Cultural values and relationships

In Australian English when we say ‘g’day’ to someone, we are conforming to a cultural expectation that we will be polite. It’s a greeting that tells people we mean them no harm and, depending on our tone, can also be an invitation to chat.

In English, whether we are talking directly to one person or to several, we use the pronoun you. (Well, lots of Australians say ‘youse’ but they isn’t susposed ta.) In theory, the French word for you = tu if we are talking to one person; and you=vous if we are talking to two or more people.

These pronouns have a role in explaining the number of people we are talking to, but they can also help reveal something about the culture of the people speaking, and about their relationship to each other:

WHO IS TALKING	PRONOUN	RELATIONSHIP
One Adult to Another Adult	Vous	Formal
One Child to One Adult	Vous	Respectful
An Adult to A Child	Tu	Familiar
Teacher to Older Student	Vous	Respectful Distance

These rules might have changed in the 4 million years since I pretended to learn French at school, but the ideas are still sound – a language can both reflect and reinforce culture and relationships. We might translate words or grammar, but there is a whole onion of layers beneath a statement that can sometimes be lost in translation.

As we have already seen, relationships are very important in traditional Aboriginal culture. Here are examples of some rules for talking, as used in one Aboriginal society:

WHEN TALKING TO	TALK IN THIS WAY
Grandparent, spouse or potential spouse	joking or familiar
Same-sex but non-taboo relatives	normal
Same-sex taboo relatives	polite
Opposite-sex taboo relatives	don’t talk directly to that person at all