Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Sociolinguistic theory developed by Bernstein (1958) that is based on the premise that different classes within a society are marked by different types of social relations. From such relations different ‘codes’ arise which, through a process of linguistic socialization, have a stabilizing effect upon the social structure. Corresponding to the class divisions of society is the linguistic dichotomy of an ‘elaborated’ (middle-class) code and a ‘restricted’ (lower-class) code; the degree of elaborateness or restrictedness is measured by the complexity of sentences and by the extent of grammatical and lexical alternatives. Based on its relative paucity of variants, the restricted code is considered more predictable, more redundant, less complex, and, measured against the norm-setting standards of the middle class, ‘deficient’ (deficit hypothesis).
The mixed reception of Bernstein’s code theory gave strong impetus to the development of sociolinguistics and social dialectology in the 1960s, at which time dialects, in the sense of non-standard social or regional varieties, were considered by many to be restricted codes. This theory had an explosive effect on the politics of mass education by prompting a number of empirical studies and a more intensified demand for ‘compensatory language instruction’ which would reduce the linguistic deficit and the inequality of social opportunity associated with it.
Criticism of these assumptions came above all from Labov in his variational linguistics. In his studies of Black English vernacular in the United States, he emphasized the unique character and value of this form of language, namely that it is not deficient, but rather only a variety distinct from standard English with its own regularities and turns of expression (‘difference hypothesis’).
References
Bernstein, B. 1958. Some sociological developments of perception. British Journal of Sociology 9.159–74.
——1971. Class, codes and control, vol.
1: Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language. London.
——(ed.) 1973. Class, codes and control, vol. 2: Empirical studies. London.
——1987. Social class, codes and communication. In U.Ammon et al. (eds), Sociolinguistics: an international handbook of the science of language and society. Berlin. 563–78.
Dittmar, N. 1976. Sociolinguistics: a critical survey of theory and application. London.
Edwards, A.D. 1976. Language in culture and class. London.
Labov, W. 1972. Language in the inner city: studies in the Black English vernacular. Philadelphia, PA.
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