The linkage between language and culture in the sociological context

By Karen Sternheimer Language both reflects and reproduces culture. Think about the words you use and how you use them on a daily basis:

Popular assertions in the s and s that history involved the study of particular facts while sociology involved the formulation of general hypotheses see Franzosi and Mohrpp. While this integrative interpretation of the two disciplines reflects the attitudes of many researchers in the respective disciplines, a few persons remain extremely cautious about the merits of integrating them see Ferrarottipp.

Abrams's claim is true for much of sociological theorizing, and sociologists realize that seminal research in their discipline has been informed by careful attention to historical information.

Nonetheless, fundamental differences exist between history and sociology regarding the choice of research strategies and methodologies.

Historical research emphasizes the sociocultural context of events and actors within the broad range of human culture, and when examining events that occurred in early periods of the human record it borrows from archaeology and cultural anthropology, two companion disciplines.

Historians, therefore, who examine premodern material often borrow anthropological rather than sociological insights to elucidate areas where the historical record is weak, under the assumption that preindustrialized societies share basic similarities that sociological theory rarely addresses Thomas; cf.

Historians are likely to choose research topics that are culturally and temporally delimited and that emerge "from the logic of events of a given place and period" Smelserp.

They tend to supplement secondary sources with primary texts or archival data see Tillyp. In contrast, sociological research stresses theory construction and development, and its heavy emphasis on quantification limits most of its research to issues that affect societies after they begin to modernize or industrialize and hence develop accurate record keeping that researchers can translate into data [see Burkep.

Many of their methodological techniques—including surveys, interviews, qualitative fieldwork, questionnaires, various statistical procedures, and social-psychological experimentation—have little if any applicability to historians Wilsonp. Interestingly, however, a number of historical sociologists are utilizing narratives to elucidate sociologically traditional issues like capital—state relations and urban development [Gotham and Staples ; see Isaac ; Kiser Their data sources infrequently involve archival searches see Schwartzp.

Sociologists seem more willing than historians both to "undertake comparative analysis across national and temporal boundaries" and to present generalizations that relate to either a number of cases or universal phenomena as opposed to a single case [Bonnellp.

Reflecting these basic differences, social history, which developed out of the historical discipline, concentrates on speaking about lived experiences, while traditional historical sociologists concentrate on analysing structural transformations Skocpolp.

Although some historical sociological studies attempt either to refine concepts or rigorously to test existing theoretical explanations, more often they attempt "to develop new theories capable of providing more convincing and comprehensive explanations for historical patterns and structures" Bonnellp.

When testing existing theories, historical sociologists argue deductively by attempting to locate evidence that supports or refutes theoretical propositionscase-comparatively by juxtaposing examples from equivalent unitsor case-illustratively by comparing cases to a single theory or concept [Bonnellpp.

Both case comparisons and case illustrations can show either that cases share a common set of "hypothesized causal factors" that adequately explain similar historical outcomes or that they contain crucial differences that lead to divergent historical results Skocpolpp.

In any case, historical sociologists occasionally need reminding that, in both their quantitative and qualitative research, they must avoid the "common tendency. Sociology's founding figures—Marx and Engels, Weber, Tocqueville, and, to a limited degree, Durkheim—utilized history in the formulation of concepts and research agendas that still influence the discipline.

In these studies they moved deftly among analyses of "short-term, dayto-day phenomena" of sociopolitical life, the underlying structure of that life, and "the level of the social structure as a whole" Abramsp. Weber, who was steeped in the ancient and medieval history of both the East and West, believed that, through the use of heuristically useful ideal types, researchers could "understand on the one hand the relationships and cultural significance of individual events in their contemporary manifestations and on the other the causes of their being historically so and not otherwise" Weberp.

However much contemporary researchers have faulted his Protestant Ethic and the Spirit Of Capitalism for misunderstanding Puritan religious traditions Kent ; MacKinnon a, b and interpreting them through preexisting philosophical categories Kent, it remains the quintessential example of his historically informed sociological studies see Marshall Weber's extensive contribution to many aspects of historical sociology including the linkage between "agency and structure," multicausality, ideal types, and various methodology and substantive issues receives extensive attention in Kalberg Variously assessed as a historian and a political scientist, Tocqueville also contributed to historical sociology with books that examined two processes—democratization in the United States and political centralization in France —that remain standard topics of historical sociological research Tocqueville [][] ; see Poggi ; Sztompkap.

Similar praise for historical sensitivity, however, has not always gone to a fellow Frenchman of a later era, Emile Durkheim, whose concepts were scornfully called by one historical sociologist an "early form of ahistoricism" Sztompkap.Culture in the Context of Globalization: A Sociological Interpretation Guang XIA Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao The world today is said to be a “global village”.

She analyses the relationship between language and culture from three different perspectives: sociological, psychological and linguistic. In the first perspective, language and culture can be separable, since it is possible for a language to express or create, as Kramsch () would say, different realities or cultures.

Historical Sociology

relationship between language and culture, and if so, what the relationship between language and culture is. is a very close relationship between language and culture. That is, culture has a direct effect on language. Language and culture are closely correlated.

sociological perspective, culture is the total of the inherited and innate. ability to see the relationships between individual experiences and the larger society Macro-to-Micro Linkage Placing individual behavior within its broader social context.

Explain how culture and socialisation interact in a sociological context? Culture is our knowledge we gain from birth as a result of our immersement into our cultural group. Socialisation is the way in which we learn this information we gain from such contact. When we look at the two ‘Culture and.

False linkage between biology and sociocultural behavior to assert the superiority of one race cultural relativism A view of the customs and beliefs of other peoples within the context of their culture .