BRIEF ANALYSIS ON LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND SOCIETY WITH REFERENCE TO DORRIS SOMMER

Language is more than just a means of communication. On a practical level, language deals with sounds, symbols and gestures that a community puts in order and associates so that they can communicate. On a deeper level, language is an expression of who we are as individuals, communities, and nation. Culture refers to dynamic social systems and shared pattern of behavior, beliefs, knowledge, attitudes and values. Culture provides the environment in which languages develop, even as it influences how they are used and interpreted. For example, in many European cultures, a “good day” is a sunny day, while in many African cultures a “good day” is a rainy day. Different culturally shared values provide the context for interpreting the term for “good”

The term language, culture and society goes hand in hand because society cannot reveal itself to the world without its culture, even with culture, language play a central role hence, expressing culture.

                

According to a British Anthropologist Edward Tylor Hall, to understand a culture, one need to see it in a cross cultural context and by doing so, we will come to realize that the way our compatriot sees other culture is not universal. Edward rightly explain “culture is as complex”. This complexity here involve arts, customs, knowledge, belief and other habits acquired by man as a member of the society. Contemporary cultural anthropologist categorized culture into four basic features:

. Culture is a social inheritance and not a biological heritage

. Culture cannot be pocketed by one person, it belongs to the society

. Culture is a symbolic meaning system in which language is one of the important ones.

. Culture is a unified system.

Today we are studying English Literature. That Literature according to Humanist is the reflection of life, so studying English literature is like learning the life of a particular society. Post structuralism believes that work are inspired based upon the other, hence literature can have no singular meaning. English does belong to the British, but to the world.

According to Doris Sommer, we are entering into a new culture i.e. national culture. To be part of this culture, one need a national identity known as English. Doris S. believes that in this fast developing world, a multi-lingua society has better advantage than a mono-lingua society due to its political stability and emotional richness. In order to be part of this multi-lingua society, Sommer urges everyone not to preserve their culture, as she rightly put it “Throughout this country and many others, monolingualism is losing its descriptive power for literary and cultural studies.” Unlike the ancient times, when a person is seen as a suspect if he/she knows more than one language and culture. This era propel everyone to be bi-linguist and every society to be multi-cultural.

          Conclusively, language is the primary vehicle that hybridize Asian culture, African culture, Caribbean culture, European culture etc. it is only when these cultures have being conglomerated, then we can boldly agree that the world is now in one: