#026 -Attitudes to language.

#026 - In this episode Gabi explains the incredible world language stereotypes.

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Transcript

Hi everybody, my name is Gabi and today we’re going to talk about attitudes to language. 

Sorry for the small hiatus that I have allowed myself to take. I was dealing with some personal issues which kept me away from podcasting, but I have now sorted things out and here I am again with more content to offer.

Today I am going to talk about attitudes to language which is the final nail in the coffin of our episodes comprised in sociolinguistics.

People seem to have expectations in regards to language usage. One example of this is the film Robin Hood Prince of thieves in which Sean Connery played Lionheart with his own Scottish accent, which apparently seemed really odd to part of the audience. Likewise, Kevin Costner’s non-British accent in his role as Robin Hood in the same film was also much commented. 
People in general seemed to expect these Englishmen to sound English which is by the way a mistake because no-one spoke English at the time the same way they do nowadays. We wouldn’t be able to understand their old version of English. 

Nevertheless, most people expected to them to sound English. 

This has happened countless times in other films and series. For instance the film Gladiator in which actors speak English (!) or the famous Netflix series Vikings in which they also speak English.

Wouldn’t it be beautiful if actors learned Latin or old Norse to make us happy? It sure would, but learning a new language would be too hard a job to do for a film I guess.

People hold attitudes to language at all levels. For example, if you speak with a certain accent or variety other than the mainstream, in the wrong context, you might experience negative feedback, but if you use the same accent in a favorable context you might experience much support and love.

Pronunciation and punctuation can get you in trouble as well. For example, if you pronounce a certain word wrong or if you spell it wrong in the public eye, you will surely be deemed as illiterate and worthless of attention. Even if what you say has some truth to it.

The choice of words you make is also important. Some words are expensive and they can cost your job or reputation in the wrong context. Some words are key to success and freedom in other contexts. For instance, speaking about science or scientific research in a feminist gathering could generate the wrong type of attention from the audience. In the same setting however using the word equality, equity or pay gap would generate a very positive response from the same audience. Words such as resilience or tolerance are trendy and cool. 

They hold tremendous power in the media and national political institutions. But they carry a tremendous ideological baggage as well. They don’t simply mean what they mean if you know what I mean.

All words were not created equal.

Stereotypes are cognitive shortcuts. If you meet a German man whose name happens to be Adolf you might have second thoughts about spending too much time with your new friend. If you however meet the same man and you find out his name is Friedrich then nothing should make him suspicious. 

Grammar can be a source of pain. For instance, using double negatives in English can evoke the wrong attitudes towards the speaker. Things like I don’t know nothing about it can automatically exclude you to become friends with a more socioeconomic privileged group of people. Even if double negatives are found across many varieties of American and British English and across many languages in the world.

Language

Some stereotypes about whole languages can be quite harsh. Especially minority languages. Speaking about physics in a language such as Welsh or Asturian could strike people as odd since most people regard these languages are not suited to hold such topics because of a lack of vocabulary and sophistication. 

Code-switching can be also controversial in its own right. For instance switching from Spanish to Catalan can serve as a proof of respect to some people. I will give an example: there is a bakery near my house where I like to buy myself a special snack called ensaimada de chocolate. For those who don’t know what it is. It is a traditional sweet pastry filled with chocolate and powdered sugar. It’s so good and at the said bakery they really know how to make it. So I usually go there to buy it. 

Now, I have noticed that most of the customers speak Catalan while ordering and so do all the shop assistants. I’ve passed by several times and have ordered in Spanish only to see the shop assistant answering again and again in Catalan until I realize that I have to switch to Catalan and finish my order in Catalan, which is not a problem, by the way. Now the interesting thing came the other day when I ordered in Spanish to one of the shop assistants and she answered in Spanish and so we kept the small exchange in Spanish until the end. 

The next time I went by to order I was welcomed by a different shop assistant. This time I ordered in Spanish, but she answered in Catalan, I proceeded to say something else in Spanish but I noticed she answered one again in Catalan and that’s when I code-switched to Catalan and finished the order with a small chit-chat about how delicious and addictive the chocolate pastries they make are. 

Now, the previous shop assistant, that is, the one I spoke to in Spanish the previous times I went by was there and she surely looked puzzled and disappointed when she realized that I spoke Catalan with the other woman. 

She seemed displeased to see that with me she now had to speak Spanish while the other shop assistants would hold the small conversation in Catalan. Clearly, at this bakery linguistic politics matter. It is a bakery with a small twitch of Catalan ideology. Not saying is bad. It is just what it is. 

We are certain that we as humans learn attitudes. Two important sources of attitudes are our personal experiences and our social environment, including the media. There is observational learning, which involves noticing the behavior of other people and the consequences of that behavior. Another is instrumental learning, where we attend to the consequences of attitudes and whether these bring rewards or detriments. 

Attitudes have three components: cognition, affect and behavior. Attitudes are cognitive because they comprise beliefs about the world. For example, making a link between speaking a standard variety with a high-status job. Attitudes are affective because they do come with certain feelings about something in particular. The behavioral part of attitudes mean that a person might act or behave in a certain way depending on the attitude.

Now there are other terms related to attitudes we need to consider:

habits: habits are learned and are stable and enduring. Habits are primarily behavioral and attitudes are not primarily behavioral. People are usually more aware of their attitudes than habits. They can talk about them and try to change them. 

values: values are more global than attitudes. They are also ‘the most important and central elements in a person’s system of attitudes and beliefs’ There are terminal values such as freedom or equality and instrumental values such as being honest. They may generate different attitudes, for instance, choosing a specific political party.

Beliefs : beliefs trigger important affective reactions. 

Opinions. Opinions and attitudes are interchangeable often. Opinions are verbal while attitudes may convey verbal and not verbal processes.

Social stereotypes: The basis for stereotyping is social categorization, which means dividing the world into social groups. classifying individuals as members of social groups on the basis that they share certain features of a particular group

These can include different aspects in society such as ethnicity, profession, age, nationality, preferred sports, preferred cars, etc. It can include features such as how skilled or how trustworthy someone from a particular group is, etc.

Ideology Although social stereotypes and ideology have just been mentioned in the same sentence, the concepts come from different traditions. While social stereotypes originate from the field of social psychology, the notion of language ideology mainly emanates from linguistic anthropology . ideology comprises a patterned but naturalized set of assumptions and values about how the world works, a set which is associated with a particular social or cultural group.

An example of this would be right-wing politics as being related to wealthier social classes and left-wing politics as related to a nanny-state. 

Understanding stereotypes though language can be quite slippery and not straight-forward or transparent.