简答题

The relationship between language and society

【正确答案】

Language is regarded as a mirror of society, through which we can understand social activities of a certain society better. Functionally, society provides language with a suitable context of use, in which we can enjoy aspects of language vividly and truthfully. There are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society. One of them is that while language is principally used to communicate meaning, it is also used to establish and maintain social relationships. This social function of language is embodied in the use of such utterances such as “Good morning”. Another indication is that users of the same language in a sense all speak differently. The kind of language each of them chooses to use is in part determined by his social background, and language, in its turn, reveals information about its speaker. When we speak, we cannot avoid giving clues to our listeners about ourselves. Then to some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society. For example while there is only one word in English for “snow”, there are several in Eskimo. As a social phenomenon language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, and the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social. To a linguist, all linguistic forms and accents are equally good as far as they can fulfill the communicative functions they are expected to fulfill. Therefore, judgments concerning the correctness and purity of linguistic varieties are social rather than linguistic.

【答案解析】