Lecture 1. Classification of cultural words, words of real or national
color. Translate cultural words, words of real or national color
Plans:
1. Definition of cultural words
2. Classification of cultural words
3. Meaning of cultural words
Aims:
1. to give information about cultural words
2. to analyze structures and elements of work
3. to give information about major problems of translating cultural words
Educational and pedagogical: to increase the literacy of students in an integrated way,
to connect the subject with education and upbringing
Developmental Objective: To develop students' listening comprehension, reading,
writing, and speaking skills in English in a variety of ways, and to increase their interest
in the language they are learning.
Key words: culture, cultural words, classification of cultural words, definition of cultural
words, meaning of cultural words
Learning outcomes:
to introduce the theme and improve their knowledge about it;
to give an opinion about culture-historical approach;
to analyze the characters of culture-historical approach
Bibliography:
1. Alonso, A. C., & Ponte, D. C. (2015). An analysis of cultural vocabulary in ELT
textbooks. Odisea, 16, 83-96. ISSN 1578.3820.
2. Balaban, A., & Çaølayan, B. (2014). Common cultural Turkish words in Albanian and
Greek languages. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 4(2), 262-269. ISSN 239978X. doi:10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p262
3. Đỗ, H. C. (1999). Từ vựng ngữ nghĩa tiếng Việt. Hà Nội: NXB Giáo Dục.
4. Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (2002). Meaning and universal grammar–Theory and
empirical findings, Vols I and II. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
5. Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (1994). Semantic and lexical universals–Theory and
empirical findings. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
6. Goulden, R., Nation, P., & Read, J. (1990). How large can a receptive vocabulary be?
Applied Linguistics, 11, 341-363.
7. Lê, Q. T. (2008). Ngữ nghĩa học. NXB Giáo dục, Hà Nội.
8. Lê, T. K. V. (2017). Tâm thức của người Việt qua một số từ khóa (Chuyên luận Ngôn
ngữ học văn hóa-tri nhận). NXB Đại học Sư phạm Tp. Hồ Chí Minh.
9. Levisen, C. (2012). Cultural semantics and social cognition: A case study on the
Danish universe of meaning. Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.
10. Li, F., Ran, S., & Bai, X. T. (2010). Translation of words with cultural imagine. Tạp
chí Giảng dạy và nghiên cứu ngôn ngữ, tập 1, số 5, Phần Lan.
Good language learners know how to acquire new vocabulary day by day. Cultural
words are included in the wide range of words and expressions. As far as this succinct
study is concerned, the authors investigate theoretical frameworks on cultural words and
give appropriate comments and assessment. Key research methods are accumulating and
analyzing findings from books, articles on cultural words and teaching vocabulary.
Findings reveal that cultural words have been the topic researched by a number of authors
in Vietnam and in the world for its significance in linguistics. The aspects which have
been clarified as theoretical framework consist of different definitions and classification
of cultural words, meaning of cultural words, and strategies for teachers to teach English
vocabulary.
Acquiring vocabulary frequently is considered as a key to success in mastering a
foreign language. Goulden, Nation, and Read (1990) suggested that a native speaker of
English knew around 20,000 words families. For each year of his early life, a native
speaker added on average around 1,000 words families a year to their vocabulary.
Therefore, it could be implied that a second language learner needsto know a very large
number of words (Nation, 2001, p. 9). Among the common range of vocabulary, cultural
words account for a large number. Therefore, cultural vocabulary has been concerned by
numerous linguistic researchers in Vietnam and in other countries. The research focuses
on theoretical frameworks of cultural vocabulary in terms of definition, classification,
and meaning; after that, comments are written based on the discussed theories.
Definition of Cultural Words
There exist a few definitions of cultural words proposed by authors in Vietnam and
in other countries. Wierzbicka (1997, p. 5) said that, in a sense, it may seem obvious that
words with special, culture-specific meanings reflect and pass on not only ways of living
characteristic of a given society but also ways of thinking. She considered cultural key
words as extremely vital and revealing words in a certain culture (pp. 15-16). Another
research done by Li, Ran, and Xia (2010) called cultural words as words with image
culture, explained that the words are the results of long-lasting history and culture of
tribes, closely associated with traditional legend or ancestors’ worship.
In Vietnamese linguistics, Nguyen Van Chien (2004) emphasized that, cultural
vocabulary is initially a fundamental unit among sources of cultural words of a language.
He added through meaning and semantic structure of vocabulary, cultural words are
closely associated with definitions related to certain characteristics of people’s culture.
He asserted that, they are forms of languages reflecting definitions of recording basic
tribal cultural features; as well, content of symbols from culture always reflects unique
culture of a language when contrasting them with equivalent symbols of words in another
language. He clarified that on the other side, cultural vocabulary, as fundamental symbols
of languages, always shows distinctive things of the world outside the language. Basing
on the previous theoretical frameworks of cultural words, Nguyen Lien Huong (2018, p.
38) defined cultural key words as words of fundamental common vocabulary in a
language with culture-specific meaning, reflecting characteristics of social life, human
community’s thinking in that society, having high frequency of appearance and a wide
range of usage. In terms of criteria to define cultural words, Wierzbicka (1997, p. 16)
explained that the words are of common vocabulary, frequently used on a typical
semantic aspect, and finally put in the central position of a particular complete phrase.
Turning to forms of cultural words, Wierzbicka (1997, p. 17) confirmed, cultural words
were not only single words but also common collocations, set phrases, grammatical
constructions, proverbs, and so on. Naturally, cultural vocabulary is expressed in a
variety of forms. The definition collected by Nguyen Lien Huong is easy to understand
and recognize cultural words; thus, the authors are most interested in this one.
Classification of Cultural
Words Cultural words have been categorized by a number of researchers.
Hereinafter several selected ways are to classify this special type of words. To begin
with, Newmark (1988, p. 94) categorized cultural words into five smaller types, as
follows: (1) ecology which covers flora, fauna, wind, valley, and mountains; (2) material
culture or artefact which covers food, cloth, housing and city, transportation; (3) social
culture which covers work and leisure; (4) organization which covers customs, activities,
procedures, political and administrative concepts, religion, arts, and (5) gestures and
habits. Two other linguists namely Balaban and Çaølayan (2014) investigated common
cultural Turkish words in Albanian and Greek languages. These writers divided cultural
words into 17 categories, as below: (1) plant names; (2) animal names; (3) food culture;
(4) goods, material, or object words; (5) maritime-related words; (6) argo words; (7)
business and money, weight, number and size; (8) everyday cultural (abstract) words; (9)
urban planning, building, building materials and related words with hand tools; (10)
nomenculaton words; (11) gamesfun words; (12) military (war and peace) concepts and
words; (13) business, occupational and vocational names; vocational equipment and
Supplies; (14) geographical terms; (15) clothing and finery, fabrics, leather, rope,
embroidery, and accessories; (16) terms of medicine and health, human and animal limbs;
(17) paint, color, fragrance, and cosmetic. Alonso and Ponte (2015) proposed the
following classification for cultural words, specifically, into 12 types.
Everyday living - Food, working, school, holidays, leisure activities, clothes, housing.
Cultural heritage - Famous monuments and people, literature, TV shows, movies, music.
National identity - Languages, religions, nationality, history, humour, art and politics
from different cultures.
Popular culture - Rites, traditions, celebrations, festivals, social conventions, dances,
discos, religious observances and values, types of music, among others.
Society Living - standards, classes, urban tribes, minorities, family structures, regional
cultures, and subcultures.
Geography - Countries, continents, cities, towns, streets.
Stereotypes - Typical features attributed to certain cultures.
Languages - Borrowings, informal register, idioms, collocations.
Worldwide issues - Political, economic, social, and environment issues.
Institutions and organizations - Official institutions and organizations from different
countries.
Varieties - Words from other varieties of English.
Social interactions - Greetings, apologies, politeness.
The final way of classification is the one to choose for the authors to collect
cultural vocabulary and divide them into smaller groups for further research on cultural
words in English textbooks.
Cultural words tend to fall into categories. One that is considered elsewhere is
politeness: where English culture sees a need for a special polite expression – for
example in questioning other people or talking about debt – other cultures may not . The
following other categories seem to be particularly important.
1. Geographical
Many area names are cultural, since their users are normally thinking of special features
of the areas rather than just the areas alone. For example, the home counties in Britain
are more than just an area around London: counties are large local government areas,
while home hints at the importance of London. In the USA, the Mid-West suggests a
certain type of terrain, climate and people, while in New Zealand North Island probably
suggests population and warm summers.
Geographical expressions can also represent types of places. A particularly cultural one
is leafy suburbs: you have to understand that English speakers like trees, so that suburbs
with them are considered desirable and hence tend to attract the rich. Green belts are
similar: not just areas where building is restricted around a city, but leafy and wealthy.
Very often they neighbour a stockbroker belt, an exclusive residential area popular with
stockbrokers, who tend to be very rich.
Inner cities are the reverse: run-down places near a city centre where poorer people tend
to be concentrated. Poorer people also often live on council estates, a British name for
social housing (councils, which manage them, are the main British units of local
government). Industrial areas are also viewed negatively: despite the benefits of industry,
its environmental costs influence many people’s attitudes. For more on positive- and
negative-sounding words, see .
2. Political
Every English-speaking country tends to have some political terms that are unique to it.
Unfamiliarity with them can easily hinder newspaper-reading. American Congress and
British Parliament are parallel but not equivalent, while Britain and the USA have
different understandings of counties and Attorney General.
Peculiarly British political terms that I have needed to explain to students
include backbenchers, constituencies, party whips, white papers, council tax, safe seats,
peers, Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Budget, Downing Street, The
Speaker and The Queen’s Speech . In the USA, important terms include The White
House, primaries, party conventions, running mates, federal laws,
senators and governors.
.
3. Educational
This area is full of the abbreviation type called acronyms . Although not all acronyms are
cultural (cf. NATO), many in education are. In Britain, they include SATs, GCSEs, A’
Levels, EFL (AmE = ESL), IELTS (TOEFL), BA, MD, RE, FE, HE, OU and OFSTED.
The opposition between FE (Further Education) and HE (Higher Education) can be
particularly challenging.
Other interesting expressions are public schools (private and expensive in Britain, staterun and accessible in America), comprehensive schools, grammar schools (the most
academic British type – the name, I am sure, part of the reason why many Britons are
slightly intimidated by grammar), sixth form (the last two years – sixth and seventh – of
British secondary education), year 7 (first year of secondary school), half-term, elevenplus, form tutors and prefects. The Harry Potter novels by JK Rowling give useful
insights into the workings of elite British schools.
4. Sporting
Stumped, of course, falls into this category. Its sporting meaning is cultural because not
every culture is familiar with cricket. Its second meaning, “unable to find an answer”, is
metaphorical.
Many other sporting terms have a metaphorical second meaning whose full
understanding depends on familiarity with the sport. Readers are invited to decide the
sport (or game) and the metaphorical meaning of each of the following (answers
below): hold all the aces, hit the bullseye, hit … for six, field questions, score an own
goal, kick off, fall at the first hurdle, trumped, a pawn, a scrum, tackle, catch up,
caught out, jockeying, a close call, a knockout blow, a good innings, off (…’s) own bat.
Many of these expressions, it is clear, are phrases rather than single words. Outside of
sport, there are many other metaphorical phrases in English: for some common examples,
see .
5. Religious
No major religion is exclusive to English-speaking countries. However, the faith with
historically the most followers there, Christianity, has contributed some words to English
that learners from non-Christian cultures can struggle with . Like words from sport, most
from Christianity have a metaphorical meaning as well as their basic religious one.
Take anoint. Literally it means “apply ointment to the skin”. In Christianity, this action is
associated with desirable religious changes in the recipient, for example the change from
non-Christian to Christian. In the metaphorical use, the idea of putting someone into a
desirable new state remains. A common usage is in business, where a leader might
“anoint” someone by naming them as their future successor.
Other fundamentally religious words, with their metaphorical meanings, include holy
grail (“most desired objective”), gospel (“unquestioned principle”), worship (“like very
much”), sacrosanct (“not to be criticised or treated
disrespectfully”), sanctimonious (“acting in an exaggeratedly holy
way”), sanctuary (“place of rest and
solitude”), religiously (“conscientiously”), sins (“mistakes”), to bless (“bring benefit to”;
“approve”), a baptism of fire (“difficult beginning”), biblical (“like something in The
Bible”), angelic (“beautiful and well-behaved”), evangelical (“vigorously promoting”), a
hierarchy (“group members ranked according to importance”), sacrifice (“rejection of
something desirable for a higher purpose”), diabolical (evil), hell (“very painful
situation”), heavenly (“very pleasurable”), redeem (“bring back into favour”)
and salvation (“escape from an awful fate”).
I was once asked to explain the meaning of sanctified in a text about product branding. It
felt a strange use to me, but I quickly saw that it meant “given special or permanent
status” (from the Latin “made holy”). The strangeness, I discovered, came from the fact
that the text was actually a literal translation from French (the writer Bourdieu). I guessed
that the meaning of sanctified is a common religious metaphor in French, unlike in
English.
6. Zoological/Botanical
Animal and plant names can be associated with a particular culture either in themselves
(the animal or plant originating where the culture is located), or through being used in a
special metaphorical way by that culture. The former kind are often not a problem for
learners of English: concepts like bear, coyote, kangaroo, kiwi, maple tree,
rattlesnake and sheepdog tend to be known all over the world. Lesser-known ones might
include shire horse, daisy, nettle, bluebottle and midge.
Metaphorical usages can involve creatures from outside the English-speaking world as
well as within. Guinea pigs are South American, but they are also “people or things
being tested experimentally”. Also notable are a can of worms (“rich source of potential
problems”), cats’ eyes (headlamp reflectors on a road), a cuckoo in the nest (“an
unwelcome group member”), to fox (someone) (“trick”), a hornets’ nest (“a potentially
dangerous situation”), sheepish (“showing shame or embarrassment”), to squirrel
(something) away (“hide for future use”), beavering away (“working hard”), to grasp
the nettle (“initiate an unpleasant task”), weasel words (“evasive answers”), make
hay (“maximally utilise an opportunity”), the lion’s share (= the majority), a hive of
activity (“very busy place”) and eagle-eyed (“very observant”).
7. Nautical
Historically, seafaring has been very important for Britain. English reflects this with
numerous expressions. The word wake, meaning “white water behind a ship”, is common
in the metaphorical phrase in the wake of . Other metaphorical expressions include know
the ropes (referring to ropes attached to sails on a ship), plain sailing, on board, high
and dry, port of call, safe haven, drift, harbour, navigate, pirates, shipshape, sink,
watertight and wreck.
8. Fixed “and” Phrases
The expression swings and roundabouts refers to two typical features of children’s
outdoor play areas. However, used like an adjective after BE (especially It is…) it has the
metaphorical meaning of “an equal choice between two alternatives”. English has
numerous other fixed and expressions, many of them cultural, such as fish and chips,
heaven and hell, high and dry, spit and polish and dead and buried
Metaphorical Meanings of Sport Words
hold all the aces (cards) = control all aspects; hit the bullseye (archery or darts) = find
exactly what you are seeking; hit … for six (cricket) = hit … very hard; field
questions (cricket) = deal with numerous questions from different sources; score an own
goal (soccer) = hurt your own interests; kick off (football, rugby) = begin; fall at the first
hurdle (horse-racing) abandon a project at its first challenge; trumped (cards) = defeated
by someone’s better move; a pawn (chess) = an unimportant person used by others; a
scrum (rugby) = crowd members fighting each other for the same thing; tackle (hockey,
rugby, soccer) = start dealing with a problem; catch up (running) = return to a schedule
after falling behind; caught out (baseball, cricket) = exposed as having acted
dishonestly; jockeying (horse-racing) = seeking the best position for gaining the lead; a
close call (tennis) = a small distance from disaster; a knock-out blow (boxing) = a
winning move; a good innings (cricket) = a long life; off (…’s) own bat (cricket) =
independently.
Meaning of Cultural Words
The topic of meaning of cultural words has been so far discussed widespread in
Vietnam and in the world. A variety of authors possess both similar and different
viewpoints. Smirnitskiy (1957) defined that meaning of words is the natural reflection of
objects, phenomena, or relationship in awareness (or psychological composition similar
in nature, formed on the reflection of separated elements in reality) in the structure of
words in terms of their inner side (Nguyen Lien Huong, 2018, p. 21). Ullman (1967)
clarified that meaning of a word is the relation between sound of the word and its content
of definition. He drew a triangle of meaning, in which he focused on distinguishing
between linguists, logicians, and psychologists. He assumed that it should not be
considered the same between viewpoint, position of linguists with that of logicians and
psychologists. Another researcher called Lyons (1995) changed the triangle of meaning
into one called “triangle of signification” with three tops, that is, signal, definition, and
things signified. He thought that content of meaning definition consisted of numerous
parts distinguished in functions and contents; and it is necessary to distinguish different
types of meaning. In Vietnam, numerous linguists expressed their interest in definition of
meaning of words. According to Do Huu Chau (1999, p. 103), meaning of a word is a
spiritual entity. He drew a meaning pyramid of spatial geometry illustrating relation
between such entities as word and elements which were separated. He also classified
meaning of words into four major categories: symbolized, significative, expressive, and
grammatical meaning. Le Quang Thiem (2008, p. 86) made it clear that, meaning is an
abstract spiritual entity existing in every expression, level of language so that it can
function as a tool of communication, thinking, and all other diverse specific functions,
especially in speech, text, and discourse. Nguyen Thien Giap (2008, p. 312) held the
opinion that, meaning of a word is a series of relation of the word with other phenomena
including things, process, nature and symbol, definition and other words, as well.
Regarding meanings of selected cultural words, there witnessed numerous research
papers. In Semantics, culture and cognition—Universal human concepts in culturespecific configurations, Wierzbicka (1992) studied different dimensions of psychology,
emotion, and ethics throughout comparing meanings of couples of words in English and
Russian, that is: soul, memory and heart; fate and destiny; courage, bravery, risk, and so
on. As well, Wierzbicka figured out and contrasted meanings of a few cultural key words
in Anglo English, including: privacy, personal autonomy, fairness, mind, reasonable,
sense, evidence, experience (Wierzbicka, 2010), Australian English: bloody, bullshit,
whinge, dob in (Wierzbicka, 1997; 2002), Russian: duša (soul), sud’ba (fate), toska
(thirst), iskrennost’ (genuineness), pravda (truth), obščenie (communication), and avos’
(possible) (Wierzbicka, 1997; 2002; 2010), Polish: przykro (annoyingly), rodzina
(family), wolność (freedom) (Wierzbicka, 1997). One pivotal thing to bear in mind is that
the principles for semantics analysis practiced by Wierzbicka were also utilized in
analyzing cultural key words. Levisen (2012) continued the direction of Wierzbicka’s
research on several cultural key words. In details, in Cultural Semantics and Social
Cognition—A Case Study on the Danish Universe of Meaning, he analyzed
systematically, from the perspectives of semantics and national pragmatics, a few Danish
cultural key words, that is, hygge (warmth), tryghed (security), lykkelig (happiness), verb
synes (seem), và mener (think), etc.…in the light of theoretical framework of Natural
Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) (Goddard & Wierzbicka, 1994; 2002). There appear a
few works done on meaning of words in Vietnam. Nguyen Van Chien (2004) was
interested in Vietnamese vocabulary. He classified cultural vocabulary into three sub
categories: (1) words denoting things, phenomena, definition…of natural world; (2)
words denoting things, phenomena, definition…of society/organization and social
structure that human beings create and obey; (3) words denoting things, phenomena,
definition…relating to awareness of men themselves and about men. He determined
aspects of meaning in symbols of cultural words and semantic organization of these
words; he owned the opinion that, this process was considerably controlled by cultural
and linguistic principles of each country. He explained, cultural words, as basic symbols
of language, reflected its outside world. Additionally, Nguyen Lien Huong (2018)
overviewed meaning of words in the relationship with culture in Vietnamese and
international studies, compared cultural and lexical semantics of Vietnamese and English
cultural keywords, and also established a framework to compare cultural keywords. More
specifically, her thesis compared and contrasted two groups: the semantics of cultural
keywords with specific references and the semantics of cultural keywords with non-
specific references between Vietnamese and English; as well, she revealed the similarities
and differences on the linguistics (characteristics of semantics) and culture
(characteristics of social life, perceptions, thinking...) between two cultural keywords
groups of Vietnamese and English community. Two groups of cultural words were
discussed, that is, the group with real referential things (land, water, house, man) and
another group without real referential things (dragon, ghost, fairy). Author Lê Thi Kieu
Van (2017, p. 15) analyzed the role, functions, and meaning of four cultural keywords:
fate-hometown-face-soul in Vietnamese people’s awareness and action compared to
English and Russian. She clarified several cognitive features of Vietnamese people
accompanying with similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English,
Russian. The author consulted typical linguistic materials (Vietnamese, English, and
Russian), with sociology survey data, to figure out conceptions used by Vietnamese for
painting the world picture in words differed from other languages during expressing the
same conception.
Questions related to the topic:
Why is it necessary to distinguish between the classification of cultural words?
What kind of definition types has cultural words?
What is the specificity of "cultural words"?
Is the composition of "cultural words" the same in different eras?
Homework.
Analyse a short story according to the given information. Read the whole story to
interpret the story clearly.
I. Tests for consolidating
1. How many classifications has cultural words
a) 12 b) 10
c) 5
2. abandon a project at its first challenge meaning ?
a) hurdle
b) leave in
c) give up
3. a pawn (chess) definition
a) hurt your own interests
b) hit … very hard
c) an unimportant person used by others
4. The topic of meaning of cultural words has been so far discussed widespread in ... and
in the world
A)Greek b) Vietnam
c)Russian
5. Who categorised cultural vocabulary into three sub-categories
A) Nguyen Van Chien
B) members of the Prague Linguistic Circle
C)D.S. Likhachev, R.O. Jacobson, N. I. Konrad, I.G. Neupokoeva