Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Oral Culture- Words Cover More...

Just as clothes do more than just cover nakedness, oral language does so much more than simply deliver a message from sender to receiver.

Conversations reflect the cultural moorings of the times, do they not? Yes! Attitudes and values are reflected- indeed imbedded- within even the simplest conversations.

In everyday speech, these secondary "messages" go largely unnoticed by both speaker and listener; it is a subliminal process for most people.

However, the embedded secondary messages within the language spoken become blantantly obvious when one listens to recorded language being conveyed from outside of one's own time and place. Listen to how language expresses the perceived American cultural values in 1964, in the television entertainment show, "Bewitched".

If the point I am making is not clear from reading this post- it will become blazingly clear after listening to the Bewitched video (the narrator's lines were especially "interesting"). That show gave this post birth, so to speak! It is funny in kind of an eye-popping, brow-raising, sort of way!

Of course, television shows merely imitate natural conversations. The shows are largely written from the motivation to entertain people. But the embedding of cultural moorings within the language used still occurs.

Advertising is another example of a deliberately crafted message. The sender intends to harness lingual power for their benefit. There is no need for the receiver to be aware of this intent in order for their to be impact. And the embedding of cultural moorings within the language used still occurs.

Whether intentional or not, these linguistic reinforcements invariably influence people's behavior.

Language is power.

No comments:

Post a Comment