WORDS AND CULTURE

BY: KALSUM ABUBAKAR

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

ENGLISH LETTER STUDY PROGRAM
FLORES UNIVERSITY
2017
 DEFINITION OF WORD

Word is the smallest unit that can stand alone and can be declared as a free form
( According from Bloomfield, 1994: 163 )

DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE

Communication tool between members of the public in the form of a sound symbol
produced by a human speech tool ( According Keraf ).
The Language is part of the culture, we can see that :
1. The language is a form of the behaviour of a trained means we mastery over one
language is not because through the learning process.
2. The language using limited in humans are in have by all members of society is
concerned.

CULTURE

Wardhaugh says: "Culture, therefore, is the 'knowledge' of how the person must possess
to get through the task of daily living." (Culture is 'knowledge' of how the person must
possess it to obtain through daily tasks.) Above have not paid too much attention to aspects
of language in connection with culture. Hall (1997) provides a clearer and more applicable
definition in the field of sociolinguistics: "To say that two people belong to the same culture
is to say that they interpret the world in roughly similar ways and can express themselves,
their thoughts "(Two people are said to have the same culture if they interpret the world in
more or less the same way and can express themselves, thoughts and feelings about the
world, in ways that Will be understood by each).
The Element of Culture :
The Equipment of human life
The social system
Language
The Art
The system of knowledge
Religion
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGES AND CULTURE

Language and culture have a coordinated relationship, namely equal relations with
equal position. Masinambouw in Chaer (1995: 217) mentions that culture and language is a
system inherent in humans. The relationship of language with culture is very close, and often
difficult to identify the relationship between them because they affect each other, fill each
other and walk side by side. Language is a means of cultural preservation. A culture will be
able to be understood, understood, and upheld by the recipients of the culture if they
understand the language of the introduction of the Culture. It is often thought that culture is
born out of language, without language there can be no culture. Even so it turns out the
language of a society was very influenced by the culture of society. The opinion is also said
by Levi-Strauss (in Sibarani 1992: 104). According to him, language is the result of culture.
In this case it means culture influences language as it does in the above examples. Language
is a reflection of the entire culture of a society. For example in the example below:

Sunda Language Javanes

Amis : manis Amis : amis
Gedang : papaya Gedhang : pisang
Raos : enak Raos : rasa
.
SAPIR- WHORF HYPOTHESIS
Edward Sapir is a linguistic anthropologist who teaches at Yale University, Sapir argues
that language and culture can not be separated like coins that can not be separated between
the two images.
Culture is a reality determined by language, and language is something inherited
culturally. However, Sapir emphasizes that the language that determines the way we perceive
the reality.
The researchers divided the Whorfian hypothesis into two parts:
1.Linguistic Determinism
Language views that language structure controls the mind and cultural norms. In other
words, humans are simply living in a small part of the world where possible the language
they use. So the world we know is primarily determined by the language taught by our
culture. Thus language differences also present basic differences in the world view of
different cultures.
2.Linguistic Relativity
The language assumes that language characteristics and cultural norms influence each
other. With other meanings, culture is controlled and simultaneously controls the language.
Based on this interpretation the language provides conceptual categories that affect how the
perception of its use is coded and stored.
The Sapir Hypothesis - Whorf states that the world we know is primarily determined by
the language in our culture. "Kramsch (2001: 11, 77) also suggests that people speak in
different ways because they think differently. They think in different ways because their
language offers a way of expressing (meaning) the outside world around them in different
ways "
According to Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf, language serves not only as a
mechanism for communication, but also as a guide to social reality. In other words, language
not only describes perceptions, thoughts and experiences, but also determines and shapes
them. With other meanings people of different languages: Indonesian, English, Japanese,
Chinese, Korean, and so on tend to see the same reality in different ways. The implications of
language can also be used to give a certain accent to an event or action, such as emphasis,
sharpen, soften, glamorize,and so on. Whorf argues that structures in our language can
influence our behavior.

KINSHIP
An interesting way to examine where people use language is in everyday life when
referring to kinship. Because the kinship system has togetherness in all parts of the world, but
humans use different systems to talk about their kinship. Some systems are much richer than
other systems and the rules are different. In English for example, the terms for "brother" and
"sister" are only used for older brothers or sisters, very different from the Indonesian
language, where the term brother / sister can also be used in other social relationships, which
should not be confused On family relationships.
In different kinship systems different relationships are sometimes given the same terms
and sometimes similar relationships are marked by different terms. To understand why the
system can vary, there must be knowledge of the speaker's culture. With the change of
cultural system it can be concluded that the kinship system will also change and reflect the
change.

MULTICULTURALISM
Multiculturalism is a term used to describe one's view of the diversity of life in the world,
or cultural policy that emphasizes acceptance of diversity, and the multiculturalism that exists
in the life of society concerning values, systems, cultures, customs and Politics that they
profess.
Multiculturalism includes an understanding, appreciation and assessment of one's
culture, as well as a respect and curiosity about another's ethnic culture (Lawrence Blum,
quoted by Lubis, 2006: 174).
 Parekh (1997: 183-185) distinguishes five kinds of multiculturalism (Azra, 2007,
summarizes Parekh's description):
Isolationist Multiculturalism
Accommodative Multiculturalism
Autonomic Multiculturalism
Critical or Interactive Multiculturalism
Cosmopolitan Multiculturalism
Multicultural can be interpreted as a diversity or a difference to a culture with another
culture. So that multicultural society can be defined as a group of people who live and live
settled in a place that has its own culture and distinctive characteristics that are able to
distinguish between one society with another society. Each society will produce its own
culture which will be a characteristic for the community.

REFERENCES

Wardaugh,Ronald.(2006).An introductions to sociolinguistic.(3rd

ed).Blackwell:Blackwell publish
Yule,George.(2006).The Study of Language (4rd ed).Cambridge:Cambridge
University Press