On the Relationship Between Language, Culture, Perception, and Built Environment

Language, as one of the semiotic systems, encounters culture on the one hand, and has interrelationship with the people who live in that lingo-society on the other. According to several scientific experiments Language and Environmental Perception Process are also shaping a unique phenomenon. So one can say that language can be considered as one of the most important tools/processes by which people can understand or communicate with the constructed environment. Accordingly, one of the methods that can be used for perceiving the depth of people’s culture and beliefs is to refer to their language in a framework of cultural semiotics. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and some other theories have demonstrated the mutual relationship between language and people perception. Therefore, it can be argued that every language provides a framework for thinking and experience. In this day and age, if we want to achieve the sustainable environment, we must know more and more about man’s perception and factors involved. Language and words are among these factors. In this book we want to show this interrelationship and explain how it works. To achieve this purpose, first, the relationship between language, culture, perception and built environment and also some rationalists’ views will be studied. Then we will discuss the signs and culture, especially in the philosophy of structuralism and post-structuralism. Finally, in the second part, five semantic fields in Persian language will be reviewed as case studies: ‘space and place’, ‘communal living spaces’, ‘connectional spaces’, ‘artificial green spaces’ and ‘residential spaces’.