A new analytical model of Cultural Linguistics (2023) by Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz and Mahdi Noshadi. Cambridge Scholars.

Abstract

With the introduction of cultural linguistics by Ronald Langacker (1994) and Gary B. Palmer (1996) and Farzad Sharifian’s (2017) expansion of the field through the development of the analytical framework of cultural conceptualizations, scholars have shown interest in investigating different linguistic samples from the perspective of this newly developed multidisciplinary field of inquiry. Rooted in the notions of cultural cognition and complex adaptive systems, Sharifian’s Cultural Linguistics investigates the interrelationship between language and cultural conceptualizations (For a comprehensive account of Sharifian’s contributions, see Heidari Tabrizi & Chalak, 2023). This collective term encompasses cultural schemas, cultural metaphors, and cultural categories. As Sharifian (2017) and Shahi (2023) have asserted, the analytical framework of cultural conceptualizations is not a static and closed system; rather, it is open to revision and refinement based on further research and new insights from neighboring disciplines. In a timely response to this call for updates and in the realization that some culturally derived concepts cannot be comprehensively explained by examining cultural conceptualizations or semiotics independently, Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz and Mahdi Noshadi (2023) integrate these two disciplines and introduce the dynamic model of semio-cultural conceptualizations in a monograph titled A New Analytical Model of Cultural Linguistics published by Cambridge Scholars.

Organized into nine chapters, the volume covers the essence of language, semiotics, and culture and their interaction from the perspective of the theoretical and analytical frameworks of Cultural Linguistics. The volume draws upon these discussions to introduce a new analytical model for Cultural Linguistics and its application to the analysis of proverbs related to natural elements. Chapter One opens with a description of language and its main components, covering the differences between written and spoken discourse in building interaction between cultural conceptualizations and the various components of language, including phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis. The chapter ends with providing different understandings of the notion of culture, such as subjective versus objective culture, the cultural iceberg theory, and linguistic relativity as the opening gate for making a link (and also the lines of difference) between Cognitive Linguistics and Cultural Linguistics.

As the new analytical model introduced in this volume is centered around semiotics, the authors dedicated Chapter Two to the discussions of typologies of sign (i.e., icon, index, and symbol), levels of interpretant (i.e., immediate, dynamic, and final) and how these semiotic features can be related to the cultural analysis of language through symbols and final interpretants . Chapters Three and Four are devoted to the description of cultural cognition, distributed cognition, and the components of cultural conceptualizations, namely cultural schemas, cultural metaphors, and cultural categories, bringing examples mainly from the Persian language, which is the mother tongue of the authors.

To substantiate the proposed model of semio-cultural conceptualizations, Keshavarz and Noshadi (2023) comparatively analyzed, in four consecutive chapters of this volume (i.e., Chapters Five to Eight), the Persian and English proverbs related to the notion of nature. In their analysis, they integrate cultural conceptualizations and semiotics by introducing cultural symbols as a new component under cultural conceptualizations, rooted in the final interpretant of “objects, images, gestures, behaviors, or linguistic elements that are culture specific” (p. 56). Decorated with the images of natural elements, such as animals and trees nominated in the analyzed proverbs, Chapters Five to Eight showcase cultural symbols (e.g., ʟɪᴏɴ ᴀs ᴀ sʏᴍʙᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ and ᴛʀᴇᴇ ᴀs ᴀ sʏᴍʙᴏʟ ᴏғ ʟɪғᴇ), cultural schemas (e.g., horse conceptualizes ʙᴇᴀᴜᴛʏ and ɢʀᴀɴᴅᴇᴜʀ and sunshine schematizes ᴏʟᴅ ᴀɢᴇ), cultural metaphors (ᴛᴏɴɢᴜᴇ ɪs ᴀ sᴡᴏʀᴅ and ғɪɴɢᴇʀ ɪs ᴀ sᴏᴜʀᴄᴇ ᴏғ ᴀʀᴛ), and cultural categories (ᴅᴇsɪʀᴇ and sᴇᴀsᴏɴ) comparatively in Persian and English proverbs.

In the concluding chapter, the authors suggest further novel lines of inquiry for the application of the semio-cultural conceptualizations model to English language teaching (ELT) materials evaluation and comparative paremiology. Throughout these nine chapters, A New Analytical Model of Cultural Linguistics attempts to propose an innovative model that integrates semiotics with cultural conceptualizations analytical framework. This new model is hoped to fill the gap in explaining the use of particular culturally constructed concepts in linguistic expressions that were ignored in previous Cultural-Linguistic analyses, such as nature-related conceptualizations.

Despite this novelty, there are some minor shortcomings that might need further revision in the upcoming editions. Firstly, the definitions of culture provided in Chapter One are rather essentialist in nature and outdated, considering the current subjectivity and dynamicity of the notion of culture, particularly in intercultural communication. Perhaps, Kramsch’s definition of culture can be the appropriate one that matches with the underlying tenets of Cultural Linguistics. She defines culture as “no longer just the objective way of life of a certain speech community but the subjective way in which the members of that community give meaning to events” (Kramsch, 2015, p. 408). Secondly, it seems that the boundary between cultural symbols and cultural schema is blurred in Chapters Five and Six of this volume, as some of the instances of proverbs are provided to support both cultural symbols and cultural schemas empirically. It is not far from reason that such an overlap of conceptualizations might be due to the interaction between the components of the analytical framework of cultural conceptualizations previously proposed by Derakhshan et al.’s (2024) cyclical model of cultural conceptualizations and Wolf and Polzenhagen’s (2024) topographic view of cultural conceptualizations.

In sum, considering the unique features of this unprecedented volume, it can be used as a good source of reading for different undergraduate and post-graduate courses such as Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Anthropology, and Cultural Studies. This thought-provoking volume can also serve as a good source of ideas for conducting further research on Cultural Linguistics to expand its horizons to semiotic analysis of language.