Thursdays, Discussions, and the power of Language

What has kept me from posting on Thursdays has always been school at Ashford University- Online Campus. Mainly the responses to the discussion questions that are due on Thursdays. I wait till the last minute and spend most of the day working on my responses. I decided that I would post one those responses here for my blog and ask how powerful do you think language is?

According to Elgin (2000), “It is all too easy to underestimate the power of language . . . because almost every human being knows and uses one or more languages, we have let that miracle be trivialized . . . we forget, or are unaware of, the power that language has over our minds and our lives; we use that power ourselves as casually as we use the electric power in our homes, with scarcely a thought given to its potential to help or harm. We make major decisions about language on the most flimsy and trivial—and often entirely mistaken—grounds.”  This is too true. I have often wondered about how important language is and been dismayed at my own lack of understanding and misuse of it.

Fairclough (1989, 1997) was keenly aware of how powerful language is and also how important the meaning of what is not being said, but what is implied, by language the language used is. Fairclough built his Critical Language Analysis or CLA on Foucoult’s study of the use of language by those in power (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010, p. 306). When I think of Foucoult’s study I am reminded of a favorite musical I love: My Fair Lady,  which is based on a play by Shaw (1916),  entitled Pygmalion. I

n this play an English gentleman (a professor of language) makes a wager with another English gentleman (also a linguistic scholar but in the military as a trade) that he can change a common flower girl’s speech and turn her into a lady. Eliza (the flower girl)  wants to change her circumstances and wants to be lady in a flower shop.   As the show progresses, she endures Professor Higgins and does indeed change her speech, become a lady, but falls in love with the professor. As a turn of fate, the professor (a confirmed bachelor and mean man) falls in love with her too, against his better judgment.

The reason that this story reminds me of Foucoult and Faircloughs’ theories of language is that according to Diaz-Rico and Weed, Foucoult theorized that those in power used language to “repress, dominate, and disempower certain social groups” and that “conversely certain social groups have appropriated, or acquired language practices that mimic those in power and thus shaped power to their own ends” (2010, p. 306).

Professor Higgins recognized the power of language and that the way a person spoke determined their social status. He also used this to his own ends and because he wanted to win the wager. Eliza also realized the power of language and “appropriated” the language of those in power.She eventually did use language to shape power to fit her needs, but after a difficult trials, and heartbreak. 

Building on this metaphor, Fairclough “conceives of discourse as a nested set of boxes: first, the text itself that constitutes the message; second, the institutional influence on the message; and third, the social/cultural influence on the message. Any text, whether spoken or written, has features at these three levels” (Diaz & Reed, 2010, p. 306).

A classic line from the movie is a language exercise that Professor Higgins is trying to teach Eliza: “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.” With Eliza original accent she pronounces rain, Spain and plain as raain, with an unusual emphasis on the /a/ in the words making them sound as if they were long /a/s or even a short /o/. She is made to practice this lesson over and over. 

At first she hears no problems with the phrase. The text is gibberish to her and conveys a sense of frustration, annoyance, and overall bewilderment. The professor also uses the text to assert his authority, education, and arrogance. There is a definite institutional influence for the text as is intended to both teach Eliza the “correct” pronunciation of the words. Yet, the words are a puzzle if one deciphers their meaning, because there is literally rain in all parts of the country of Spain, giving Eliza something to think about and to even feel more confused about. 

The social/ cultural meaning of the text is also both confusing and obvious. When Eliza first said the words, it is apparent her social class. As the movie progresses though she is able to change her accent and pronounce the phrase as the Professor has taught her and as an English lady would. In fact there is scene following her success where she, the professor and the colonel start singing a song and dancing together. When Professor Higgins and Eliza first dance together, this is the first moment that she falls in love with him. “The rain in Spain…” phrase takes on a whole new cultural/social and hidden meaning to the text after that night.

                                                                        References

Díaz-Rico, L. T., & Weed, K. Z. (2010). Crosscultural, language, and academic development  
      handbook: A complete K-12 reference guide (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. New York: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (1997). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Reading, MA: Addison-

       Wesley

Elgin, S. (2000). The language imperative. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.

Shaw, G. (1912). Pygmalion. New York, NY: Brentano's Press.