Alfiia Merzliakova

Russia, Izhevsk,

Izhevsk branch of the Russian University of Cooperation

 

LINGUISTIC WAYS OF FORMING STEREOTYPES

Key words:

Stereotype, culture, communication

Annotation:

This article contains some results of the study of linguistic ways of forming stereotypes. Ethnic stereotypes, schematized, emotive and highly stable images of any ethnic groups or communities, can be formed consciously by using language units.

         In this article we will study only linguistic way of forming stereotypes: how with some language units we can create an image about another people or about us. To achieve this goal we’ll use linguistic methods as component analysis and distribution analysis.

         The word “stereotype” comes from the Greek words στερεός - «hard» and τύπος – «print" and means "monolithic printed form, a copy of the typesetting or cliché used for rotary printing large-circulation publications". In the usual meaning the word stereotype was used by an American researcher Walter Lippmann in his book "Public Opinion» (1922) for describing the method of forming the public opinion. According to him, the society is trying to categorize multiple worlds and people's behavior to make a human easier to navigate in the reality. Thus, the stereotype is a "schematic standardized image or idea of a social object, usually emotive and highly resistant " [Encyclopedic Dictionary of Philosophy 1983 : 654 ], a kind of pattern perception, interpretation of the information, based on previous social experience. It is certain beliefs and "customary knowledge" of people about the qualities and traits of other people, events, phenomena or objects.

         The researchers note that stereotypes are an integral part of popular culture. There are different kinds of stereotypes depending on the object and its place in social life. For example, they may be formed on the basis of age, sex, race, religion, occupation, geography, ethnic group and etc. Stereotypes in most cases are neutral, but when they are transferred from a particular person to a group of people (social, ethnic,religious, racial, etc.) often acquire a negative connotation. Phenomena such as racism, sexism, Islamophobia are often based on stereotypes [Popular Culture, 1992 ].

         The foundation of stereotypes is ethnocentrism when the individual:

•considers the phenomena of the own culture as natural and right, and the phenomena of other cultures as unnatural and wrong;

•examines the customs of own group as universal: what is good for us is good for others;

•accepts the norms and values of his ethnic group as absolutely true;

•provides overall assistance if necessary to the members of his group;

•acts in the interests of his group;

•feels hostility towards other ethnic groups;

•is proud of his group.

         Ethnic stereotypes are defined as simplified, schematized, emotive and highly stable images of any ethnic groups or communities, easily portable to all members of these groups [Kunitsyna et al, 2001: 331]. So the ethnic stereotype is understood as a standard view on one ethnic group of people belonging to other ethnic group [Krysin 2003: 458 ].

         Being the most important means of communication and expression of thought, language is a tool of knowledge, a permanent understanding of the world and human experience in the transformation of knowledge. Language – is not only a way of transmission and storage of information, but also a tool of new concepts shaping, which largely determine the way of the human thought. Selection of specific linguistic units affects the structure of thinking, and thus the process of perception and reproduction of reality. Human perception is constantly influenced by modern media. This is the mode of that detects an impact in all areas of life including in the formation of stereotypes.

         Language is one of the most important modes of creating ethnic stereotypes. We will study some of means used in this field of social behavior.

1.     Accent: giving foreign accent to “bad” characters film directors reaffirm stereotypes. So according to Rosina Lippi-Green in animated film the accent learn children to ethnic discrimination because all “bad” characters have foreign accent: the wolf in Three Little Pigs originally spoke with a Yiddish accent, and Scar in The Lion King and Jafar in Aladdin both have British accents, in contrast with the more homely General American accents of the “good” characters.

2.     The other linguistic way of forming stereotypes is repetitive using of a word or a group of words in certain contexts. So utilizing the same word many times in the similar context permit to us to memorize better the idea that we want to become current. For example, the repetition of the word “cult” while speaking about Vladimir Putin make the readers sure the Russians worship their president: “It also suggests the cult of celebrity around the leader, who has always been filmed carrying out various macho stunts, could be reaching new levels” (New York Times); “There is no genuine personality cult’ ( The Guardian); “The Putin celebrity cult has swung into a higher gear since the annexation of Crimea last year” (New York Times); “The Kremlin has been keen to avoid a big fuss, acutely aware that there has already been enough talk as it is of a Putin personality cult” (BBC). 

3.     One can also use the words from the same semantic group: “This weekend, a group of Cossacks in a village near St Petersburg unveiled a monument to Putin, featuring a bronze bust of the Russian leader stylised as a Roman emperor and swathed in a toga (New York Times); “As a result, many have come to see Russian society as a monolithic entity, rallied around a kind of 21st century tsar” (The Guardian); “He had the nerve to support politicians who opposed the election of then president Putin Naturally, anyone who tells the emperor there are no clothes” (BBC). 

4.     Metonymy,  a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated, is in use often in the process of creating stereotypes. For example, the color of the skin: brownskin, charcoal, crow, darky, shadow for Afro-Americans;  red, red-skin – Indians; or form of lips, nose and so on: bootlips, broad-nose, thicklips, wooly-head – Afro-Americans; almond-eye, li'l eyes, slant-eye, squint-eyed – Cinese; hook-nose, eagle-beak – Jews.

5.   Idioms: filer en Belgique – escape without paying; Greek gift - a gift given or a favor done with a treacherous purpose.

         In conclusion: modern mass- media are widely used language tools for the formation of stereotypes about other nations what can create some problems in intercultural communication. To study the ways of stereotyping formation gives the possibility to distinguish methods of influence on mass consciousness and to recognize manipulations techniques.

 

References:

1.     Encyclopedic Dictionary of Philosophy/ Ôèëîñîôñêèé ýíöèêëîïåäè÷åñêèé ñëîâàðü/ Ãë. ðåäàêöèÿ: Ë. Ô. Èëüè÷¸â, Ï. Í. Ôåäîñååâ, Ñ. Ì. Êîâàë¸â, Â. Ã. Ïàíîâ — Ì.: Ñîâ. Ýíöèêëîïåäèÿ, 1983. 

2.     Lippi-Green R. English with accent. Language, ideology and discrimination in the United States.- London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

3.     Lippman W. Public Opinion. – NY, 1922.