Language and Culture Journal

Journal 6: Language and Society

Cory asked an interesting question when he asked, "Do you think that language is influenced more by society, or is society influenced more by language? After learning how English is derived from different cultures through war, conquest, occupation, immigration, and cultural influences, I would have to argue that language is influenced by society more than society is influenced by language. There have been many events throughout history that have influenced how English is spoken and what words are proper or wrong to say.

There are words that were used to degrade people of different ethnic countries, people of different religions, people of different races. These words were changed and not spoken after people realized how degrading they really were. If there are enough people against something, then they can change it. Words change with people's point of view and education.

Society changes the meanings of words too. Sick can mean awesome or it can mean ill. Cool can mean cold or neat. I'm sure there are many more words now that I don't even know have double meaning since I'm not a kid anymore.

Society changes sentences too. Like saying the word like before every sentence. That is grammatically incorrect, but people still do it. It is also annoying and horribly catchy. I kick myself mentally anytime I do it.

I don't see how society is influenced by language. Comparing the following two sentences:
"Dude, that was totally bogus." and "What you did was inappropriate."
shows that language has variety. It is society who puts levels of education on the language, not the language that determines the level of education. My son can easily speak either way, as can many other people. This does not mean that they have split personalities, it just means that they use what language the people around him will understand and be able to relate to.

311 words