Language Use and Culture

The intersection of language and culture is a crucial site for the study of social life; it is, moreover, a rich site for the study of intercultural communication, international relations, and cross-cultural studies of communication in general. Of special [Page 581]concern to interculturalists is the variety of ways in which language can be used, differences in the conceptions people hold about language itself, culturally distinctive vocabularies, culturally distinctive forms of expression, and the unique role of language as a means of communication in one setting or cultural scene relative to others. The latter concern brings into view other possible cultural means of communication, such as silence, nonverbal expressions, and nonhuman agents of communication, each of which can help place language use, generally, in its place ...