Philosophical and Cultural Items in the Chinese Language
Philosophical and Cultural Items in the Chinese Language

Summary/Abstract: Language expresses and embodies cultural reality. People identify themselves and others through their use of language. There is no exception for Chinese language. Chinese language represents a system of signs with its own cultural value. The present paper focuses on the interdependence between Chinese culture and language and to what extent one may constitute the other. Three aspects will be discussed: characters, words, and grammar. We may conclude that characters contribute to keeping the old traditional culture alive after the lapse of a thousand years; numerous social values are encoded in words and the grammar is intimately linked to the way that Chinese people think or look at the world.

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