“Proper English is the slang of prigs.”
--George Eliot
“What’s “proper English?’ For that matter, what’s a “prig?” The second question is easier to answer than the first – a prig was our great-grandparents’ slang for a nerd, more or less. And maybe the first question, though more complex, is not so hard to answer after all. “Proper English” – or proper French, Spanish, or Hindi – begins simply as the agreed-upon code of the upper classes in any given society. It’s the secret password to enter the clubhouse. It's how a given power group recognizes its members. That’s how such language patterns begin, anyway, and gradually filter down to other members of a society who, for whatever reasons, wish to gain entry to that clubhouse and get at the goodies.
You’ve probably heard the saying, “History is written by the winners.” What’s right and wrong, what’s correct and incorrect, is decided by those in power. Language is not much different. Language has little to do with morality and everything to do with power.
We can look at the notion of “proper” English in two broad categories – grammar and vocabulary. Grammar relates more to the overall pattern of sentence, vocabulary to choice of individual words or phrases. For example, the sentence “She don’t have no money” would not be deemed “proper” – standard – English, while “She doesn’t have any money” would. Both communicate the same meaning clearly, the non-standard form perhaps more clearly. But the first sentence would be deemed “wrong” and the second one “right.” Why? Just because. At some point in the past, that’s the way the people on top spoke, and though grammar does change over time, it doesn’t change quickly.
Vocabulary does. A non-standard word -- sometimes called slang – can come in and out of fashion in the space of one semester or can sometimes be longer-lived. For example, a “shorty,” slang for a child or woman, has been around for some time and is widely understood. On the other hand, a “ross,” a term one of my students and his friends used last semester to describe a girl who is easy or cheap, probably is not being used anymore and would be understood by few people if it were. In both cases, though, the slang works as a secret or not-so-secret password much as “proper” English functions in the wider world.
Grammar, dealing as it does with deeper language structures, is generally less the result of conscious choice, while vocabulary deals with more superficial language elements and is more easily changed. But both can be put on and off like clothing. It is not unusual to hear celebrities switch intentionally from “ghetto” to “bourgeois” and back again over the course of an interview. They’ve been around, and they have a varied linguistic wardrobe rather than one set of clothes for all occasions.
What’s in your linguistic wardrobe? Should you always speak “proper” English? A person interviewing for a job at MTV would probably speak and dress differently from that same person interviewing at American Express.
What are your goals? Can you reach them more easily by having different “looks” in your linguistic wardrobe?
No one can tell you the answers to these questions. Thinking about them can help you make choices that work for you.
Copyright Stephanie Packer
1 comment:
I totally understand what your saying. Language is the most complex part of life, because it seems that the way you speak leads you through life, just as the way you dress determines alot about you. Being a teenager in this day and age is some what of a challenge because we're so heavily judged about everything we do. There's so much to life for us these days. I really enjoyed reading " Your linguistic Wardrobe"
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