Sociolinguistic Analysis of Societal Class Differentiation in “My Fair Lady”

Andrew T. Thren

2018

Abstract

The linguistic variables found in the British society of “My Fair Lady” areinteresting to analyze in terms of the social class distinctions between the upper class and lower class. Various phonological variables are chosen for analysis in the study of the speech of upper and lower class society in “My Fair Lady” with several consonantal and vocalic variables as being the most prominent features of class differentiation of standard and non-standard phonological variables. The most preferred varieties are those which are most standard, and the least preferred varieties are those which are the most non-standard. The phonological and grammatical variables can be considered as markers, as they have social significance and are potent carriers of social information that the upper and lower class characters of “My Fair Lady” are aware of in differentiating high and low class society. After identifying the linguistic variables for analysis, data was collected concerning its variants, so that certain conclusions could be drawn about the social distributions of those variants. The occurrences of these variables were tabulated based on social class membership. An analysis of the linguistic variables depicts differences in linguistic behavior among the upper and lower class characters of the film.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Thren A. (2018). Sociolinguistic Analysis of Societal Class Differentiation in “My Fair Lady”. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities - Volume 1: BINUS-JIC, ISBN 978-989-758-515-9, pages 110-118. DOI: 10.5220/0010003400002917

in Bibtex Style

@conference{binus-jic18,
author={Andrew T. Thren},
title={Sociolinguistic Analysis of Societal Class Differentiation in “My Fair Lady”},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities - Volume 1: BINUS-JIC,},
year={2018},
pages={110-118},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010003400002917},
isbn={978-989-758-515-9},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities - Volume 1: BINUS-JIC,
TI - Sociolinguistic Analysis of Societal Class Differentiation in “My Fair Lady”
SN - 978-989-758-515-9
AU - Thren A.
PY - 2018
SP - 110
EP - 118
DO - 10.5220/0010003400002917