"Language and Society" paper

Romaine, “English: A Man-Made Language?”: Evidence

THESIS: “. . . Paternalism has defined women in its own terms as others and outsiders . . . the intellectual foundations of linguistics based on the principle of arbitrariness of the linguistic sign and theories of markedness have discriminated against women” (pg. 12)

EVIDENCE:

Name calling (pgs. 121-123)

122) Women= “the little woman” “the Mrs.”

Is it Miss or Mrs.? (pgs. 123-125)

124?) More interest in women’s marital status than in men’s Also: being married adds to a woman’s status; becoming widowed lessens status; the same is not true for men.

“Ms”: intended to be equivalent to “Mr.” i.e. used for women regardless of marital status but sometimes used for never married ( under 30? over 30?)

Ladies First (pgs. 125-130)

126) “Lady” as part of a title is used for lower status professions (i.e. cleaning lady), but not for men (i.e. “janitor” for men); separate title ascribes it with more responsibility; also use of “lady” (or“man”) for certain profession suggests they are appropriate for one gender only.

127) Reagan: “not picking on anyone” but suggested that too women going into job market was why unemployment was high (they’re to blame, not his policies)

“lady” can’t be reclaimed; paternalism/patriarchy has already laden it with too many negative values.

Marked Women (pgs. 130-140)

130) “lady” doctor, “woman” professor- suggests women in those position are not the real

131) “career women” “working girl”- but we assume men are working “family man” but not “family woman” 136) Men indicated by title + last name but women as “his wife” etc; similar to CH3, men are protagonists in their own lives; women as supporting characters. 136) Women are most likely to be referred to first in a dependent capacity, as mothers or wives rather than in terms of their profession or as individuals in their own right. Men have wider ranges of potential; “markedness” limits what women can do (domestic, sexuality) 136) Israeli study: men referred to more by their profession than women

The Lesser Man (pgs. 140-146)

144) Once a name used for boys/men becomes popular for girls/women, no longer used for men; Many female names (Georgina, Tomasa) derive from males, but not vice versa Salesgirl, but not Salesboy

All the Invisible Women: Why does this matter? What can we do?

Illustrates gender inequality in workplace Undermines work women do; be littles what women do -Relates to lower pay given to work women do -Names also structure the society to become gender inequitable These patterns also occur with other “others”: people of color Sports; women’s soccer is more successful, more popular, yet still paid less than men If this is not changed, then gender inequities (and financial consequences) will continue for future generation WHAT CAN WE DO? Point out negative consequences of the above Modeling more gender-equitable naming practices; fire fighter not fireman, “it” for animals Change policy: i.e. use gender language in paper (educational); allocate funds to equalize condition

semantic

discussion question • Consider the statement: “The purpose of animated movies and romance novels is simply to entertain, to give their consumers an escape from their lives.” Critically analyze this statement given the evidence presented by Lippi- Green and Romaine.

• Can you come up with personal, or recent media examples of the ways English is “man-made”? Or, have you seen/heard examples of accent discrimination in recent media/entertainment/daily life? Did you relate to anything discussed in the readings?

• How might critically examining language and discourse impact teaching style and student learning?

Lippi-Green, “Hillbillies, Hicks and Southern Belles”

KEY TERMS:

Language ideology = “the cultural system of ideas about social and linguistic relationships, together with their loading of moral and political interests” (Woolard and Shieffelin, 1998: 52)

What is “standard language ideology?” (pg. 218)

Strategy of condescension: “a tactic whereby an empowered individual (someone with social legitimacy in terms of employment or education or language or other kinds of authority)—appropriates the subordinated language for a short period of time in order to exploit it” (pg. 223)

Covert and overt prestige: (pg. 220) What does Lippi-Green mean by these terms?

EVIDENCE:

Identify 3-4 examples or excerpts of interest to you from this chapter. For each example or excerpt, answer at least one of the following questions:

1.How does the excerpt/example illustrate the concepts above? 223-224) southern English associated with lack of education, literacy (i.e. Rep Nather from KY-Mumbled.” no one understands) page 228-229 “accent reduction, or a concentrated effort to take a person who speaks English with a stigmatized, regional, social or foreign accent” and replace it with one that

is favored. this quote is an example of the ways in which different accents are treated and, in a way, discriminated against/looked down upon and attempted to be “normalized” despite its validity (“accent reduction”classes: i.e. rid people of stigmatized accents, despite linguistic legitimacy; MUSE is seen as as default, “correct” variety; also applies to written varieties, i.e. “academic” English) actors—-“should” have “national”rather than “regional”

220) “Joe” proud of his southern accent, even if it might cost him (upwardly mobile) job opportunities; covert prestige: “talking southern” (and connecting to family and friends) is more important than “talking right”; these are the people you rely on, day to day especially in times of crisis

2. How does the excerpt / example relate to our previous course readings?

We’re given message as children about “appropriate” v “inappropriate” (i.e. in Disney movies); i.e. message about “talking white” if speaking MUSE/Standard English.

Are there connections between southern English/gender and what Romaine says about English being a man-made language? “What’s in a name?”: negative stereotypes often attached to terms like “lady” and “madam” as well as features of southern English

3.How might you use the concepts or examples from this chapter for Assignment #1? Conflicts between what parents what children (non-standard varieties of English, or other languages, so they speak “with an accent”); to speak v. what children want to speak (Why does it matter?)

So what is “standard language ideology”? is the idea that the variety of language that has been standardized (via dictionaries, grammar books, schools, official docs, textbooks, mainstream media) as actually better than other varieties , rather than constructed as such. For all varieties of language are linguistically equal ( all follow systematic, if sometimes differing rules)