Language in Use 127-128
People have always believed that there were certain areas of experience in
life which required from them an exceptional attention. Customarily, these include
birth, death, sexual behaviour, bodily or mental disorder, and any discussion
of a 'divinity that shapes our ends'. One major cultural function of language
has always been to mark clearly the boundary between such areas of experience
and the patterns of day-to-day living This is usually achieved either by the
use of a particular way of speaking in which the experience is referred to obliquely,
or by the absence of any publicly available way of speaking about it. The
aim of this unit is to explore what happens to language in our own culture when
the experience concerned is of this kind. In particular, it looks at the boundary
between acceptable and unacceptable ways of speaking about such experience.
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[1] The aim of this session is to get the class to consider what areas
of experience they feel reticent about when it comes to describing them in words.
The most likely are sex; bodily functions; certain kinds of illness, both physical
and mental; death; and money. Divide the class into working groups, and ask
them to choose one of these subjects and to consider:
(a) what ways there are of talking about it
(b) which ways would be available to them in what setting?
(c) which ways would be available with what people?
(d) where and/or to whom would they have no adequate way at all of referring
to the subject?
(e) are there any major differences between what they would feel free to say,
and what they would ever write?
[2] For this session, the work of the groups in 1 needs to be made available to the whole class. The aim of the session is to build up a composite picture of where the different boundaries come in our culture for this particular class. Discussion should focus upon the different patterns of reticence that the average class is likely to reveal, given the very wide range of differences in society.
[3] For this session, the class need to make a collection of public
references to the subjects that they have been discussing.. The aim of the session
is to compare the picture built up in [2] with what emerges from a study of
the material collected. Points to consider include:
(a) what language is used by which kinds of media for what audience?
(b) are there cases where
(i) what is written or spoken in public would never
be used by the class or members of it?
(ii) the class or members of it have available ways
of speaking about the subject which are not used in any of the examples?
(c) how do the class account for differences between what they would say or
write and what is used in the material?
(d) are there any major differences between what is said publicly and what is
written? If so, can they be related to
the intended audience in any -way?
[4] This session focuses upon the particular kind of reticence we understand by euphemism. Its aim is to show that what is euphemism to one is a necessary reticence to another. Let the class choose two widely differing areas of experience, such as bodily functions and money, about which our society , or major groups within it, observe reticence in speech and writing. In discussion, build up a collection of words and phrases, considering who uses them, when and where. Consider how these are learnt and look at recent attempts to suggest that such euphemism is somehow an evasion. Explore the question as to whether the class would be happy to do away with all such reticence and, if so, whether this would extend to talk with adults and to public usage.