Shakespeare In The Bush Language Analysis

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Languages are complex because they are made up of many components. Some components include the culture, meaning, and interpretation. The way people understand language has to do mostly with their culture and their understanding of what is being said. Also, depending upon where someone is raised, the pronunciation of certain words can be different and therefore it influences the understanding. My goal in this paper is to demonstrate that language and culture are intertwined. There wouldn’t be cultures without languages, and there wouldn’t be languages without cultures. To prove this point, I will connect two readings and a tv episode that explain the components of the English language. “Shakespeare in the Bush” by Laura Bohannan is an example of how culture is essential to be able to grasp the meaning behind the language being used. Laura Bohannan was given a copy of Hamlet by her friend before she left to West Africa. This copy was given to her in order to study Shakespeare and to “lift [her] mind… …show more content…

“Language is an important source of evidence for what that system is like. (Lakoff, Johnson 1)” I agree with this statement because language preserves a culture. We are taught what our ancestors were taught long time ago. Studying the language will give an insight of what the culture is like. In this reading, we are shown how phrases allude actions, which makes them a metaphor. “The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. (Lakoff, George 2)” Without noticing we use certain words in order to comprehend better. I grew up thinking that a metaphor was used to compare two unlike things in a poetic sense. Metaphor usage doesn’t necessarily need to be in a poetic form. Metaphors are part the use of language in our culture. After reading “Metaphors We Live By,” I can agree that metaphors are part of our daily

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