Language and culture

elective courses

Knowledge of essential grammar and basic linguistic terminology.

The aim of the course is to introduce students to a range of issues concerning interrelations between language, thinking, behaviour of a person, and the reality, such as, between the formal language structure users and the rest of community that uses a given language. Many language samples are presented with the stress on Polish and Russian to illustrate theoretical issues.

The course focuses on the field of linguistics research that deals with interrelations between language, thinking, behaviour of a person, and the reality, that is, between the commonly used formal language structure and the rest of culture that uses a given language.

Ethnolinguistics deals with language as a source of knowledge about human and the world. The language – especially its vocabulary – consolidates the way in which its users perceive the reality and that poses various scientific questions:

1. What is linguistically marked?

2. What qualities of the real objects become important for a language and its users? What qualities of objects became illustrated in their names?

3. What can be said about the way people think and the value system they follow?

The range of topics:

1. The subject and the range of ethnolinguistics. The place of ethnolinguistics in the general classification of sciences. The ties with related disciplines (linguistics, semiotics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, ethnography, archaeology).

2. Language and culture. Cultural functions of a language.

3. Language and science: the differences between the linguistic (colloquial) and the scientific view on the world. Linguistic taxonomies vs scientific taxonomies; categorization of a language.

4. The beginnings of ethnolinguistics: Wilhelm von Humboldt, E. Sapir, B. L. Whorf, B. Malinowski, L. Weisgerber.

5. The linguistic and cultural relativism (the hypothesis of E. Sapir and B. Whorf). The present-day ethnolinguistics – the main directions in the research of the relativism and universalism current.

6. Anthropocentrism (anthropomorphism, anthropometrics), egocentrism, ethnocentrism.

7. Categorization (conceptualisation) in language.

8. The lingual view on the world. Connotations (lexical and encyclopaedic).

9. Language universals. Elementary semantic units as a key to intercultural comparisons (the research of A. Wierzbicka).

10. The culture-influenced vocabulary (keywords).

11. Selected cultural systems and their reflection in a language (names of colours, family relation, parts of the body, plants, and animals, among other things).

12. Culture’s influence on grammar. The sex and the grammatical gender.

13. The cultural norms of communication – conventional patterns of expression for Russians in comparison to other nations. Cultural scripts.

Apresjan J. D., 1995, Obraz čeloveka po dannym jazyka, «Voprosy jazykoznanija”, № 1.

Bartmiński J., 2001 (red.), Współczesny język polski, Lublin (lub: Bartmiński J.,1993 (red.), Encyklopedia kultury polskiej XX wieku, t. 2: Współczesny język polski, Wrocław).

Bulygina T. V., Šmelev A., D., 1997, Jazykovaja konceptualizacja mira, Moskva.

Grzegorczykowa R., 2007, Wstęp do językoznawstwa, Warszawa: PWN.

Język a kultura (seria wydawnicza), Wrocław.

Lakoff G., Johnson M., 1988, Metafory w naszym życiu, Warszawa.

Sapir E., 1978, Kultura, język, osobowość, Warszawa.

Šmelev A. D., 2002, Russkaja jazykovaja model’ mira, Moskva.

Tolstoj N. I., 1995, Jazyk i narodnaja kul’tura, Moskva.

Wierzbicka A., 1991, Uniwersalne pojęcia ludzkie i ich konfiguracje w różnych kulturach, (w:) Etnolingwistyka 4, Lublin.

Wierzbicka A., 1999, Język – umysł – kultura, Warszawa.

Wierzbicka A., 2006, Semantyka. Jednostki elementarne i uniwersalne, Lublin.

Wierzbicka A., 2007, Słowa klucze. Różne języki – różne kultury, Warszawa.

Zalizjak A. A. i in. 2005, Ključevye idei russkoj jazykovoj kartiny mira, Moskva.

After having completed the course the student:

KNOWLEDGE

1. Has a sound knowledge of the complex nature of human languages, especially Russian.

2. Knows and comprehends the relation between the inner form of a word and Russian culture and mentality.

3. Knows the essential ethnolinguistic terminology.

4. Has a basic knowledge concerning the contemporary trends in the development of the ethnolinguistic research.

SKILLS

1. Is able to explain and apply the essential ethnolinguistic terminology.

2. Is able to give direct examples of reality’s impact on the language and language’s on reality.

3. Identifies lexical connotations established in the transitive sense of a word.

4. Recognizes specific elements of a given language and views on the world that the language contains.

5. Is able to point out and explain the relation between the inner form of a word and Russian culture and mentality.

SOCIAL COMPETENCES

1. Sees language as an important element of the culture of a given community.

2. Understands that a language does not only consist of grammatical rules that govern the words but, before everything else, it is the way of receiving and describing the reality.

3. Accepts diverse cultures.

4. Is able to identify the ethnocentric attitude in the intercultural relations and strives to overcome it.

seminar = 30 hours (= 1 ECTS)

independent preparation for each class: 15 x 1h = 15 hours

preparation for the final exam: 20 hours

TOTAL: about 65 hours

1. Continuous assessment (current preparation for classes and activity) – 40%

2. Test. Questions: 24. Max points: 96 (24x4) – 60%

Points and marks:

3,0 (dst) – from 50 to 60 points

3,5 (dst+) – from 61 to 70 points

4,0 (db) – from 71 to 80 points

4,5 (db+) – from 81 to 90 points

5,0 (bdb) – from 91 to 96 points

Final grade 5! (bdb+): current preparation for all classes and marks 5,0 of test.

The student has the right to 2 unexcused absences, each subsequent one requires justification. The lecturer decides on the recognition of absence.

Exceeding excused and unexcused absences by 50% of classes may be grounds to fail the course. The conditions for passing the course on the resit exam are the same as on the ordinary of exam.

If it is not possible to conduct classroom classes, classes will be conducted using distance communication tools, most likely Google Classroom and others recommended by the University of Warsaw.

not applicable