A Socio-Cultural Aspect of Anti-language
Journal Title: STYLES OF COMMUNICATION - Year 2018, Vol 10, Issue 2
Abstract
The article has been devoted to the phenomenon of anti-language and the focal point of the paper refers to the analysis of socio-cultural processes involved in the formation and reception of anti-laguage. The analysis has been aimed at defining the circumstances of the occurrence of anti-laguage as well as determining its role and functions at both individual and collective levels. My general approach to the study of anti-language outlines the social functions which govern the emergence of anti-languages with the explicit reference to language, context and text. Kenneth Burke (1966) defines man as a symbol-using animal. In his “Definition of Man”, Burke draws attention to the concept of negativity when he argues that negatives do not occur in nature and they are solely a product of human symbol systems. According to Burke, “(…) language and the negative ‘invented’ man (…)” (Burke 1966: 9). The study has begun with the premise that antilanguage permanently depicts an antagonistic attitude towards the official language, whereas the negative attitude towards anti-language translates directly into stigmatisation of its users. The negativity of the affix anti- in anti-language has been culturally and socially structured as antithetical to language. Nevertheless, language and anti-language do not necessarily forge a typical antithesis in a polar sense. Victor Turner (/1969/ 1975) employs the affix anti- for his term anti-structure and explains that the affix has been used strategically and does not imply radical negation. This paper seeks to revise the one-dimensional attitude towards anti-language and fortify its social significance with a new quality. The basis for the study of anti-language has been its multi-functionality and multifaceted character. A modest corpus of anti-languages has been analysed in order to illustrate a complex and polysemic nature of this phenomenon.
Authors and Affiliations
Monika Piechota
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP430170
- DOI -
- Views 61
- Downloads 0
The Actor “Comes to Live”. Dialogue between Lessing and Diderot
The actor is a man who can give the impression of a life which is not his. Such as in a painting, where colors make it live, the actor through his own body seems to be animated as well. Starting from Denis Diderot's and...
Visual and Multimodal Metaphor in Advertising: Cultural Perspectives
It is often claimed that a picture tells us more than a thousand words, but studying pictorial metaphors reveals how much background knowledge is needed to understand and evaluate visuals. Commercial print advertising an...
Prace Komisji Nauk Filologicznych Oddziału Polskiej Akademii Nauk we Wrocławiu, Vol. IX Język Kultura Komunikacja [The Works of the Committee for Philology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Wrocław, Vol. IX Language Culture Communication] Editors: Szymon Wach, Katarzyna Buczek, Aleksandra R. Knapik, Piotr P. Chruszczewski
Prace Komisji Nauk Filologicznych Oddziału Polskiej Akademii Nauk we Wrocławiu, Vol. IX Język Kultura Komunikacja” [The Works of the Committee for Philology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Wrocław, Vol. IX Language...
e-Citizens’ Perspectives about Education on the ‘Debating Europe’ Platform
In order to have a stronger relation with the citizens, the governments, in this case the institutions of European Union, created media platforms. In the context of the European (digitalized) global village (Ciastellardi...
Boxer Pants, G-String, Stockings and You Know What Gear: Towards Lexical Fields Aided Vocabulary Instruction
The major objective set to this paper is to investigate the problem of how lexical fields may be applied in vocabulary teaching at various proficiency levels of formal education, namely the primary and secondary school....