DEFINING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

LANGUAGE 

Language allows humans to communicate with other members of a society, language is the means by which are transmitted feelings, sensations, emotions, thoughts, ideas, ideals which make it possible to establish personal and interpersonal relationships; which in turn allow to the individual his development as person and professionally in all social spheres. The way each person uses language to communicate is different, is part of his own personality.

CULTURE 

 We can say that culture is a set of customs and characteristics that identify a particular society; among them are: lifestyles, ways of dressing, ways of talking, ways of acting and interacting with other people, parties, celebrations, beliefs etc. As an example we can point the Eastern culture and Western culture; to go no farther Colombia is a multicultural country because that the inhabitants of each of the regions has specific features through which we can identify them easily.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE 

Language and culture  are closely related and that both the one and the other are part of the features that identifying of an individual in society, therefore  is important have account that  on  each place by influence of culture  the meaning of words change,so we must be careful how we use language, to avoid being misunderstood, offending to interlocutor or giving the wrong message.

The appropriate use of language opens the way toward discovering new cultures and people whose own lifestyle  help us enrich our knowledge.

LANGUAGE AS A SOCIO-CULTURAL RESOURCE

Language is considered a sociocultural resource because that allows the human being through communication interact in their own context and opens doors for interaction in different contexts, which enable identification, processing and construction of diverse social environments  , and each individual has the capacity to intervene positively or negatively it.

The language goes hand in hand with social and cultural development, none of them are static because they adjust and complement according to particular needs.

Humans have the need to stay in constant contact with everything around him, to establish a personal and interpersonal relationship that allow you to grow in all areas of life, therefore uses language as a mechanism to share knowledge, concerns, feelings, emotions, feelings, ideas, and ideals.

On the other hand these needs are those that lead the individual to their own growth and to build social relationships that transform an entire community.

It is important to note that the language must be used appropriately because of the different uses and meanings.

CULTURE AND GOOD LANGUAGE LEARNERS

FERDINAND SAUSSURE HIS MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDIES OF LINGUISTIC.

Ferdinand de Saussure (Geneva, Switzerland, November 26, 1857 - ibid, February 22, 1913), a Swiss linguist, considered the father of linguistic and structural grammar.

Contributions to linguistics

The main contributions of Saussure were published in his book Course in General Linguistics, in which he postulated (made​​) a series of dichotomies. The underlying theoretical approach became known as European structuralism and had followers throughout the twentieth century who developed ideas introduced by Saussure with some added later theorists.

• The structuralist theory of language:

• The dichotomies of language: language and speech:

• The linguistic sign: signifier and signified:

• The dichotomy: synchrony and diachronic:

• The dichotomy internal linguistic and linguistic external:

The various elements offer among themselves a relation of solidarity forming a structure

This is a homogeneous, purely psychic phenomena, and of passive adoption by the community.

The signifier and the signified are part of the structure of the sign.

Signifier: Is the material form which takes the sign, it is not always is linguistic, it can be an image.

Signified: It is the mental image (the concept it represents), which varies according to culture.

The linguistic may be synchronously or diachronic versus time.

The internal Linguistic is scientific and focuses on the study of systems.

The external Linguistic focuses on the context where the language lives, is interested in language as a social institution.

THE PROBLEMS FACING THE LINGUISTIC

Problems that still confronting the discipline according with  Labov’s Principles Linguistic change (1994, 2001).

1. William Labov
2. William Labov is an American linguist, from  linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania. He is considered the founder of quantitative sociolinguistics and his work has focused on sociolinguistics and dialectology.

• Variation and change is a ubiquitous characteristic of language. Change inheres in its triple nature as system, activity and social institution (L¨udtke 1986, Keller 1994, Tuite 1999).
• Physiological and cognitive factors act as constraints upon certain types of change. Consonant lenitions are far more frequent than fortitions (Trask 1996: 55–60). Shifts in vowel features, such as height and anteriority, tend to follow predictable trajectories, as argued by Martinet (1964) and Labov (1994).
• Although the constraints in (2) assure a degree of regularity, even predictability, of linguistic change, the phenomenon is nonetheless fundamentally social in nature. Change is enacted and diffused in the intersubjective context of communication. Language use has an inherent indexical component, in that it continually signals, constructs, maintains and problematizes the multifaceted cluster of representations subsumed under the notion of “identity” (Silverstein 1996, 1998). Variation – different ways of saying “the same thing” – is the primary resource exploited in this process.
• For the above reason, among others, natural-science-like, desubjectivized models of variation and change must be complemented by hermeneutic approaches, which drawupon knowledge of various elements of the context of the phenomenon under study, as well as the investigators’ own instincts and imaginative capabilities as socially, historically, and culturally situated actors.

REFERENCES

Medina L Alberto, ciudadliteraria.blogspot-monday, 31 december de 2012

Study material of Course Language and Culture, Open and Distance National University

http://es.wikipedia.org/

http://karlasaltossemiotica.blogspot.com/2012/05/significado-y-significante.html 07 mayo 2012

https://www.google.com.co/search?q=imagenes