读《语言与文化》摘记并感想

一、书名：语言与文化（注释本）

二、著者：罗常培

三、出版社：20xx年5月/北京/北京大学出版社

四、页数：221

五、内容概要：

这本书除了陆志伟序和罗常培自序外，共有八章、四附录和“著者其他著作”、“恬厂语文论著甲集目录”、“著者未结集之论文目录”等内容。

第一章：引言 用几位名人的名句引出了联系社会和民族的文化及历史来研究语言的宗旨，并简要介绍了其余七章的内容范围。

第二章：从语言的语源和变迁看过去文化的遗迹 罗先生在这一章里引用了英语和其他印欧语系语言中含有“墙”的意义的语词的语源来追溯这些民族有关的文化遗迹。在这些民族的语言里, “ 墙”往往和“ 柳条编的东西”（Wicker----Work）或“枝条”（Wattle）有关系。“盎格鲁撒克逊语的“windan manigne bmicerne wah”等于英语的to weave many a fine wall”便许多很好的墙。墙如何能编织呢？罗先生解释道据考古学家发掘史前遗址的结果也发现许多烧过的土块上面现出清晰的柳条编织物的痕迹。这就是一种所谓“ 编砌式”（Wattle and daub）的建筑。它或者用柳条编的东西作底子上面再涂上泥, 或者把泥春在两片柳条编的东西的中间。由此可以使我们可以推想欧洲古代的墙也和中国现在乡村的篱笆, 四川的竹

蔑墙, 或古代的版筑一样, 井不是铁筋洋灰的。”这样, 不但追溯了欧洲古代有关“ 墙” 的厉史, 并且又把中外文化联系起来了。他不单单广征博引西方语言的例子, 还引用了北美印第安语的例子。“ 例如‘ 家’字《说文》‘ （上尸，下几）也, 从, 瑕省声。段玉载以为‘ 家’ 的本义是‘ 豚之（上尸下几）也 , 引申假借以为人之（上尸下几）， 犹如‘ 牢’字起初当牛之（上尸下几）讲, 后来引申为所以拘罪的陛牢。他的说法自然此许氏高明多了, 不过照我推想中国初民时代的‘ 家’大概是上层住人, 下层养猪。现在云南乡间的房子还有残余这种样式的。若照‘ 礼失而求诸野’ 的古训来说, 这又是语言学和社会学可以交互启发的一个明证。”

第三章：从造词心理看民族的文化程度 作者说“ 从许多语言的习用词或傀语里，我们往往可以窥探造词的心理过程和那个民族的文化程度。” “ 例如, 云南显明近郊的倮倮〔即彝族〕哄妻做‘ 穿针婆’直译是‘ 针穿母’。云南高黎贡山的依子〔即独龙族〕哄结婚做‘ 买女人’ 直译是‘ 女人买’。从这两个语词我们可以看出夷族社会对于妻的看法和买卖婚姻的遗迹”。有的民族地处边远地区, 经济落后, 对现代文明不熟悉, 所以一旦接触现代文明的产物不知道怎么命名才好, 只得用他们日常习见的事物来比拟。例如“ 贡山的依子哄汽车做‘ 轮子房’。路南的撒尼哄自行车做‘ 铁马’至于最新的交通和军事利器—飞机, 他们的看法更不一致了。贡山底依子畔做‘ 飞房’, 福贡的栗粟也吟做‘ 飞房’ , 片马的茶山〔瑶族〕畔做‘ 风船’ , 路南的撒尼吟做‘ 铁鹰’, 淇西的摆夷哄做‘

天上火车’。因为这些东西在他们的知识领域里向来没有过, 他们想用“以其所知喻其所未知”的方法来造新词, 于是就产生出这一些似是而非的描写词来了。

第四章：从借字看文化的接触 作者首先分析了“ 狮子”这个词的来源, 引用了《后汉书》《洛阳伽蓝记》的材料, 说明“ 狮子” 是外来的, 是从波斯、硫勒、月氏等国进责来的, 然后考证“ 狮子” 是哪种语言的音译词。罗先生认为这是某种东伊兰语, 并且是经过月氏的媒介输人中国的。接着作者考证了“师比” 、“璧流离” 、“葡萄” 、“苜蒁” 、“槟榔” 、“拓枝舞” 、“站” 、“八哥” 、“没药” 、“胡卢巴” 、“祖母绿” 等借词的来源, 以此说明古代中国和波斯、中亚各国以及印度早就有频繁的贸易往来和文化交流关系。作者也谈到了汉语的“丝” 、“茶” 等字是怎样传人西方世界的, 又如“丢面子”、“保全面子” 这样的说法是如何在英语中生根的。

第五章：从地名看民族迁徙的踪迹 地名研究对于历史学和考古学的功用、凯尔特语在欧洲的一条地名带、地名所反映的斯堪的那维亚人在英国的殖民痕迹、北美的印第安语地名、中国地名所显示的古代民族交通的踪迹、侨置郡县和民族迁徙、壮语地名所显示的古今民族的差异、滇缅边境上几个地名的语源等内容。从地名探索民族的迁徙是地名学的主耍研究内容。西方学者根根苏联境内一系列古芬兰语的地名证明芬兰民族是从东方迁徙到北欧的。罗先生在引证了一些西方资料后引用了大量的汉语和少数民族语言的材料, 探索了客家和

懂族的迁徙踪迹。这部分少数民族语言材料都是第一次发表的, 后来的著作大多是转引的。

第六章：从姓氏和别号看民族来源和宗教信仰 包括“从姓氏所反映的民族来源”、“从姓氏和别号所反映的宗教信仰”、“父子连名制是藏缅族的文化特征”等内容。作者说“中华民族原来是融合许多部族而成,尽管每个部族华化的程度已经很深,可是从姓氏上有时还可以窥察他的来源”。例如唐朝著名尉迟氏是于田国人,“尉迟” 就是Visa的对音。著名的元朝诗人萨都刺的原名是sa’dullh, 是阿拉伯文sa’“吉祥” 和allah“上帝” 两字合成, 意思是“天祥” , 所以萨都刺字“天锡”,恰好是阿拉伯文的原义。现在姓“萨”的正是萨都刺的后裔。如此说来，唱《万物生》的萨顶顶可能就是其中一位吧。“丁姓是元丁鹤年的后裔。元戴良《九灵山房集》有《高士传》, 为丁鹤年作, 原文说“鹤年西域人也。曾祖阿老丁, 祖苫思丁, 父职马禄丁, 又有从兄吉雅摸丁”。清俞樾《茶香室续钞》云“鹤年不言何姓, 而自首祖以下, 其名末一字替丁字, 不知何义, 世邃以鹤年为丁姓, 非也。”罗先生接着说“ 按‘丁’, 是阿拉伯文的对音, 本义是报应。凡宗教皆持因果报应之说, 故阿刺伯人称宗教为dia。” “鹤年业儒,汉化的程度很深, 所以冠丁为姓。”此外，罗先生认为“父子连名制是藏缅族的一种文化特征。”父子连名制“概括的说起来, 在这个部族里父亲名字末一个或末两个音节常和儿子名字的前一个或前两个音节相重。”例如：

龚亚陇 陇亚告 告亚守 守亚美

罗先生据此否定了南诏是泰族人建立的古王国的意见, 认为从南诏世系看有明显的父子连名制的迹象, 因此南诏应属白族。

第七章：从亲属称谓看婚姻制度 包括“亲属称谓在初民社会里的重要性”、“黑夷亲属称谓所反映的交错从表婚制”、“交错从表婚制的分布区域”、“亲属称谓所反映的其他婚姻制度”以及用例说明从亲属称谓推断婚姻制度所应有的审慎态度。亲属称谓和婚姻制度密切有关, 作者引用少数民族语言的材料详细论证了这种关系。葬族的亲属称谓中, 哥哥、堂哥、姨表哥等, 弟弟、堂弟、姨表弟等, 姊姊、堂姊、姨表姊等, 妹妹、堂妹、姨表妹等称呼相同；舅表兄弟、舅表姊妹是另一种称呼;姑表兄弟、姑表姊妹又是另一种称呼。这种称谓系统说明同胞兄弟姊妹、堂兄弟姊妹、姨表兄弟姊妹之间的关系是相同的, 因此是不能通婚的。这种关系是所谓井行从表关系, 也就是同性同胞的子女之间的关系。舅表兄弟姊妹和姑表兄弟姊妹之间的关系是所谓从表关系, 也就是异性同胞的子女之间的关系, 按初民的习俗, 一般是可以通婚的, 因此称呼不同于相互不能通婚的井行从表的亲属。但彝族反对“肉骨还家”, 也就是嫁出去的女儿把生下来的女儿归还娘家内侄娶姑母的女儿, 所以姑表兄弟姊妹不能通婚。这在称谓上反映为姑表兄弟姊妹和舅表兄弟姊妹尽管都是交错从表关系, 但是分成两套称谓以资区别。

第八章：总结 内容包括：“语言跟着社会的进程而演变”、“语言学的有机联系”、“语言学的古生物学分析方法”、“文化变迁对于语音和语形的影响”、以及“中国语言学的新方向”等。从理论角

度看, 第八章的内容最重要。在这一章里面, 作者将前面七章中对具体的语言现象和相关的社会文化所作的分析作了理论上的升华, 提出了“语言是社会组织的产物, 是跟着社会发展的进程而演变的, 所以应该看做社会意识形态的一种”, 和“语言不是孤立的, 是和多方面联系的”的重要观点, 并且指出语言研究和文化研究的相互参照作用。在结束全书的时候,作者提出了对新中国语言学发展方向的三点建议对于语义学的研究应该超越传统的训话学的方法和范围, 要结合语言的“社会背景和经济条件” 来研究“古今雅俗” 的各种语言材料。方言学的研究不能只偏重语音一个方面, 而应该同时重视语法、词汇、和语义的研究, 还要“深入各行业, 各阶层的里面分头调查他们的惯用语”,分析语言中统一和分化的矛盾,语言学家要担负起描写任务，加强对国内少数民族语言的研究的重要性的认识,一方面从学术角度看这些语言的研究可以丰富当时以汉语研究为主的国内的语言学研究,另一方面从政治角度考虑,加强民族语言的研究和建设也是增进民族间相互了解、加强民族团结、保障祖国统一的重要措施。

六、读后感想：

语言学，对我来说一直是一门深奥的学科，不到万不得已，我一般会采取敬而远之的态度。但作为一个中文系的学生，想逃避语言学是愚蠢的，也是不可能的。

自从聂老师在“语言学概要”课布置了写语言学方面的书评的作业之后，我只能硬着头皮开始在图书馆物色合适的著作。可能是畏惧

产生了惰性，一直拖到运动会期间才确定了最终的目标读本，这就是罗常培先生的《语言与文化》（注释本）。

《语言与文化》一书是罗先生上世纪三四十年代的重要研究成果。书中书中讲到了许多有趣的事儿，而且文字有简单易懂，使我产生了极大地兴趣。这是第一本我坚持从头到尾仔细阅读的语言学著作，它使我对语言学有了一些新的认识，并让我对语言学也产生了好感：原来语言学不仅仅是枯燥深奥的术语、法则，还有许多海阔天空的事物和内容。历史、地理，甚至考古、科技等看似风马牛不相及的学科之间都是有千丝万缕的联系的。其实想来也对，种种的学科可以用文化来概括，而这不正是罗先生所说的“语言与文化”吗？语言与文化是密切联系的，光学文化而轻视语言是不行的。

《语言与文化》这本书不但让我认识到了学习语言知识的重要性，更重要的是帮助我培养了对语言学的兴趣。我认为，这是一本非常有价值的著作，推荐所有现在还对语言学有畏惧感的学习者可以一读。

 

第二篇：语言与文化论文

Cultural Difference and Distinctive Conversation

08级外国语学院英语教育专（2）班，082832020，万霞丽

摘要：众所周知，不同的国家有不同的文化，文化差异则不可避免的影响到语言。首先，语言是文化的一部分，是文化的载体。同时语言的内容和形式又受到文化的影响和制约，而语言是人们日常交流的基本构成要素。结果，不同的国家文化的差异性则导致了人们具有区别性的对话交流，这体现在交流的内容，形式等多个方面。中国人通常谈论个人收入，年龄，婚姻等话题，而这些被西方人视为语言禁忌，属个人私密，是禁止被谈论的；在语言的表达形式上，外国人是直奔主题，然而中国人是采用间接方式，在谈论的正题之前过多解释。结果，形成了中西方具有区别性的交际。

关键字：语言;文化差异;中国;西方国家;交际。

Abstract:It is well known that different countries have different cultures.The cultural difference inevitably has impact on language.First of all,language is a part of culture,as well as the carrier of culture.Its content and form are influenced and restricted by culture.Also language is the basic element in people' daily conversation.As a result,the diversity of culture in different nations leads to distinctive conversation,which reflects in many aspects,such as content,pattern and exc.Chinese usually talk about the topic which are ages,incomes,marriage,but the people in western countries regard it as taboos and not be allowed to talk about;In the way of expressing,the foreigners come straightly to the points,however,Chinese choose the indirect ways and explain too much before their topic.As a result,there exists the distinctive conversation between China and western countries.

Key words:language;cultural difference;China;western countries;conversation.

Introduction

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbol used for human communication,and is a meaning of expressing cultural customs,as well as a part of language.language cannot separate from culture to be independent.culture is the deposit of knowledge,experience,beliefs value action attitudes,meaning hierarchies, religion notions of the time,spatial relations,concepts of the universe and artifact acquired by group of people in the course of generations through individual and group stiving(辜正坤著，2004.11).In accordance with the definition of language and culture,I believe that language is affected by language and reflects the culture.The language is the basis of culture,no language ,no culture.what is more,the different nations have its own way of thinking,values,concepts,habits and behavior,which are the elements of their cultures.Then it is called as cultural difference.As a result,they must communicate with other nations people under the condition of understanding the unique cultural background and the language features.Inevitably,people from different countries have distinctive conversations.This mainly reveals in many aspects.Such as the contents of conversation,the way of expressing,the same object in different understanding.Above all,are affected by cultural difference.so,if we want to understand and handle the relationship while communicating,we must know some cultural differences as much as possible.

1.Cultural differences in communication

When people in different cultures communicate with others, they have to follow some norms limited and regulated by different cultures concretely.So,it is necessary to know such rules and differences when we make conversation and when we not make conversation,what to say and what not to say,

and what kind of situations suitable, and how to say.The cultures in different countries are different,the norms of them are therefore different.Especially in people’s daily conversations.There will three parts to show distinctive conversation in different culture.

1.1 The contents of conversation in different cultures When I first communicated with my foreign teacher,I felt very nervous and didn’t know what to talk about in our conversation.it is well known that Chinese are usually allowed to talk about daily life.For example,food, health,ages,marriage,incomes of people exc.Whereas such topic can be allowed to talk about freely in western countries. In western culture, people are willing to talk about weather, job,amateur,hobby or some national events.The topic such as ages,incomes,religions belief or marriage etc are limited in their nations,which can be called taboos.In addition,In western culture,it is natural for men to compliment lady’s appearance, stature or wearing.if a British man compliments a Chinese woman to be sexy.It is unacceptable in China,and even arise some troubles,but this seems natural and common to English and foreigners.above all,are some limitation and contents of conversation in different cultures.

1.2 The way of expressing in different cultures About how to express hopes,demands and opinions in

conversation,there exist some differences.Different cultures always have different customs.Chinese are prefer to choose the indirect way, always give to much greetings before get to the point.In their conversation, greetings seem like a prelude, which may have little and even nothing connected with the subject.And the people’s attitudes are so humble.The western people tend to direct their expression which come straightly to the point and spoken frankly.In addition,they often show their stands when explaining the reason during their talks. Chinese often take different way by giving the conversation

order,explain reasons first,then show their stands.Even if the modernized methods of communication are used,there still exist cultural differences in social intercourses.Take a phone call for example,a Britain who is wanted on the phone will certainly tell his name first without hesitation,but a Chinese would like to wait for the other’s name before he tell him, unless he gets the other’s name,or he will not be willing to show who he is.This is the difference in way of people’s

expressing.It will inevitably affect the people’s conversation.

2.Some details of the cultural difference in conversation

2.1 Greetings

The Chinese people and the Englishmen have different

etiquettes in greetings.For example, in China,someone often meets with giving greetings “Where are you going?”,“What are you going to do?”and soon,which have no much,deep connotation.The natural reaction of most English－speaking people to this greeting would most likely be it’s none of your business!( 邓炎昌，刘润著1989.3)Greeting like,“Have you had supper?” and are only some common greetings when people meet together. However, Englishmen will be sensitive and serious about these questions, which seems to be the private things in their views and should not be inquired about freely, except between or among intimates. Greeting like“Have you had supper?”will make them so amazing,and be a loss that they wonder whether you want to invite then for supper,so these greetings should be transferred into English culture like “Hello”,“Good morning”,and so on.Fortunately,not all greetings sound strange or arose displeasure.many are similar,some are merely different.While greetings in many language ofen indicate the time of day,there may be

inconsistencies within a language(邓炎昌，刘润著1989.3).Take the phone call for example,in our Chinese custom,we often say“Who are you?”,“I am so and so”,which have different

expressions in English,as“Who is this speaking?”and“This is so and so speaking.”There are connected with different cultural customsand habit,and reflects the cultural differences.

2.2 Dinners

Chinese attitudes are so humble that they often appear some offensive words while in the conversation with the western people.They show this attitudes in dinners.Once there is a story of LiHongZhang,a well-known compardor bureaucrat in the Westerninzation Movement during the Qing Dynastry.He was entering some distinguished guests in famous restaurant in London.Out of his sense of Chinese

politeness,he humbly said that the food were good enough and hope the guest could still enjoy the

dinner.Unfortunnately the waiter overhead these words and reported what he heard to the manager.The manager was outraged and decided to sue Li for defaming the

restaurant.( 刘桂兰，王胜利主编 2008.12 )As a Chinese,we know that he iust wanted to say that he is very happy of you here today.This dishes are coarse and not delicious and good enough to show his repect for the manager.This is a result of different culture between Chinese and the western people.In addition,during the meal,western people say”help

yourself”but Chinese like to put too much food on

guests’plates which can be show your impoliteness to

western people’s views.In one case,you mean that he has a poor judgment and taste.Besides,the people from different countries have different attitude to food to dinner.For

example, Forget the language barrier ,forget jet lag ,one of the strongest culture shocks that the executive can face in

encountering the southern European business tradition for the first time is attitude to food(高鹏，张学忠，林萌

2006.12).On one occasion when the visitors needed to catch a plane and there was much work to do,the compromise was

a sit-down with a soup course,extravagant"knife and fork" open sandwiches,a cheese course and dessert.The whole lunch took about 65 minutes,which everyone found

unsatifatory:the Americans because it was too long,and the French because,for a proper business lunch,it was just too short.Above all,are some different attitudes of people which naturally reveals the cultural difference in the conversation.

2.3 Colours

Colour words and terms are tightly bound into culture and emotions and have strong cultural connotations.For example,yellow as a colour is used as the symbol of cowardess and disease,prostitutes,jews and syphilitics were made to wear yellow.A yellow signal flag under maritime law shows disease on board a vessel at sea.In Chinese,yellow is associated with sunshine,openness,and beauty.Yellow was the imperial colour and seen as noble.In deed common people during the ch’ing dynasty could be punished for usurping imperial prestige by wearing yellow.In both Chinese and English there are various terms with the sense of the colours(刘桂兰，王胜利主编 2008.12).For example,Chinese have saying of “红白喜事”,it is not difficult to understand “红喜”once connected red with having a baby, marriage or birthday congratulations etc. which Englishmen call “the red-letter day”.But they couldn’t understand why Chinese think it to be “a happy thing” when someone passed away.In fact,in British culture, the connotation of “Red and White” is contrary with that of Chinese custom,Englishmen often associate Red with blood and death sometimes with radical action or rebellion, which carries a certain political color.Also, red can bring their minds to debts or deficits. There are some examples:“He is in the red” means “He is in debt”,“A red mother”refers to “the mother with deficits”, “A red battle” means“a bloody battle”,“A red revolution” refers to“the proletarian revolution”.On the contrary,white in Chinese

express purification in today’s China.However, in most situations, it has the unlucky meaning including the connotation of revolt.When somebody passed away, the family will be all in white,wearing white dress,white flowers and putting up white paper such action is so deviation from the understanding of the British customs.Above all can be useful for people say and do in conversations correctly and suitsbly.

2.4 Numbers

In recent years,some Chinese people are sensitive and

particular about something connected with number.Such as choosing the number of lucky day, telephone number, license number for eight, six or nine which are considered lucky numbers, the order of numbers had better be “888”, “666” or “999” expressing a kind of “lucky and good wishes”.In Chinese culture “8” is the homophonic with “发”, which means success while “6” corresponds to the homophonic of “六六大顺”which has the meaning of satisfactory and

gratification. “9” means permanence and eternity because of its homophonic sound in Chinese such meanings and connotation expresses the idea of happiness,luck and

success.These numbers therefore become the lucky numbers. But “4” is the homophonic of “death” in Chinese.So people try to avoid this number.Let’s see how the Englishmen act when they meet with some of these numbers.Because it is

impossible to appear homophonic between the number and the meaning in English,their reflection would not be probably similar with that of Chinese.However,there still exists some cultural customs in number.They avoid “13” in particular, the number viewed as taboo and has the saying of “black Friday” etc.In this detail ,we also can see the different sense of the colour in their conversations.It as well as shows the cultural differences.

Conclusion

With the high speed of the globalization of,the relationship between our country and other countries in the world will also become closer and closer.Various inter-cultural

communications become more and more frequent.It makes the people from different countries have more opportunities to communicate than before.So we must pay much attention about cultural differences in the inter-cultural

cummunication.it is well known that cultural differences will inevitably result in cultural conflicts, especially for enormous differences between the Eastern culture and Western culture. So in order to communicate effectively,all of us should have a good understanding of language and cultural differences between China and foreige countries.More importantly,we should know how communication is affected by language cultural difference.If we do like that,I believe that we can get along with the people from different countries very well in the conversation.

Bibliography:

[1] 辜正坤著，2004.11，P142《互构语言文化学原理》,清华大学出版社。

[2] 邓炎昌，刘润著1989.3,P29《语言与文化－英汉语言文化对比》，北京：外语教学与研究出版社。

[3] 邓炎昌，刘润著1989.3,P29《语言与文化－英汉语言文化对比》，北京：外语教学与研究出版社。

[4] 刘桂兰，王胜利主编 2008.12,P41,P42 《Comparative Reading of English and Chinese》

[5] 高鹏，张学忠，林萌 2006.12，P343《Spoken English and Culture》