The Infinite Gift by Charles Yang

Author:Charles Yang
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2006-02-11T16:00:00+00:00

As we look at how the different language types are distributed around the world, there is no hint of a significant interaction between language type and culture type. Japanese, Mongolian, Malayalam, Turkish, Basque, Amharic, Greenlandic Eskimo, Siouan, Choctaw, Diegeno, Quechua, and New Guinean languages are all head-final languages. Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Arabic, Russian, French, Yoruba, Swahili, Salish, Zapotec, Mayan, and Waurá are all head-initial languages. Is there anything in the pattern of cultural interactions or the basic worldview of the first group of people that consistently distinguish them from the second group? Is there any causal relationship between how they order their words and how they experience life? So far as anyone knows, the answer is no…. The culture of a group is typically more similar to that of its neighbors than to the culture of people who speak grammatically similar but historically unrelated languages elsewhere in the world. For example, the cultures of the various native groups in California were very similar despite the great linguistic diversity in that area before the arrival of Europeans…. Furthermore, ethnic groups seem able to change their language without changing cultures, and vice versa.15

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.