9/8/2019 Ethnolinguistics - Wikipedia

Ethnolinguistics
Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics)[1] is a field of linguistics that studies the relationship
between language and culture and how 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: all the characteristics that
distinguish one community from the other. Such characteristics make the cultural aspects of a community or a society.

Ethnolinguists study the way perception and conceptualization influences language and show how that is linked to
different cultures and societies. An example is how 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 is a related branch of linguistics that explores the relationship between language and cultural
conceptualisations.[4] Cultural Linguistics draws on and expands the theoretical and analytical advancements in
cognitive science (including complexity science and distributed cognition) and anthropology. Cultural linguistics
examines how various features of human languages encode cultural conceptualisations, including cultural schemas,
cultural categories, and cultural metaphors.[4] 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, Teaching English as an International Language, and World Englishes.[5]

See also
Anthropological linguistics
Associative group analysis
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. Sharifian, Farzad (2011). Cultural Conceptualisations and Language: Theoretical Framework and Applications.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
5. Sharifian, Farzad & Palmer, Gary B. (eds.) (2007) Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language
learning and intercultural communication. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Sources
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.

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(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.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
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, Massachusetts: 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.

External links
Cultural Linguistics (http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/lsc/about-cultural-linguistics/)
Applied Cultural Linguistics (https://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=CELCR%207)
The Jurgen Trabant Wilhelm von Humboldt Lectures (7hrs) (https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/permalink/c1253a18f7e5ec
nge8dp/)
Farzad Sharifian, publications (http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/farzad-sharifian/publications-content/)
Cultural Linguistics: A new multidisciplinary field of research (https://farzadsharifian.com/cultural-linguistics-a-new-
multidisciplinary-field-of-research/,)

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