M.

A ENGLISH (Evening)
ZEESHAN LIAQUAT
3rd Semester
Assignment Grammar & Semantics
MISS NIMRA

ZEESHAN LIAQUAT
3rd SEMESTER
How language gives perception, reality, concept and world’s
views.
M.A ENGLISH (EVENING)
Presented To Respected
Miss NIMRA WASEEM

Page 1 of 7
M.A ENGLISH (Evening)
ZEESHAN LIAQUAT
3rd Semester
Assignment Grammar & Semantics
MISS NIMRA

CONTENT SHEET
1.1 Introduction. Page 3 of 7

1.2 Language gives Perception. Page 3 of 7

2.1Language Gives Reality. Page 5 of 7

3.1 Language gives Concept. Page 6 of 7

3.2 World's View of Language. Page 6 of 7

4.0 Conclusion. Page 7 of 7

Page 2 of 7
M.A ENGLISH (Evening)
ZEESHAN LIAQUAT
3rd Semester
Assignment Grammar & Semantics
MISS NIMRA

1.1 Introduction
Today we are going to discuss that what is language, role of language making
perception, reality concept and world's view. To fulfill the requirement of topic first we have
to know basically what does mean by language. I would like to start my today's topic with
this quote because it helps us to understand psychology of topic.
“Watch your thoughts, they become words(language) ;
watch your words, they become actions(reality) ;
watch your actions, they become habits;
watch your habits, they become character;
watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
By FRANK OUTLAW
“Language is a system of communication which comprises a set of sounds and written
symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for talking or
writing.”
Believers in cross-linguistic differences counter that everyone does not pay attention
to the same things: if everyone did, one might think it would be easy to learn to speak other
languages. Unfortunately, learning a new language (especially one not closely related to those
you know) is never easy; it seems to require paying attention to a new set of distinctions.
People's ideas of your time dissent across languages in different ways that. One manner to
answer this question is to show folks new ways that of talking and see if that changes the way
they assume. In Stanford University lab, they have taught English speakers different ways of
talking about time. In one such study, English speakers were taught to use size metaphors (as
in Greek) to describe duration (e.g., a movie is larger than a sneeze), or vertical metaphors (as
in Mandarin) to describe event order. Once English speakers had learned to speak concerning
time in these new ways that, their cognitive performance began to resemble that of Greek or
Mandarin speakers. This suggests that patterns during a language will so play a causative role
in constructing however we predict. In sensible terms, it means once you are learning a
replacement language, you are not merely learning a replacement manner of talking, you're
additionally unwittingly learning a replacement manner of thinking.
1.2 Language gives Perception
This might sound strange at first look; there are studies that show us that language
plays a crucial role in shaping our perception. In this regard an ethnosemantic examination of
words and symbols offers us both a broader understanding of the factors influencing our
perception and a more detailed explanation of the power that our cultural traditions carry into
the written form. This power is not exclusive to one language, but it manifests throughout
many cultures around the world. The Japanese culture gives us an example of the weight of
language and its influential role as an interpreter of reality and a designer of perception. In
Japanese the word for spirit is “ki”. This word represents the essence of something
supernatural, the substance of a force beyond the material world, a different dimension, or the
core nature of a mystical entity. A well-known linguistics describes more in depth the

Page 3 of 7
M.A ENGLISH (Evening)
ZEESHAN LIAQUAT
3rd Semester
Assignment Grammar & Semantics
MISS NIMRA

importance of the “ki” element within the Japanese culture in his book he states, “The
ultimate secret of Japanese martial arts is said to lie in letting the mind unite with ki” . The
essence of “ki” is later transferred into words such as “electricity” “weather” and “health”. It
is notable that the words “electricity,” “weather,” and “health” are combined with the“ki”
character, perhaps injecting the essence of something mystical into their meaning. It is also
worth noting the character preceding “ki” in the word “weather” is pronounced “ten” and it
means heaven. When words like “electricity,” “health,” and “weather” carry potentially
supernatural connotations, combined with the historical importance of nature and spirituality
to the Japanese culture, it makes sense that the reflection of these cultural elements' comes
through the language, resulting in a perception of the world that adjusts to these components.
The cultural factors shaping our understanding and interpretation of knowledge through
language guide us into a specific worldview that conforms to the reality of that particular
cultural community. These elements are transferred from generation to generation and
continue to live through the language that is spoken.
A well-known linguistics Gadamer communicates the importance of language not just
as a perception shape, but also as the main component for human understanding. He adds,
“Language isn't only one of man’s possessions within the world; rather, on it depends on the
fact that man has a world at all”. The exploration of language and its influence in designing
our human experience becomes crucial for a better understanding of our worldviews as well
as recognizing outlooks that develop narrowly within their cultural constraints and connect
with the world through a medium that underestimates the cultural weight of our traditions and
the role they play in the developing of our accepted reality. Before advancing into a more
detailed exploration of incomplete perspectives that claim knowledge of our living
experiences, let us continue to examine language through its cultural components and its vital
connection with perception.
To test whether variations in color language result in variations in color perception,
we compared Russian and English speakers' ability to discriminate shades of blue. In Russian
there's no single word that covers all the colors that English speakers decision "blue." Russian
makes an obligatory distinction between light blue (goluboy) and dark blue (siniy). This
shows how perception changes in linguistics.
Perception depends upon language as we saw in above example that different
speaking native has different perception.

2.1Language Gives Reality

We use language which language may be a part of society. Actually, any language
varies in step with, the character of the society, what quite folks, and their attitudes. People
use language according to their situation. The social background of any person can play an
important role in the kind of language he has.I am going to discuss these functions and take

Page 4 of 7
M.A ENGLISH (Evening)
ZEESHAN LIAQUAT
3rd Semester
Assignment Grammar & Semantics
MISS NIMRA

some examples of each one. In this I would say that reality varies person to person. We can
say that it is ambiguous to everyone. To prove this statement I will give you a Plato's cave
theory describes a prisoner who has spent all of his life in bondage looking at nothing but
shadow puppets on the back of a cave wall. For him, all, which he believes to be true, are the
actions and reactions of the shadow puppets. His entire reality is actually a shrouded image of
the reality. Now it so happens that the prisoner is released from bondage and, for the first
time stands up, exits the cave and sees the light of the sun. The unfortunate person gazes on
his body and on all the items within the daylight and for the primary time sees the reality of
what truly is and realizes the falsities with which he has lived for all of his life. Plato is here
using the sun as a metaphor for the focusing lens provided by dialectic. The sunlight provided
the unfortunate person the power to visualize the unity of his reality. Thus according to
Socrates and Plato language not only enables man to see the incompleteness of his own way
of thinking but also provides a means with which to view things in their completeness. That
person uses language to define reality because he obviously believes what language taught
him. There is a strong relationship between language and society. I mean, that the language of
any society is influenced by the society. For example, In Riyadh, when they mention the
word family, it means the wife. So, it is clear that we mean the social context into which the
language being communicates between individuals. There is another example in English
language we Grandfather and Grandmother for the mother and father of father whereas in
Swedish language they use Farfar and Farmar. In this way reality in term of language changes
according to culture.
Language has several connotations reflective language, the norms of society, which is
spoken by the traditions and culture. In fact, any community affects in linguistic phenomena
at different levels. Phonetics, Semantics, morphology and structure all are affected by the
community.

3.1 Language gives Concept

Language gives basic platform to establish someone’s concept regarding anything.
For sake of understanding we look an example of tree. First concept of everyone regarding
tree varies with respect to his experience and culture. It will be possible that picture of tree
comes in the mind of person dissimilar with another one. To prove this how culture influence
on someone's concept we have a theory
'Sapir-Whorf hypothesis presented by the two linguists, Edward Sapir and Benjamin
Lee Whorf. This hypothesis is bothered with the chance that man's read of his surroundings
could also be conditioned by his language. Whorf argued that the Hopi (Native Americans)
considered clouds and stones to be living entities whereas for the English speakers they were
inanimate objects. Thus, Whorf believed that there would be a difference in concept the way
the English and the Hopi viewed the world. In Whorf's words, "We cut nature up, organize it
into concepts, and ascribe significance as we do largely because we are parties to an
agreement to organize it in this way Associate in Nursing agreement that holds throughout

Page 5 of 7
M.A ENGLISH (Evening)
ZEESHAN LIAQUAT
3rd Semester
Assignment Grammar & Semantics
MISS NIMRA

our community and is statute within the patterns of our language." He also says that “We
dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages".
It is detected that English language has only one word for 'snow' whereas the Eskimo
has many. This is as a result of the Eskimo should be able to differentiate between differing
types of snow. In the words of Sapir: “Human beings…are substantially at the mercy of the
actual language that has become the medium of expression for his or her society.
Another example treating chairs as masculine and beds as feminine in the grammar
make Russian speakers think of chairs as being more like men and beds as more like women
in some way.

3.2 World's View of Language

The development of our world views through language establishes our different
perspectives of reality based on our cultural inclinations. Due to different perspectives
and belief systems, nations have gone to war, and the world finds itself in chaos and
discontentment. In order to find a place of mutual understanding and respect, we shall begin
by recognizing our own biases and our own sense of the real and the unreal. Through this
awareness, one begins to comprehend the limitations of our views and the influence of
language for limiting our understanding of the world. An educated perspective of the
relationship between language and culture gives us some fundamental steps needed to
understand our thinking process as well as new ways to define and reshape our knowledge
about world.
I will focus on the language of religion and the language of science and the role they
play in promoting single methods of knowing through fundamentalist perspectives of reality.
Science and religion both serve essential purposes in our society, and it is clear that the world
without faith or science is nearly as imaginable as a world without language. My exploration
of the methods used by science and religion does not imply that both areas of knowing
function only through fundamentalist perspectives; instead, I focus on the radical viewpoints
that each approach offers when it begins to claim the acceptance of reality only through its
acquired methods.

In this regard I would like to give the example of Block Baster movie having the title
of “PK”, in which Amir Khan find himself in a very critical situation. He finds different
meaning of color in Islam, Christianity and Hinduism, as he went in the Hindu community
they wear white color dress at mourning, while Christian wear white color dress in their
weddings. This shows how our views regarding world is changing through the spectacle of
color. In the same way Christian people wear black dress at the mourning while Muslim
community wear this clor dressing casual. From this example we have seen how the meaning
of color changing with respect to Religion. In the same way if someone fights against the

Page 6 of 7
M.A ENGLISH (Evening)
ZEESHAN LIAQUAT
3rd Semester
Assignment Grammar & Semantics
MISS NIMRA

state or government in Kashmir he called Freedom Fighter in Islam’s perspective whereas he

called Taliban in the Liberal community.
Gadamer recognizes the importance of understanding our connection with knowledge
based on our perception of the world. This recognition keeps us from limiting ourselves to
one specific way of knowing. He argues that, “understanding always includes interpretation”.
As long as we are able to distinguish the role that language plays in prescribing our
interpretations of reality, we establish a connection with knowledge that is not regulated by
unoriginal thinking and become free of regulated views. The homogenization of knowledge
restricts knowledge itself by confining understanding to a single interpretation of reality. If
language influences our perception of the world based on its cultural components, and if our
perception of the world varies according to our exposure with cultural elements, then we
must not designate knowledge to a single orientation.

4.0 Conclusion
We can say that, there are different functions for language. Above mentioned topics
are also function of language. The most important of these functions are, communicating with
others, conveying information and thoughts, perception and reality. All these function enable
us to make our world’s views which are depending on language. Language reflects the
culture of the society. Language supplies people with experiences. Language is the mirror
that reflects the personality of the individual. It shows the various features and characteristics
and the strengths and weaknesses that affect others. It is a real means for a person to express
his ideas and thoughts.

Page 7 of 7