Online Assignment : Language and Society Language and Culture Language and Media

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE, LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY, LANGUAGE AND MEDIA 

INTRODUCTION

Language according to Ferdinand de Saussure, a sign system of which the main function is 

communication among people. Speech is then the main instrument for human 

communication and also according to Cambridge dictionary language is a system of 

communication consisting of sounds, words and grammar, or the system of communication 

used by the people in a particular country or type of work. 

The main way that we can communicate with each other as a human being is through 

language, and we have opportunity to exchange information and thought, vision, belief and 

perspective via language, and also we express our feeling if we be happy, sad, angry, fer by 

using hundred of expressions that we all understand it even if it will be verbal or nonverbal 

communication.

Languages consist of ten thousands signs, which are combination of form and meaning. 

Form in spoken languages for example, a sequence of letters and in the sign languages of the 

deaf a certain combination of gestures.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

It has been seen that language is much more than the external expression 

and communication of internal thoughts formulated independently of their verbalization. In 

demonstrating the inadequacy and inappropriateness of such a view of language, attention 

has already been drawn to the ways in which one’s native language is intimately and in all 

sorts of details related to the rest of one’s life in a community and to smaller groups within 

that community. This is true of all peoples and all languages; it is a universal fact about 

language.

Anthropologists speak of the relations between language and culture. It is indeed more in 

accordance with reality to consider language as a part of culture. Culture is here being used, 

as it is throughout this article, in the anthropological sense, to refer to all aspects 

of human life insofar as they are determined or conditioned by membership in a society. The 

fact that people eat or drink is not in itself cultural; it is a biological necessity for the 

preservation of life. That they eat particular foods and refrain from eating other substances, 

though they may be perfectly edible and nourishing, and that they eat and drink at particular 

times of day and in certain places are matters of culture, something “acquired by man as a 

member of society,” according to the classic definition of culture by the English 

anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor. As thus defined and envisaged, culture covers a very 

wide area of human life and behaviour, and language is manifestly a part, probably the most 

important part, of it.

Language is transmitted culturally; that is, it is learned. To a lesser extent it is taught, when 

parents, for example, deliberately encourage their children to talk and to respond to talk, 

correct their mistakes, and enlarge their vocabulary. If language is transmitted as part of 

culture, it is no less true that culture as a whole is transmitted very largely through language, 

insofar as it is explicitly taught.

Language and culture are connected in several other intricate and dynamic ways. The 

language is a product of culture and simultaneously the culture is shaped by how the language 

allows us to view it. In any kind of language things are view differently but it must orient in a 

friendly manner.

The background of most inhabitants of a culture are similar because we centuries ago we 

tend to hear the same stories that were said.

Language connects culture in many ways, through changing the needs and trends in 

culture, For example words and expressions maybe needed to express concept that are been 

discovered or even been invented. These discovery or inventions are used in everyday life. 

Since culture describes the way live and think while language shows the way we speak and 

express ourselves becomes changeable from time to time and places, for example, there are 

some words that described or distinguish people living in rural or urban areas. On the other 

hand some words used mean the opposite in different places; both can have a positive or 

negative point of view so there particularly these happen due to changes in culture. Language 

make us identify ourselves of ‘who we are and’ while culture describe ‘what we do’.

LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY

The connection between language and society is tightly anchored. The relationship of the 

two is deeply rooted. Language performs various functions in the society and the society does 

the same way. If one will not exist, the other one will be affected.

Language is the primary tool for communication purposes, for establishing peace and order 

in our society, for showing authority and power, and for attaining goals and objectives. But, 

it can also destruct the society if it will use inappropriately. It must follow the conformity 

governing the society to avoid conflict s and to meet the boundary of individual differences.

Society however controls our language by giving us preferences as what are acceptable 

and not, because each one of us has our own perception or point of view. A group of people 

may accept our language, but for others, it could be kind of offence or insult. We must know 

how, when and where to say it and for what purpose.

Social changes produce changes in language. This affects values in ways that have not been 

accurately understood. Language incorporates social values. However, social values are only 

the same as linguistic values when the society is a stable and unchanging one. Once society 

starts changing, then language change produces special effects.

LANGUAGE AND MEDIA

Media linguistics is the linguistic study of language use in the media. It studies the 

functioning of language in the media sphere, or modern mass communication presented by 

print, audio visual, digital, and networked media. Media linguistics investigates the 

relationship between language use, which is regarded as an interface between social and 

cognitive communication practice, and public discourse conveyed through media.

Media linguistics includes the study of traditional mass media texts (typically print or 

broadcast news) as well as social media and other digital media such as blog posts or SMS 

messages. Advertisements, amongst other multimodal media, are commonly analysed in the 

context of media linguistics. The study of fictional film and television has recently emerged as 

an important area of media linguistics.

Media language has always attracted the attention of linguists, particularly applied 

linguists and sociolinguists. There are four practical and principled reasons for this interest. 

First, the media provide an easily accessible source of language data for research and teaching 

purposes. Second, the media are important linguistic institutions. Their output makes up a 

large proportion of the language that people hear and read every day. Media usage reflects 

and shapes both language use and attitudes in a speech community. For second language 

learners, the media may function as the primary—or even the sole—source of native-speaker 

models. Third, the ways in which the media use language are interesting linguistically in their 

own right; these include how different dialects and languages are used in advertising, how 

tabloid newspapers use language in a projection of their assumed readers' speech, or how 

radio personalities use language—and only language–to construct their own images and their 

relationships to an unseen, unknown audience. Fourth, the media are important social 

institutions. They are crucial presenters of culture, politics, and social life, shaping as well as 

reflecting how these are formed and expressed. Media ‘discourse’ is important both for what 

it reveals about a society and for what it contributes to the character of society.

CONCLUSION

Language is a constituent element of civilization. It raised man from a savage state to the 

plane which he was capable of reaching. Man could not be civilized being except by language. 

An essential point in which man differ from animals is that man alone is the sole processor of 

language. Culture is a product of human mind and it is defined, propagated and sustained 

through language. The relationship between language and cultures deeply rooted. Language 

is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties.

By considering the relationship between media and language it was clear for us how they 

are related with each and also effective for both. The media organization cannot 

communicate and gave the meaning for their view without using language and their code, but 

also media play a vital role for changing and developing the language. In contrast we see how 

media bring a news word and expression to the language and if the media organization made 

any mistake upon the language it will reflect the usage of the language generally, and that 

why relation between them is strong and important.

The connection between language and society is tightly anchored. The relationship of the 

two is deeply rooted. Language performs various functions in the society and the society does 

the same way. If one will not exist, the other one will be affected.

REFERANCE

1) Https://www.ukessays.com/essays/anthropology/language-culture-and-culture-

.php. Accessed 27 December 2021

2) https://www.academia.edu/19225072/RELATION-BETWEEN-MEDIA-ANDLANGUAGE. Accessed 27 December 2021

3) Https://merlitomarciano.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/relationship-betweenlanguage-and-society . Accessed 27 December 2021

4) https://www.britanica.com/topic/language/language-and-cultue. Accessed 27 

December 2021.

5) https://www.en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/medialinguistics. Accessed 27 December 2021