语言和文化:语言与文化的关系例子

　　Influence of Culture on Language through a Study of Address Terms in Dreams of the Red Mansion
　　Abstract: This essay has made a preliminary investigation to the address terms in Dreams of the Red Mansion. The main purpose of this essay is to find out and study the influence of culture on language.
　　Key words: language, culture, address terms, names, Dreams of the Red Mansion
　　
　　摘要：本文对《红楼梦》中称谓语的使用做了初步的调查，旨在探究语言与文化的关系。人们的文化可以在他们所使用的语言上得到反映。《红楼梦》产生的社会现实、家庭层级和传统习俗影响和决定了《红楼梦》称谓语的使用。
　　关键词：语言；文化；称谓语；姓名；《红楼梦》
　　
　　1. Introduction
　　The exact nature of the relationship between language and culture has fascinated, and continues to fascinate, people from a wide variety of cultures. That there should be some kind of relationship between language and the ways in which speakers of that language experience the world and behave in it seems obvious to be a truism. Concerning the study of language and culture, today most usually associated with the linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf, the claim is usually referred to as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or the Whorfian hypothesis. What this hypothesis suggests is like this: our language helps mould our way of thinking and consequently, different languages may probably express speakers’ unique ways of understanding the world. (Crystal,1985:262) While president Wang Xilin in the “Rhetoric Theory” said: “the language is in essence from cultures and reflects the culture. It was the carrier of culture, and recorded human language, affected each other and restrained mutually.” Although
　　people of this research have distinct opinions in their works, It has been long acknowledged that the close relationship between language and culture, maintaining that they were inextricably related so that you could not understand or appreciate the one without knowledge of the other.
　　Dreams of the Red Mansion, as a novel expressing culture and history at one time, is crystallization of Chinese culture and literature. Although half accomplished, it won laurels of “never learn Dreams of the Red Mansion, nothing gain even end all of the books” in literati. The splendor of enchanting gardens, pleasure pavilions, and daily life of the most sophisticated refinements of Dreams of the Red Mansion hides the darkness and decay of the Feudality. This essay tries to study at address terms in Dreams of the Red Mansion, because the author Cao Xueqin comes to use his language in ways that reflect Qing-dynasty’s culture. This essay discusses three aspects of the cultural reflection on language: the reflection of social reality, the reflection of family hierarchy and the reflection of traditional customs, which provide the evidence that cultural requirements certainly influence how a language is used and perhaps determine why specific bits and pieces are the way they are.
　　2. Address terms study in A Dream of Red Mansions
　　2.1 Refection of social reality
　　Dreams of the Red Mansion has a special address terms naming system, showing hybridity of various verbal suggestions which incarnates Qing-dynasty’s social reality.
本文为全文原貌 未安装PDF浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文 　　Address terms, especially place names, in Dreams of the Red Mansion are designed mainly for the purpose of introducing the basic setup of the origin of the story. Cao Xueqing in his first chapter arranged places “大荒山”“无稽崖”“太虚幻境” to construct the frame of the story background. Person Names coming out at the first stage have same function of these kinds of place names, serving to create typical writing background, such as:
　　“①姓甄,名费, 甲眉：真,后之甄宝玉亦借此音，后不注。甲侧：废。
　　字士隐。 甲侧：托言将真事隐去也。
　　②姓贾名化,表字时飞， 甲侧：假话。甲侧：实非。
　　别号雨村。甲侧：雨村者，村言粗语也。言以村粗之言演出一段假话也。”
　　Commendatory of Zhi Yanzhai noted that these names were added meanings of fantastic, visional or preposterous aside. By collecting these congeneric words in the pre-chapters, Cao Xueqing put his stories in a space of a fairyland and make all the stories to fairy tales.
　　He declares his novel is only full of absurd and fake things for the reason “hiding the real name of the reality, disclosing the truth with the covertures of lie.” He had to use this special writing style in his age because Qing-dynasty has its special social background. In order to consolidate its rule, Qing-government created a number of literary inquisitions, which is known as its large number, its large scale, and its great cruelty. From the author’s view, Cao Xueqin ‘s forbears had held a high post in Qing Dynasty. When the Yongzheng Emperor ascended the throne, his family was declared guilty and his family property was confiscated. Suffered the change of the family, he realized the dark of feudality. His Dreams of the Red Mansion, as a chronicle of a noble family, inevitably hides the realities of decay and self-destruction; however, it is not an age allowing writers to comment on the government. For preventing his book from the banning by the government, Cao Xueqin created the typical address terms system to separate his novel from the social reality while it can’t hide the cultural influence on its language. Social reality given to the readers of his language is obvious and well-grounded.
　　2.2 Refection of family hierarchy
　　As one of Chinese literal pinnacle, Dreams of the Red Mansion has not only recorded some parts of social reality but also depicted vivid pictures of Qing Dynasty with ample kinship terms.
　　Kinship terms, as its name suggests, reveal kin positions of people in relationships, which is a big part of the address terms system. This prominent novel deals with all levels of the feudal clans from the most eminent souls to the most humble ones. It indicate some Chinese traditional thoughts, such as the distinction between ages , distinction of power oriented hierarchies, difference of noble class and humble class, as well as difference of lineal descent and of the concubine etc, this chart of which runs as follows：
　　
　　Level 1: the oldest and the most powerful 老太太;
　　老祖宗
　　Level2:thepowerfu nobleclass 老爷；太太；（二）奶奶
　　Level 3:the noble class （宝二）爷；姑娘；小姐
　　Level4:lowernobleclass 姨娘
　　Level5:thehumbleclass 丫头；小蹄子；奴才
　　
　　Having their own positions in the large family, all of the characters in the novel should be addressed with different kinship terms. In China, the position in a family hierarchy and rank in age are very important, therefore, in Dreams of the Red Mansion it exists the level division of power-oriented kinship terms. And the higher hierarchy person can call the name of the lower one, while; the lower one is not permitted to call the name of the higher one. It is thought that this is against ethic norms if the person calls the name of the higher one directly.
本文为全文原貌 未安装PDF浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文 　　2.3 Refection of traditional customs
　　In China, especially in the ancient times, address terms have their own naming rule to show the relationship of the family. Our ancestors usually take a same word of name to mark a same generation.
　　Names of the male roles of the Jias in Dreams of the Red Mansion reflect this traditional custom. The first generation of the Jias are“贾源，贾演”, the same part“水”suggests this generation is given glory by the emperor in their names; the second generation are“贾代善，贾代化，贾代儒”which have a same word of“代”suggests the glory is transferred from generation to generation; the third generation are“贾敬，贾政，贾赦，贾敏”, the same part of“文”suggests the family pay more attention to knowledge; the generation of“贾宝玉”are“贾珍，贾琏，贾珠”which have a same part of“玉”suggests the family lost its mental education, only leave money; the last generation are “贾蓉，贾兰，贾蔷，贾芸” in which the same part“草”for sure suggests that the family has gone to pot. It is a unique custom loaded on the language compared by the western address terms naming system.
　　English name is composed of given name and family name. In English tradition, when a girl becomes a man’s wife, her maiden name should be substituted by her husband’s family name. Except marriage, generation is also passed by giving sons a family name which is similar with our customs. However, for honor of some great ancestors of the family, western people may take the same given name with one of their relatives to name their descendants; and that is what really separated them from us.
　　Cultural influences can embody in the vocabulary of language. Let us look at a description quoted form Dreams of the Red Mansion：
　　“雨村拍手笑道：‘是极！我这女学生名叫黛玉，他读书凡‘敏’字他皆念做‘密’字亦减一二笔，我心中每每疑惑，今听你说，是为此无疑矣。’”
　　This quotation describes a traditional custom in the ancient Chinese cultural sphere. “Naming taboo” is what the heroine Lin Daiyu follows when she reads or writes a lipogram―avoiding all the word with her mother’s name “敏”. The great Chinese thinker and social philosopher Confucius distinguishes three basic kinds of naming taboo depending on ethical principles of China’s feudal institution: (1) The naming taboo of the state discouraged the use of the emperor"s given name and those of his ancestors. Generally, ancestor names going back to seven generations were avoided. The strength of this taboo was reinforced by law; transgressors could expect serious punishment for writing an emperor’s name without modifications; (2) The naming taboo of the clan discouraged the use of the names of one"s own ancestors. This condition fit the above example in Dreams of the Red Mansion quite well. (3) The naming taboo of the holinesses discouraged the use of the names of respected people. There were three ways to avoid using a taboo character: (1) Changing the character to another one which usually was a synonym or sounded like the character being avoided. (2) Leaving the character as a blank. (3) Omitting a stroke in the character, especially the final stroke.
　　3.Conclusions
　　Under Cao Xueqin’s pen, an enormous arrangement of address terms opens a vivid view to the readers of Qing-dynasty’s culture.
　　References
　　Chen Hua. 2010. English & Chinese Kinship Terms and Their Cultural Roots [J]. Overseas English.
　　Ronald Wardhaugh. 2000. An Introduction to Socialinguistics of Language [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press & Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
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　　1、曹雪芹，2006，脂砚斋全评石头记[M]。霍国、玲紫军校勘，北京：东方出版社。
　　2、胡壮麟，2001，语言学教程[M]。修订本，北京：北京大学出版社。
　　3、刘汝山、王智红，2002，《红楼梦》人物称谓形式的社会语言学透析[J]，《青岛海洋大学学报》第2期。
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