FORMACION DOCENTE CONTINUA  y reciben su grado de Profesor de Lengua Inglesa en Noviembre de 2013, en dicha Institución de Formación Superior.  Actualmente las mismas son docentes en diversos Institutos de Inglés y han realizado prácticas como profesoras de nivel primario y secundario en diversas instituciones educativas de la ciudad de San Luis, Argentina. I.F.D.C. San Luis.  (Instituto de Formación Docente Contínua San Luis)

It is popularly known that the culture in which we are immersed conditions and frames our perceptions about the world and the way we interpret the language. The essay written by Miller and Swift (1) reflects upon the implication of sexism over the language and, consequently, the receivers. The authors state that there is a “semantic mechanism that operates to keep women invisible” (p. 377) and, at the same time, they present a great variety of examples related to social, political and religious aspects  that keep on perpetuating this cultural behavior. In our opinion, people’s attitude and language are inherent to one another. This relationship clearly shows the role that society plays in our everyday language and how it determines the way we behave and think as cultural group and vice versa. Currently, it is possible to listen to sexist language being used in almost every aspect of our life.  For instance, the word housewife is used to refer to married women who do the housework. Fortunately, we have found that there is an equivalent for a man who does the housework: househusband.  But if we think of the usage of the term it hasn’t been so globally spread due to the fact that this situation is not culturally intrinsic to society members. Even the definition provided by the dictionary has a sexist connotation. It goes like this: “A househusband is a married man who chooses to stay at home instead of working at a career”. The question is: why do we tend to ascribe sexists meanings to certain words? If we think of the meaning of choose in the definition of househusband, why men have the right to choose and women simply have the cultural obligation to stay?  This feature of the language dates from the beginning of our existence.  Even the authors make reference to Eve’s creation. As the historical / religious event took place in a patriarchal society, it is understandable that the worldwide known event explains that the woman was created out of a male rib and not the other way around. Even though our society has evolved in terms of gender, the static sexist language that qualifies women prevails in our community.  That’s why, it’s almost impossible to change language before having changed people’s mentality as a whole first.From the pragmatic point of view of language, a presupposition is something the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance.  Presuppositions highly affect the meaning we attribute to certain passages of communication. Connecting the sexist issue we have previously mentioned to the presupposition theory, we can state that whenever we talk about a househusband as being an individual who chooses to stay at home, it is feasible to presuppose that a housewife is an individual of the same culture who is obliged to stay at home. In addition to the presupposition topic, we can relate the information taken from the article “One small Step for Genkind” to the background knowledge theory. This aspect of Pragmatics makes reference to our ability to arrive automatically at interpretations of the unwritten and the unsaid based on the pre-existing knowledge structures. As we, as human beings, are culturally determined, our schemata are also built up by the previous experiences that have taken place in our life within that specific culture, being, consequently, culturally and statically modeled. These fixed patterns which are part of our schemata are called FRAMES. In relation to the topic of the essay, we are able to discriminate the terms GIRL and BOY thanks to the mental processes carried out in our minds by our frame. In this case, GIRL and BOY are both PROTOTYPICAL VERSIONS shared by everyone within a social group. However, when we have an individual characterized with features of different frames, such as the case of “Tomboy” which is “a girl, specially a young girl, who behaves like a spirited boy”, this prototypical version disappears and sexist ideas are at stake. How? This term, tomboy, takes women feminine identity out and disregards their attitudes as being feminine having a negative connotation in the end.All in all, we believe that it is not enough to change people´s attitudes and behavior in order to change language and, consequently, the way we communicate. As we have previously stated, society not only conditions the way we act, but also the language we use to express our ideas and the other way around. So, if society is a product of the language and vice versa, it is necessary to modify each individual´s mind first (or to be born again) in order to change the sexist and highly patriarchal language we use in our daily lives. This process can take hundreds, probably millions, of years but this may be the only way in which the transformation can be exceedingly significant, not only for our language but also for our nation.(1) Miller, C &amp Swift, K (1972) – “One small step for Genkind”. Reference List:  Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture. Oxford University Press.Miller, C &amp Swift, K. (1972). “One small step for Genkind”. Yule, G. (1996) Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.

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