2. The Relationship between Culture and Language

2.1The Conception of the Language and Culture源:自/751-·论,文'网·www.751com.cn/

Culture is a really comprehensive conception, it is difficult for us to give a strict and precise definition. Numerous philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, historians and linguists have been working hard and trying to define the conception of culture from the angle of their respective fields. However, they still don’t get a satisfactory definition of culture up to now. At present, the definition of culture is generally accepted by the academic circles is known as the father of Anthropology of the British anthropologist, Edward Burnett Taylor, the first one who have a significant impact on the definition of human culture. Edward Burnett Taylor pointed out “Culture or Civilization-Its phenomena related according to definite Laws-Method of classification and discussion of the evidence-connexion of successive stages of culture by Permanence, Modification and Survival-Principal topics examined in the present work”.(Edward Burnett Taylor，1871：1)People regarded Taylor's definition of culture as the original definition of culture phenomenon, the descendants have different views to the definition of culture ,also, they continuously put forward new ideas about what is culture. The definition of culture becomes an interesting and controversial academic phenomenon. Different subjects have different definitions for culture. Edward T.Hall, a famous Anthropologist, pointed out that “Culture is man’s medium; there is not one aspect of human life that is not touched and altered by culture. This means personality, how people express themselves（including shows of emotions),they way they think, how they move, how problems are solved, how their cities are planned and laid out, how transportation systems function and are organized, as well as how economic and government systems are put together and function”.(Edward T.Hall，1990：158)  Edward Sapir, American linguists, pointed out “Culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks”.(Edward Sapir，2002：56)Culture is the all and the one which consists of material culture and spiritual culture .Generally speaking, culture is the social phenomenon, a product of human work and thinking, and the deposition of social history. Properly speaking, culture is a kind of ideology which benefits communication between people, including national and ethical history, geography, local customs and practices, traditions, living styles, literature and art, code of conduct, way of thinking, view of values.文献综述

Simultaneously, different scholars have different views about the definition of language. “Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly” (Hu Zhuanglin，2007：2)Language is the most important human communication tool and also is the thought tool. People preserve and transfer the achievements of human civilization with language. Every nation has its own pronunciation system. Language is accompanied by the creation of the human society; it is the direct manifestation of thinking. Language reflects the characteristics of a nation, which not only includes the nation’s historical and cultural backgrounds, but holds on the nation’s view of life, the way of life and thinking. “Culture is perse, language is also varied.” (Chen，2000：20)