With the smell of bread.

Cultural-linguistic analysis based on the concept of Lexiculture

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyse cultural traits enclosed in the German word Brot (bread) through an extensive terminology used to name its multiple varieties, as well as idiomatic expressions, customs and the symbolic figure of bread in three literary works. The analysis will make it possible to determine that a simple and common object, present in the vast majority of languages-cultures in the world, cannot be considered as part of a vocabulary of universal meaning. This is due to the strong link that the word under analysis maintains with German culture, which is reflected in a special and particular way, for example, in gastronomy, in linguistic expressions, in customs and in literary manifestations. This work mainly nourishes from the theoretical contributions of the French linguist Robert Galisson (1995), who introduced the concept of lexiculture to refer to those voices that keep cultural marks -i.e., that speak about history, customs, ways of being and thinking of a certain group of people who share the same language. Likewise, some reflections and pedagogical orientations are offered for working with cultural lexicon in the classroom. The analysis of cultural signs in the vocabulary is a highly enriching practice in the teaching-learning process of foreign languages, since it allows to know and better understand linguistic and discursive aspects.