Language, Culture, and Society

• Language refers to a system of vocal symbols used for human communication and is an arbitrary system.
• Culture is a shared set of perspectives, values, beliefs, customs and practices which is particular community/civilization and is also shaped by the experiences of individuals.
• Society is a specific variety of a language which is unique to a particular region or social group.
• Dialect is the investigation of the interaction between language and society.
• Sociolinguistics is the act of transitioning between 2 or more languages/dialects.
• Code-switching is the act of acquiring first or second language.
• Language Acquisition is the capacity to speak and comprehend 2 languages.
• Bilingualism is the scientific inquiry of human cultures and societies.
• Anthropology is the cultural practices which are evaluated within the context of the culture in which they occur, rather than applying the standards of one’s own culture and is also the solution for cultural barriers.
• Cultural Relativism is the act of taking or utilizing aspects of one culture by individuals from another culture without proper recognition or respect.
• Cultural Appropriation is the objects created by a particular culture that possesses symbolic significance.
• Artifacts are the fundamental principles and morals for political or social systems.
• Ideology is the system of levels of authority or status among people in a society.
• Social Stratification is the capacity to move between different levels of social hierarchy in a society.
• Social Mobility is the sense of connectedness with others in a society.
• Social Cohesion is the pioneer in linguistic anthropology, known for work on language-culture relationship, argued language shapes perception of the world, and that different languages create different world views.
• Edward Sapir is a student of Sapir, known for Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and he suggested that language structure affects the speaker’s perception of the world.
• Benjamin Lee Whorf is an anthropologist, has significant contributions to symbolic anthropology, argued that culture is a system of symbols used to interpret and understand the world, and emphasized studying meanings attached to actions and behaviors.
• Clifford Geertz is a French sociologist who developed the theory of cultural capital, and argued that cultural capital is unequally distributed in society and can reproduce social inequality.
• Pierre Bourdieu is a sociologist who coined the term impression management, described strategies people use to create a particular impression to others, and emphasized importance of nonverbal communication and structured social interactions.
• Erving Goffman is an anthropologist, has significant contributions to symbolic anthropology, argued that culture is a system of symbols used to interpret and understand the world, and emphasized studying meanings attached to actions and behaviors.