Language and Culture-- Words and Meaning(英语论文).doc

Language and Culture: Words and Meaning The Importance of Language The importance of language to the study of intercultural communication is clearly captured by filmmaker Federico Fellini’s simple sentence: “A different view of life.” His observation takes on added significance when you realize the one of the major characteristics identifying you as human is your ability to use language. As Cartmill point out, “People can talk. Other animal can’t.” Yet language is more than just a skill; it has evolved a rich and expressive versatility that was recognized by Paul Tillich when he observed that “language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone and the word “solitude” to express the joy of being along” or by the Athenian poet Aristophanes, who glorified the beauty of words when he remarked “By words the mind winged.” Your ability to use words is indeed a remarkable gift. Over countless thousands of years, Homo sapiens has evolved the brain capacity and anatomy necessary to produce and receive sounds; in a much shorter span of time, it has created cultural systems in which those sounds have taken on meaning by representing things, feelings, and ideas. Yet there seems to be some evidence of a genetic basis tied to the use of language. The recently discovered FOXP2 gene, although not believe to have caused speech, seems to enhance the speech by permitting humans to speak more clearly, contributing to the development of superior language abilities. This combination of evolution and culture has led to the development of a four-part process that enables you to share your internal states with other human beings. In short, you can receive, store, manipulate, and generate symbols to represent your personalized realities. But, to a large degree, your language behavior is mediated by your culture. That is to say, while how you use language is highly individualistic, many of the forms of language that you use, and the purposes to which you cho