Language Analysis

The reflective piece “Not A Unique Story But Many Girl’s Story” discusses the
challenges of being a girl in Pakistan who wants to have an education but is prohibited to do so.
The writer dexterously utilizes a combination of four language criteria, such as communicative
behaviour, dialectal variations, language registers and attitude to language. However, this
analytical piece will mainly focus on language registers and dialectal variations.
Language registers relate to the kinds of English appropriate to a specific purpose or
circumstance. It refers to the levels of formality/informality and tone that are right for a
particular context. The levels distinguished have been given particular names by language
specialists, such as: frozen, formal, consultative, casual and intimate. The examples that can be
found in the reflective piece are: frozen style which can be found in the second paragraph when
Malala was on Pakistani TV, for example, when she said “How dare the Taliban take away my
basic right to education?” in the sense that it is already said and is not subject to change. Casual
language was also used when they were having a conversation and one of the girls who mocked
a classmate for speaking ‘broken’ English and said “I want ais-krim, it very much hawt” where
they were talking about an inside joke within a particular friend group.
Dialectal variations refers to spoken and written words that are diverse in the utilization
of language within a speech community. The different types of dialectal variations are: Profane,
Erudite, Foreign and Rasta. In the reflective piece, only three of these were used which were
erudite, profane and foreign. Erudite English was used when one of the girls said “professor of
literature” which refers to language containing features that show the speaker uses phrases that
are older and foreign that may be difficult. Profane English was used when the lady screamed
“OH MY GOD!” which refers to shocking expressions and which usually involves God. Foreign
English was also used when the British girl said “Dis is hur right hiuh” which is mainly used by
tourist and expatriates from other countries where English is a major language.
In conclusion, both language criteria utilized by the writer as language registers and
dialectal variations were pretty effective to demonstrate the situation Malala was in where her
whole life changed by an incident caused by the Taliban.