Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
Chapter 7: Language and Culture
Lecture Outline
Chapter Overview
This chapter is an exploration in the power behind words. Throughout this chapter is the
story of Joel and Denny and there struggle to have marriage equality. This story serves to
illustrate the notion of language throughout the chapter. Beginning with a look at
semiotics, the authors’ present the symbolic nature of language. Once the foundation is
laid for understanding the structure and characteristics of language, Fassett and Warren
examine the power in language and the ways in which language shapes our reality.
Chapter Objectives:
Explore the relationship between language and culture
Describe the role of power in language
Articulate how culture influences our language
Apply constitutive theories of language to everyday life
Apply inclusive language to public communication
I. Scholars in communication refer to the study of language and other symbol
oriented system as verbal communication.
a. Verbal refers to words
b. “Oral” may or may not imply language use.
II. Semiotics is the structure of language.
a. Words stand in for or represent objects (persons, items, processes, etc.).
i. These words are assigned systemically, using the formal rules and
norms.
ii. These words are symbolic and connect to those referents using our
understanding of a semiotic perspective.
1. The semiotic perspective understands language as arbitrary,
ambiguous, and abstract:
a. Arbitrary, because the words we use were, at one
time assigned randomly.
b. Ambiguous, because a word may represent a wide
array of meanings.
c. Abstract, because the words are not the things the
words represent.
iii. Language can be separated into revealing structural parts as well:
1. The signifier is the spoken and/or written representation of
something/someone; it is the word.
2. The signified is the meaning we associate with the word.
3. The signifier and the signified work together to create a
sign, which refers to the particular meaning of an object.
III. John Stewart (1941) challenged the structural approach to language studies,
advocating for a post-semiotic approach.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
a. A post-semiotic approach to language resists understanding words as just
representations and is a more comprehensive way of understanding
communication.
i. Words build, sustain, and challenge power and privilege.
ii. All communication addresses how power affects meaning-making,
values, actions, and understanding.
iii. There are five dangers to approaching language in such a way as to
assume words are only or primarily representative of things.
1. We separate our reality into “two worlds.”
2. It is atomistic – leads us to break living speech down into
smaller and smaller bits so we can analyze it.
3. Words have little or no significance apart from how they
stand in for “real” things.
4. We lose sight of language as a social system.
5. It’s tempting to think of language as a tool, something we
can use as we wish.
IV. Constitutive approaches to language focus on actual speech within particular
contexts by particular people.
a. This approach insists that language does not exist in a vacuum, but rather
it is produced within cultural and political contexts; so it is neither neutral
nor objective.
i. It insists that communicators have an agenda.
1. Language is an ideological struggle for meaning.
2. Language constitutes meaning.
b. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a claim about the relationship between
language and reality.
i. The hypothesis helps us think through the consequences of our
language choices.
1. The hypothesis argues that words are not just words, but
that language has a significant role in shaping people’s
understandings.
2. The hypothesis assumes that language shapes our reality.
a. Because language shapes our thoughts, and our
thoughts shape our reality, Sapir and Whorf
concluded that our language shapes our reality.
3. The hypothesis claims that reality is shaped by our
language.
c. Speech Act Theory explores how people use language.
i. Constatives are words that describe or identify a state of affairs.
ii. Performatives are used to illustrate how our words create our
worlds.
iii. When language accomplishes action, these moments are
understood as speech acts.
1. The locutionary act is the simple surface level speech act.
2. The illocutionary act is the intent behind a given
performative.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
3. The perlocutionary act is the effect of a given message.
iv. Performativity is known as the ways language acts.
1. This concept suggests that language performs and affects
bodies and minds of people.
d. The process of articulate contact requires that speakers negotiate with
one another in order to make meaning.
1. Language is the world we live in.
2. We encounter language holistically.
3. Language produces meaning, speakers, contexts,
relationships, and cultures.
4. Language occurs in everyday settings.
V. Being an effective, responsible public advocate means taking language, and what
it does in interaction with others, seriously.
a. Use inclusive language.
b. Engage in audience analysis, and use language that suits the audience.
c. Embrace language that invites audiences into dialogue.
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