Sociolinguistics_Language，culture，and，society.docVIP

Language, culture and society 1 What is culture? 1.1 High culture, low culture and nobrow culture - High Culture is usually associated with those that are refined, educated, and/or wealthy (the elite). best of breed (from an elitist viewpoint) cultural products. What falls in this category is defined by the most powerful sections of society, i.e. its social, political, economic and intellectual elite. - Opera, classical music, classic literature, etc. - Low Culture is associated with the common people, those less educated and poor. It is a derogatory term for some forms of popular culture. - Kitsch, slapstick, camp, escapist fiction, popular music, tattoo art are examples of low culture. - Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence or activities (e.g., a character being hit in the face with a frying pan or running full speed into a wall). The style is common to those genres of entertainment in which the audience is supposed to understand the very hyperbolic nature of such violence to exceed the boundaries of common sense and thus license non-cruel laughter; - Kitsch /k?t?/ is a term of German or Yiddish origin that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an existing style. The term is also used more loosely in referring to any art that is pretentious to the point of being in bad taste, and also commercially produced items that are considered trite or crass. (媚俗自媚刻奇Camp is an aesthetic in which something has appeal because of its bad taste or ironic value. When term first appeared in 1909, it was used to refer to ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical, effeminate or homosexual behavior. By the mid-1970s, the term was defined as banality, artifice, mediocrity, or ostentation so extreme as to have perversely sophisticated appeal. - Escapist fiction is fiction which provides a psychological escape from thoughts of everyday life by immersing the reader in exotic situations or activities. - T