Paper Topic:

Language, Cognition, and Culture

Language is a social tool it is the means by which knowledge is transferred and where social and cultural expectations and values are communicated . It is the most effective means of socialization , it is where children learn how to behave as children , how girls come to know their femininity and how boys are approved or rewarded for being brave and strong , it is also where morality is construed and defended . The language patterns of women and men have been an issue explored by several gender theorists they say that women use language differently

br than man , that women have more relational and emotional words than man who are direct to the point and equality oriented (Halpern LeMay 2000 . For example , a woman asked to react to a homeless stranger would either say kind words or even fear or anxiety laden words while men may respond curtly or even avoid responding at all . The difference in language based on gender has contributed to the perpetuation of the gendered culture . On the other hand , language differences in the use of slang or popular culture terms have been observed between generations for example , weed in the adults of today would mean smoking marijuana while to the youth of today it is nothing but a kind of grass because marijuana is not party of their consciousness at least for some Communication errors arise from the incongruity between what is communicated and how it is processed , when an individual tries to communicate with someone from another culture , there is bound to be misunderstandings as the foreigner may not be equipped to process the language of the speaker or have limited knowledge of the language Errors can be minimized by using a number of strategies to help in the communication process or get past through the language...

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