Language And Culture Essay

Translation is seen nowadays as an important human action and the translator asa mediator between cultures. That is why many scholars have asked how or if culture can be eventually translated into another language. Translation is always placed at the core of the intercultural aspects, so that the study of the translation goes a long with the cultural studies. Consequently, cultural aspects of translation have emerged into a series of theories about cultural translation, about its very existence in terms of cultural identity of a specific community. From the beginning, we may ask what culture is. This is not an easy question to answer. The term ‘culture’ should not be defined too restrictively. Differences in persuasive strategy, whether

From this definition, we can observe that language plays a very important role in a culture. Pierre Bourdieu has emphasized the importance of language as a system determined by socio-political processes. In his opinion, language exists as a linguistic habitus (1990:52), which implies not only a particular system of words and grammatical rules, but also a symbolic power of a particular way of communication, with specific patters for every community (particular systems of classifications, specialized lexicons, metaphors, reference forms, etc.). To speak means to choose a particular way of viewing the world, a particular way of establishing contacts. According to Bourdieu, in a wider sense, we are members of a community of ideas and practices through the language we speak. Therefore, language is linked to culture, as a link between thought and behavior. Duranti observes that words carry in them a myriad possibilities for connecting us to other human beings, other situations, events, acts, beliefs, feelings… The indexicality of language is thus part of the constitution of any act of speaking as an act of participation in a community of language users(Duranti