earticle

영어

Pygmalion (1912), a shavian story, not only illustrates the correlation of language and class but also suggests alleviating a linguistic gap between classes and pursuing social equality by virtue of education. This article is aimed to illuminate refreshingly the relation of language, class and social structure, which Shaw intended to represent, by analyzing a variety of linguistic phenomena uttered in Pygmalion. A lot of lines of Pygmalion are appropriate to exemplify the semiology of Saussure dealing with langue, parole, signifier (signifiant), signified (signifié) and arbitrariness of a sign. The aphasia theory of Roman Jakobson, referring to contiguity disorder and similarity disorder, is exemplified in the speeches of Eliza and her father. Kate Fox, William Labov and Peter Trudgill regard pronunciation as the most important linguistic indicator to distinguish classes. The audience can confirm vivid examples by listening to Cockney of Eliza and a Bystander on the street. This drama also illustrates elaborated codes and restricted codes of Basil Bernstein through the speeches of characters of the middle and upper class and those of the lower class. It is highly remarkable that Pygmalion proposed the social correlation of language and class on the stage earlier than the great attainments of linguistic trailblazers.