LANGUAGE AND

SOCIAL CLASS
What is social class?

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“ Business Dictionary : “social class is a
status hierarchy in which individuals and
groups are classified on the basis of esteem
and prestige acquired mainly through
economic success and accumulation of
wealth”

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Social class Pyramid 4
Volunteer, please?

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1 Article
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 “On the Effects of Social Class on Language
Use: A Fresh Look at Bernstein's Theory”
By Mohammad Aliakbari and Nazal Allahmoradi

Bernstein Theory???

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 Bernstein’s theory

▰ Bernstein's theory (1971) describes three

basic concepts, namely the language code,
class, and control.
▰ further, he reformulated the restricted code
and elaborated code.
▰ Then, what is the restricted code?
▰ And also the elaborated code?
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 Restricted Code by Bernstein

▰ The restricted code means: "use short sentences, simple grammar, and often
unfinished sentences from bad syntactic forms; use some simple and
repetitive conjunctions; employs a little subordination; tend towards the
dislocated information; rigid and limited in the use of adjectives and
adverbs, rarely use non-personal pronouns; confuse reason and conclusion;"
▰ Restricted code tend to = the working class
▰ The working class are the position-oriented
▰ The position-oriented = leads to a strong sense of social identity with the
loss of personal autonomy.
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 Elaborated Code by Bernstein

▰ the elaborated code is "using accurate grammar and syntax to

regulate what it is said; use complex sentences that use various
devices for conjunction and subordination; use prepositions to
show relationships that are both nature and logical; often use
pronouns I; use carefully various adjectives and adverbs;“
▰ Restricted code tend to = the middle class
▰ The middle class are the people oriented
▰ The people oriented = encourages personal autonomy
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 “Working class vs middle class”
what is the relationship between language use and someone's
social class?

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 TYPE OF THE DATA

▰ Quantitative : using spps to get the result and measurement

▰ Qualitative: using interpretation and explanation base on the
result of the spss apps
▰ The data obtained from 20 working class students and 20
middle class students

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 HOW TO ANALYZE?
▰ First, the students are given questionnaire consist of ten questions.
7. How would you describe your neighborhood’s condition of living?
▰ Luxurious
▰ Comfortable
▰ Average
▰ Below average
Run down
10 How often do you buy clothes?
▰ Twice a year
▰ Five times a year
▰ Eight times a year
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▰ More than eight times
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2 Article
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SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES IN SOME ASPECTS OF
THE NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
MOTHER AND PRESCHOOL CHILD
Terry Hore
Monash University

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“ Social class was based on a person’s market
position which is basically how much money
or wealth they have and their bargaining
power to get the money or wealth.
Max Weber (1864 – 1920)

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 Theories in The Article

▰ Jensen (1967) considered that gesture and facial expression were parts of the
differential reinforcement behavior which he believed was more persistently
carried out in the middle-class homes (high SES in this study).
▰ Brown & Bellugi (1964) commented that the middle class child learns by
feedback from his parents, who reduce or expand the child’s expression to
incorporate the correct grammatical elements.
▰ Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) suggested that teachers look more frequently at
those children from whom they expected better performance.
▰ The frequency with which a mother looks at her child may be one of the
unconscious ways she “encourages excellence” (McClelland, 1961
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 METHODOLOGY

Type: QuantitativeQualitative
&

▰ Videotaped recordings
▰ Data were analyzed with respect to three nonverbal variables
▰ Comparisons were made between the two SES groups by individual t tests on each
pair of means for each nonverbal measure.

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 RESULTS

▰ The low SES mother-child pairs showed a greater amount of physical

contact, during the practical task than the high SES pairs.
▰ There was no difference between the high and low SES groups, in terms
of physical closeness, on the practical or the verbal task.
▰ Result was in reverse direction to expectation. The high SES pairs
engaged in more, not less, mutual glances than the low SES pairs.

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3 Article
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“SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES IN THE SPEECH OF
SIX YEAR OLD HUNGARIAN CHILDREN”

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“ Groups of people who have certain
similarities in the field of society such as
economics, education, employment, position,
caste, etc

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 TYPES

▰ Upper Social Class:

High income accompanied by high education. For examples like the
President, Minister, head of offices, entrepreneurs, top artists, and
contractors.
▰ Intermediate Social Class (Middle-class):
Moderate position. Examples are ordinary civil servants, bank
employees, teachers and lecturers.
▰ Lower Social Class (Worker-class):
People who are in distress or lack life. Examples are unemployment,
part-time workers, or temporary workers.
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• Reference to the situation (RS)
includes any utterance which makes an explicit
deictic reference to the pictures themselves. For
example ‘The first pictures I see .... 'Here, There
is a ....'
• Exophoric use of definite article (Ex. Art.)
Student use definite article for referring
something. the speaker and listener are share
same knowledge.
• Allusion to the situation (AS)
This measurement used the average measure of
the two previous actions to see index sensitive
to extreme cases, to the children who were high
or low.
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• Exophoric dominance (ED)
Anaphoric (Linguistic context) and exophoric
(situational context) pronouns, and anaphoric
and exophoric 'fragments'.
If the result is positive, the text is exophorically
dominated and if it is negative we have an
anaphoric dominance.
An example will illuminate the distinction. Where
an English child might say, exophorically:
‘He’s holding it’
In contrast to the more context-independent
‘The boy is holding the ball’

• Sentence complexity (SC)

This is measured from the level of use of the

grammar displayed by the child.
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 Result
After the linguistic analyzing  social class and area
Use Man-Whitney U test.
Divided into several area
1. Parent background (profession, education, salary, ect)
2. Social position (worker class, middle class, upper class)

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 Methodological

Quite clear.
The context-dependent of to be speech was found is applicable to
features of Hungarian grammar using concepts, with some structural
modifications, as have been used in English research.
Thus the exophoric/anaphoric distinction is realized differently in the
different language.
The level of context-dependence is not completely given by the more
micro-level distinctions and it also considers utterances which make
direct, explicit reference to the situation.

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 Empirical side

The social class differences in the level of context of speech

exist.
There is an interesting finding
Working-class children living in a high-status area  less
context-dependence in their speech than those living in low-
status areas.

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THANK YOU
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