I. Human language: distinctive features

A. Language: arbitrary symbolic system that names feelings, experiences, ideas, objects, events, groups, people, and other phenomena

B. Arbitrariness: words have no innate meaning

C. Abstractness: allows abstract hypothetical thinking

1. Experiential context: receivers field of personal experiences

2. Cultural context: receivers culture

D. Meaning-centeredness: five levels of meaning

1. Discourse meaning: denotative and connotative meanings

a. Denotative: objective, dictionary meaning

b. Connotative: subjective, informal meaning

2. Communicative meaning: intention or goal behind the utterance

3. Relational meaning: relational distance and intimacy

4. Situational meaning: physical and social context

5. Conventional meaning: coordinate the verbal message with cultural norms

E. Creativity: using language to:

1. Talk about things far away in space and time (displacement feature)

2. Say things never said before (productivity feature)

3. Pass on heritage and wisdom (traditional transmission feature)

II. Understanding multiple language rules

A. Phonological rules (or phonology): combining of phonemes (basic sound units of a word)

B. Morphological rules (or morphology): combining phonemes to make morphemes (smallest units of meaning, a word or part or a word)

C. Syntactic rules (or syntactics): word sequence and grammar practices

D. Semantic rules (semantics): features of meaning attached to words (including two levels: denotative and connotative meanings)

E. Pragmatic rules (pragmatics): contextual rules that govern language use

III. Understanding diverse language functions

A. Cultural worldview function

1. Worldview: philosophical outlook or ways of perceiving the world

2. Linear worldview: rational thinking based on objective reality

a. Inductive reasoning: facts and evidence are important to make a claim

b. Deductive reasoning: primacy of conceptual models and theories, and then a move to specific points of implications

3. Relational worldview: holistic reasoning, avoids polarized ends

B. Cognitive formation function: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic relativity  hypothesis): language is the shaper of ideas

1. Weak form (supported by research): language helps shape thinking  

2. Strong form (not fully supported): language determines thinking

C. Social reality function: language names what is considered news or real or important in a particular culture

D. Group identity function: common language evokes group identity; signals ingroup linkage and outgroup differentiation

E. Social change function

1. Can imprison us: influences our way of perceiving the world

2. Can set us free: mindfully change habits and biased notions re groups

IV. Intercultural toolkit: recaps and checkpoints

            When using your native language in communicating with a nonnative speaker:

A. Understand languaculture: emphasizes tie between language and culture

B. Verbal tracking: pay attention to content, relational, identity meanings; move beyond accent

C. Verbal patience: use slow, simple sentences and restatements; avoid idioms

D. Probing questions: use to check if message is received accurately

E. Multiple modes of presentation: visual representations (pictures, gestures)

F. Master cultural pragmatic rules: know appropriate speaking norms if speaking in a different language