7.2. Language & Social Inequality:
It is essential for people to have the sense of equality in the society where they dwell. Hence, people tend to utilize several techniques and methods to achieve that, one of these technique is codeswitching.
Philips (2004: 474) in Duranti states that “At the heart of the relationship between language and social inequality is the idea that some expressions of a language are valued more than others in a way that is associated with some people being more valued than others and some ideas expressed by people through language being more valued than others.” This is the reason that incites people to speak certain languages more than others, which results in the vanishing of the less functioning languages. …show more content…
Second is Boas (1911) who “painstakingly developed arguments to counter the widespread notion that languages are not equal, that some languages, especially European, were superior to others in their complexity and range of expression.” Hence, domination is for the more valuable nations enhancing their language, ideology and culture. Third is Bourdieu (1977) who “has argued that just as humans can deploy material capital to enhance their situations economically, so too may they deploy non-material symbolic capital to that same end. Symbolic capital is cultural capital. …. Bourdieu’s canonical example of symbolic capital is language.”
These three language anthropologists agree to one fact which is the influence of economic and hence powerful value of some nations over others, and consequently the domination of these nations’ languages, cultures and …show more content…
Yule (1997: 209-210) presents two types of prestige according to the direction of individuals change in their daily speech. Overt prestige is “when the change is in the direction of a form that is more frequent in the speech of those perceived to have higher social status”. Whereas, covert prestige is “the ‘hidden’ status of a speech style as having positive value may explain why certain groups do not exhibit style-shifting to the same extent as other groups.” Yule provides a good example for elaboration stating that the covert prestige can be well observed among the lower-working class who do not work on changing their casual style of speech into the careful one as opposed to people who belong to the lower-middle class. He justifies that may be the lower-working class appreciate the distinctive features that mark their class as well as the group solidarity, as opposed to the upward mobility of the lower-middle
It is essential for people to have the sense of equality in the society where they dwell. Hence, people tend to utilize several techniques and methods to achieve that, one of these technique is codeswitching.
Philips (2004: 474) in Duranti states that “At the heart of the relationship between language and social inequality is the idea that some expressions of a language are valued more than others in a way that is associated with some people being more valued than others and some ideas expressed by people through language being more valued than others.” This is the reason that incites people to speak certain languages more than others, which results in the vanishing of the less functioning languages. …show more content…
Second is Boas (1911) who “painstakingly developed arguments to counter the widespread notion that languages are not equal, that some languages, especially European, were superior to others in their complexity and range of expression.” Hence, domination is for the more valuable nations enhancing their language, ideology and culture. Third is Bourdieu (1977) who “has argued that just as humans can deploy material capital to enhance their situations economically, so too may they deploy non-material symbolic capital to that same end. Symbolic capital is cultural capital. …. Bourdieu’s canonical example of symbolic capital is language.”
These three language anthropologists agree to one fact which is the influence of economic and hence powerful value of some nations over others, and consequently the domination of these nations’ languages, cultures and …show more content…
Yule (1997: 209-210) presents two types of prestige according to the direction of individuals change in their daily speech. Overt prestige is “when the change is in the direction of a form that is more frequent in the speech of those perceived to have higher social status”. Whereas, covert prestige is “the ‘hidden’ status of a speech style as having positive value may explain why certain groups do not exhibit style-shifting to the same extent as other groups.” Yule provides a good example for elaboration stating that the covert prestige can be well observed among the lower-working class who do not work on changing their casual style of speech into the careful one as opposed to people who belong to the lower-middle class. He justifies that may be the lower-working class appreciate the distinctive features that mark their class as well as the group solidarity, as opposed to the upward mobility of the lower-middle