ATTITUDES TO LANGUAGE

Languages for Graduates Seminar

Mariangela Spinillo16h December 2011

ATTITUDES TO LANGUAGE

Attitudes towards languages and language usage are commonplace throughout the world. People assign various attributes to languages and language forms – e.g. elegant, guttural, musical, aesthetically pleasing. We invest some language forms with prestige while others are stigmatised.

ATTITUDES TO LANGUAGE

Prestige and stigma are connected with speakers of languages and have to do with social class and social or national identity, and with ideas about status.

ATTITUDES TO LANGUAGE

LEVELS OF LANGUAGE USE:

o Whole languageso Varieties of a languageo Words and expressionso Discourse practiceso Pronunciation

PRESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS

Rules of correctness

Norms of usage

Dos and Don’ts

Imagined standards

PRESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS

One variety of language has an inherently higher value than others and ought to be imposed on the whole of the speech community.

PRESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS: CRITERIA

Purity

Logic

History

Literary excellence

PRESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS

The principal design of a Grammar of any Languageis to teach us to express ourselves with propriety in that Language, and to be able to judge of every phrase and form of construction, whether it be right or not.

Robert Lowth, A Short Introduction to English Grammar, 1762

DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS

Facts of linguistic usage

Observed regularity

No imagined ideal state

Language changes/ variation

Modern Linguistic approach

DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS

There is no hard and fast rule for making

Grammaticality judgments. Grammaticality is a

continuum.

Berk, English Syntax, 1999

SUPER SYNTAX

For anyone who’s confused about correct grammar and style in writing, the Internet offers the following tips:

SUPER SYNTAXo It is wrong to ever split you infinitive.

o Contractions aren’t necessary.

o The passive voice is to be avoided.

o Prepositions are not the words to end sentences with.

o One-word sentences? Eliminate.

REACTIONS TO LANGUAGE

I knew I was in one of those fancy food shops when I

saw the sign over the express lane. Instead of reading

‘15 items or less’, it said ‘15 items or fewer’.

CONCLUSION

Our attitudes to language are far from trivial and they may be influential in our assessment of the characteristics of individuals and social groups. These assessments can be carried over into the decisions that are made in important areas of our lives such as employment, educationand equality of opportunity.

CONCLUSION

Awareness of how attitudes might be formed ormanipulated may not make us immune to them,but it may help us to evaluate their influence onour own practices.

FURTHER READING

Bauer, L. & P. Trudgill (eds). 1998. Language Myths. Penguin.Berk, L. 1999. English Syntax: from word to discourse. OUP.Cameron, D. (1995). Verbal Hygiene. London: Routledge.Crystal, D. 1987. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.CUP Crystal, D. 1995. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English

Language.CUP.Giles, H. & Coupland, N. (1991). Language: Contexts and

Consequences. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Lyons, J. 1981. Language and Linguistics: an introduction. CUP.