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Some Thoughts on the Relationship Between Language and World View with Reference Tothailanguageand Culture 1

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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND WORLD VIEW WITH REFERENCE TOTHAILANGUAGEAND CULTURE 1 Martin Schalbruch2 Introduction: The Study of Thai perception of the world as a Language as a Study of Culture hierarchy. It is also a linguistic represent­ ation of the different status of men and One of the most important reasons to learn women and the importance of the principle another language is to get acquainted with of seniority. "In a striking way it [the Thai another culture. This may be for reasons of pronominal system] mirrors some of the necessity such as immigration or studies in more important features of Thai culture· a foreign country or for reasons of personal and at the same time it provide~ interest, for instance, in the literature, the considerable scope for the expression of customs or the religion of a different individual attitudes and personality." country. Language is the medium of (Cooke 1968:68) description and communication of religious, indigenous and ideological beliefs In my thesis (Schalbruch 1997), I have and, therefore, functions as a means of examined some features of the Thai conservation and transmission of such language with regard to their capacity as beliefs. It yields a wealth of information on being expressions of Thai cultural culture and also chronicles culture's characteristics. Cultural characteristics are changes. Most people would agree that understood here as aspects of a world view language is one of the most important whose distinctive character has developed sources of cultural information. Metaphors, from religion. Although statements on idiomatic expressions and proverbs cultural characteristics are never of an obviously refer to conditions of everyday absolute nature, because culture {like life, . religion, tradition and history. But language) changes constantly, cultural features of the language itself, its grammar, characteristics do not change randomly. its structure and its lexicon, also reflect They are embedded in concepts of a world cultural characteristics. The variety of Thai view that are less susceptible to change personal pronouns for instance reflects the than other elements of a culture. As source-material for information about a 1 This article is a revised excerpt taken from culture, language has two advantages. my M.A. thesis (Schalbruch 1997) Firstly, as a living language, it is presently 2 Teacher of German at Ramkhamhaeng used and many of its basic features are University, Thailand. familiar to every member of the language Downloaded from Brill.com10/06/2021 02:41:08PM via free access Some Thoughts on the Relationship between Language and World View community who can speak. Language is, Construction of Reality," takes up the therefore, easily accessible, unlike, for tradition of the philosophy of language instance, historical evidence which, founded by Wilhelm von Humboldt. especially in the case of Thailand, is rare, Humboldt uses the word Weltansicht 4 scattered and fragmented. Secondly, (Humboldt 1963 :20) , a German equivalent language is a set of signs and rules whose of the term world view, in his essays and meanings are based on the common lectures on language as early as 1820 and understanding of its users. Words or other argues that cultural concepts are acquired linguistic devices can only be used to and transmitted through the medium of transport meanings and concepts if their language. Learning a language really users have the same basic understanding of means learning a culture and not just a set these meanings and concepts and the words of arbitrary signs and rules. Such a and linguistic devices attached to them. statement seems to be self-evident but Language is a system of communication linguists often shy away from linking their that binds people together. 3 Statements on studies to aspects of culture, mainly culture deduced from language can, because linguistics is a very systematic therefore, claim a certain overall consent science while culture eludes the grip of among all the speakers of a language. systematic analysis. Many linguists have long excluded the domain of culture from There is a long linguistic tradition of their studies and tried to tr~at language as examining a language with regard to its objectively as a natural science. 5 capacity for expressmg cultural phenomena; still, this tradition is not as The tendency to conduct linguistic studies well-known as, for example, the in isolation from the many other areas of structuralist approach to language. I will, human studies that are related to language therefore, in the following, give an can be traced back to Ferdinand de overview of the main tenets of those Saussure, the founder of modern linguists who in their works emphasize the links between language and culture. 4 Weltansicht is a compound word consisting of two nouns: Welt (world) and Ansicht (view) . "Weltansicht" is not necessarily the The Relationship between same as "Weltanschauung" which has much Language and Culture in stronger philosophical connotations. Linguistic Studies "Weltanschauung" refers to one's personal convictions and ideologies concerning the state of affairs of the world. In order to assess the relationship between 5 language and culture, the linguist George Nevertheless, attempts to develop theoretical concepts covering the domain of language and W. Grace, in his book "The Linguistic culture have developed out of structuralism. The science of semiology understands the 3 Because of this binding quality, language plays whole domain of the humanities as a an important role in the development of the multitude of interdependent systems of signs nation-state and tries to establish common scientific ground for the disparate efforts of linguistic studies and cultural studies. 97 Downloaded from Brill.com10/06/2021 02:41:08PM via free access MANUSYA : Journal of Humanities Vol. 1 No. 1 1998 linguistics. Saus sure did not deny the research--was not interested in sentences complex relationship between language and as part of a textual or cultural context. He culture: "Language in its entirety has many could justify his position with reference to different and disparate aspects. It lies Ferdinand de Saussure's distinction astride the boundaries separating various between langage, langue and parole. domains. It is at the same time physical, Chomsky was concerned with langage, the physiological and psychological. It belongs universal human phenomenon of language, both to the individual and to society." and langue, a particular language system (Lodge 1988:3) But at the same time, such as English or Thai, but not with Saussure was convinced that "no parole, a particular language in use. 6 classification of human phenomena Chomsky had an overwhelming impact on provides any single place for it [language, modern linguistics. "The new grammarians M.S.], because language as such has no routinely invented their own sample discernible unity." (ibid.) He concluded sentences about John and Mary, the ideal, that only the structure of a language could abstract pair whose star-crossed exploits be scientifically examined. "The linguist provided the content of linguistic samples must take the study of linguistic structure for years to come." (Beaugrande, 1985:43) as his primary concern, and relate all other manifestations of language to it. Indeed, amid so many dualities, linguistic The Philosophical Concept of structure seems to be the one thing that is independently definable and provides the World View of Language something our minds can satisfactorily grasp." (ibid.) For Saussure, language as a Introduction and Historical structured system was "both a self­ Overview contained whole and a principle of classification." (Lodge 1988:3-4) He was The success of Saussures 's distinction consequently convinced that "a science between language as a structured system which studies linguistic structure is not and language in use has overshadowed the only able to dispense with other elements of fact that there has always been a different, language, but is possible only [my albeit not quite as influential approach to emphasis] if those other elements are kept the study of languages. Its main separate." (Lodge 1988:7-8) With this assumption is that a language is much more statement, linguists all over the world have than just a set of arbitrary signs. These justified their self-contained studies of signs are carriers of cultural concepts linguistic structure and discarded the which cannot be communicated in any question of how language and culture are interrelated. 6 For details on Ferdinand de Saussure's distinction between langue, langage and The culmination of these self-contained parole see Ferdinand de Saussure: "Cours de studies of linguistic structure was Noam linguistique generale". Paris, 1915. The Chomsky's model of a generative­ English translation by Roy Harris which is transformational grammar. Chomsky--at quoted by Lodge (1988:1-14), equates langue least in the early stage of his linguistic with 'language', lang age with 'a language' and parole with 'speech'. 98 Downloaded from Brill.com10/06/2021 02:41:08PM via free access Some Thoughts on the Relationship between Language and World View other way than through the very language approach in linguistic studies. Benjamin they are attached to. More than that, the Lee Whorf (1897-1941), the well-known ordering principles of the grammar American proponent of the world view of underlying these signs have an determining language theory, never mentions Humboldt impact on the perception of the world. and claims instead the ancestry of the Hence, a language controls the perception rather obscure French dramatist and and the conceptualization of the world of philologist Fabre d'Olivet, (1786-1825). its speaker. A separation of language as a (Whorf 1973:8,74) But Whorf actually did system and language in use is therefore come in contact with Humboldt's ideas not possible. through his teacher Edward Sapir (1884- 1939), the disciple of Franz Boas (1858- This assessment of the general nature of 1942) who had brought Humboldt's ideas language transcends the borders of from Germany to the United States.
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