LANGUAGE, CULTURE & IDENTITY
Soukat Ali Lohar
Assistant professor in English at Mehran University of engineering and technology Jamshoro.
Overview
The present study is entitled “Language, Culture & Identity”.This study aims to explore how Language, Culture & Identity are interconnected to each other and their impact on individuals or society. Knowing the relationships of language, culture, and identity is very essential especially for teachers who teach a second language to students who belong to different backgrounds or cultures, etc. Language is shaped by culture, while culture is impacted by language, and both (culture and language) form the identity. A man’s identity can disclose by his age, profession, socio-economic class, culture, and nationality. Identity can be acquired through one’s culture, native and foreign languages, education also as people identify others by the culture and language they are dominant in, the way they do things, and the way they vary their way of speaking depending on who they are talking with. People identify others by culture and the language they are dominant in, the way they do things, and the way they vary their way of speaking depending on who they are talking with. Language plays an essential role in a person’s individuality since it is certainly a way of communicating one’s identity.
The present study begins with the introduction that elucidates the three concepts: language, culture, and identity separately. Then the literature review will be given to have a thorough understanding of the issues related to the topic of the study. And finally, it will be concluded precisely.
Introduction
Relationships among language, culture, and identity have become a favorite topic in social science for decades. In his book Primitive Culture, Edward Tylor (1871) defines the culture that “as a complex whole which includes knowledge, morals, beliefs, art, law technology and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of the society. Many people identify others by the culture and the language they are dominant in, the way they do things, and the way they vary their way of speaking depending on who they are talking with. The belief of belonging to a certain group has its origins in the language that someone speaks. Language plays an essential role in a person’s individuality since it is certainly a way of communicating one’s identity. Communication helps us to reach out to people and to unite with others that are not of the same background. Therefore, language allows for exploration to occur and opens up a new window in our life. Three main aspects of the present study are further explained below:
Language
Speaking a second language enables individuals to discover diverse cultures, different ideas or to simply explore a whole new different world from the one familiar to. Bilingual individuals have more opportunities of making foreign friends and be able to be understood more by others of different places. Language is introduced by Crystal (1971, 1992) as “the systematic, conventional use of sounds, signs or written symbols in a human society for communication and self-expression”. As it is discussed above that language is not only a means of communication but also self-identification. In globalization communication, learning other languages as a second language positively promotes intercultural understanding across languages and cultures.
Culture
Concerning the definition of culture, Edward Sapir (1956) says that culture is a system of behaviors and modes that depend on unconsciousness. Undoubtedly the culture is learned through relationships with other people. Everyone belongs to a distinct group. He/She reflects his/her special thought and culture. It is easy to analyze different groups and distinguish them from one another. For instance, the language of a child is different from the language of an adult or the people in the East speak differently from the people in the West or the language of the poor is different from the language of the rich, even their clothes are different. Therefore, culture is not natural, inborn, and willless; it is a social product. Some factors are considerable and momentous in this transmission such as information and knowledge in a society, social changes, social relations, and mass media. Similarly, from the anthropological and ethnological senses, culture encompasses the total range of activities and ideas of a specific group of people with common and shared traditions, which are conveyed, distributed, and highlighted by members of the group (Collins English Dictionary 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003). There are about two or three hundred and even more definitions for culture.
Identity
One’s identity was understood as whom you were, and who you are or how you are seen by others may involve differing identities. Current research on language, culture, and identity is concerned with how individuals use language to co-construct their everyday worlds and, in particular, their social roles and identities and those of others. The studies assume that identity is multiple and varied, individual representations of which embody particular social histories that are built up through and continually recreated in one’s everyday experiences (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005). Moreover, it is acknowledged that individuals belong to varied groups and so take on a variety of identities defined by their memberships in these groups. These identities, however, are not fixed but rather are ‘multifaceted in complex and contradictory ways; tied to social practice and interaction as flexible and contextually contingent resources; and tied to processes of differentiation from other identified groups’ (Miller, 2000).
Literature review
As far as language is concerned, it is a vital instrument to convey cultural values and who we are as well as the characteristics of the group we belong to. In other words, ‘Language is one of the media through which thoughts, ideas, and feelings are represented in a culture’ which means culture could not exist without language. Generally speaking, language is introduced by Crystal (1971, 1992) as “the systematic, conventional use of sounds, signs or written symbols in a human society for communication and self-expression”. Emmitt and Pollock (1997) believe that language is a system of arbitrary signs which is accepted by a group and society of users. It is taken delivery of a specific purpose in relation to the communal world of clients.
However,(Greimas, 1970) argues that a human being is a social creature. Man is a receiver and sender of messages who assembles and distributes information. Likewise, Sapir (1956) claims that “every cultural pattern and every single act of social behavior involves communication in either an explicit or implicit sense”.The tool for this communication is language. Saussure (1974) believes that language is a system of signs. For him, a sign consists of a signifier (the sound- image or the written shape) and a signified (a concept), in the manner that, they both are inseparably linked with each other. He more compares language and thought to a sheet of paper; He considers that thought is the front part of the paper and sounds the back part. It is impossible to cut any of the two parts without cutting the other. Saussure (1956, 1972, 1974, 1983) describes language as the system of differences. In this opinion, he believes in the difference of meaning of a sound image or written shape in different languages. “If words stood for pre-existing concepts, they would all have exact equivalents in meaning from one language to the next; but this is not true” (Saussure, 1974, p. 116). That is to say, the concept of a sound image or symbol in different languages is different. In the same way, Chase (1969) states that the purpose of language use is to communicate with others to think, and to shape one’s standpoint and outlook on life. Certainly, language figures human thoughts.
Every civilization has its language and culture either simple or complex. Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952), consider civilization and culture the same and they believe the two terms have been used synonymously. For them, they both indicate different levels of the same subject. Civilization indicates the great development of a civilized society; culture indicates the same subject too. If culture is taken seriously, it appears that people need not only enough food but also well-cooked food. Culture is learned through relationships with other people. Everyone belongs to a distinct group. He/She reflects his/her special thought and culture. It is easy to analyze different groups and distinguish them from one another. Mesbahe Yazdi, (2005) believes that the factor which differentiates the human being’s behavior from the behavior of the animal is culture In general, from the sociological perspective, culture is the total of the inherited and innate ideas, attitudes, beliefs, values, and knowledge, comprising or forming the shared foundations of social action. Levis Strauss (1976) believes, in a language expresses universal realities in symbols. On the whole, the elements of culture are the entirety of socially transmitted and common behavior patterns, prototypes, samples, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. Rocher (1972, 2004), an anthropologist, believes that “Culture is a connection of ideas and feelings accepted by the majority of people in a society”. Undeniably, culture is learned and shared within social groups and is conveyed by non-genetic ways (The American Heritage, Science Dictionary 2005). Taylor (1974), an anthropologist, states in his Primitive Culture that culture in a complex definition includes beliefs, arts, skills, moralities, laws, traditions, and behaviors that an individual, as a member of society, gets from his society. T. S. Eliot (1961) considers culture as capital and means for developing all cultures and knowledge to terminate all human sharing problems, for helping economic stabilization and political security. Similarly, Goodenough (1996) argues that culture is a systematic association of people that have a certain way of life. Therefore, culture is the only distinction between humans and animals. Of course, animals live in association but it is a special kind. There is, indeed, a lot of shared characteristics between human beings and animals such as associative life, responsibility toward children, and so on. But culture is for men, only. Spencer (1986) calls culture the milieu of superorganic and highlights the separation of culture from physical and natural factors. He believes that the superorganic factor is only for man, whereas; the other two factors are the same for man and animal.
While as for as identity is concerned, we have already discussed that language is not only a means of communication but also self-identification one’s identity was understood as whom you were, and who you are or how you are seen by others may involve differing identities… A person’s culture is an essential element of their identity. It contributes to their self-image and influences their group identity i.e. the groups to which they feel they inherently belong (Bakhtin, 1981). According to Zimmerman (1998), identity can be discovered through particular discourse and presented by speakers, hearers and it is also can be exposed through the specific situation. According to Rembo (2004), “A person’s social identity comes from an individual’s knowledge of himself as an individual in relationship to others.” It can be stated that we construct our identity by how we perceive ourselves in the eyes of others. . Cultural identity is an important contributor to people’s wellbeing. People in different cultures hold different ways to view the world.
Similarly, Ortner, (1989) believes that culture and identity lead to concerns with articulating ‘the relationship between the structures of society and culture on the one hand and the nature of human activity on the other’.Language and identity are inseparably associated with each other. While language is the medium used by individuals to negotiate a sense of self in different contexts (Pierce, 1995; Norton, 2000), identity construction is a social and cultural process that is accomplished through discursive practices. Therefore, the ability to use a specificlanguage in a specific context influences the development of culturalidentity (Trechter & Bucholtz, 2001) by creating a tension between thediscourse of the dominant culture and the discourse of the subcultureof second language speakers. In other words, how language, in this case, English, is used determines to which social group individuals are allowed entrance. Those who speak English will be admitted to social groups with greater amounts of social and political power than those who do not (Fairclough, 2001). As Cummins (1996) notes, the unequal relation of power between dominant and minority languages can serve to constrain multiple identities that minority language speakers can negotiate at school and in society. Watson-Gegeo and Gegeo (1999) elucidate that language is central to cultural ways of thinking. They argue that “language is essential to identity, authenticity, cultural survival and people’s learning and thinking processes”. This concept is manifested when English language learners in most American schools must recreate knowledge through a second language, thereby losing their cultural identity and their authentication of self. When the link between language, cultural identity, and ways of thinking limit access to knowledge, second-language learners’ opportunities for literacy development are diminished. . A man’s identity can disclose his nationality, culture, age, profession, and socio-economic class. Language is considered to be a tool for humans’ communications, the growth, and development of their talents, causing creativity, innovation, and novelty, exchanging and transferring their experiences, and on the whole, for the formation of society(s)… One of the many ways in which identity can be acquired is through one’s native and foreign languages, culture, education, and way of life. Many people identify others by the language they are dominant in, the way they do things, and the way they vary their way of speaking depending on who they are talking with. The belief of belonging to a certain group has its origins in the language that someone speaks. Language plays an essential role in a person’s individuality since it is certainly a way of communicating one’s identity.
Conclusion
The present study explores how Language, Culture & Identity are interconnected to each other and their impact on individuals or society. The introduction covers all three aspects: language culture and identity in detail. Then the literature review is given thoroughly and in the light of the literature review, we conclude that it is very essential for ESL teachers to know the relationships of language, culture, and identity. It is obvious that language and culture shape one’s identity and personality. Language is not only a means of communication but also self-identification. Learning other languages as a foreign or second language positively promotes intercultural understanding across languages and cultures. Language and culture are interconnected and dependent on each other and certainly play a vital role to describe one’s identity.
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