There has been an ongoing debate about whether language shapes our culture, and the way we think, or whether our culture shapes our language, and the way we speak.
I have learned previously that language actually shapes the culture, and the way we think, and there are many ways to prove it. For example, there is a culture that has no sense of time, no past, no present, and no future, in their language. This shapes the way they live in more than just their conversation. They are living for the moment, not worrying about the past or about the future.
Our language is filled with metaphors. It’s undeniable that so much of the common things we say are figurative, and cannot actually be taken literally. It’s the reason that English is so hard to learn as a new language, and that it is sometimes impossible to translate our phrases into a different language.
It, as Lakoff and Johnson’s piece proves, shapes our reality and our world. The examples that they give, “Argument is War” and “Time is Money” are just two of the many, many examples that show that metaphors are not just what we use to speak, but how we shape the way we think and act.
By comparing time to money, we are creating a society that values time as money, as a commodity that is valuable. We then are careful with how we “spend” it, are careful not to “waste” it, and may even “invest” it.
The reality is that while metaphors may begin as literary tools, but the language that we speak creates our world- our reality. English is a language of metaphors, confusing ones sometimes. And therefore, English speakers live in a world of metaphors.
I completely agree with you that figurative language makes it difficult for non-native speakers to learn English; however, my opinion on culture and language lies contrary to yours. I believe that our culture strongly affects our language, and hence, our metaphors. Around the era when the “Protestant work ethic” and the “Spirit of Capitalism” emerged, American saw a shift of valuing individuality and hard work. (Not to say it wasn’t valued prior, it was merely a pivotal point when people started changing the way they speak.) This is roughly when people started saying “Time is Money.” Because Americans valued hard work, and frowned upon relaxing or not working, time became immensely valuable.
In Japan, for instance, people value the collective over the individual, and thus, have words in their vocabulary that represent that. “Wa,” I believe, is the harmony that society maintains, and any disturbance is looked down upon because it goes against the peace and harmony. We don’t really have a word for that. At least, I don’t think.
I believe that a culture’s values and morals dictate the kind of language that emerges. [Also, with recent progressivity and cultural shift in terms of gender association and sexual orientation, new words are being added to the dictionary pretty frequently.]
I hear your point. But how do you know that Japan had such a culture not based on its language? Could it not be that the language was spoken, and therefore the culture adapted to have a value of the collective over the individual? The same goes for the Time is Money. It could be that people started talking about it as if it were money, and thus starting acting like it as soon as it became part of their vocabulary, could it not?
I found this post very interesting, although I don’t completely agree with you on all the points you made. It’s certainly true that language has a tremendous effect on culture. The existence of language is a precondition for any sort of society to come together and communicate and develop a common culture. Therefore, it goes without saying that the specifics of a language and the way it is used have a tremendous effect on a society’s culture.
I don’t, however, agree that many cultural differences can be explained through differences in the metaphors different societies use. I think that instead the differences in language are a reflection of the the differences in culture. Now, that being said, obviously things are a lot more complex. Language does certainly effect the way people speak and think about different concepts, and so language does effect culture as well. I guess the most accurate explanation is that there is a sort of positive feedback loop wherein cultural idea’s influence the way that people speak, which in turn solidifies those ideas in people’s minds and ensures that they are passed on to the next generation. Very interesting post!
I agree with you that language shapes our culture. As times change we as a society change our language, learn new words and we adopt them into our vocabulary. So it is hard to translate them into another language and I agree that learning English can be hard. I found your post very interesting.