- Oxford Library of Psychology
- [UNTITLED]
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Language and Social Psychology: Introduction and Overview
- Language Attitudes: Social Determinants and Consequences of Language Variation
- Language, Identity, and Culture: Multiple Identity-Based Perspectives
- Language and Culture
- Gender Similarities and Differences in Language
- Working Together
- Perspective Taking and Its Impostors in Language Use: Four Patterns of Deception
- Hand and Facial Gestures in Conversational Interaction
- Interactive Alignment and Language Use
- Cognitive and Social Aspects of Coherence
- Shaping Intergroup Relations Through Language
- Language, Style, and Persuasion
- Language and Interpersonal Relationships
- Natural Language Use as a Marker of Personality
- Using Computerized Text Analysis to Track Social Processes
- Language and Social Comprehension
- Language and Attribution: Implicit Causal and Dispositional Information Contained in Words
- Me and My Stories
- The Role of Language on the Perception and Experience of Emotion
- Discursive Social Psychology
- Grounding Language in Our Bodies and the World
- Literal Versus Nonliteral Language: Novelty Matters
- Intentions in Meaningful Experiences of Language
- Electrophysiological Research on Conversation and Discourse Processing
- Politeness and Reasoning: Face, Connectives, and Quantifiers
- Language Variation in the Classroom
- Pragmatic Processes in Survey Interviewing
- Language and the Law: Illustrations from Cases of Disputed Sexual Consent
- The Role of Language in Conflict and Conflict Resolution
- Computer-Mediated Communication
- The Role of Natural Language and Discourse Processing in Advanced Tutoring Systems
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter argues that language and culture have a bidirectional causal link: linguistic practices emphasizing context (contextualizing practices) may encourage people to process a visual stimulus as a bounded figure-ground configuration (field dependent), whereas linguistic practices emphasizing the separation of an object from its context (decontextualizing practices) may encourage people to abstract figure from ground (field independent). Once a certain cognitive style is in place, people are likely to use their language in the way congruent with their cognition. Linguistic practices thus act as an important medium through which culture is transmitted and maintained. In support of this analysis, the authors show that the geographical distribution of linguistic practices overlaps with that of cognitive style, with contextualizing linguistic practices/field-dependent style in East Asia and decontextualizing linguistic practices/field-independent style in Western European-derived cultures. Bilinguals show default cultural accommodation, exhibiting a cultural pattern congruent with the norm of the linguistic community/language they are using.
Keywords: culture, linguistic practice, contextualizing, decontextualizing, field independent, field dependent, holistic cognitive style, analytic cognitive style, bilingualism, biculturalism
Yoshihisa Kashima, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Emiko Kashima, School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University
Evan Kidd, Research School of Psychology, Australian National University
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- Oxford Library of Psychology
- [UNTITLED]
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Language and Social Psychology: Introduction and Overview
- Language Attitudes: Social Determinants and Consequences of Language Variation
- Language, Identity, and Culture: Multiple Identity-Based Perspectives
- Language and Culture
- Gender Similarities and Differences in Language
- Working Together
- Perspective Taking and Its Impostors in Language Use: Four Patterns of Deception
- Hand and Facial Gestures in Conversational Interaction
- Interactive Alignment and Language Use
- Cognitive and Social Aspects of Coherence
- Shaping Intergroup Relations Through Language
- Language, Style, and Persuasion
- Language and Interpersonal Relationships
- Natural Language Use as a Marker of Personality
- Using Computerized Text Analysis to Track Social Processes
- Language and Social Comprehension
- Language and Attribution: Implicit Causal and Dispositional Information Contained in Words
- Me and My Stories
- The Role of Language on the Perception and Experience of Emotion
- Discursive Social Psychology
- Grounding Language in Our Bodies and the World
- Literal Versus Nonliteral Language: Novelty Matters
- Intentions in Meaningful Experiences of Language
- Electrophysiological Research on Conversation and Discourse Processing
- Politeness and Reasoning: Face, Connectives, and Quantifiers
- Language Variation in the Classroom
- Pragmatic Processes in Survey Interviewing
- Language and the Law: Illustrations from Cases of Disputed Sexual Consent
- The Role of Language in Conflict and Conflict Resolution
- Computer-Mediated Communication
- The Role of Natural Language and Discourse Processing in Advanced Tutoring Systems
- Index
