Academic literature on the topic 'Mutual relation between language and culture'

In the context of communication, especially dialogic and generative approach to expression of culture, the concept of Art can seem as the best mode of conveyance. Such enunciation of culture through Art is substantiated by capturing all the sufficient properties of the subject of Art through language. Simply put, language is employed to describe, comprehend and communicate ideas represented in Art by having concrete sets of communicative principles that governs meaning. This paper argues such governance of meaning by language limits the potentiality of Art. It proposes the inherent obscurity in defining Art operates as a radical deconditioning through which any attempt to fix the representational meaning of Art by language is resisted. Specifically, the paper considers such resistance with the use of word ‘ANTARA’ as an exhibition concept in which works that were shown are inextricably bound by the mutual conditionality relation between language occurrence and specificity of cultural expression

Mutual contacts between representatives of different cultures often lead to communication difficulties. The article attempts to verify language games which in the process of intercultural communication reflect the uniqueness of the national language and culture. The authors, on the basis of the cultural linguistic approach, offer various forms and ways of didactic work using jokes, puzzles, anecdotes and aphorisms. Teaching to understand the meaning of language games, which occupy an important place in everyday language contacts, using them in learning and teaching a foreign language, helps learners develop intercultural competence. Mastering them allows the avoidance of difficulties in relations with representatives of other languages and cultures.

Recently, cultural, economical, and political relations between nations have increased in a noticeable way. People communicate and interact more and more to achieve mutual understanding and hit the target. While communicating, different language users may not understand or misunderstand intentions of their interlocutors. This misunderstanding happens due to the different lexicon used in different linguistic communities that reflect their lifestyle. Some words possess culture-specific meanings that reflect not only ways of living of a certain society but also the way the members of that society think and act. For this reason, intentionally or unintentionally, people apply their native language competence to the foreign language that will likely result in misunderstanding known as pragmatic failure. This article deals with the pragmatic failure on word, sentence and discourse levels. Here, implicit meanings of lexical and grammatical elements in discourses across languages and cultures, namely in the English, Azerbaijani, as well as Russian, Chinese, Turkish, and Korean languages and cultures have been investigated.

AbstractIntercultural communication is a mutual communicating of individuals or groups representing different cultures, which are used in a variety of ways to establish mutual relations. The aim of intercultural communication is to know the behavior, customs, ceremonies, and beliefs of the other cultures. Avoiding or a total lack of contacts with representatives of other cultures brings ignorance of the complexity of the social world and its wealth and can cause a culture shock, as well as the conflict of cultures. However, in order to properly carry out this kind of communication, it is necessary to know the basic building blocks for a particular social group, consisting of: history, oral tradition, language, beliefs and customs. It is also important noticing the differences between cultures. Intercultural dialogue naturally creates difficulties, since they meet in the representatives of different cultures. Acceptance of differences leads to developing proper coexistence societies, which is especially important in the current world.

For a long time, the study of ethno-language and ethno-culture was conducted based on the use of different conceptual and terminological devices, despite the significant commonality and the research possibilities in mutual connection with applying a single system of instrumental categories – universal methodological basis – semiotics. The semiotics of culture made it possible to interpret the phenomena of language and culture as phenomena of the same order. Culture is explored as a polyglot phenomenon, as a system of sign systems. In the dynamic aspect, culture, formed in the process of sociohistorical development of the people, appears as a set of schemes or programs of subjectpractical and spiritual-theoretical behaviour of people. By analogy with biological heredity, we refer to cultural heritage, in the frame of which individual behavioural programs are considered as a kind of “cultural genes”, whose systems, like genetic codes, form cultural codes. In this article, we consider the language and cultural code, namely their interaction in the linguo-cultural space. Thus, behavioural programs function in society in a signed form: in the form of social symbolism systems, in the form of etiquette signs, various kinds of signals, in the form of language. From these perspectives, we consider language as a mega program that regulates human thinking and behaviour. This approach allows us to identify the connection between language and culture. From the standpoint of the semiotics of culture, verbal speech is the main, nuclear sign system of ethno-culture, over which all other sign systems of this culture are built as its auxiliary mechanisms. The article deals with the connection between the concepts of language and code, as well as a number of related concepts. The concept of “linguistic image” is specified. The cultural code is divided into subcodes with a multi-level hierarchy. The system of cultural codes with its “vertical” and “horizontal” relations represents the figurative system of culture. Units of linguo-cultural code are formed under the interaction of cultural codes with the generally accepted code. A unit of linguo-cultural code consists of any number of lexemes, but it is a natural language embodiment of only one unit of cultural code (a separate image). Figurative codes of culture are embodied only in such linguistic units that have a figurative basis.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of information culture in Mainland China and apply the information culture framework to an organizational setting. Design/methodology/approach The foundation for the research is provided by a review of Chinese and English language literature and a case study of a university library was conducted, involving semi-structured interviews. Findings The information culture framework facilitated identification of factors not recognized in previous information culture research, including uniquely Chinese factors of egocentrism, guanxi (relationships), mianzi (face), hexie (harmony) and renqing (mutual benefit). A further finding highlighted the profound differences between archives and library institutions in China. Originality/value The paper provides the first step toward further exploring features of Chinese organizational culture which will not only influence information management practices but also highlight the issues relating to collaboration between libraries and archives in China.

The closer ties and relations between Mauritania and Israel had an effective impact on the Arab region, as the mutual interests between the two parties led to the creation of a sort of anxiety and turmoil in the relationship of Mauritania with the Arab countries, linked to them by the neighboring factor in addition to the history, culture, language and religion factors, where the Mauritanian-Israeli relations influence in several Arab and Islamic trends and to reach its maximum impact with respect to the Mauritanian relations for the war in Yemen, Iraq and the war in Syria and the Palestinian issue and the war on terrorism.

AbstractIn the study, the author analyzes the relation between communication and the real language, as this relation had been reflected by Ján Bosák (1939 – 2019), an important representative of the Slovak linguistics of the second half of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. The theoretical and methodological coordinates of Ján Bosák’s research evolved from systemic linguistics to studying language in communication and language as a social phenomenon of its own kind. Ján Bosák has contributed to the Slovak linguistic research on the function of standard Slovak by introducing notions of the ordinary Slovak vernacular and the vernacularity, not only in the sense of stylistics, but in the sense that this vernacular represents a newly emerging variety in contemporary language situation. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Ján Bosák has systematically developed, as well as, strictly speaking, initiated the Slovak research in sociolinguistics, while he focused especially on sociolinguistic interpretation of variants and later on an original research into stratification of the Slovak language. Using sociolinguistic perspective as a starting point, Ján Bosák creatively revised the theory of Slovak national/standard language, as well as engaged in the discussion on both the norm(s) and codification of standard Slovak and the issues of language culture and possibilities for its cultivation. He also defined the so-called communication spheres and their relation to functional styles. Willingly or not, he had to leave the view of traditional theory, especially with regard to the issue of how to perceive plurality, diversity and variability within language, given that, as he assumed, the norm can neither be identified with codification nor subsumed under standards of the previous language situation. Ján Bosák undoubtedly deserves credit for the fact that the Slovak linguistics has gradually endorsed a new perspective on standard Slovak and that a diversity of views has been established in this respect. He tied in with the previous research tradition in that he held the notions of norm, codification and common use to be important with respect to the issues of standard Slovak and language culture. He believed, however, that the codification needs to be grounded in meticulous scientific knowledge on the real norm and that it is also inevitable to respect innovations and accept the principle of variety. Ján Bosák also believed that the distance in mutual communication between the norm and codification continues to grow because the “hypostatization” of the notion of system, in the sense that “everything happens in the name of the system and its sustenance” is still a characteristic tendency in Slovak linguistics. In this way, the relation between system and norm on the level of particular speech activity goes missing with regards to the individual user. A certain part of Slovak linguists is severely mistaken in that they identify norm with codification. But, as Ján Bosák argued, the contradictions of norm, common use and codification can best be grasped and interpreted through a symbiosis of systemic approach, communication approach and sociolinguistic strategy.

Abstract While greetings are performed in all cultures and open most conversations, previous studies suggest that there are cross-cultural differences between different languages in greeting behavior. But do speakers of different national varieties of the same language organize and perform their greeting behavior in similar ways? In this study, we investigate the sequential organization of greetings in relation to gaze behavior in the two national varieties of Swedish: Sweden Swedish spoken in Sweden and Finland Swedish spoken in Finland. In recent years, the importance of studying pluricentric languages from a pragmatic perspective has been foregrounded, not least within the framework of variational pragmatics. To date, most studies have focused on structural differences between national varieties of pluricentric languages. With this study, we extend the scope of variational pragmatics through adding an interactional, micro perspective to the broader macro analysis typical of this field. For this study, we have analyzed patterns for greetings in 297 video-recorded service encounters, where staff and customers interact at theatre box offices and event booking venues in Sweden and Finland. The study shows that there are similarities and differences in greeting behavior between varieties. There is a strong preference for exchanging reciprocal verbal greetings, one at a time, in both. There is also a similar organization of the greeting sequence, where customer and staff establish mutual gaze prior to the verbal greetings, thus signaling availability for interaction. The duration of mutual gaze and the timing of the greeting, however, differ between the two varieties. We have also conducted a multi modal analysis of gaze behavior in correlation to the greeting. We found that the customers and staff in the Finland Swedish data share mutual gaze before and during the verbal greeting, and often avert gaze after the verbal greetings. However, in the Sweden Swedish data, the participants often avert gaze before the verbal greetings. Our results thus indicate that both similarities and differences in pragmatic routines and bodily behavior exist between the two national varieties of Swedish. The present study on greeting practices in Finland Swedish and Sweden Swedish should contribute to the field of variational pragmatics and to the development of pluricentric theory.

The Routledge Handbook of language and culture represents a comprehensive study on the inextricable relationship between language and culture. It is structured into seven parts and 33 chapters. Part 1, Overview and historical background, by Farzad Sharifian, starts with an outline of the book and a synopsis of research on language and culture. The second chapter, John Leavitt’s Linguistic relativity: precursors and transformations discusses further the historical development of the concept of linguistic relativity, identifying different schools’ of thought views on the relation between language and culture. He also tries to demystify some misrepresentations held towards Boas, Sapir, and Whorf’ theories (pp. 24-26). Chapter 3, Ethnosyntax, by Anna Gladkova provides an overview of research on ethnosyntax, starting from the theoretical basis laid by Sapir and Whorf and investigates the differences between a narrow sense of ethnosyntax, which focuses on cultural meanings of various grammatical structures and a broader sense, which emphasises the pragmatic and cultural norms’ impact on the choice of grammatical structures. John Leavitt presents in the fourth chapter, titled Ethnosemantics, a historical account of research on meaning across cultures, introducing three traditions, i.e. ‘classical’ ethnosemantics (also referred to as ethnoscience or cognitive anthropology), Boasian cultural semantics (linguistically inspired anthropology) and Neohumboldtian comparative semantics (word-field theory, or content-oriented Linguistics). In Chapter 5, Goddard underlines the fact that ethnopragmatics investigates emic (or culture-internal) approaches to the use of different speech practices across various world languages, which accounts for the fact that there exists a connection between the cultural values or norms and the speech practices peculiar to a speech community. One of the key objectives of ethnopragmatics is to investigate ‘cultural key words’, i.e. words that encapsulate culturally construed concepts. The concept of ‘linguaculture’ (or languaculture) is tackled in Risager’s Chapter 6, Linguaculture: the language–culture nexus in transnational perspective. The author makes reference to American scholars that first introduced this notion, Paul Friedrich, who looks at language and culture as a single domain in which verbal aspects of culture are mingled with semantic meanings, and Michael Agar, for whom culture resides in language while language is loaded with culture. Risager himself brought forth a new global and transnational perspective on the concept of linguaculture, i.e. the use of language (linguistic practice) is seen as flows in people’s social networks and speech communities. These flows enhance as people migrate or learn new languages, in permanent dynamics. Lidia Tanaka’s Chapter 7, Language, gender, and culture deals with research on language, gender, and culture. According to her, the language-gender relationship has been studied by researchers from various fields, including psychology, linguistics, and anthropology, who mainly consider gender as a construct that preserves inequalities in society, with the help of language, too. Tanaka lists diachronically different approaches to language and gender, focusing on three specific ones: gender stereotyped linguistic resources, semantically, pragmatically or lexically designated language features (including register) and gender-based spoken discourse strategies (talking-time imbalances or interruptions). In Chapter 8, Language, culture, and context, Istvan Kecskes delves into the relationship between language, culture, and context from a socio-cognitive perspective. The author considers culture to be a set of shared knowledge structures that encapsulate the values, norms, and customs that the members of a society have in common. According to him, both language and context are rooted in culture and carriers of it, though reflecting culture in a different way. Language encodes past experience with different contexts, whereas context reflects present experience. The author also provides relevant examples of formulaic language that demonstrate the functioning of both types of context, within the larger interplay between language, culture, and context. Sara Miller’s Chapter 9, Language, culture, and politeness reviews traditional approaches to politeness research, with particular attention given to ‘discursive approach’ to politeness. Much along the lines of the previous chapter, Miller stresses the role of context in judgements of (im)polite language, maintaining that individuals represent active agents who challenge and negotiate cultural as well as linguistic norms in actual communicative contexts. Chapter 10, Language, culture, and interaction, by Peter Eglin focuses on language, culture and interaction from the perspective of the correspondence theory of meaning. According to him, abstracting language and culture from their current uses, as if they were not interdependent would not lead to an understanding of words’ true meaning. David Kronenfeld introduces in Chapter 11, Culture and kinship language, a review of research on culture and kinship language, starting with linguistic anthropology. He explains two formal analytic definitional systems of kinship terms: the semantic (distinctions between kin categories, i.e. father vs mother) and pragmatic (interrelations between referents of kin terms, i.e. ‘nephew’ = ‘child of a sibling’). Chapter 12, Cultural semiotics, by Peeter Torop deals with the field of ‘semiotics of culture’, which may refer either to methodological instrument, to a whole array of methods or to a sub-discipline of general semiotics. In this last respect, it investigates cultures as a form of human symbolic activity, as well as a system of cultural languages (i.e. sign systems). Language, as “the preserver of the culture’s collective experience and the reflector of its creativity” represents an essential component of cultural semiotics, being a major sign system. Nigel Armstrong, in Chapter 13, Culture and translation, tackles the interrelation between language, culture, and translation, with an emphasis on the complexities entailed by translation of culturally laden aspects. In his opinion, culture has a double-sided dimension: the anthropological sense (referring to practices and traditions which characterise a community) and a narrower sense, related to artistic endeavours. However, both sides of culture permeate language at all levels. Chapter 14, Language, culture, and identity, by Sandra Schecter tackles several approaches to research on language, culture, and identity: social anthropological (the limits at play in the social construction of differences between various groups of people), sociocultural (the interplay between an individual’s various identities, which can be both externally and internally construed, in sociocultural contexts), participatory-relational (the manner in which individuals create their social–linguistic identities). Patrick McConvell, in Chapter 15, Language and culture history: the contribution of linguistic prehistory reviews research in this field where historical linguistic evidence is exploited in the reconstruction and understanding of prehistoric cultures. He makes an account of research in linguistic prehistory, with a focus on proto- and early Indo-European cultures, on several North American language families, on Africa, Australian, and Austronesian Aboriginal languages. McConvell also underlines the importance of interdisciplinary research in this area, which greatly benefits from studies in other disciplines, such as archaeology, palaeobiology, or biological genetics. Part four starts with Ning Yu’s Chapter 16, Embodiment, culture, and language, which gives an account of theory and research on the interplay between language, culture, and body, as seen from the standpoint of Cultural Linguistics. Yu presents a survey of embodiment (in embodied cognition research) from a multidisciplinary perspective, starting with the rather universalistic Conceptual Metaphor Theory. On the other hand, Cultural Linguistics has concentrated on the role played by culture in shaping embodied language, as various cultures conceptualise body and bodily experience in different ways. Chapter 17, Culture and language processing, by Crystal Robinson and Jeanette Altarriba deals with research in the field of how culture influence language processing, in particular in the case of bilingualism and emotion, alongside language and memory. Clearly, the linguistic and cultural character of each individual’s background has to be considered as a variable in research on cognition and cognitive processing. Frank Polzenhagen and Xiaoyan Xia, in Chapter 18, Language, culture, and prototypicality bring forth a survey of prototypicality across different disciplines, including cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology. According to them, linguistic prototypes play a critical part in social (re-)cognition, as they are socially diagnostic and function as linguistic identity markers. Moreover, individuals may develop ‘culturally blended concepts’ as a result of exposure to several systems of conceptual categorisation, especially in the case of L2 learning (language-contact or culture-contact situations). In Chapter 19, Colour language, thought, and culture, Don Dedrick investigates the issue of the colour words in different languages and how these influence cognition, a question that has been addressed by researchers from various disciplines, such as anthropology, linguistics, cognitive psychology, or neuroscience. He cannot but observe the constant debate in this respect, and he argues that it is indeed difficult to reach consensus, as colour language occasionally reveals effects of language on thought and, at other times, it is impervious to such effects. Chapter 20, Language, culture, and spatial cognition, by Penelope Brown concentrates on conceptualisations of space, providing a framework for thinking about and referring to objects and events, along with more abstract notions such as time, number, or kinship. She lists three frames of reference used by languages in order to refer to spatial relations, i.e. a) an ‘absolute’ coordinate system, like north, south, east, west; b) a ‘relative’ coordinate system envisaged from the body’s standpoint; and c) an intrinsic, object-centred coordinate system. Chris Sinha and Enrique Bernárdez focus on, in Chapter 21, Space, time, and space–time: metaphors, maps, and fusions, research on linguistic and cultural concepts of time and space, starting with the seminal Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), which they denounce for failing to situate space–time mapping within the broader patterns of culture and world perspective. Sinha and Bernárdez further argue that although it is possible in all cultures for individuals to experience and discuss about events in terms of their duration and succession, the specific words and concepts they use to refer to temporal landmarks temporal and duration are most of the time language and culture specific. Chapter 22, Culture and language development, by Laura Sterponi and Paul Lai provides an account of research on the interplay between culture and language acquisition. They refer to two widely accepted perspectives in this respect: a developmental mechanism inherent in human beings and a set of particular social contexts in which children are ‘initiated’ into the cultural meaning systems. Both perspectives define culture as “both related to the psychological make-up of the individual and to the socio-historical contexts in which s/he is born and develops”. Anna Wierzbicka presents, in Chapter 23, Language and cultural scripts discusses representations of cultural norms which are encoded in language. She contends that the system of meaning interpretation developed by herself and her colleagues, i.e. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), may easily be used to capture and convey cultural scripts. Through NSM cross-cultural experiences can be captured in a thorough manner by using a reduced number of conceptual primes which seem to exist in all languages. Chapter 24, Culture and emotional language, by Jean-Marc Dewaele brings forth the issue of the relationship between language, culture, and emotion, which has been researched by cultural and cognitive psychologists and applied linguists alike, although with some differences in focus. He considers that within this context, it is important to see differences between emotion contexts in bilinguals, since these may lead to different perceptions of the self. He infers that generally, culture revolves around the experience and communication of emotions, conveyed through linguistic expression. The fifth part starts with Chapter 25, Language and culture in sociolinguistics, by Meredith Marra, who underlines that culture is a central concept in Interactional Sociolinguistics, where language is considered as social interaction. In linguistic interaction, culture, and especially cultural differences are deemed as a cause of potential miscommunication. Mara also remarks that the paradigm change in sociolinguistics, from Interactional Sociolinguistics to social constructionism reshaped ‘culture’ into a more dynamic as well as less rigid concept. Claudia Strauss’ Chapter 26, Language and culture in cognitive anthropology deals with the relationship between human society and human thought/thinking. The author contends that cognitive anthropologists may be subdivided into two groups, i.e. ones that are concerned with the process of thinking (cognition-in-practice scholars), and the others focusing on the product of thinking or thoughts (concerned with shared cultural understandings). She goes on to explore how different approaches to cognitive anthropology have counted on units of language, i.e. lexical items and their meanings, along with larger chunks of discourse, as information, which may represent learned cultural schemata. Part VI starts with Chapter 27, Language and culture in second language learning, by Claire Kramsch, in which she makes a survey of the definition of ‘culture’ in foreign language learning and its evolution from a component of literature and the arts to a more comprehensive purport, that of culturally appropriate use of language, along with an appropriate use of sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic norms. According to her, in the postmodern era, communication is not only mere transmission of information, it represents construal and positioning of the self and of self-identity. Chapter 28, Writing across cultures: ‘culture’ in second language writing studies, by Dwight Atkinson focuses on the usefulness of culture in second-language writing (SLW). He reviews several approaches to the issue: contrastive rhetoric (dealing with the impact of first-language patterns of text organisation on writers in a second language), or even alternate notions, like‘ cosmopolitanism’, ‘critical multiculturalism’, and hybridity, as of late native culture is becoming irrelevant or at best far less significant. Ian Malcolm tackles, in Chapter 29, Language and culture in second dialect learning, the issue of ‘standard’ Englishes (e.g., Standard American English, Standard Australian English) versus minority ‘non-standard’ speakers of English. He deplores the fact that in US specialist literature, speaking the ‘non-standard’ variety of English was associated with cognitive, cultural, and linguistic insufficiency. He further refers to other specialists who have demonstrated that ‘non-standard’ varieties can be just as systematic and highly structured as the standard variety. Chapter 30, Language and culture in intercultural communication, by Hans-Georg Wolf gives an account of research in intercultural education, focusing on several paradigms, i.e. the dominant one, investigating successful functioning in intercultural encounters, the minor one, exploring intercultural understanding and the ‘deconstructionist, and or postmodernist’. He further examines different interpretations of the concepts associated with intercultural communication, including the functionalist school, the intercultural understanding approach and a third one, the most removed from culture, focusing on socio-political inequalities, fluidity, situationality, and negotiability. Andy Kirkpatrick’s Chapter 31, World Englishes and local cultures gives a synopsis of research paradigm from applied linguistics which investigates the development of Englishes around the world, through processes like indigenisation or nativisation of the language. Kirkpatrick discusses the ways in which new Englishes accommodate the culture of the very speech community which develops them, e.g. adopting lexical items to express to express culture-specific concepts. Speakers of new varieties could use pragmatic norms rooted in cultural values and norms of the specific new speech community which have not previously been associated with English. Moreover, they can use these new Englishes to write local literatures, often exploiting culturally preferred rhetorical norms. Part seven starts with Chapter 32, Cultural Linguistics, by Farzad Sharifian gives an account of the recent multidisciplinary research field of Cultural Linguistics, which explores the relationship between language and cultural cognition, particularly in the case of cultural conceptualisations. Sharifian also brings forth illustrations of how cultural conceptualisations may be linguistically encoded. The last chapter, A future agenda for research on language and culture, by Roslyn Frank provides an appraisal of Cultural Linguistics as a prospective path for research in the field of language and culture. She states that ‘Cultural Linguistics could potentially create a paradigm that “successfully melds together complementary approaches, e.g., viewing language as ‘a complex adaptive system’ and bringing to bear upon it concepts drawn from cognitive science such as ‘distributed cognition’ and ‘multi-agent dynamic systems theory’.” She further asserts that Cultural Linguistics has the potential to function as “a bridge that brings together researchers from a variety of fields, allowing them to focus on problems of mutual concern from a new perspective” and most likely unveil new issues (as well as solutions) which have not been evident so far. In conclusion, the Handbook will most certainly serve as clear and coherent guidelines for scholarly thinking and further research on language and culture, and also open up new investigative vistas in each of the areas tackled.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans la didactique des langues et des cultures étrangères ; il s’agit d’une recherche sur un enseignement du persan quotidien qui repose sur la nouvelle, en tant que lieu d’échanges interculturels. Justifiant, en premier lieu, pour le persan l’hypothèse de la diglossie, cette thèse montre que ce concept ne peut pas se concevoir sans considérer les différents paramètres socioculturels qui conditionnent l’emploi de chacune des deux variétés linguistiques : le persan quotidien et le persan littéral. La diglossie, la double relation de la langue et de la culture et par la suite l’étude du corpus des manuels de persan nous ont confortée dans notre réflexion sur la nécessité de réviser l’enseignement du persan « parlé-quotidien » et la présentation de la diversité culturelle en Iran. Cette recherche s’interroge sur l’impact du choix de la nouvelle littéraire pour la didactique du persan « parlé-quotidien » et sur son aptitude à susciter des interactions verbales interculturelles. La thèse pose qu’un élément concret ou un thème bien choisi dans une nouvelle, peut amener les apprenants à prendre la parole. Ce rôle tient à la présence, dans ce même ensemble textuel, d’éléments culturels saisissables. Ce choix didactique s’accompagne d’une sélection iconographique d’images destinées à attirer l’attention des apprenants sur le contenu de la nouvelle et sur les aspects culturels qu’elle véhicule. Nous nous proposons également d’étudier si la posture de l’enseignant et les relations interpersonnelles enseignant/apprenant sont interdépendantes et influencent le désir d’apprendre et de communiquer chez l’apprenant dans le contexte de l’enseignement du persan. Nous avons mis en place un projet didactique auprès d’étudiants en deuxième années de licence en langue et civilisation persanes à l’Institut national des Langues et Civilisations orientales, afin de vérifier ces idées. L’analyse des données enregistrées permet de présenter comment nous avons appliqué nos concepts et nos propositions. Elle est révélatrice de l’émergence d’une dynamique conversationnelle et interculturelle en classe et confirme ainsi nos hypothèses didactiques sur l’emploi de la nouvelle en classe de persan langue étrangère
This thesis is in the field of teaching foreign language and culture. It represents a research on teaching ‘‘everyday Persian’’ based on short story as a place of intercultural exchanges. Applying the diglossia hypothesis to Persian, this dissertation demonstrates that this concept cannot overlook different sociocultural parameters which determine the use of two linguistic varieties: ‘‘everyday Persian’’ and ‘‘formal Persian’’. The diglossia, the mutual relation between language and culture and the study of Persian textbooks corpus have convinced us that teaching ‘‘spoken everyday Persian’’ and the presentation of cultural diversity in Iran need to be revised. This research examines the impact of using short stories on teaching ‘‘spoken everyday Persian’’ and also its efficacy to stimulate intercultural verbal interactions. The thesis raises if a concrete element or a well chosen theme in a short story can lead learners to speak. This role requires the seizable cultural elements in this very text. This educational choice is associated with an iconographical study of some selected illustrations intended to attract learners’ attention to the content of the short story and the cultural aspects it conveys. Another purpose of this research is to figure out whether the teacher’s posture, communication behaviours and the teacher/learner interpersonal relationships are interdependent and if they have any impact on the learner’s desire to learn and communicate in the context of teaching Persian. To verify these hypotheses, an educational project for the second year-students of Persian language and civilization at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations was implemented. Analysis of recorded data can show how our concepts and proposals were applied. It is indicative of the emergence of a conversational and intercultural dynamics in the classroom and confirms our hypotheses regarding the use of Persian short stories in teaching Persian as a foreign language

M.Tech. (Fine Art)
In this research, I map emergent female Afrikaner identities in relation to Willem Boshoff‟s artwork Bread and Pebble Roadmap, which acts as the central focus to this study and informs my own body of practical work. In order to constitute a key to unlock questions regarding emergent female Afrikaner identities in a South African context from colonial to post-apartheid, the relationship between image and text in Bread and Pebble Roadmap is investigated. The investigation of this relationship is interwoven with a discourse of an early form of the literary tradition that has come to be known as Arabic-Afrikaans script, a term used to describe the "literary work which is written in Afrikaans with Arabic letters" (Van Selms 1951). This study adopts a qualitative methodological approach. The research incorporates textual analysis and visual analysis. The study presents a visual semiotic analysis of Bread and Pebble Roadmap, in order to map possible links between this artwork and a literature review of an early form of Arabic-Afrikaans script, as a contextual framework in which to situate the study. Arabic- Afrikaans, in turn, acts as a link which forges a relationship between two kinds of identities: an Islamic influence on South African culture, and an Islamic influence on my life experience as an Afrikaans-speaking woman who lived in Egypt for four years. These two identities, represented by artist Lalla Essaydi in relation to an Islamic identity and artist Lizelle Kruger in relation to an Afrikaner identity, are investigated through a comparative visual analysis. The study intends to show how Essaydi and Kruger form a link with Boshoff, where each of these three artists subverts, questions, and breaks down prevailing cultural and linguistic stereotypes, and in so doing operationalises the notion of an emergent identity. Identity construction, in the context of this study, is characterised by Stuart Hall‟s (in Rutherford 1990:222) concept of identity being in a continual state of flux, identity as “a production, which is never complete; always in process and always constructed within, not outside representation”. I therefore map my Afrikaner identity, previously seen as fixed, unproblematic and in line with the national discourse under apartheid (Van Heerden 2006), but now seen as „becoming‟ and „transitioning‟, situated „betwixt and between‟ (Turner 1969). This notion informs my own practical work, which becomes visual metaphors of maps, in order to navigate a sense of self. My practical work therefore attempts to embody a temporary space of an emergent identity. I understand this in-between space (Bhabha 2004) as a liminal space, as a continuum of spaces in which my emergent female Afrikaner identity resides. An important conclusion that I make from my research is that Boshoff‟s conflation of image and text, which is consistent with Derrida‟s (1981) deconstructive strategy, unhinges the conditions of the stereotype, which conventionally privileges a dichotomy in which different polar relations reside. Drawing a connection between Bread and Pebble Roadmap and Arabic-Afrikaans, and applying the conditions found in Bread and Pebble Roadmap to Arabic-Afrikaans, I view Arabic- Afrikaans as able to unhinge its own seeming dichotomies: between Arabic and Afrikaans, and thus between Islam and Christianity. In this way, I am able to argue that Arabic-Afrikaans is able to reverse stereotyping and point a way forward towards the construction of emergent non-racial stereotyping.

The Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the International Society of Italian Linguistics and Philology (SILFI), «Prospects in the study of Italian vocabulary» (Florence, 14-17 June 2006), comprise 88 contributions by scholars from Italy and abroad. The essays are divided into twelve sections, each representing a study prospect, thus illustrating the vitality of the great tradition of Italian studies on language. The Conference confirms the importance of tradition, but also points up how the new areas of study – concerning the use of information infrastructures for the acquisition and conservation of the linguistic heritage – are by now pivotal both for research and for the establishment of essential resources for the defence and promotion of our language. Meditation on the Italian lexicon at this moment in time signifies retrieving the relation between our language and our culture, which tends to be overshadowed in a period of globalisation and of vehicular language such as the present.

This research stems from the need of the Italian Cultural Institute to map the institutions involved in teaching Italian in the area considered and to analyse the quality of the teaching and learning process of the Italian language. The objectives are multiple and linked to the importance of finding the causes that slow the growth of the study of Italian in Japanese Kansai. Therefore, the first part of this action research will outline the cultural and linguistic education coordinates that characterize the Japanese context; in the second part, the research data will be interpreted in order to trace new methodological development trajectories to increase the quality of the Italian teaching process in Kansai.Part 1 This part focuses on the situation of foreign language teaching in Japan. It also describes the strategies to promote the teaching of the Italian language in Japan from 1980 to now. 1 Modern Language Policy in Japan Between Past and Present This first chapter describes linguistic policy for the promotion of foreign languages in Japan by the Ministry of Education (MEXT). 2 Japanese Educational System Focus of this chapter are the cultural, pedagogical and linguistic education characteristics of the context under investigation. 3 Teaching Italian Language in Japan The purpose of this chapter is to outline the general frame of the spreading of the Italian cultural model in a traditional Japanese context. Part 2In the second part the action research and the training project design are described. 4 The Action-Research Project This chapter describes the overall design of the research and the research questions that inspired an investigation in the context under study. The aim is to understand whether there is a link between the methodological choices of the teachers and the difficulties in learning Italian for Japanese students. Part 3 In this third part, the situation of teaching Italian in relation to different learning contexts in Japanese Kansai will be examined. 5 A Case Study at Italian Culture Institute in Osaka The goals of this chapter are to analyse the problems of teaching Italian at the IIC and suggest methodological improvement paths for teachers of Italian language at IIC. 6 A Case Study at Osaka University The data obtained by the informants will be used to analyse the situation of the teaching of Italian at Department of Italian language of this university and suggest curricular and methodological improvements to increase the quality of teaching and learning Italian. 7 A Case Study at Kyoto Sangyo University The chapter outlines the methodological and technical characteristics used to teach Italian at Kyoto Sangyo University and suggests strategies aimed at enhancing students’ language learning.

This book offers an analysis of Roman political culture in Italy from the first to the sixth century AD on the basis of seven case studies. Its main contention is that, during the period in which Italy was subject to single rule, Italy’s political culture had a specific form. It was the product of the continued existence of two traditional political institutions: the senate in the city of Rome and the local city councils in the rest of Italy. Under single rule, the position of both institutions was increasingly weakened and they became part of a much wider institutional landscape. Nevertheless, they continued functioning until the end of the sixth century AD. Their longevity must imply that they retained meaning for their members, even when society was undergoing significant changes. As their powers and prerogatives shrank considerably, their significance became social rather than political: they allowed elites to enact and negotiate their own position in society. The tension between the fact that the institutions were at heart participatory in nature, but that their power was restricted, generated complex social dynamics. On the one hand, participants became locked in mutual expectations about each other’s behaviour and were enacting social roles, while on the other hand they retained a degree of agency. They were encapsulated in an honorific language and in a set of conventions that regulated their behaviour, but that at the same time offered them some room for manoeuvre.

This book is about the ways in which culture matters to memory. It explores how memory is deeply entwined with social relationships, stories in film and literature, group history, monuments, ritual practices, material artifacts, and a host of other cultural devices. Culture in this account is not a bounded group of people or variable to be manipulated but, rather, the medium through which people live and make meaning of their lives. The focus of analysis becomes one of understanding the mutual constitution of people’s memories and the social–cultural worlds to which they belong. An interdisciplinary team of leading scholars has been brought together in this volume to offer new theoretical models of memory as both a psychological and a social–cultural process. The following themes are explored: the concept of memory and its relation to evolution, neurology, culture, and history; the particular dynamics of different cultural contexts of remembering, such as families, commemorations, giving testimony, and struggling with difficult memories such as in therapy; life course changes in memory from its development in childhood, through its anticipatory function in emerging adulthood, to managing its decline in old age; and the national and transnational organization of collective memory and identity through narratives propagated in political discourse, the classroom, and media. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the complex and interconnected relationship between culture, mind, and memory.

This chapter explores the ways in which the other two contemporary epinician poets, Simonides and Bacchylides, use aesthetics and material culture as a way of drawing attention to their own individual and distinctive poetic voices and poetic agendas. Their affinities with and differences from Pindar are explored on the strength of the available evidence. Simonides’ Danae fragment receives detailed coverage, interpreted in visual-cultural terms in relation to Simonides’ ongoing fame as the original commentator on the relation between art and text. Discussion then turns to Bacchylides, and the predominance of a visual narrative style in his work. The argument covers not only epinician material but also an interesting but understudied fragmentary dithyramb. The focus then returns to Pindar with a short treatment of the themes of vision and visual and material culture in Nemean 10.

This study investigates the tension between two conflicting intuitions, our twin recognitions: (1) that all humans share the same basic cognitive capacities; and yet (2) their actual manifestations in different individuals and groups differ appreciably. How can we reconcile our sense of what links us all as humans with our recognition of these deep differences? All humans use language and live in social groups, where we have to probe what is distinctive in the experience of humans as opposed to that of other animals and how the former may have evolved from the latter. Moreover, the languages we speak and the societies we form differ profoundly, though the conclusion that we are the prisoners of our own particular experience should and can be resisted. The study calls into question the cross-cultural viability both of many of the analytic tools we commonly use (such as the contrast between the literal and the metaphorical, between myth and rational account, and between nature and culture) and of our usual categories for organizing human experience and classifying intellectual disciplines, mathematics, religion, law, and aesthetics. The result is a robust defence of the possibilities of mutual intelligibility while recognizing both the diversity in the manifestations of human intelligence and the need to revise our assumptions in order to achieve that understanding.

This book unearths a rich tradition of creative flexibility, collaboration and mutual influence between literary culture and Egyptology from the late nineteenth century to the early decades of the twentieth century, culminating in the aftermath of the high-profile discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. The first book-length study to focus in depth on the symbiotic relationship between literature and Egyptological culture, it analyses the works of Egyptologists including Howard Carter and E. A. Wallis Budge alongside those of their literary contemporaries such as H. Rider Haggard and Marie Corelli. Combining literary criticism with book history and reception studies, it incorporates a number of archival primary sources which have, until now, escaped critical attention, and reads canonical literature alongside works by lesser-known authors, to ascertain the proliferation of twin Egyptological and literary interests. It was across this period, this book shows, that as a result of the public fervour stirred up by its gilded discoveries and the ancient language that its scholars had so recently deciphered, its high-profile practitioners (both expert and amateur) and its wide range of associations in the cultural consciousness (from magic and longevity, to sexual desire and horror), that Egyptology and its cultural offshoots infiltrated the libraries, lives and minds of an extraordinarily eclectic audience.

Few periods in history are so fundamentally contradictory as the Baroque, the culture flourishing from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries in Europe. When we hear the term ‘Baroque,’ the first images that come to mind are symmetrically designed gardens in French chateaux, scenic fountains in Italian squares, and the vibrant rhythms of a harpsichord. Behind this commitment to rule, harmony, and rigid structure, however, the Baroque also embodies a deep fascination with wonder, excess, irrationality, and rebellion against order. The Oxford Handbook of the Baroque delves into this contradiction to provide a sweeping survey of the Baroque not only as a style but also as a historical, cultural, and intellectual concept. With its thirty-eight chapters edited by leading expert John D. Lyons, the Handbook explores different manifestations of Baroque culture, from theatricality in architecture and urbanism to opera and dance, from the role of water to innovations in fashion, from mechanistic philosophy and literature to the tension between religion and science. These discussions present the Baroque as a broad cultural phenomenon that arose in response to the enormous changes emerging from the sixteenth century: the division between Catholics and Protestants, the formation of nation-states and the growth of absolutist monarchies, the colonization of lands outside Europe and the mutual impact of European and non-European cultures. Technological developments such as the telescope and the microscope and even greater access to high-quality mirrors altered mankind’s view of the universe and of human identity itself. By exploring the Baroque in relation to these larger social upheavals, this Handbook reveals a fresh and surprisingly modern image of the Baroque as a powerful response to an epoch of crisis.

The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition provides a systematic overview of the state of the art in the field of 4E cognition: it includes chapters on hotly debated topics, for example, on the nature of cognition and the relation between cognition, perception and action; it discusses recent trends such as Bayesian inference and predictive coding; it presents new insights and findings regarding social understanding including the development of false belief understanding, and introduces new theoretical paradigms for understanding emotions and conceptualizing the interaction between cognition, language and culture. Each thematic section ends with a critical note to foster the fruitful discussion. In addition the final section of the book is dedicated to applications of 4E cognition approaches in disciplines such as psychiatry and robotics. This is a book with high relevance for philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists and anyone with an interest in the study of cognition as well as a wider audience with an interest in 4E cognition approaches.

This chapter discusses the relationship between melody and language in Homer, the musical fragment of Euripides’ Orestes, and the ‘Seikilos Song’. Readings of Homeric passages draw on statistical analysis of the pitch-structures of the hexameter to show how melody may have been used to mark significant junctures, bridge syntactically conjoined verses, and demarcate the narrative. The musical scores of the two later texts demonstrate the interaction of semantic meaning with melodic and rhythmical patterns, and contextualizes these interactions against the backdrop of wider developments in Greek performance culture. The (probably) Euripidean melody on the Vienna papyrus should be seen in relation to the techniques of the ‘New Musicians’, and viewed as a move towards a more emotionally ‘programmatic’ melodization. The chapter also argues for an overall continuity of techniques for creating musical effects from ancient Greek to later traditions of Western music.

Abstract This chapter reviews the cultural aspects of the East and the West. A wide range of differences between the East and the West is discussed in terms of the extrinsic and intrinsic differences. The extrinsic differences comprise architecture, the mode of clothing, everyday practices, and language and script, while the intrinsic differences consist of culture and value systems, attention and perception (holistic vs. analytic), problem solving (relation vs. categorization), and rhetorical structure (linear vs. roundabout). The locus of these differences is identified with respect to philosophical foundations and the characteristics of Eastern and Western cultures. The prevalent interpretations of the differences between the East and the West center on Diamond’s (1999) guns, germs, and steel, Nisbett’s (2003) geography of thought, and Logan’s (2004) alphabet effects. However, these interpretations cannot explain differences in ideologies, religious practices, and societal values among Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. Therefore, script relativity becomes a new interpretation of the engine behind the differences among the three East-Asian nations and between the East and the West.

This chapter aims at better understanding the behavior of the Internet user. It suggests studying the role of communication on the trust of Internet users towards commercial Websites. In order to realize this research, the authors mobilized the Communicative Action Theory of Jürgen Habermas (1987). Therefore, they have brought a new perspective in understanding online trust following action theory. For Habermas, communication is an action that depends on contextual, cultural, and human factors, which cannot be reduced to deterministic mechanisms. He deals with three types of action, which an actor might pursue following his interests, which can be instrumental, strategic, or emancipatory. The instrumental and strategic are purposive-rational actions, which aim at achieving success and at developing a calculated trust based on calculation of the advantages and the costs of the relation, whereas, the communicative action is coordinated by mutual understanding that allows the development of a relational trust based on social interactions. In communicative action, mutual understanding through language allows the social integration of actors and the coordination of their plans and their different interests. In this case, trust is based on a common definition of the situation and the resolution of conflicts of interests between actors. Internet is a medium of communication that can support the three kinds of action. The instrumental and strategic actions allow the development of calculated trust, whereas the communicative action allows the development of relational trust based on social interaction and mutual comprehension.

This chapter aims at better understanding the behavior of the Internet user. It suggests studying the role of communication on the trust of Internet users towards commercial Websites. In order to realize this research, the authors mobilized the Communicative Action Theory of Jürgen Habermas (1987). Therefore, they have brought a new perspective in understanding online trust following action theory. For Habermas, communication is an action that depends on contextual, cultural, and human factors, which cannot be reduced to deterministic mechanisms. He deals with three types of action, which an actor might pursue following his interests, which can be instrumental, strategic, or emancipatory. The instrumental and strategic are purposive-rational actions, which aim at achieving success and at developing a calculated trust based on calculation of the advantages and the costs of the relation, whereas, the communicative action is coordinated by mutual understanding that allows the development of a relational trust based on social interactions. In communicative action, mutual understanding through language allows the social integration of actors and the coordination of their plans and their different interests. In this case, trust is based on a common definition of the situation and the resolution of conflicts of interests between actors. Internet is a medium of communication that can support the three kinds of action. The instrumental and strategic actions allow the development of calculated trust, whereas the communicative action allows the development of relational trust based on social interaction and mutual comprehension.

This chapter discusses the Heftzibah programme. This programme brings together professional teachers (local as well as sheliḥim) of very different social, cultural, and personal backgrounds. Even among the sheliḥim themselves there is great diversity: some are just starting out on their path in education, while others are close to retirement; some are parents whose children will accompany them on their assignments, others are single or divorced; some are fluent in Russian while others, born in Israel, are taking their first steps in the new language; bearers of a secular world-view have colleagues who are strictly Orthodox or traditional; Ashkenazim work alongside Sephardim. What is common to them all is a sense of mission: a will to pass Jewish and Zionist knowledge on to students in Jewish schools in the FSU. In addition, every shaliaḥ must be in possession of a teaching diploma recognized by the Israeli ministry of education, and at least five years' proven experience in educational work with children.

Movement is an inseparable part of our daily lives. Research indicates that learning through the moving body (embodiment) is meaningful learning. This chapter presents language of movement as a necessary avenue in the study of literacy and learning, and describes perceptions, uses, and applications of kinesthetic language as part of the learning experience. The language of movement is described as a literacy learned at three levels: Level 1 focuses on movement tools as applicable in learning in cultural fields. Level 2 is fed by movement aspects and perceptions as they support a learning space. Level 3 is fed by perceptions of relations between variables, seeing each existential space as composed of a collection of stimuli equal in value to and enabling focus on the creation of a learning space. A learning space can be envisaged as one that offers a rich arena for mutual interaction of expression, learning and creation, enriching and supporting the expansion of the learner's world, necessary for active, innovative, experimental, inquisitive, and boundary-breaking involvement.

Analyzing Franz Boas's critically new insights under the lens of philology, this chapter redefines Boasian linguistics as a globalizing mode of mutual enlightenment through the exchange of grammatical concepts between selves across borders of sound and sense—a process he calls “comparative calibrationism,” the asymptotic pursuit of the always-inaccessible yet ever-closer universal truth. It focuses on the Handbook of American Indian Languages, where Boas dismantled every plank in the language-focused platform on which inferences of evolutionary primitivism stand. Boas also went after the very applicability to American languages of the comparative method of historical linguistics, from which inferences of so-called linguistic families descended from single proto-languages emerged in the nineteenth century.

Spinor bundles and other related bundles are constructed by exploiting the algebraic notions introduced in the previous chapter. The linear connections of these bundles and their mutual relations are studied. The notion of 2-spinor soldering form, or ‘tetrad’, yields the fundamental link between spinor algebra and spacetime geometry. The Fermi transport of spinors is studied in view of the definition of free states of particles with spin. The notion of Lorentzian distance is examined in relation to 2-spinor geometry, obtaining simplifications in regard to certain issues which are discussed, in the literature, in relation to the ‘algebraic approach’ to spacetime geometry.

Hakkas from Meizhou who migrated to Calcutta established suc¬cessful businesses, and then, in the 1970s to the 1990s, moved on to settle in Vienna (and Toronto). Prac¬ticing a closed-group life both in Vienna and across continents, the Hakkas preserved their lan¬gua¬ge and culture while adapting both to India and Austria in various ways. In a series of open interviews with Vienna-based Hakkas, questions of identity and the preservation of a minority culture are raised. In dependence to age, the consultants have very different personal identities behind a shared social identity of being ‘Indian Hak¬ka¬s,’ which is, however, mostly borne out of practical considerations of mutual support and certain cultural practices. As mi¬grants, they can profit from close friendship and loyalty between group members, sharing the same pro¬fes¬sions, marrying inside the group, and speaking their own language. Questions of identity are most¬ly relevant for the younger generation which has to deal with a confusingly layered familial iden¬tity.