Shen Xiaolong: When the flower girl finally learns to make an elegant A sound, her joy belongs only to Audrey Hepburn

Shen Xiaolong: When the flower girl finally learns to pronounce an elegant "A", her great joy belongs only to Audrey Hepburn, the social significance of the language class mutation and its cultural comparison

Letter from Xiao Su, a grade 16 student of the School of Philosophy:

A few days ago, I watched the movie "Lady", and there were some interesting discussions about English pronunciation in the film.

The regional characteristics of a language allow different variations of the same language. I checked the information and learned that spoken English existed in London, Northumberland, Scotland, Cornwall and other dialects in the UK. The male protagonist Higgins records and masters the pronunciation characteristics of different dialects, from which he can judge the class and place of residence of each person, even as accurate as two blocks.

Higgins considered the flower girl Eliza's accent to be vulgar, saying she was "killing English" and lamenting "knowing that you are a person with a soul and a natural organ of pronunciation; your language is the language of Shakespeare, Milton, and the Bible." This statement shows the strong rejection of "non-standard" English by other classes of high society and the contempt for those who use "non-standard" English.

Language and identity have always been closely linked. Through the choice of language, people determine their sense of belonging in society. In Britain, the higher the social class, the lighter the regional accent. The English she uses is distinct from "standard" English in terms of pronunciation, intonation, and wording, and if she wants to have a decent job, she must learn the language of the upper class.

In contrast, Chinese is also regional, and the dialects of different regions may be very different in pronunciation and intonation. However, although Chinese emphasizes the promotion of "standard" Mandarin, it does not exclude "non-standard" pronunciation. Regional accents are not necessarily linked to social class (many of the country's leaders also have accents).

We can tell a person's place of residence or hometown by his accent, but we will not despise him (except for some regional discrimination), and even many local governments encourage the use of dialects. In Chinese history, many literary works were also written in Wu, and the Cantonese cultural industry is still developed.

What has contributed to Chinese tolerance of "non-standard" Chinese? Is it because Mandarin came out late? Or is it due to the characteristics of the Chinese language itself, or is there other social and cultural reasons?

Xiao Su made a cultural comparison on the relationship between standard and non-standard languages. Her film perception and thinking involve three aspects:

1. Class dialects reinforce social hierarchies

The class dialects (also known as class dialects) mentioned by Xiao Su are actually everywhere, but in the very strict Class United Kingdom, class dialects and related language discrimination are particularly conscious and obvious. There, the son of a blacksmith may know the son of the same village baron, but the two will not speak in the same way.

The movie "Lady Shaw" watched by Xiao Su was originally written by the British dramatist George Bernard Shaw's "Flower Girl". The flower girl from a poor background in the play says a London cockney native tone, "That will Keep her in the gutter for the rest of her days." (This alone can make her fall to the bottom of society and never turn over.)

And it is precisely because of this that the linguistics professor decided that by changing the vulgar accent, the flower girl could also become a noble lady. After a friend made a bet with him, the professor decided to teach the flower girl an aristocratic accent.

As a result, the flower girl was so dazzling in high society with an aristocratic language that the professor himself was deeply trapped in her love and could not extricate herself, and the flower girl already had her own favorite admirer.

The linguistics professor said: "An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him. ”

In fact, to this day, the British can still reveal to a considerable extent what kind of family he came from, what kind of school he went to, what kind of occupation he was engaged in, and so on.

A man can be a millionaire, with a luxurious villa and a car, but there may be a little thing in his words, intonation, wording, and sentence making that shows that he was not born a member of the upper or aristocratic class.

In the insurmountable class divide, language differences are the biggest obstacle.

Ancient Chinese social class order was also very strict.

When we look at Peking Opera, we know that the Confessions of upper-class social figures such as officials, Xianggong, and Miss in Chinese Peking Opera are all rhyme white, with a southern accent, half text and half white.

The Confessions of the Poor Listener, the Servants, and the Pawns are all Beijing dialects, called Jingbai.

The two social dialects differ greatly in phonetic vocabulary. When Yun Baili called "mother" and "mother", Jingbai was often called "mother".

2. Mandarin Chinese and Noble Words of English cannot be equated

The aristocratic language of England was formed in the aristocratic system of a long historical period. Mandarin Chinese was determined to eliminate the inequality of the old system after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Mandarin is inherently the lingua franca of the common people, a "popular language", not the standard language of "high society".

Because the common language based on the grammar of the northern dialect in Beijing pronunciation and classic works has a long history, and Once putonghua is established, it has become the language law and language image of the country, so Mandarin naturally has a high reputation.

On the other hand, although there is no aristocratic system in modern China, the dialect of the class that extends from the imbalance of social and economic development, as well as the related language discrimination and language inferiority, still exist. Take the dialect of Shanghai, the economic center of China, as an example:

Sociolinguists surveyed more than 20 years ago that young people in rural areas on the outskirts of Shanghai often subconsciously imitated Shanghainese and struggled to overcome their rural accents after moving to the city to work.

A couple in Wuxi, whose husband is from Nanjing and whose wife is From Shanghai, chose Shanghainese as the language of the family instead of Mandarin. The woman's explanation was: "Anyone can learn to speak Mandarin, and Shanghainese is not spoken by Shanghainese." Wuxi people are also willing to learn Shanghainese. ”

A male college student from Jiangxi and a female college student from Hunan fell in love, and the man did not allow the woman to speak Hunan dialect on any occasion. Their love language is Mandarin, and the man's Shanghainese has been learned very well.

A Shanghainese woman living in Wuhan strictly requires her husband to speak only Shanghainese at home and not to "bring the "dead earth" Wuhan dialect "into the home".

This narrow sense of dialect superiority has gradually faded over the past 20 years as socio-economic and cultural development has become more and more balanced, and local cultures and local dialects have become more and more confident.

3. The tolerance of the dialect is the proper meaning of the ideographic Chinese character

Xiao Su said that although Chinese emphasizes the implementation of standard Mandarin, it does not exclude "non-standard" pronunciation. Regional accents are not necessarily linked to social class (many of the country's leaders also have accents). What has contributed to Chinese tolerance of "non-standard" Chinese?

We can find the reason politically. Students can find in the film dialogue reflecting the three major battles of the Liberation War that most of the officers of the Communist Party speak in dialect, and most of the officers of the Kuomintang say "Chinese." Due to the characteristics of modern social politics in our country, "Chinese" almost from the beginning did not have the absolute prestige of the dialect, on the contrary, the dialect has a strong socio-political cultural symbol and prestige.

We can also find the reason from the writing of Chinese. Chinese characters are ideographic characters, and ideographic characters are naturally tolerant of pronunciation. People with different accents and squares are "equal" in front of the ideogram.

Pinyin text is authoritarian to phonetics. Although the pinyin script records the spoken speech, it has inertia once formed, and naturally has a kind of phonological violence that requires obedience to the spoken speech. Speech that does not obey the text is not recognized and understood. As a result, areas with different speeches split apart to form new scripts and languages.

Pinyin characters are the force of social differentiation, and ideographs are the forces of social unity.

The tolerance of the phonology is the proper meaning of the ideographic Chinese characters.

In human society, language variation occurs in any particular time and space. In addition to the influence of the inexplicable language "drift", most of these language variations have specific social significance.

These social meanings are attached to the entire socio-cultural context, and they cannot be simply compared between different national languages.

Therefore, the rejection of the indigenous language by the noble language and the tolerance of the dialect in Mandarin Chinese are not in the dimension of cultural comparison.

When the flower girl is finally able to pronounce the "A" letter of your people, the great joy belongs only to Audrey Hepburn, and it is impossible to reproduce it in the study of Mandarin Chinese.