Impact Of Religion On Verbal Communication

"Religion," as Serena Nanda(1994) observes, "deals with the nature of life and death, the creation of the universe, the origin of society and groups within the society, the relationship of individuals and groups to one another, and the relation of humankind to nature." Religion displays a startling quality. As we know, religion is a part of culture and plays an important role in our daily life.Language is a unique feature of human society. It serves not only as a means for conveying ideas and feelings, but also as a semiotic system to store information. Therefore, in its development, language has been deeply ingrained with traces of a particular society, reflecting unique cultural heritage. Language, or any language, has a dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture. Communication is, by its very nature, culturally relative. The ways of communicating and the meaning of talk are learned in the speech community by talking with people with whom one identifies socially. As social networks are always local, not global, people in different communities have different ways of communication patterns. This illustrates Edward T. Hall's assertion (1977) that culture is communication and communication is culture. Since religion is a part of culture, it would have impact on verbal communication patterns. Communication is divided into verbal communication and non-verbal communication. Here is a discussion on the impact of religion upon verbal communication patterns.As noted in the paper, the major difference between American and Chinese verbal communication patterns is that Americans value of individualism and equality, and Chinese value of collectivism. To a certain extent, that's because they are influenced by their own religions. Many Americans believe in Christianity. In America, the advocacy of...