Basil Bernstein

See also: Bernstein

Basil Bernstein (November 1st 1924 - September 24th 2000). British Sociologist which specialized in the Sociolinguistique.

A theory of the linguistic deficit

It has, after an unquestionable number of investigations, developed a distinction between elaborate codes and restricted codes .

The theory of the linguistic deficit postulates that the success of the dominant class can be allotted to the control of the instruments of expression symbolic systems of use in the company. The underprivileged layers , on the contrary, suffer from a linguistic deficit, being only one particular aspect of the total cultural deficit. There is thus a circular relation between the two: the underprivileged individuals have access to less of expressive competences ( restricted code ) and this deficit prevents any social advancement. It is thus necessary to acquire “ the elaborate code ”. What Basil Bernstein thus tries to show, it is that although the choices of the variety of the language are theoretically free, they are in fact socially given (position social, economic, cultural,…) and in return, they determine the social stratification.

  • This determination exploits the interactions between the speakers. There is always a adequate variety (or which one believes adequate) in the exchange. Example: one speaks differently with a professor that with a student. One imagines what can be the social status and cultural of the individual and one acts according to that. There are thus very strict rules which govern the choices of the linguistic varieties but these rules are not taught.

  • Thus for example, there is risk of conflict between children of underprivileged social environment, whose vocabulary is restricted considerably, and their teacher/professor, this one laying out and using codes sociolinguistic considerably wider.

  • Certain ways of saying make it possible to mark the membership. In any company, one determines the good use, i.e. the linguistic variety which will have the most legitimacy and which becomes the standard then. What does not form part of the good use is regarded as ugly, but it is only because it is not usual. The criteria which found the good use are always used in an ideological way. The selected variety is imposed on all the social body, but this choice does not have anything linguistics. Blow, all the other varieties are systematically devalued. The objective is thus to ensure the capacity part of the social body by using instruments symbolic systems: values are associated with more or less prestigious linguistic varieties. These varieties, carrying distinction, can be interns or external with the language (English is prestigious for the French-speaking people: its use develops the contents which it expresses).

It is seen that the dominated minorities (French-speaking, for example) adopt the stereotypes of the dominant majorities (English is more serious).

This concept sociolinguistic today still is very disputed. For much of authors, it is more relevant speech of legitimate and illegitimate linguistic varieties, because this second distinction does not postulate that the illegitimate code is lower than the legitimate code. Only, this one is placed at the row of inferiority. This new meaning is due in particular to the studies of the sociolinguist William Labov.

See too

Biography

  • Bernstein Basil, 1971, Class, Codes and Control, London, Routedge & Kegan Paul (transl. Fr: Language and social classes. Codes sociolinguistic and social control, Paris, Editions of Midnight, 1975)

Related article

External bond

  • Biography of Basil Bernstein on the site of UNESCO

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