Interconnectedness

After going to Intramuros, we learned that language, as part of our culture, changes alongside our history. However, it made us wonder how language been an influence to the other cultural components in the Philippines? This is because we remembered it was said in our sociology and anthropology class that all of the cultural components are integrated with one another. It’s not something that should only be viewed as a single agent of culture but also as interconnected elements embracing one another.

When we look at language, we noticed that the interconnectedness of it to all the elements of culture are rooted in Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of language as symbolic capital and symbolic domination. How people perceive language affects their idea of how a certain language represents certain symbols, or how which language you speak or how you speak it reflects the norms of their society and more. His theory shows how language dictates what their culture is like in terms of its influence to the other components of a society.

As the Philippine language changed, adapted and expanded, so did the symbols we use to inference meanings. With new words added, various meanings were attached to single signifiers. One word can have multiple meanings for different people, depending on the context of when it was used.

Apart from language accumulating more symbols, the language we use serves to symbolize the culture we have and illustrates what kind of people we are. One example of this is the use of the middle finger as an expression for “f*** you.” The phrase did not exist in the Philippine society until the English language infiltrated our culture. It was a new phrase used in our language with a new gesture.

Lastly, the influence of language to symbols can be seen today from the use of the new technology such as texting or instant messaging. One popular symbol is the emoticon. This however blurs the line between strictly graphic symbols, and language and grammar, as it is used everyday.

:-)

In addition, the language that Filipinos use today reflects the different values and beliefs that our culture acquired over time. With the American period for example, as their language influenced our culture, Filipinos began to acquire American values and beliefs, such as justice from words and images like Superman, the Filipino version of Superhero or being childlike like Mickey Mouse. During this period as well, many started discussing about how they value education, how they value human rights from the perspective of civil liberties and how they value the self/individual as an independent entity which exists in a society.

For the Spanish and American period, it was seen that Filipinos had this belief that they should anglicize or “Spanish-ize” their last name. Changing their name would be advantageous in a society that looked down on "indios," but in doing so they also, in a way, let go of their Filipino identity and take up a Western identity.

One identifiable value seen in Filipinos through language is respect. The Philippine languages contains many titles to show one’s respect to others such as “ate," “kuya," “tita," “tito,” or polite words such as “po." Non-verbally, Filipinos' respectful nature can be manifested when they make “mano,” or when they receive the hand of the authority figure and place it on their forehead.

Finally, in the Philippines there is a 96% literacy rate. This shows that Filipinos value their language and ability to read and write. From that rate, it can be assessed how many people give importance to it.

Another cultural component that is interconnected with language is norms. From the theory stated a while ago, it can be deduced that Philippine society and certain subgroups each have norms of how one should talk to certain people, whether it be your friends, your elders, your teachers, children, other groups of subcultures, and more. Who you communicate with decides what norm you will follow such as speaking in slang, Tagalog, and English, since authority is shown through language. The reason behind this is that there is a certain language used for each group because each group defines what is considered superior and inferior for them. Language serves as a symbol of status and by using their language, this means you are considered part of or acceptable to that subculture. Just from the way people talk, you can identify what subgroup they are part of. This can be observed from the video used in, "Why I Love the Philippines."

Click to enlarge sample of subcultures

An example of when language was used as a norm in the Philippines was when around the 1960s to the 1970s, English was strictly enforced in schools and universities. For certain schools, a rule was even made telling students that they can only speak in English or else they will get into trouble if caught speaking in Filipino. English was made the medium of instruction thus somehow giving more importance to English than to the native languages.

The last cultural component that was influenced by language is material culture. Currently the Philippines is the third largest English speaking country. Because our English skills developed and proved to be superb, this caused a boom in outsourcing. What Filipinos do today and produce as material culture is a result of the Filipinos' exceptional linguistic skills.

Material culture changed also in terms of how certain objects were called. Many of the words today have been substituted by identifying it with their brand label and not by its generic name. Examples are Kodak for photos (or kodakan for picture taking), Xerox for photocopy, Mongol for pencil, Kleenex for tissue, and Coke for soft drinks. Moreover, material culture such as technology or internet has contributed to colloquial vocabulary terms such as google (as a verb, for research), text (also as a verb, to send an SMS), as well as heavily abbreviated words in written language (such s txt lnguage lyk ds, wil u b my txtm8?).