Varieties of English

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Varieties of English

• Language and social class

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Basil Bernstein

• British sociologist and linguist
• b.1924, d. 2000
• Worked as a teacher and social worker before
  becoming an academic at U London Institute of
  Education
• Most famous for his theory on codes in speech
  and language, in particular restricted vs
  elaborated code, and how these relate to social
  class

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Background

• Experience of teaching working-class children
• Differences in performance between working-class
  and middle-class children in language-based
  subjects, when performance in maths (etc) was
  comparable
• Access to and use of different styles of language
  both limits and defines
• Language used in everyday conversation both
  reflects and shapes the assumptions of a certain
  social group
• Relationships established within the social group
  affect the way that group uses language, and the
  type of speech that is used
• Bernstein wanted to point this out and have it
  compensated for, but was misunderstood

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Codes

• Distinguished varieties of language use, called
  codes
• Restricted code (RC)
• speakers draw on background knowledge and shared
  understanding
• creates a sense of includedness, a feeling of
  belonging to a certain group.
• can be found among friends and families and other
  intimately knit groups.
• Elaborated code (EC)
• spells everything out, so that everyone can
  understand it because the circumstances do not
  allow the speaker to condense
• used in situations where there is no prior or
  shared understanding and knowledge, where more
  thorough explanation is required
• We are concerned here with speech rather than
  written language

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Elaborated and restricted code - misconceptions

• Elaborated code does NOT mean better, more
  eloquent language
• Restricted code does NOT mean restricted
  vocabulary, simplified grammar
• The difference is about explicitness and shared
  background knowledge
• Use of terms elaborated and restricted
  somewhat unfortunate, and lead to
  misunderstandings and even vilification of
  Bernstein

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Example

• a group of children were shown a strip cartoon
  and asked to say what it depicted.
• (based on Bernstein, 1971 p 203)

They're playing football and he kicks it and it
goes through there.It breaks the window and
they're looking at it and he comes out and
shouts at them because they've broken it.So they
run away and then she looks out and she tells
them off.
Three boys are playing football and one boy kicks
the balland it goes through the window.The ball
breaks the window and the boys are looking at it
and a man comes out and shouts at them because
they've broken the window.So they run away and
then a lady looks out of her window and she tells
the boys off.
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Differences in code

• Syntax
• more varied in EC also more formal
• more subordinate clauses in EC fewer unfinished
  sentences
• EC uses more logical connectives like if and
  unless RC uses more simple coordinations eg and,
  but
• RC has short phrases interjected into the middle
  or end of a thought to confirm understanding (eg
  you know, I mean, right?) EC has less (or highly
  disguised) padding or filler (eg elaboration and
  explanation)
• More originality in EC more clichés in RC
• Reference more explicit in EC, more implicit in
  RC use of pronouns and deixis
• Meaning is universalistic in EC,
  particularistic in RC
• Lexis more restricted in RC
• Its about use of rather than access to different
  codes

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Consequences

• Restricted code
• appropriate for expressing shared, established
  and static meanings,
• draws on a store of shared meanings and
  background knowledge
• carries a social message of inclusion
• Some people assume BB was saying middle-classes
  use EC, working-classes use RC
• Actually he never said this
• Middle-class children also use RC when
  appropriate
• But they have greater access to EC through
  socilaization
• Problem is of reduced access to EC among
  working-class children

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Elaborated code

• Necessary if you want to break out to say
  something new, particularly something which
  questions the received wisdom
• Fundamental in schooling, where the introduction
  of new knowledge goes beyond existing shared
  meanings
• So if you can't handle elaborated code, you are
  not going to succeed in the educational system

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Socialization

• Reciprocal nature of language and culture
• Whorfian view that language determines (or at
  least conditions) the speakers view of the world
• This is the case with social structure
• A particular social structure leads to a
  particular linguistic behaviour
• In turn, this behaviour reinforces the social
  structure

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Social-class constraints

• 5-yr-olds telling a story based on pictures
• WC children used fewer expressions of uncertainty
• MC children less good at role playing
• What is the man saying? ?
• What do you think the man might be saying? ?
• When invited to make up stories
• WC childrens stories freer, longer, more
  imaginative
• MC childrens stories more constrained within
  strong narrative frame
• form vs content

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Other studies
Several studies of how mothers talk to
children MC mothers WC
mothers

• use more abstract ideas
• point out consequences of actions rather than
  just forbid or tell off
• answer wh-questions with genuine explanation,
  involving causes, analogies etc.
• better at explaining verbally how to do something
• Encourage verbal interaction
• Use language to induce desired behavioural changes

• use more direct commands
• cite authority figures (themselves or outsiders)
  to get their own way
• answer wh-questions with Because it is
• more likely to explain by demonstration
• More likely to avoid answering difficult
  questions
• punishments less likely to be explained, and more
  frequent than rewards

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Comments and criticism

• Many criticisms, perhaps through
  misunderstanding
• That this is a deficit theory
• Whorfian angle
• Elitist

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Deficit theory

• RC is inferior, and by extension WC people have
  lesser language ability
• BB stresses that difference is in language use,
  not language competence
• But he often speaks of codes as having distinct
  "linguistic rule systems," and attributes to
  these codes radically different expressive
  capacities

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Whorfian interpretation

• Whorf language and culture reciprocally
  condition and determine each other
• If so then the culture of RC speakers reflects
  the language
• Logically simpler
• Lacking in sophisticated structures
• Unable to abstract and generalize
• Less creative and original

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Elitism

• Lack of access to EC is a problem for WC children
  which must be addressed or corrected
• The notion that the poor require a remedy in
  order to be more like their oppressors reinforces
  the myth that there really is something special
  about the educated classes, that the language
  spoken by its members is superior in some
  interesting way
• The academically successful are not merely
  perceived as smarter or more capable. Rather, it
  implies that they really are smarter, ready to
  engage in a discourse capable of expressing
  universal meaning, eschewing the fragmentation
  and logical simplicity of the underclass

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Final word

• Bernstein has probably been misunderstood and his
  ideas misappropriated
• His background and interests (Marxist, working
  class, worked as a social worker and teacher in
  WC areas) would suggest just the opposite of what
  he is accused of
• His style is sometimes a bit woolly, and there
  are inconsistencies
• He had (and took advantage of) many opportunities
  to explain what he meant
• His later work was on language and education

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Sources and references

• B Bernstein (1966) Elaborated and Restricted
  Codes An Outline. Sociological Inquiry 36
  254-261
• B Bernstein (1970) Social class, language and
  socialization. In PP Giglioli (ed) Language and
  social context, Harmondsworth (1972) Penguin,
  157-178
• R Wardhaugh (1986) An introduction to
  sociolinguistics, Oxford Basil Blackwell, pages
  316-323
• R Young (2002) Basil Bernsteins Sociolinguistic
  Theory of Language Codes. http//zimmer.csufresno.
  edu/johnca/spch100/3-3-bernstein.htm
• http//www.doceo.co.uk/background/language_codes.h
  tm
• http//www.putlearningfirst.com/language/research/
  bernstein.html
• http//brj.asu.edu/articles/ar6.html