Ethnolinguistics

Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics)^[1] is a field of linguistics which studies the relationship between language and culture, and the way different ethnic groups perceive the world. It is the combination between ethnology and linguistics. The former refers to the way of life of an entire community, i.e., all the characteristics which distinguish one community from the other. Those characteristics make the cultural aspects of a community or a society.

Ethnolinguists study the way perception and conceptualization influences language, and show how this is linked to different cultures and societies. An example is the way spatial orientation is expressed in various cultures.^[2][3] In many societies, words for the cardinal directions east and west are derived from terms for sunrise/sunset. The nomenclature for cardinal directions of Inuit speakers of Greenland, however, is based on geographical landmarks such as the river system and one's position on the coast. Similarly, the Yurok lack the idea of cardinal directions; they orient themselves with respect to their principal geographic feature, the Klamath River.

Cultural Linguistics (capitalized) refers to a related branch of linguistics that explores the relationship between language, culture, and conceptualisation.^[4] Cultural Linguistics draws on, but is not limited to, the theoretical notions and analytical tools of cognitive linguistics and cognitive anthropology. Central to the approach of Cultural Linguistics are notions of "cultural schema" and "cultural model". It examines how various features of language encode cultural schemas and cultural models.^[5] In Cultural Linguistics, language is viewed as deeply entrenched in the group-level, cultural cognition of communities of speakers. Thus far, the approach of Cultural Linguistics has been adopted in several areas of applied linguistic research, including intercultural communication, second language learning, and World Englishes.^[6]

See also

• Anthropological linguistics
• Evolutionary psychology of language
• Linguistic anthropology
• Wilhelm von Humboldt

References

1. Ferraro, Gary (2006). Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective. Cengage Learning. ISBN 0-495-10008-0.
2. Heine, Bernd (1997) Cognitive Foundations of Grammar. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
3. Tuan, Yi-Fu (1974) Topophilia: A study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
4. Palmer, Gary B. (1996). Toward a Theory of Cultural Linguistics. Texas: Texas University Press.
5. Sharifian, Farzad (2011). Cultural Conceptualisations and Language: Theoretical Framework and Applications. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
6. Sharifian, Farzad & Palmer, Gary B. (eds.) (2007) Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

External links

• Cultural Linguistics
• Toward a Theory of Cultural Linguistic
• Applied Cultural Linguistics
• Cultural Linguistics: Farzad Sharifian's Inaugural Professorial Lecture
• The Jurgen Trabant Wilhelm von Humboldt Lectures (7hrs)

Further reading

• Wierzbicka, Anna (1992) Semantics, Culture, and Cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configuration. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Bartmiński, Jerzy. Aspects of Cognitive Ethnolinguistics. Sheffield and Oakville, CT: Equinox, 2009/2012.
• (en) Madeleine Mathiot (dir.), Ethnolinguistics : Boas, Sapir and Whorf revisited, Mouton, La Haye, 1979, 323 p. (ISBN 978-90-279-7597-3)
• (fr) Luc Bouquiaux, Linguistique et ethnolinguistique : anthologie d'articles parus entre 1961 et 2003, Peeters, Louvain, Dudley, MA, 2004, 466 p.
• (fr) Christine Jourdan et Claire Lefebvre (dir.), « L'ethnolinguistique », in Anthropologie et sociétés, vol. 23, no 3, 1999, p. 5-173
• (fr) Bernard Pottier, L'ethnolinguistique (numéro spécial de la revue Langages), Didier, 1970, 130 p.
• Trabant, Jürgen, Humboldt ou le sens du langage, Liège: Madarga, 1992.
• Trabant, Jürgen, Traditions de Humboldt, (German edition 1990), French edition, Paris: Maison des sciences de l’homme, 1999.
• Trabant, Jürgen, Mithridates im Paradies: Kleine Geschichte des Sprachdenkens, München: Beck, 2003.
• Trabant, Jürgen, ‘L’antinomie linguistique: quelques enjeux politiques’, Politiques & Usages de la Langue en Europe, ed. Michael Werner, Condé-sur-Noireau: Collection du Ciera, Dialogiques, Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2007.
• Trabant, Jürgen, Was ist Sprache?, München: Beck, 2008.
• Underhill, James W., ‘ “Making” love and “having” sex: an analysis of metaphoric paradigms in English, French and Czech’, Slovo a smysl: Word and Sense, Karlova univerzita, Akademie, 2007.
• Underhill, James W., Humboldt, Worldview and Language, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
• Underhill, James W. Creating Worldviews, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011.
• Underhill, James W. Ethnolinguistics and Cultural Concepts: love, truth, hate & war, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• Vocabulaire européen des philosophes, Dictionnaires des intraduisibles, ed. Barbara Cassin, Paris: Robert, 2004.
• Whorf, Benjamin Lee, Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings (1956), ed. John B. Caroll, Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1984.
• Wierzbicka, Anna, Semantics, Culture and Cognition: Universal Human Concepts in Culture-Specific Configurations, New York, Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Wierzbicka, Anna, Understanding Cultures through their Key Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Wierzbicka, Anna, Emotions across Languages and Cultures, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• Wierzbicka, Anna, Semantics: Primes and Universals (1996), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Wierzbicka, Anna, Experience, Evidence & Sense: The Hidden Cultural Legacy of English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.