may give her a quick hug. After winning a big game, you may high-five your teammates. These are all examples of nonverbal nonverbal communication The use of gestures, facial expressions, and other visual images to communicate. © Jupiter Images/ BananaStock/Alamy RF Chapter 3 / Culture • 53 communication— the use of gestures, facial expressions, and other visual images to communicate. We are not born with these expressions. We learn them, just as we learn other forms of language, from people who share our culture. We learn how to show—and to recognize— happiness, sadness, pleasure, shame, distress, and other emotional states (Burgoon, Guerrero, and Floyd 2010). Like other forms of language, nonverbal communication is not the same in all cultures. For example, people from various cultures differ in the degree to which they touch others during the course of normal social interactions. Even experienced travelers are sometimes caught off guard by these differences. In Saudi Arabia a middleaged man may want to hold hands with a male partner after closing a business deal. The gesture, which would surprise most Americans, is considered a compliment in that culture. The meaning of hand signals is another form of nonverbal communication that can differ from one culture to the next. For instance, in both Australia and Iraq the thumbs-up sign is considered rude (Koerner 2003; Lefevre 2011). Values In addition to creating a shared language as part of our cognitive culture, we also jointly agree that some principles are at the core of who we are and what we believe. Values are the collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper—or bad, undesirable, and improper—in a culture. They are typically expressed as general principles that then shape what we see as appropriate actions. Examples include family, love, opportunity, community, and freedom. Even individualism In Japan, what people in the United States would call a green light is often called a blue light, even though it is the same color there as it is here. This practice derives from an earlier time in Japan when there was only one word, ao ( ), to describe both green and blue (Backhaus 2013). The more recent practice of making a clear distinction between the two colors in Japan has been tied to the importation of crayons into Japan starting in 1917, which distinguished between midori ( ) for green and ao for blue. The Allied occupation of Japan after World War II reinforced this distinction in educational materials distributed throughout the country (Bhatia 2012). And yet remnants of the earlier linguistic pattern remain in the form not only of “blue” traffic lights, but also of “blue” vegetables, “blue” apples, and “blue” leaves. Feminists have noted that gender-related language can reinforce the stereotype that some jobs are more appropriate for men than women. Each time we use a term such as mailman, policeman, or fireman, we are implying (especially to young children) that these occupations can be filled only by males. Yet many women work as letter carriers, police officers, and firefighters—a fact that is being increasingly recognized and legitimized through the use of such nonsexist language (Eckert and McConnell Ginet 2003; McConnell-Ginet 2011). Linguist Suzette Haden Elgin went so far as to invent a new language that gives voice to women’s experience (Elgin 1984). She argued that “existing human languages are inadequate to express the perceptions of women,” which leads to inadequate perception of critical issues in the lives of women (Elgin 1988). Drawing on her expertise in the Navajo language (Diné bizaad), she created Láadan as a test of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. She argued that using Láadan would open up new dimensions of reality that are not easily accessible using such languages as English. Láadan lessons for beginners are available at www.LáadanLanguage.org. Language can also transmit stereotypes related to race. Look up the meanings of the adjective black in dictionaries published in the United States, and you will find “dismal, gloomy or forbidding, destitute of moral light or goodness, atrocious, evil, threatening, clouded with anger.” By contrast, dictionaries list “pure” and “innocent” among the meanings of the adjective white. Through such patterns of language, our culture reinforces positive associations with the term (and skin color) white and negative associations with black. Is it surprising, then, that a list meant to prevent people from working in a profession is called a “blacklist,” and a fib that we think of as somewhat acceptable is called a “white lie”? Such examples demonstrate that language can shape how we see, taste, smell, feel, and hear (Henderson 2003; Moore 1976; Reitman 2006). Of course, we communicate using more than just words. If you do not like the way a meeting is going, you might suddenly sit back, fold your arms, and turn down the corners of your mouth. When you see a friend in tears, you SOCTHINK What are some slang terms we use to refer to men and to women? What images do such terms convey for what it means to be male or female? values Collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper—or bad, undesirable, and improper—in a culture.
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