The Interaction of Language and Culture: Research Boundaries and Perspectives

Abstract

The written dialogue presented below focuses on the correlation between language and culture, which has a rich tradition of linguistic research. The panelists, well-known Slavic scholars, discuss two research perspectives on the issue of “language and culture” embodied in ethnolinguistics and cultural linguistics. The closeness of the two disciplines is due to their common subject of research; the difference between them, according to Russian linguists, is that ethnolinguistics studies folk traditions within the framework of a diachronic approach, while cultural linguistics focuses on synchrony, and its research scope is not limited to folk language and culture. Depending on their research viewpoint, a linguist may look for culture in a language, and such a perspective is accepted by ethnolinguistics. On the other hand, they may make the determination of the place of language in a culture their research goal, which is a perspective accepted by cultural linguistics. The scholarly reflections include issues related to the formation of cultural linguistics, a young complex discipline that is often criticised for its straightforward interpretation of the connection between linguistic facts and culture and for the lack of general methodological principles. The scholars agree that the description of the correlation between language and culture requires the utmost accuracy and exact wording. Currently, a new stage is under way, a transition from multiple interdisciplinarity to a single discipline. The dialogue substantiates the idea that cultural linguistics can take a decisive role at the stage of “agreement”.