An Introduction to Cultuling Analysis in Light of Variational Pragmatics: A Step Toward Euculturing

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of English and Literature, Faculty of Letters and humanities, Ferdowsi university of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

2 Department of Persian Language and Literature, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Department of English Language and Literature, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran

Abstract

Because language and culture are inextricably intermingled, scrutinizing the indispensable role of the language of a speech community can yield significant information about its culture. Conceptualized under an overarching field of study, culturology of language, Pishghadam (2013) postulates how the realizations of cultuling (culture in language) and metacultuling can be entrenched in a language. Each metacultuling is composed of interrelated cultulings, appearing in the form of linguistic expressions. Cultuling can be manifested if we embark upon the macrosocial factors such as region, ethnicity, age, social status, and gender on language in (inter)action and on intralingual pragmatic conventions embedded in variational pragmatics (VP). This study elaborates on the aforementioned conceptualizations along with the previous studies drawing on cultuling analysis (CLA) as an innovative method for the analysis of language. It also illuminates how CLA can manifest the cultural memes hidden in language and the cultural functions of linguistic expressions. Finally, it discusses how identifying defective cultural memes can help purify culture and pave the way for euculturing.

Keywords