Филологические науки /7. Язык,
речь, речевая коммуникация
Ya. N. Kazantseva,
M. L. Rostova
Lesosibirsk pedagogical institute –
a branch of Siberian federal university, Russia
DEPENDENCE OF VERBAL BEHAVIOUR ON SOCIAL STATUS OF A SPEAKER
Nowadays an indisputable
fact is that language as the means of communication arises and develops only in
society. In any society language acts as means of collecting, accumulation,
storage and transfer of knowledge gained by this society. As a result society
and the social, economic and cultural changes happening in it, anyway,
influence changes in the language.
In any culture language is
not only the means of interpersonal communication, but it is also an indicator
of the social status of a speaker. Speaker`s social status and his/her verbal
behavior are interconnected. Besides, language is means of self-presentation,
that is representation to listeners, audience or partners in communication.
Speech activity of each speaker reflects characteristics of his or her personality
which represents "dialectic unity of general (social and typical), special
(class, national, etc.) and separate (individual)" [1].
In conditions of
functioning of the developed literary language and its social and territorial
options a speaker has a wide choice of language forms which are socially
dependent. The choice which is made by a speaker characterize him as
personality i.e. as an active subject of social relations. Thus, social
qualities of the personality are shown in speech communication as one of types
of social interaction, on the one hand, and as one of forms of realization and
development of the personality, on the other hand. We can say that
consideration of a language in its communicative functioning involves studying
of social and biological nature of a speaker and also his or her personal
characteristics, aims of communication, etc.
There is a great number
of different groups, communities, organizations in the world, which can differ
on the social status of their representatives. Each public unit means certain
rules which people have to follow. It also includes such features of speech
interaction as grammatical rules in speaker`s statements, degree of loudness
and emotionality of communication, etiquette and political correctness (or
their absence). Socially based distinctions of language of speakers are shown
in grammar, vocabulary and phonetics. The speech of a person during the
conversation supplies with the information about the following things: 1) where
this person is from, 2) what social class he or she belongs to, 3) what opinion
he has about himself and people around him or her, 4) whether he is a reasonable
person in general.
The purpose of our research
is to identify dependence of verbal behavior on the social status of a speaker.
We have chosen the play "Pygmalion" written by Bernard Shaw as the
base for our work. The play was written in 1912, the author reflected features
of pronunciation of England`s residents belonging to different social groups. In
the play it is told about the professor of phonetics Henry Higgins who, having
argued with his friend, has to teach the florist Elisa Dulittl correct
pronunciation. He has just half a year to train her. The speech of the main
character named Elisa Dulittl changes a lot during the play. At first she is the
ill-bred street shop assistant speaking the London dialect of
"cockney", and then she becomes a beautiful and intelligent lady. We
have compared some fragments of the speech of the character of Elisa Dulittl
from the text of the play in which the difference is reflected in her speech
during the periods before training and later. For a start we will give the
example followed from the first act: «The flower girl; Ow, eez ye-ooa san,
is e? Wal, fewd dan y' de-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl
a pore gel's flahrzn than ran awy atbaht pyin. Will ye-oo py me f'them?» [2].
So, at the very
beginning of the play, Elisa Dulittl, the ordinary florist who spends most part
of her time on the streets in poor districts of London, speaks on a dialect of
"cockney". Owing to this fact this statement is difficult to
understand. We can compare it with the "Oxford" version of this
statement: «Oh, he's your son, is he? Well if you'd done your duty by him as a
mother should, he'd know better than to spoil a poor girl's flowers and then
run away without paying. Will you pay me for them?»
We have taken the following statement from the fifth act of the play.
Here Elisa Dulittl's speech significantly differs. And all this thanks to Professor
Higgins`s lessons which is hard work.
Eliza: «It's not because you paid for my
dresses. I know you are generous to everybody with money. But it was from you
that I learnt really nice manners; and that is what makes one a lady, isn't it?
You see it was so very difficult for me with the example of Professor Higgins
always before me. I was brought up to be just like him, unable to control
myself, and using bad language on the slightest provocation. And I should never
have known that ladies and gentlemen didn't behave like that if you hadn't been
there» [2].
Thus, we can notice the positive
dynamics in development of Elisa Dulittl’s speech. In her statement there are
no signs of manifestation of a dialect of "cockney" and jargons, it
is grammatically correct and clear. It is possible to tell that this statement
can be said by a person who is well-educated and who has a significant position
in society. Besides, not only Elisa`s verbal behaviour has changed a lot but
also her social behaviour that is shown
in her appearance, attitude to life and people around, values. She has changed
a lot on the whole and she has become the complete antithesis of that Elisa
Dulittl which we see at the beginning of the play. It shows her rise in respect
of the social status, from the street florist to the lady that, in turn, proves
that verbal behaviour and social status always are in close interaction and are
inseparable from each other. In his play Bernard Shaw has shown importance of
education in formation of personality. People`s life can change dramatically if
you work hard and study a lot.
References
1. Ilyichev L. F.,
Fedoseyev P. N. Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. Moscow, 1986.
2. Shaw G. B. Pygmalion. URL: http://www.literaturepage.com/read/pygmalion.html