GEOG 130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Language Convergence
Placelessness
The destruction by expanding popular culture of unique aspects of
a location, leading to an inability to differentiate (the loss of
uniqueness in a cultural landscape — one place looks like the next.)
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National Uniformities and Globalization
International Standardization: due to success of multinational
companies in breaking
into international marks
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aided by widespread use of English, availability of the internet,
television
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Appeal to local tastes: variation in corporate behaviour to match
the local market
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Global popular culture rejected in some countries seen as
subversive.
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The Shopping Mall
Consumption as a Way Of Life: modern popular culture and
economy driven by a need to shop. Served by the proliferation of
the shopping mall, linking entertainment and shopping
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Fuelled by car culture, but one stop shopping
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Consequences: eliminations of local variation, rise of standard
stores
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Quick diffusion of fashion and style
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Contributing to diffusion of popular culture: food, fashion, film and
goods
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Big Box Stores: newer wave — smaller buildings, not enclosed,
larger stores, suburban location, open parking
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Language and Culture
Significance of language to study of cultural landscape:
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Language is a learned behaviour tied to culture
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Useful in delimiting groups and hence regions, as it is often seen as
a fundamental building block of nationhood
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Evidence indicates language encourages interaction within a group,
and hinders it between groups
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Strongly linked to symbolic landscapes
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Language and Identity
For many groups, language is the primary basis of identity, hence
the close links between language and nationalism
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A dominant language within a state is typically the result of power
struggles for cultural and economic dominance
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Multilingual states aim to share linguistic and cultural dominance
among tow or more groups, but fraught with cultural tensions
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Minority languages typically experience a slow but inexorable
demise
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May press for their creation of own state
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Disappearing Languages
96% of the worlds population speak only 4% of the worlds
languages
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Languages die for two related reasons:
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A language with few speakers in often associated with economic
disadvantages
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Languages loss — different perspectives:
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Negative: Languages as a window on the world; similar to loss
biodiversity
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Positive: Significant of greater human unity by removing
communication barriers
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The Classification of Languages
Language: organized system of spoken words by which people
communicate with mutual comprehension
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Subgroups with overlap exist in many language groups
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How are Languages Formed?
Can find linages among languages by examining sound shifts — a
slight change in a word across languages over time
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Language divergence — when a lack of spatial interaction among
speakers of a language breaks the language into dialects and then
new languages
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Language convergence — when people with different languages
have consistent spatial interaction and their languages collapse
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Language Families
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A group of languages descended from a common language
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May diffuse geographically from a language hearth, and diverge
into new languages
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Protolanguage: a common language reconstructed by -
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Thursday, September 29, 2016
Geography
Document Summary
The destruction by expanding popular culture of unique aspects of a location, leading to an inability to differentiate (the loss of uniqueness in a cultural landscape one place looks like the next. ) International standardization: due to success of multinational companies in breaking into international marks aided by widespread use of english, availability of the internet, television. Appeal to local tastes: variation in corporate behaviour to match the local market. Global popular culture rejected in some countries seen as subversive. Consumption as a way of life: modern popular culture and economy driven by a need to shop. Served by the proliferation of the shopping mall, linking entertainment and shopping. Fuelled by car culture, but one stop shopping. Consequences: eliminations of local variation, rise of standard stores. Contributing to diffusion of popular culture: food, fashion, film and goods. Big box stores: newer wave smaller buildings, not enclosed, larger stores, suburban location, open parking. Significance of language to study of cultural landscape:
