The Phonetics of Language and Culture

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses language and the role of culture within learning. The paper asserts that the culture and environment a child is exposed to during the cultivation of language plays a key role in the development of his or her unique language facility. Specifically in this paper, the author opens by defining the two main schools of thought, the Nativist (or Hereditarians) and the Interactionists (or Environmentalists), as well as the Interactionists, asserting that the one similarity between each view is the need for social interaction either as a learning tool or an activation device. The paper goes on to discuss the stages of development throughout life and the concrete language development within each stage. Additionally, the paper assesses how the effects of culture on language are outwardly visible, for example through the act of translation or through the learning of additional languages. Finally, the paper concludes that throughout all of this, it can be shown that culture and language are mutually inclusive.

From the Paper:

"During the ongoing stages of development, semantics, syntactic and pragmatics the individual absorbs almost unconsciously the nuances of the language and the culture he or she is raised within. The rate at which a child increases vocabulary during the semantic stage is directly proportionate to the degree of their exposure to language through active verbal interactions from those around them such as parents, siblings as well as teachers and other caregivers. During the syntax phase the more formal development of language takes place wherein the child is learning to comprehend the basic rules of grammar and can more readily convey their thoughts and ideas in complete sentences. (Broderick & Blewitt 2006:.91-93) This is where the order of language that the culture has imposed comes into play. In some languages, such as Spanish, verbs begin sentences and are often a combination of the noun-subject and the action, in English the culture has delineated the subject from the action and the correct arrangement is subject -verb -object."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Broderick, P. C., & Blewitt, P. 2006, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals, (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.
• Kail, RV, & Wicks-Nelson, R. 1993, Developmental Psychology, (5th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Newman, Barry. 2002. "Accent." American Scholar, Spring, pp. 59-64
• Robinson, Douglas. 2003. Performative Linguistics: Speaking and Translating as Doing Things with Words. London: Routledge
• Salzmann, Zdenek. 1998. Language, Culture & Society: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

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