V Communicative practice. What is the role of culture in modern society?

1. What is the role of culture in modern society?
2. How do you understand the notion “elite” culture?
3. How do you understand the notion “folk” culture?
4. How does mass culture (internet, pop music, fashion, cinema) influence people?
5. How do you judge the influence of your generation upon modern culture?

Unit IV

Language and culture

Text 1

All societies have culture and all culture has, and can not exist without, language. This uniquely human capacity enables us to access our history through written documents and oral tradition and to create technology, worldviews, rituals, legal sistem, propoganda, lies, jokes, and gossip. Much of culture depends wholly upon language for its transmittion. People in a society are culturally united through their language. A person’s integration into a culture demands mastery of a language. Without complete mastery we can not experience the symbolic richness of human existence, awareness of our environment for survival. While language is indisputably used for the transmittion of information, often it conveys little of general importance, as in polite chatter and small talk. Language at its most simple and generalised level can be thought of as the universal primary vehicle for meaning and communication. Meaning refers to the experiance people have when they share a common usage for a cultural symbol. The meaning of a symbol refers to its usage in a culture. For example, if your instructor holds before you a piece of chalk and you have never observed its use, the word “chalk” would signify very little. If the instructor demonstrates its use and explains that this is “chalk”, the symbol “chalk” would now have some meaning. Both of you are now using the same symbol -“chalk”- in the same way.