Language in Use 147-148
This unit looks at the part played by language in forming and perpetuating
our basic attitudes towards different social groups in our society. It
examines the way in which the names that we attach to these groups, whether
pejorative or affectionate, shape our expectations about what they will do or
say.
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[1] This session should be used to collect from the class the names which they use for social groups and the contexts in 0iich. they might use them. The, list should range as widely as possible, and include basic distinctions like we/they, us/them, kids/grown-ups; terms like common, well-behaved, stuck-tip, rough; regional labels like cockney geordie scouse; local terms for social or ethnic groups. The aim is to show that we all have a very complex linguistic framework for sorting and assessing people in our lives.
[2] For this session the class need to have in front of them the list compiled in [1]. The discussion should explore the features which underlie all these names. Features like age, social status class, type of job, accent, place of origin, ethnic origin, political and religious beliefs, all need to be taken into account. The class should then go on to discuss which features are most likely to determine whether the use of a particular label implies approval or disapproval. The remainder of the session can be given to planning an appropriately tactful approach to other members of the community, family and friends, young and adult, to test out the class's conclusions about the names which have been examined.
[3] The basis of this session is a comparison between what the class
have discovered in the field and what previously they had believed to be the
case. Points to examine might include:
(a) differences in the weight of disapproval certain words carry
(b) labels which adults use but their children do not, because they have an
origin in past history
(c) how local to a family or neighbourhood
certain names might be, especially those which express disapproval of
others
(d) differences in the pattern
of names as between home, school and work
(e) differences between
the sexes-do men and women attach approval and disapproval to the same names?
(f) differences between
the values attached to a label by its users and those attached by the group
it refers to.