What affect does human behaviour have on language?

Question

How does human behaviour change/affect language.
this could concern any language, eg: english, arabic, french, spanish...etc

answers wud be kul
but answers with examples wud be cooler...
thanks:):):)

Answer 1

One clear example ~ where behaviour has affected language rather than the other way round ~ is right here in your question. Technology created the "text message". People's behaviour in response to this was to enjoy it abundantly, espencially teenagers. The effect on language was to bring all sorts of homonyms into general use such as wud, kul, u, txt, c u, and so on. Now these short-message forms turn up in emails. Soon they will appear in dialogue in books where modern teenagers are characters. Eventually, the SMS form may become the normal and the 'correct' form get reserved for formal usage.

answers wud be kul
but answers with examples wud be cooler...

Another example is that over the past half-century, Britons have become less stuffy and formal in our behaviour generally. We no longer wear suits and ties in many situations and you never see a bowler hat in the City and rarely a lady's hat in church anymore. A langauge effect of this is that we use first-names much more and surnames only when talkingg to offciails or to someone who is competing for our business such as a plumber.

A similar social trend away from formality in Crete has resulted in the decline in usage of the 2nd person singular. Decades ago, for example at the time when the film Zorba the Greek was set, Cretan men used the equivalent of German ' "du" form ' in Greek only to good friends and children. Now, they will greet a person they don't know, such as me, a foreign tourist arriving for the first time in their village, in the 2nd person plural (ti kanete = how are you), but the moment they have exchanged a few words and know they are on acquaintance, not servant, terms with me they will freely use the singular (ti thelis? = what would you like?).

Answer 2

I'm not sure how behaviour effects language but I know language can greatly affect behaviour. For example in England there is a saying 'eat humble pie'. Meaning you were wrong etc and you accept it and suck up the wronged party. In France for example they have no such phrase in their language. Therefore this actio may not happen. I'm not saying French people dont know how to be humble! I'm just pointing out that if you do not have the language for something it may not be experienced in the same manner as someone who does thus your behaviour and possibly emotions can be affected by language.
I am certain human behaviour can have a massive effect on the development of language and it has been proven in the study of language acquisition.

Answer 3

I gave an example of this in answer to your other question.

Changing attitudes to women have affected English usage so that we no longer talk of chairmen but only of chairs, and fewer professions now have masculine and feminine forms.

Obviously, also, human behaviour changes language when we invent new things and need words to describe them. So there are loads of new internet related words etc

Answer 4

yes I do think human behaviour can effect language... eg if someone makes you angry.. you maybe shout at him, eg at a wedding, death , party... your tone and language will all be different...at a sick bed... , you speak a different kind of language to someone you love... than to a neighbour who hassle you all day with all kinds of nonsense, just listen to a mother koo..... to a crying baby????