Cultural Conceptualizations in Persian Language: Implications for L2 Learning

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research

مقاله 5، دوره 1، شماره 4، اسفند 2013، صفحه 61-66   

نوع مقاله: Research Papers

نویسندگان

Amir Sabzevari؛ Sajad Shafiee^*

Department of English, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran

چکیده

Intercultural communication is concerned with communication across cultures. Since cultures as well as languages differ from one another in significant ways, speakers conceptualize the world around them in different ways. These cultural conceptualizations form part of the collective cognition of a speech community or cultural group. This paper is an attempt to delineate some cultural schemas in Persian cultural conceptualization which are quite prevalent in Iranian culture and language which may crop up in everyday conversations. For this purpose, cultural schemas of 'maram', 'marefat', and 'gheyrat' are selected based on their frequent use in Persian language and Iranian culture. These schemas are elaborated and some implications for L2 learning are suggested.

کلیدواژه‌ها

culture؛ conceptualization؛ schema؛ Intercultural Communication

مراجع

Agar, M. (1994). Language shock: Understanding the culture of conversation. New York: Wm. Morrow.

Assadi, R. (1980). Deference: Persian style. Anthropological Linguistics, 22, 221–224.

Aryanpour Kashani, M. (2010). The Aryanpour progressive English-Persian, Persian-English dictionary. Tehran: Computer World Publisher.

Eslami Rasekh, Z. (2004). Face-keeping strategies in reaction to complaints: English and Persian. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 14(1), 179–195.

Friedrich, P. (1989). Language, ideology and political economy. American Anthropologist, 91 (2), 295–312.

Frank, R. M. (2003). Shifting identities: The metaphorics of nature-culture dualism in Western and Basque models of self. Metaphorik.de (electronic journal). Retrieved May 2014 from http://www.metaphorik.de/04/frank.pdf

Frank, R. M. (2005). Shifting identities: A comparative study of Basque and Western cultural conceptualizations. Cahiers of the Association for French Language Studies, 11 (2), 1-54.

Garro, L.C. (2000). Remembering what one knows and the construction of the past: A comparison of cultural consensus theory and cultural schema theory. Ethos, 28(3), 275-319.

Gudykunst, W. B., & Kim, Y. Y. (Eds.). (1992). Readings on communicating with strangers: An approach to intercultural communication. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Keshavarz, M. H. (2001). The role of social context, intimacy, and distance in the choice of forms of address. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 148, 5–18.

Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Langacker, R. (1999). Assessing the cognitive linguistic enterprise. In T. Janssen & G. Redeker (Eds.), Cognitive linguistics: Foundations, scope, and methodology, (pp. 13–59). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Langacker, R. (2001). Cognitive linguistics, language pedagogy, and the English present tense. In M. Pütz, S. Niemeier, & R. Dirven (Eds.), Applied cognitive linguistics, vol. I: Theory and Language Acquisition, (pp. 3–40). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Malcolm, I.G., & Sharifian, F. (2002). Aspects of aboriginal English oral discourse: An application of cultural schema theory. Discourse Studies, 4(2), 169–181.

Nishida, H. (1999). Cultural schema theory. In W.B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing about intercultural communication, (pp. 401–418). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Palmer, G.B. (1996). Toward a theory of cultural linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Sharifian, F. 2002. Chaos in aboriginal English discourse. In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), Englishes in Asia: Communication, identity, power and education, (pp. 125–141). Melbourne: Language Australia.

Sharifian, F. (2003). On cultural conceptualisations. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 3, 187–207.

Sharifian, F. (2007). L1 cultural conceptualisations in L2 learning. In F. Sharifian, & G. B. Palmer (Eds.) Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Sharifian, F. (2008). Cultural schemas in L1 and L2 compliment responses: A study of Persian-speaking learners of English. Journal of Politeness Research, 4(1), 55-80.

Sharifian, F. (2009). On collective cognition and language. In H. Pishwa (Ed.) Language and social cognition: Expression of social mind. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

wa Thiong'o, N. (1986). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. London: Heinemann.