Reflection Essay

Reflection Essay

[Name of the Writer:]

[Name of the Institution:]

Reflection Essay

Language has strong connections with culture and society. Allesandro Duranti identifies the influences that a language has on its culture. A language constitutes important elements of culture and takes part in its evolutionary development. In the first chapter of the book, Ahearn asserts that words have life in them, and they exhibit the characteristics of life that are charged by social factors. Jane Hill writes about Mock Spanish and concludes that speakers of a language have the experience of intertextuality if they can use lexical items in different ‘subkeys’.

Words make up a language, and a language makes an integral part of the culture in a society. This is a cycle of varied influences that different elements of this cycle have on one another. Words, their usages, and the languages vary from culture to culture and in different societies. People communicate in different situations and express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. They use established words and sentence structures and interact with society. However, there are a few minds who are creative, innovative, and responsive. They invent words, that is, new forms of expression. Languages distinguish humans from other living beings. They reflect the cultures where they are spoken. Anthropologists get enormous help from languages in understanding particular cultures and societies ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"L3XhTQfr","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Bonvillain, 2019)","plainCitation":"(Bonvillain, 2019)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":13,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/ELHGDRVE"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/ELHGDRVE"],"itemData":{"id":13,"type":"book","title":"Language, culture, and communication: The meaning of messages","publisher":"Rowman & Littlefield","ISBN":"1-5381-1481-X","author":[{"family":"Bonvillain","given":"Nancy"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Bonvillain, 2019).

Every language has its specific traits. Words constructing a language have many shades, meanings, and usages. Some are formal; others are informal. Some words represent allusions; others point to direct meanings. Sometimes, speakers of a language use certain expressions that have been developed from indexical expressions of another language, which have been used by their native speakers earlier stereotypically. These kinds of intertextualities add charm to the meanings expressed by the speaker.

The English language has a very huge collection of words, which indicates that the culture of English societies is diverse, multi-dimensional, and rich. The oriental languages, on the contrary, do not possess such a large reservoir of words; indicating their cultural simplicity. Some languages express their meanings in symbols, whereas the others have particular sets of shapes as a means of expression.

Languages play a vital role in promoting culture. They spread knowledge and help people acquire the desired skills. When books are written in various fields of study in a particular language, that language becomes reachable to a wide range of audiences across the world. Moreover, the culture of a society is introduced to other parts of the world when their products in the form of research articles, newspapers, books, movies, songs, etc. are made available across the borders.

Every culture has very specific elements and trends. The way words are created and used in different senses in a language is a reflection of that specific culture. For instance, the English language has a very clear demonstration of innovating new words. They create words for all the emerging technologies of the world. These words precisely relate to new concepts and products. Furthermore, there have been invented many words related to the specific terminology of every discipline of study. In developing these terms, words having their origin in Latin or other European languages have also been adopted to convey meanings.

In my view, the writers have given exciting ideas in each one of their writings. Duranti views culture as a means of communication, a system of practices, and a systematic way of participation. Ahearn emphasizes to think of the words to be inherently social; that is, to understand the social influences absorbed by and spread through the words. Jane Hill suggests using Google technology to explore varied dimensions of intertextuality and constructing intertextual series.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Bonvillain, N. (2019). Language, culture, and communication: The meaning of messages. Rowman & Littlefield.