WORDS AND CULTURE

1. Whorfian

Did You know that the way we speak and use words can determine how we see the world.
Anthropologist and linguist Edward sapir and his student Benjamin lee whorf created the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis usually called Whorfian Hypothesis. Whorfian stated that the
structure if a language determines the way in which speakers of that language view the
world that means language not only determine the character of the culture, but also to
determine the manner and the way the human mind therefore influences the acts of his
behavior. So it means that people who speak different language have a different world
view.

In their analysis in Hopi Indians of North America, there is difference in term of

grammatical between animate and inanimate. In hopi they assume that clouds and rock
are animate. Unlike in English or in Indonesia they think clouds and rock are
inanimate. So that means that the way English speaker speak do not look the same way
as the Hopi speak.

Hopi language contains no words, grammatical forms, construction or expressions that

refer to what we call time or to past, present, future. Whorf concluded that Hopi have no
concept of abstract time

Hopi verbs do not have concept of time an off speed unlike the European languages, for
example, in English He run fast while in Hopi is He very runs

Similarly as in the UK have such time like past, future and present that denoted the
Westerners bonded with more time than Indonesia that does not have a time system then
often known as hours of rubber.

But the most valid conclusion concerning the Whorfian hypothesis is that it is still
unproved

EXAMPLE

Example in Workplace

John and Mary are two best friends who work at the same hospital. Though John initially wanted
to be a doctor, he later changed his mind and decided to be a nurse like Mary. John was often
teased about his career choice. He was told that a man should be a doctor, not a nurse by several
acquaintances. Though John's friends and relatives never teased him about his job, John noticed

that whenever they explained his occupation to others, they referred to him as a 'male nurse.'
However, whenever he heard others speak about Mary's occupation, they called her a 'nurse.'
John wondered why he and Mary's positions were referred to by two different titles when they
both performed the exact same job. He also wondered if the language that others were using to
refer to his occupation was at all related to our culture's sexist view that men cannot be nursed.
By referring to John as a male nurse and his friend Mary as just a nurse, their acquaintances
were using language shaped by societal views that being a nurse is a womans profession and a
man should not be nurses.

The word rice in English has many different meanings in Indonesia like nasi, gabah,
beras.
Two different Countries speak of the basic color lexicon

When the British people know the basic colors are red, blue, white, black, yellow, green But
Filipino language speakers of Hunaco only know basic 4 colors i.e. dark colors, black mabiru,
melangit white, bright red color.

Another example is, Many kinds of eating in Sundanese

Neda
Tuang
Dahar
Nyatu
Emam

It shows where society divides into 3 distinct social groups, at the top are aristocrat, in the
middle are townsfolk and at the bottom are farmers. Each of these groups has a distinct style of
speech. Hal ini menyebabkan kita secara sadar atau tidak untuk memandang orang di hadapan
kita dengan kategori tertentu.

Conclusion
Without language we cannot think, language affects perception and language affects
thought patterns. And consequently, the language you speak helps to form your world
view.

2. KINSHIP

KINSHIP : terminology refers to various systems used in languages to refer to the

persons to whom an individual is related through kinship. So it means that kinship is a
cultures system of recognized family roles and relationship. Kinship and family ties may
be defined through genetic relationship, adoption or other ritualized behavior such as
marriage.

The different ethnic group has different systems of kinship

Most Kinship terminologies distinguish between sexes the difference between brother
and sister), between generation (the difference between a child and parent), moreover
kinship terminologies distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage.

Patrilineality, also known as the male line, is a common kinship system in which an
individual's family membership derives from and is traced through his or her father's
lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, rights, names, or titles by
persons related through male kin. A patriline ("father line") So it means patrilineality is a
customary patrilineal societies that regulate the flow of paternal descent. Whereby if a
problem occurs, the responsible was the groom. The family system adopted by Arab,
European, and the Batak tribe who live in North Sumatra.

There are several reasons or arguments underlying the system of customary law of
inheritance patrilineal society, so that the male offspring had the right to inherit
possessions of the heir to the deceased, while the daughter did not inherit:
a. Based on the family tree boys. Girls can not continue pedigree (family tree);
b. In the household, the wife is not the head of the family. Children using the family
name (surname) father. Wife classified in the family (clan) of her husband.
c. In the ceremony, the woman can not represent the parents (his father) because she
entered her husband's family members
d. In the ceremony, Kalimbubu (male) are considered members of the family as
parent (mother)
e. In the event of divorce, the husband and wife, the maintenance of children is the
responsibility of the father. The boy later the heir of the father in both the
customary and property.
For example The most obvious example is the Batak ethnic group in northern
Sumatra. Batak people divided into clan clan called marga, whose each members
believe that they originated from a common ancestor. Marriage within the clan is
forbidden, so a man must find his soul mate from another clan and ideally he married
the daughter of his mom.

Matrilineal Is a traditional matrilineal society that regulate the flow comes from his
maternal descent. This word is often confused with matriarkhat or matriarkhi, Though
essentially different meaning. Matrilineal derived from two words, namely mater (Latin)
which means "mother", and linea (Latin) meaning "line". So mean follow matrilineal
lineages drawn from the mother's side so it means Tracing descent only through female
lines.
Adherents of traditional matrilineal are: Indians in Western Apache, Navajo, most of the
Pueblo tribes, the Crow tribe, etc. all of which are native to the United States, Khasi tribe
in Meghalaya, North East India, diprovinsi Nakhi parts of Sichuan and Yunnan, China,
several small tribes in Asia Pacific archipelago, the Minangkabau people in West
Sumatra.

Bilateral is a system of family lineage in which the relatives on the mother's side and
father's side are equally important for emotional ties or for transfer of property or wealth.
It is a family arrangement where descent and inheritance are passed equally through both
parents.

This parental system in Indonesia adopted in many areas, such as: Java, Madura, East
Sumatra, Riau, Aceh, South Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi whole, Ternate, and Lombok.
Parental or bilateral kinship system has its own characteristics, namely that which is heirs
are boys and girls. They have the same rights to property left by parents so that the
transfer process / transfer a number of possessions of the heir to the heir, boys and girls
have the right to be treated equally.

3. TAXONOMIES

Taxonomies comes from the Greek. Consists of two words, namely taxis and nomos.
Taxis means arranging and nomos means something while customs or rules. So
Taxonomies can be interpreted as a rule to arrange or organize.

People use language to classify and categorize various aspects of the world where they
live differently with scientists. They often develop their own system called folk
taxonomies.

In other way, folk taxonomies are a way of classifying a certain part of reality so that it
makes some kinds of sense to those who have to deal with it.

For example : One form of taxonomy is a classification or categorization. Classification

or categorization intended for something in groups and have a relationship with each
other. Unconsciously we really are accustomed to using this method, for example, if we
go to the supermarket, to look for apples for sure we will be looking at the shelves of
fruits. Or try to check the MP3 collection on your computer. MP3 files will usually we
arrange in a folder jazz, classical and dangdut.

Generally Taxonomy has several functions:

Collecting and collating similar content
Can identify which data or information that is useful for themselves and others
To control the vocabulary (vocabulary)
(Folk Taxonomies), which is a naming system that uses the name of the area or local
names depending on the language in use in the community (Iskandar, 2012). Basically
population or indigenous peoples have the means or the knowledge of its own in
recognizing the types of living beings or even had prior use than biological classification
system that we use today, both systems calcification of animals and plants. This has
become an important indicator for the diversity of the population in the world, this
diversity also shows the richness or diversity in terms of language
For example Nuka in Mindanao Southern Philipines can refer to skin disease in general
but it can also means eruption. So one word can have different meaning.

4. COLOR

Color is all around, but it is not everywhere treated in the same way. All languages make
use of basic color terms. A basic color terms must be a single word like blue, yellow not

some combination of word like light blue, pale yellow, nor must it be the obvious
subdivision of some higher order term, as both crimson and scarlet are of red.
Communites that show little technological development employ the fewest color term
like Jale of new guinea have words corresponding to dark and light alone. For example
Tarahumara; green and blue

For example Dani tribe in Papua new Guinea have only 2 color categories Milli which
means dark color and mola which means warm and bright color.

Japanese also has two terms that refer specifically to the color green, midori which is
derived from the classical Japanese descriptive verb midoru 'to be in leaf, to flourish' in
reference to trees and (guriin, which is derived from the English word 'green').
However, in Japan, although the traffic lights have the same colored lights that other
countries have, the green light is called using the same word for blue, "aoi", because
green is considered a shade of aoi, similarly green variants of certain fruits and vegetable
such as green apples, green shiso (as opposed to red apples and red shiso) will be
described with the word "aoi".

On the other explanation color is all around but it is not everywhere treated in the same
way. We sometimes cannot directly translate color words from one language to another
without introducing from subtle changes in meaning, e.g., English brown, French brun
and Indonesia coklat. That means every place around the world has its own term for
describing color whether

For the comparison Italian and Russian have twelve basic colors, distinguishing blue and
azure. That doesn't mean English speakers cannot describe the difference of the two
colors, of course; however, in English, azure is not a basic color term because one can say
bright sky blue instead, while pink is basic because speakers do not say light red.

5. PROTOTYPE

A prototype is a cognitive reference point, i.e the proto-image of all representatives of

the meaning of a word or of a category. Thus, a robin or a sparrow can be regarded as a
prototype or a "good example" of the category bird, whereas a penguin or an ostrich is a
rather "bad example" of this category.

Accordingly, the members of a category can be graded according to their typicality. A

"good" example is only rated as such by virtue of its features. Defining a prototype as the
bundle of typical features of a category, we can thus imagine birds as 'creatures that are
covered with feathers, have two wings and two legs, and the majority of which can fly'.
Therefore, a penguin is a less "good" bird, as it lacks some of the typical features, such as
the ability to fly. Features themselves can also be more or less typical, for example
'twittering' is less typical and specific to birds than 'flying'.

Prototype relates to the problem of categorization. Categorization as a problem in

linguistics relates to the mapping of words. Imagine you hear / read a word say a chair
what would you imagine on hearing that word? Prototype theory makes a distinction
from strict categories with prototypical values and distances.

6. TABOO AND EUPHEMISM

Taboo is the prohibition or avoidance in any society of behavior believed to be harmful to

its member in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment or shame so Taboo is the
prohibition or avoidance in any society of behavior believes to be harmful to its members
in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment or shame (Ronald Wardhaugh, 2002).
On the other words taboo is a prohibition or rejection of some types of behavior or
language because they are considered socially unacceptable

Example saying the name of the dead ancestor

Three major categories of taboo language according to Edmund Leach :

a. Dirty words
b. Words that have to do with Christian religion
c. Words which are used in animal abused

The Categorizations of Taboo

Euphemisms are motivated by different taboos in society. Every culture has its own
topics that are forbidden and should not be talked about directly. There are three
categories of taboo "according to the psychological motivation behind them", such as:
a. Taboo of Fear
This kind of taboo referred to the supernatural things. These include God, the Devil and
names of certain animals. For example, in French the weasel is referred to as 'a beautiful
little woman' , in Italian and Portuguese as 'a little lady' and in Swedish as 'a pretty little
girl' or 'a young lady'. The subject that may be tabooed, is:
- Religious

Euphemism words allow us to talk about unpleasant things and disguise or neutralize the
unpleasantness, for example subject of sickness, death, and dying, unemployment and
criminality (Ronald Wardhaugh, 2002). In addition an euphemism is a word or phrase
that stands in for another word or phrase, chosen to mask or soften the true meaning of
what is being expressed.

Euphemism is a generally innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may be
found offensive or suggest something unpleasant.

Example
a. Senior citizen : old people
b. Pass away : die
c. Tuna netra : orang buta
CONCLUSION
Based on the discussion we can concluded

The language we speak helps us to form your world view

People in the different places have their own ways in which they to about the term of
colors depend on their culture and the development of science and technology

People in the different places also have their own ways to categorize something based on
their culture and their experience,

Prototype theory offers us a possible way of looking not only how concept may be
formed at cognitive dimensions of linguistic behavior, but also at how we achieve our
social competence in the use of language

Taboo and euphemism unconsciously affect us

3. Stereotype
Streotype is a popular concept of the speech of a particular group of people
(Richard, 1992:353). It also can be said as the stuff of bad comedians' jokes.
People laugh at them because everyone recognizes stereotypes; people use
them as lazy generalizations of whole groups of people. Stereotypes are often
part of bigotry. For instances :
- When people say Bungkulan in Buleleng, it would be get the negative
respects
- When people say Las Vegas , it would be get the negative respect
automatically