Culture is a complex, multi-level and multi-aspect phenomenon. Understanding of culture, its codes and symbols requires people to own a certain conceptual base, it is called the language of culture. This is a specific system of signs that people develop in the course of communication and understanding of reality. We will tell you about the essence of this phenomenon, which languages of culture stand out and how they are formed.
Concept of culture
The word "culture" in its first meaning is the cultivation of plants. Then the semantics changed, and by this term they began to understand "cultivation of the spirit." Gradually, they began to call everything that was done by man, including the transformation of the people themselves. At the present stage of the development of human thought, there are more than 1000 definitions of the concept of "culture". The main semantic components included in these definitions are as follows:
- Culture is what distinguishes the human world from the natural world.
- This is what is formed in the course of socialization and human development. Culture is not transmitted with genes, it is not inherited, but acquired as a result of training and education. To master it, you must learn to understand the languages of culture. This is a certain system of codes that add up in the process of understanding reality.
- This is what is a sign of human society. Together with society, culture develops, modifies, changes in time and space.
The essence of the concept of "language of culture"
As is usually the case in the characterization of complex phenomena, the language of culture can be interpreted in a broad and narrow sense. In a broad sense, the concept of a language of culture implies a system of various signs, codes, symbols that allow people to enter into communication, help navigate the cultural space. In fact, it is a universal sign system created by people. In a narrow sense, this is an understanding of culture through decoding of characters. The language of culture is the sum of all representations and thoughts of mankind, dressed in any signs, that is, they are various carriers of meaning. Since meaning is always a subjective phenomenon, a conventional system of signs must be created for its decoding, otherwise it will be impossible for different people to comprehend the meanings formulated by other subjects. Therefore, the problem of cultural languages is always associated with the problem of understanding culture as a text.
Types of cultural languages
Due to the great diversity of culture, its languages can be classified according to different criteria.
Classical typology distinguishes such varieties as natural, artificial and secondary languages. This division is based on the goals and origin of the sign system. The basis of this classification is linguistic and semiotic aspects, it takes into account the features of the functioning of the word. In the framework of this approach, we can talk about the culture of speech, the culture of a foreign language, the norms of speech, etc.
There are also classifications by many other criteria:
- In the field of human activity in which the language is applied. In this case, for example, the language of doctors, marketers, designers, etc., is distinguished.
- To service a specific subculture. In this option, we can talk about youth, ethnic, professional language.
- By the leading type of characters used. In this typology, verbal, sign, iconic, graphic languages are distinguished.
- By cultural order or situation of application. In this classification, we can talk about the existence of the language of costume, hairstyles, bouquets, etc.
- By orientation to a certain type of perception. There are languages aimed at rational, emotional, associative, intuitive ways of mastering reality.
Natural languages
The concept of natural language is applied to the language that occurs during the formation of nations. These are means of communication that are used by different peoples. Languages of culture are formed together with national traditions and norms. Natural language is basically based on the word. The average vocabulary of an adult is 10-15 thousand words. A person’s active vocabulary is an indicator of his level of education and culture. For example, the lexical dictionary of Shakespeare's works is about 30 thousand units.
A feature of natural language is that it is an open system that can independently develop and enrich itself. This system basically cannot have an author, and in its development it does not obey the will of man. All attempts to reform the language or intervene in its evolution had a negative impact on it. The language is characterized by constant processes of assimilation, updating, borrowing, and the death of tokens.
Natural language as an element of culture has the following characteristics:
- Unlimited semantic power. Using a language, one can describe or comprehend any phenomenon of reality, if words are not enough, then the system creates them.
- Evolutionary. Language has infinite potential for development and change.
- Ethnicity. Language is in constant, inextricable connection with the ethnic group that speaks it.
- Duality. Language is both stable and changeable, subjective and objective, ideal and material, individual and collective.
Artificial languages
Unlike natural languages, which are formed spontaneously in use, artificial languages are created specifically by people to perform certain functions. Today, there are more than a thousand artificial languages, and their main characteristic is purposefulness. They are created for a specific purpose. For example, to facilitate human communication, for an additional expressive effect in fiction (for example, the abstruse language of V. Khlebnikov), as a linguistic experiment.
Esperanto is the most famous artificial language. This is the only language created by people that has become a means of communication. But as soon as its carriers appeared, he began to live according to his own laws and began to draw closer in his properties to natural languages. With the development of computer technology, a new round of interest in artificial means of communication is observed. Artificial languages are believed to facilitate communication between people and even improve thinking processes. So, according to E. Sepir and B. Worf, the resources used and the means of the language influence human thinking and cognitive categories. The culture of speech is formed in thinking and itself affects the thinking processes and human potential.
Secondary languages
Over natural languages additional structures can be built. Since human consciousness is linguistic in nature, everything created by consciousness is referred to as secondary modeling systems. These include art, mythology, religion, politics, fashion, etc. For example, literature as a processed text is secondary to natural language. Secondary modeling systems are complex semiotic systems based on language and cultural norms, natural language laws, but these languages have different tasks. They are necessary for man in order to create his own models of the world based on his worldview and attitude. Therefore, secondary languages are often called super-linguistic, or cultural codes. They are characteristic of such forms of culture as sport, religion, philosophy, fashion, science, advertising, etc.
Signs and symbols of culture
The peculiarities of cultural languages are that they are built on diverse, multi-valued systems of signs and symbols. These two concepts are closely related. A sign is an object that can be perceived through the senses, it replaces or represents other phenomena, objects or objects. For example, a word is a sign in relation to a designated subject, in each language the same subject has different symbolic designations. Languages of culture is a system of symbolic means of communication that conveys culturally significant information.
A symbol is an identification mark of something. Unlike the sign, symbols have less stable semantics. For example, the word "rose" as a sign by all native speakers is decoded approximately the same. But the rose flower can be a symbol of love, jealousy, betrayal, etc. The signs and symbols encode the spiritual culture of the language, people's attitude to various phenomena of reality. All signs can be divided into signs, signs, or index signs; copy signs, or iconic signs; signs-symbols.
Sign systems in culture
Cultural languages are systems of signs with which people communicate and transmit information. 5 types of sign systems in culture are traditionally distinguished:
- Verbal. This is the most common and most understandable system. We communicate primarily through words, and this system of signs is one of the most complex, multi-level and branched.
- Natural. This system is based on causal relationships between objects and phenomena. For example, smoke is a sign of fire, puddles are the result of rain, etc.
- Conventional. This is a system of signs, on the semantics of which people have concluded an unspoken agreement. For example, people agreed that red is a danger, and you can cross the road to green. There are no clear reasons for such agreements.
- Functional. These are signs that indicate the function of an object or phenomenon.
- Sign system for recording. These are the most significant sign systems for culture. The fixation of spoken language, music, and dancing made it possible to transmit the accumulated knowledge from generation to generation and thereby ensure cultural progress. The emergence of writing was a major event for world culture; with its appearance, the temporal and spatial boundaries were removed for communication between people, for cultural exchange.
Learning and understanding the language of culture
The problem of understanding the language of culture was first formulated by G. Gadamer, the founder of hermeneutics. To master and understand the laws of the development of the language of culture, it is necessary to own cultural codes. So, it is impossible to fully comprehend the ideas of ancient Greek culture if you do not know the mythology of this ethnos, its history, and cultural context. The main question of the language of culture is the question of the effectiveness of cultural dialogue. It can be carried out both vertically, i.e. through time and epochs, and horizontally, i.e., a dialogue between cultures of different ethnic groups that coexist in time. In order to understand the language of culture, of course, preparation is needed. Elementary education allows people to understand, for example, the meaning of Krylov’s fables, but to understand the texts of I. Kant or Joyce’s novels, deeper preparation and knowledge of various cultural codes are needed.
Art as a language of culture
The main structural element of culture is art. It is a specific sign system, which is designed to transmit specific information. In it, in an art form, the knowledge of people about the world is fixed, it is a means of communication between generations. On the other hand, art is a means of understanding the world around us; it expresses artists' ideas about being and about existing in a secondary, artistic language. As a universal language of culture, art operates with signs, but they have specific characteristics:
- They have meaning, for example, a melody carries a certain semantics;
- used to convey special information - emotionally colored, aesthetic.
- They function in a momentous situation (as long as a person does not perceive a work of art as such, it does not carry artistic value).
- They are informative.
However, in addition to these properties, which are inherent not only in signs of art, artistic signs have absolutely specific characteristics. So they are:
- They are ambiguous, and a polysemy can occur even against the will of the author of a work of art.
- They cannot be taken out of context and applied in another situation with the same meaning.
- Independent in terms of form. The art form can be arbitrarily correlated with the content of the sign, and sometimes a person who perceives a work of art may not understand the semantics laid down by the author, but at the same time get aesthetic information and pleasure, for example, the language of modern culture is not always understood by viewers or readers, but they are still can get emotions and aesthetic feelings from her. The form has a significant impact on the content of the artistic sign. For example, poetry cannot be retold in your own words, because with the loss of form the content of a work of art will also disappear.
Language culture
For many professionals, the term "language of culture" has a literal meaning. Indeed, the culture of speech, the norms of language are the most important components of the culture of society and man. The way a person speaks shows how familiar he is with the rules and traditions of this society. In addition, a culture of speech is an essential condition for successful communication. High command of national and foreign languages expands the possibilities of people in the penetration of the meanings and languages of culture.
