Language and Power

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Session 10

• Language and Power

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Introduction

• Language may be used directly or indirectly as a
  means of exercising power.
• In multilingual states, disputes over which
  language to use are disputes over power.
• If access to information is power, then you must
  know a language that contains that information
  e.g. on the internet.
• Language can be a status or identity marker and
  thus a form of discrimination

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Status

• Most languages have power relationships built
  into them. Some people must use respectful forms
  of language that imply respect to certain other
  people which reflects a status difference and
  perpetuates it.
• This use of language may be said to reflect a
  power relationship but it also enables the higher
  status person to exercise power the inferior is
  socially disadvantaged.
• A classic case is the use of English in England
  where the way one speaks reflects and gives
  power. Bernard Shaws Pygmalion (My Fair Lady)
  illustrates this. Professor Higgins takes a lower
  class girl and makes her into an upper class lady
  by changing her speech.

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Film

• Discuss the excerpt from My Fair Lady which is
  a musical version of Pygmalion, a play written
  roughly 100 years ago.
• What does this tell us about language and power?
• Is what we saw there confined to England? Can
  anyone give us other examples?

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Dialect

• Status and power can be determined by dialects.
  Some dialects may be very prestigious and others
  not. If you speak the wrong dialect you wont get
  some jobs or be admitted to circles of power.
• A dialect depends on where you come from
  geographically. A sociolect depends on class or
  education. So, Professor Higgins spoke an upper
  class English which was the same all over the
  country if you belonged to the upper class. All
  local dialects were considered to be inferior.
• Can you give examples from other languages?

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Fluency

• Power may also be exercised through education.
  People who do not have an educated command of
  their native tongue are at a disadvantage.
• Literacy may also be used as a form of power. The
  lower classes may be deliberately prevented from
  learning to read as way of keeping them down.
• Immigrants tend to get the lousy jobs because
  they do not have a perfect command of the
  language of their new home.

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Different Languages

• Possession of a particular language may be a
  status symbol. For example, in Tsarist Russia,
  the upper classes were fluent in French which set
  them apart from the masses. It was hard to make
  it in powerful circles if you didnt have French.
• In the Philippines, the Spaniards in the colony
  would not teach Spanish to the indios (Native
  Filipinos) because Spanish was a vehicle for
  getting an education which might give them
  troublesome ideas. They were right because a
  major demand of the revolutionaries in the 1890s
  was to be taught Spanish! The US colonial regime
  introduced English after its conquest of the new
  Republic
• Other colonial powers have used language in
  roughly similar ways.

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Language Death

• Many languages are dead or dieing because they
  have lost prestige and purpose, usually because
  of conquest. People switch to the new.
• Australia and the Americas are classic examples.
  Quechua is under siege in Ecuador and Peru as are
  Maya languages in Guatemala and Mexico. Spanish
  is the language of power which gives jobs.
• English has destroyed large number of languages
  in Australia and North America. In Europe, the
  process has been going on for millennia. Latin
  destroyed many languages.

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Womens Language

• There is a considerable recent literature arguing
  that language has been used to demean women and
  keep them down. Feminists aim to empower women by
  changing language use.
• This can be seen as a variation on lower/upper
  class discrimination through language forms.
• Language refers to women in certain ways and
  women use different language forms from men. They
  argue that many languages use words in a way that
  automatically put women in an inferior position
  of power. You have a reading on this.
• Discuss.

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Women Language

• Much of the feminist argument in English is not
  relevant to many other languages and claims that
  certain forms of language put women down or
  reflect power relations need to be carefully
  analysed. It may be just grammar.
• For example, English has three third person
  personal pronouns he, she it. Many languages
  have only one. Does this mean that the position
  of women is higher in those language communities
  that have only one pronoun?

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National Languages

• You have a reading on this important topic which
  we will now discuss.
• Language is an identity marker and a practical
  source of power in multilingual states. There may
  be only two languages involved as in Canada and
  Belgium or up to a hundred as in PNG or many
  African states. India and the Philippines are
  also interesting examples.
• Language can be vehicle for education which gives
  power (i.e. a means to an end) or the medium of
  expression in government or business (i.e. a
  direct exercise of power)

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National Languages (2)

• If you do not speak the language used by the
  rulers with reasonable fluency you are excluded
  from decision making and the top jobs.
• If there are 20 languages in a country and one of
  those is chosen as the national language, the
  speakers of that language have an advantage. So,
  former colonies use English or French which makes
  a level playing field for all.
• This also gives access to knowledge because there
  is an enormous amount of material available in
  those languages.

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Examples

• Indonesia is an interesting example. They did not
  use Dutch because it is not a world language the
  Dutch learn English. They chose Malay which was a
  widely used trading language in the area.
• They did not choose Javanese which is the
  language of the biggest single group because this
  would have been resented by other groups. It also
  has a complex respect system.
• The Philippines did choose the language of Manila
  but uses English in educated and official
  circles. India did the same

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International English

• The use of English as an international lingua
  franca also empowers those who speak it well
  or, perhaps more accurately, disempowers those
  who dont.
• Australians have an advantage because our mother
  tongue is the world language. If we had our own
  language, nobody would learn it and we would have
  to learn English.
• Some countries teach English early and widely,
  e.g. Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, India,
  Nigeria and the Philippines. This gives them
  access to international jobs.

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International English 2

• While there is nothing new about an international
  lingua franca (e.g. Greek, Latin, French, Malay,
  Swahili) English has acquired a worldwide status
  which is different in scope.
• Most conversations in English take place between
  people whose first language is not English. Its
  rise to power was due to the guns and money of UK
  and US but it has now acquired a life of its
  own). If you want to work outside your own
  country, you must know English.

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Discussion

• What is the language situation in your countries?
  
• Give examples of how language is used as power in
  your country either through the use of different
  languages or dialects or sociolects.
• Does your language discriminate against women or
  any other groups through the use of different
  forms of language?