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language and social class relationship
the relationship between the language and society
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The Role of Language in Creating and Reinforcing Social Distinctions Such as Class, Ethnicity, and Gender
It is said in a myth that people were once trying to build a giant
latter to heaven so God made them all diverse by making portions of
the people look different and speak different language. The now
diverse people of earth felt annoyed and human nature took its ugly
toll and separation and distinctions were made, they all scatter
throughout the world. God did this so that the people would not be
able to communicate therefore not be able to build the great ladder
that was threatening heaven. This myth is probably not the truth but
it does have a purpose in showing how a change in language and
appearance can make up an entire different type of human. It can be
said that there isn’t an exact translation from one language to
another so there is a loss of meanings in translation. This can lead
to another distinction; religion is the main distinction and separator
of people. Language caused all of these separations within people...
...of skin, language and social status. Class affects social status in the society but people should treat each other equally.
In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is being perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate. Some hardly even apply to the particular group people it claims to. It is true that how people are perceived has a big impact on how other individuals interact with them; however, people are not perceiving these groups correctly.
The concept of race is an ancient construction through which a single society models all of mankind around the ideal man. This idealism evolved from prejudice and ignorance of another culture and the inability to view another human as equal. The establishment of race and racism can be seen from as early as the Middle Ages through the present. The social construction of racism and the feeling of superiority to people of other ethnicities, have been distinguishably present in European societies as well as America throughout the last several centuries.
In Anderson and Collins’, chapter on “Why race, class, and gender still maters” encourage readers to think about the world in their framework of race, class, and gender. They argued that even though society has change and there is a wide range of diversity; race, class and gender still matters. Anderson and Collins stated, “Race, class, and gender matter because they remain the foundation for system of power and inequality that, despite our nation’s diversity, continue to be among the most significant social facts of peoples lives.” (Anderson and Collins, 2010) When I was a little girl, I never knew that people were classified in to groups such as race, class, gender. I knew there were people that had a different color of skin than my color of skin. I knew that there were rich people and poor people, and that there were girls and boys. I saw everyone as being human beings, as being the same and not classified as something. As I was growing up, I started to see the differences in classifications in groups. It was not because I just woke up knowing that there were different classifications, but because I was taught about them in school and society. Anderson and Collins stated, “Race, class and gender shape the experiences of all people in the United States. (2010) This means that experiences that we have gone through in life are formed from a race, class, and gender view.
Throughout the Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender class, we discussed about race, ethnicity, class and gender and how they are involved in our lives today. I read different articles under each of the topics in the class, answered questions and discussed them in our follow-up class the week after. In each of our discussions, I’ve learned something new. Everywhere I go race, ethnicity, class and gender are all around me and there’s nothing I can do to change it, just accept it. Some people don’t know the difference between race and ethnicity, but I do. Race is biology and ethnicity is culture. Race is your physical appearance like what you look like such as skin color, your DNA, etc., and ethnicity is your language such as Spanish, Chinese, French, etc.
Lisa Delpit’s book, “The Skin We Speak”, talked about language and culture, and how it relates to the classroom. How we speak gives people hits as to where we are from and what culture we are a part of. Unfortunately there are also negative stereotypes that come with certain language variations. There is an “unfounded belief that the language of low income groups in rural or urban industrial areas is somehow structurally “impoverished” or “simpler” than Standard English” (Delpit 71). The United States is made of people from various cultures and speak many different variations of languages. As teachers we must be aware of some of the prejudices we may have about language and culture.
Differences in Language and Gender There are many differences in language between male and female. This is why we sometimes do not understand the opposite sex. These differences can be lexical, phonological, grammatical or conversational. There have been many studies into gender and conversational behaviour one of which answers the most common question of who talks the most this was conducted by Fishman '90.
My mom, with her camera in her hand, was so excited that she lined up at the front of the church one hour earlier to get a good seat at one of the church pews. Dressed in a shepherd costume, I sang the opening to the musical piece “Will You Be Ready for the Light” by Mark Patterson. On my way back to my seat, I experienced linguistic discrimination, the judgment about a person’s intelligence, social status, or character based on his or her use of language, for the first time in my life. My fourth grade classmate at the time probably did not even know that what she said was a form of discrimination and microaggression. To be honest, I also had no clue about what F.O.B. meant until I researched it in google and found that it meant “Fresh Off the Boat”, a phrase to describe the new immigrants who were not yet accustomed to the American
Woolard, Kathryn A. “ Language Variation and Cultural Hegemony: Toward an Integration of Sociolinguistic and Social Theory.” American Ethnologist. Vol. 12, No. 4 (November 1985), pp. 738-748. 31 May 2010. Print.
In her article, How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think, Lera Boroditsky (2009) explains how the results of her experiments support the idea that the structure of language shapes the way we think. In one of her experiments, she found that English speakers would place cards showing temporal progression in temporal order from left to right, Hebrew speakers would place them right to left, and that the Kuuk Thaayorre would place them from east to west. This shows that the written language affects how time is represented to them. In another one of her experiments, she asked German and Spanish speakers to describe some items and found that the masculinity or femininity of the noun in their respective languages affects how it is ultimately described. This can also be seen in how artists represent the human form of abstract entities like death. Boroditsky concludes that “Language is central to our experience of being human, and the languages we speak profoundly shape the way we think, the way we see the world, the way we live our lives.” (Core reader p. 49) I would like to add that language is also the foundation of a person’s culture, pride, and self by exploring articles written by Eric Liu, Amy Tan, and Gloria Anzaldua.
The movie Babel (2006), directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, is an interesting and impressive film. This movie shows four different episodes, which are all related to each other. This movie is about the relationship between stereotypes and communications of people, and the way the film discusses the topic to the audience is very interesting, because there are many episodes. There are four episodes in this film; first is Susan and Richard’s story, second is Yusef’s episode, third one is Amelia’s episode, and the last one is Chieko’s story.
Linguistic stereotypes are an existent form of discrimination. Since, languages are criticized and mocked due to the connection between language and cultural character. Thus, language is significantly related to the identity of the speakers. In addition, languages are vulnerable to criticism due to differences in cultural behavior.
The relationship of gender and linguistic behavior is a compelling topic which is getting more and more attention since it is closely related to gender studies. It is widely agreed that men and women use language differently in most speech communities, though to various extents (Holmes, 2001). Many works on the topic indicate that gender-specific linguistic behavior is a social practice which is based on gender identities and power relations (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Bruckmüller, Hegarty & Abele, 2012).
Nevertheless, it is important to remember that language is a significant component of ethnicity. However, as any other (component of ethnicity), “it can be perceived and dealt with differently in analysis and classification” (Jenkins): for many ethnic minority groups language proved to be a cornerstone of their vitality, but for such countries as Canada it is rather an optional characteristic in formulating modern ethnicity.
The book An Intorduction of Sociolinguistics is an outstanding introductary book in the field of sociolinguistics. It encompasses a wide range of language issues. In chapter 13, Wardhaugh provides a good insight to the relationship between language and gender. He explains gender differences of language-in-use with concise examples. Wardhaugh riases questions about sexist language and guides readers to look closer at how people use language differently because of their own gender in daily life. According to the Whorfian hypothesis, which indicates that the way people use language reflects their thoughts, different genders adapt different communication strategies.