以京沪方言为例浅析语言对思维方式的影响

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3.0 陈辉 2024-11-20 12 4 510.52KB 45 页 15积分
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Chapter One Introduction
1
Chapter One Introduction
§1.1 Purpose of the thesis
As native-born Chinese, we tend to make common mistakes when speaking
English, some of the slip-of-the-tongue mistakes are: misuse of “she” and “he”,
confusion of tenses, and reversal of sentence structure, etc. Among them, there is a
deeply-rooted mistake that we just can’t get rid of, that is, when asked with questions
like “You don’t know him, do you?”, our answer is always “Yes” while we actually
mean “I don’t know him” and the correct way of expression should be “No.”
Such mistakes tell us that the study of a certain language is not only a linguistic
task, on a much deeper level, it is also the study of a new way of thinking. As we all
know, the way of thinking can’t be changed easily, because it is closely related to
people’s conceptual structure, which derives from their life experience. This brings us to
the theoretical basis of this paper-embodiment hypothesis. This theory is to claim that
human physical, cognitive, and social embodiment ground our conceptual and linguistic
systems.
If look back at the history of linguistic studies, many researches have proven that
the development of a certain language is decided by historical, cultural, and social
elements. However, this paper is to prove otherwise- the way we speak can shape
people’s thoughts and thus help build their personality. With embodiment hypothesis as
its theoretical support, this paper is to justify the well-known Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
§1.2 Significance of the thesis
The term “language” can be defined as “utterances embedded within a cognitive
and social situation wherein one subject wants to direct the intentionality of another.”
From this standpoint, the primary purpose of language is not the objective description of
the world, but instead to communicate and share experiences. In this sense, it is the
cognitive, physical, and social embodiment that shapes and constrains meaningful
expression. Thereupon, it is no doubt that people’s life experience affects their way of
speaking substantially, solid examples can be found everywhere, such as: the Eskimos
have a rich vocabulary to describe snow and coldness, people living in the tribes
alongside Amazon region have very limited adjective words, and so on.
However, when a language is already mature and relatively stable, will the people
who communicate with that language be affected by its tempo, intonation, or richness of
“You Are What You Say”
2
vocabulary? Does having different ways of describing the world give speakers of
different languages different ways to look at the world? Is our mind directed by our way
of speaking? Or, in a nutshell, does language shape thoughts? This paper intends to
solve all these questions.
Although the famous linguists Sapir and his student Whorf raised the same
question long time ago, there has been few solid evidence to support
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. With the ambition to justify it, here I borrow the concept
of embodiment as my theoretical basis to analyze two different languages- Beijing
dialect and Shanghai dialect- in order to prove how important languages are in the
formation of people’s thoughts and characters.
The reason to choose Beijing and Shanghai dialects are complicated, but the most
obvious reason is that Beijing and Shanghai are the two most important cities of China,
and each of them has distinct features that can represent the north and the south of the
country. They are both developed cities and yet so different in many ways, even folks
like to compare the two cities in their after-dinner chitchat. Therefore, it will be both
forceful and convincible to use Beijing and Shanghai to be my analytical materials.
Hopefully this paper will create a new perspective and raise more attention in
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
§1.3 Organization of the thesis
At the beginning of the thesis, I use some assumptive scenarios to draw people’s
curiosity about the relationship between languages and identity, which brings out the
theme of this paper-“You are what you say”, meaning your mother tongue can influence
your personality to a great extent.
Chapter Two is mainly the theoretical foundation of the thesis. It lists the past
studies concerning the theme of this paper and introduces the concept of “embodiment”
and Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which serve as theoretical support of the thesis.
In Chapter Three, the definition of the term “dialect” is given. In order to highlight
the importance of the role that dialects play in building up one’s image and ideology
system, some vivid examples from international press materials are used. In the same
chapter, background introduction of the two cities (Beijing and Shanghai) and the
development of the two dialects are summarized. Besides, reasons of why Beijing and
Shanghai are chosen as analysis materials are also explained. Other than that,
Chapter One Introduction
3
differences between the so called “Beijinger” and “Shanghainese” are listed with facts
and explained from several aspects to give the readers a clear view of how different the
two cities are. Connection between languages and people’s characters is brought out
step by step.
After that comes the main analytical part of the paper-Chapter Four. In order to
prove that language structure can affect conceptual structure and thus unconsciously
“manipulate” people’s demeanor, vivid examples drawn from people’s daily talk are
illustrated and analyzed from mainly three perspectives- morphology, phonetics and
syntax. By anatomizing the differences of Beijing and Shanghai, comparing them in
their local people and dialects, looking into the theories of embodied cognition and
penetrating into the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, finally, conclusion is drawn- language
affects people’s demeanor to a great extent, and can even shape people’s personality. In
the end, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is justified.
“You Are What You Say”
4
Chapter Two Literature Review
§2.1 Studies that discuss language’s role in shaping people’s thoughts
Languages differ dramatically from one another in terms of how they describe the
world. Does having different ways of describing the world make speakers of different
languages look at the world differently? Does language shape thoughts?
As the previous chapter has mentioned, language is utterances embedded within a
cognitive and social situation wherein one subject wants to direct the intentionality of
another. In this way, the primary purpose of language is not the objective description of
the world, but instead to communicate and share experiences. That’s why language is
closely related to people’s life experiences.
§2.1.1 Studies that have claimed evidence
The idea that people’s thoughts are shaped by language is most commonly
associated with the writings of Benjiamin Lee Whorf (Whorf ,1956). Whorf, impressed
by linguistic diversity, proposed that the categories and distinctions of each language
enshrine a way of perceiving, analyzing and acting in the world. In so far as language
differ, their speakers too should differ in how they perceive and act in objectively
similar situations. Unfortunately, this strong Whorfian view-that thought and action are
entirely determined by language -has long been abandoned because of being extreme
and short of solid proof. However, it definitely provided a new angle to look at the
relationship between languages and thoughts.
Regardless of the criticism that the strong Whorfian view received, there were still
his successions who devoted much time in looking for solid proof for the assumption.
Though answering less deterministic versions of “Does language shape thoughts?”
question has proven to be a very difficult task, some studies have claimed evidence to
the affirmative (e.g. Boroditsky, 2001; Bowerman, 1996; Davidoff et al., 1999; Gentner
and Imai, 1997; Levinson, 1996; Lucy, 1992; Dehaene et al., 1999).
§2.1.2 Brief introduction of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
The American anthropologist-linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee
Whorf proposed a sweeping, two-pronged hypothesis concerning language and thought.
Whorf proposed first that all higher levels of thinking are dependent on language. Or
put it more bluntly, language determines thought, hence the strong notion of linguistic
determinism. Because languages differ in many ways, Whorf also believed that speaker
Chapter Two Literature Review
5
of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, that is, relative to
their linguistic background, hence the notion of linguistic relativism.
If we follow the strong version of the hypothesis, it means that there is no real
translation and that it is impossible to learn the language of a different culture unless the
learner abandons his or her own mode of thinking and acquires the thought patterns of
the native speakers of the target language. In this sense, thought is seen as completely
determined by language.
§2.2 Studies about the concept of “embodiment”
To understand how the way people talk can influence the way they think, we have
to bring out the concept of “embodiment”.
People share meaning through “embodiment”. The term is also used to refer to the
social and cultural context in which the body, cognition, and language are perpetually
situated. For example, such context can include factors such as governmental language
policy, cross-cultural contact/aversion, or the influence of historical scientific models
and theories on individual language learners (Geeraerts and Grondelaers 1995).
Similarly, the context can include the cultural artifacts that aid and manifest
cognition—many of which are not only constrained but are also extensions of the body
(Hutchins 1995, 2005; Fauconnier and Turner 2002).
There are many ways in which the term ‘‘embodiment’’ has been cashed out by
various researchers in cognitive linguistics. Lakoff and Johnson (1999) argue that the
embodiment hypothesis entails that our conceptual structure and linguistic structures are
shaped by the peculiarities of our perceptual structures. As evidence, they cite research
on embodiment effects from mental rotation and mental imagery, image schemas,
gesture, sign language, color terms, and conceptual metaphor among other examples.
They claim ‘‘that the very properties of concepts are created as a result of the way the
brain and body are structured and the way they function in interpersonal relations and in
the physical world’’ (1999: 37). The way these properties are created is by means of
conceptual metaphors which project cross-domain image-schematic patterns, which in
turn are drawn from the more specific structures within visual perception, locomotion,
object manipulation, and so on.
According to Lakoff and Johnson, an embodied philosophy would show the laws
of thought to be metaphorical, not logical; truth would be a metaphorical construction,
摘要：

ChapterOneIntroduction1ChapterOneIntroduction§1.1PurposeofthethesisAsnative-bornChinese,wetendtomakecommonmistakeswhenspeakingEnglish,someoftheslip-of-the-tonguemistakesare:misuseof“she”and“he”,confusionoftenses,andreversalofsentencestructure,etc.Amongthem,thereisadeeply-rootedmistakethatwejustcan’t...

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作者：陈辉 分类：高等教育资料 价格：15积分 属性：45 页 大小：510.52KB 格式：PDF 时间：2024-11-20

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