Breaking the Frames

CHAPTER 8

Language and Culture

AbstractWhat is the relationship between language and culture? One
argument has to do with whether there is a universal (biological) program
for the acquisition of language or whether there is a set of potentialities
which are molded by culture. Noam Chomsky argued for a universal
(natural) program, whereas other linguists have argued that language is
always a cultural invention. Daniel Everett suggests that only a general
learning capacity is at work. Chomsky distinguished between broad and
narrow faculties, the latter reducible to recursion, the folding of one
statement into others by grammatical means. This, however, is not found
in the Piraha language of Amazonia studied by Everett. Everett offered
‘intelligence’as the factor enabling language acquisition, but the ability to
combine patterns gets us closer to the processes involved.

KeywordsBiology
Dan Everett
Language acquisition
Noam
Chomsky
Pattern-making
Recursion

The relationship between language and culture is one of those perennial
topics that merit a continuous revisiting over time. Different parts of argu-
ments come into play. Does language determine thought? Does culture
determine language? Why is a capacity for language a universal human
feature? Among these debates, one in particular links to themes we have
explored in previous chapters of this book. This is the argument about why
languages exist at all and whether the capacity for language unites or divides

© The Author(s) 2017
P.J. Stewart, A.J. Strathern,Breaking the Frames,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47127-3_8

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