3.2 Summarize how words are used as symbols that have denotative, connotative, concrete, and abstract meanings and are bound by culture and context.

PRINCIPLE POINTS: Language is a system of symbols

(words or vocabulary) structured by grammar (rules and standards) and syntax (patterns in the arrangement of words) common to a community of people. The Sapir–

Whorf Hypothesis suggests that language and thought are so interrelated that thought is rooted in and controlled by language. The limits of your language may be the limits of your thought. Six important aspects of language are

(1) people use words as symbols (something that represents something else); (2) people attach meanings to words, and sometimes meanings differ (bypassing);

(3) people use denotative and connotative meanings for words; (4) people convey concrete and abstract meanings through words; (5) meanings are culture bound; and

(6) meanings are context bound.

PRINCIPLE TERMS:

language symbol meaning bypassing denotative meaning connotative meaning concrete meaning abstract meaning culture co-culture neologism PRINCIPLE SKILLS: