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Discourse‐Centered Approach to Language and Culture
Author(s) -
Sherzer Joel
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1987.89.2.02a00010
Subject(s) - linguistics , grammar , salient , magic (telescope) , rhetoric , perception , sociology , intersection (aeronautics) , expression (computer science) , political rhetoric , poetry , psychology , history , philosophy , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , engineering , programming language , aerospace engineering , archaeology
The Sapir‐ Whorf hypothesis, as usually formulated, searches for isomorphisms between grammar and culture and views language as either providing the means for thought and perception, or, in its stronger form, conditioning thought, perception, and world view. In this article I consider discourse to be the concrete expression of language‐culture relationships. It is discourse that creates, recreates, focuses, modifies, and transmits both culture and language and their intersection, and it is especially in verbally artistic and playful discourse, such as poetry, magic, verbal dueling, and political rhetoric, that the resources provided by grammar, as well as cultural meanings and symbols, are activated to their fullest potential and the essence of language‐culture relationships becomes salient.