How are language and meaning shaped by culture and context in this film?
During Wednesday's class this week, we began to explore the effect of culture in language and meaning, furthermore, discussing how social class can have an effect on language itself. In the short clip, there is a rich wealthy man named Tommy who is trying to buy a caravan from a group of car dealers. When we first see Tommy, he is wearing a long coat, his hair is nicely done, and carries a rather clean appearance. In contrast with this character of higher social status we have the car dealer called Pikey, a boy, and his wife who are below the social class bar but do not seem to be bothered by how they are living their daily lives.
Tommy uses higher class dialect when he addresses "Mr. O'neil'" whereas the actual character himself tells him to call him Pikey in a very familiar, considered lower class dialect. You could say that Tommy is trying to introduce himself as a respected individual in hopes that that will influence his argument for a reasonable price for the car. Throughout this scene, the car dealers and other characters are speaking in a very fast, and familiar dialect, trying to confuse Tommy and "push" him into buying a car. In this scene, you may notice that there are more 'lower class' characters in comparison to 'high class' characters. Tommy, the higher arch is put in an uncomfortable setting, where they Pikey's dialect has a higher level of dominance over that specific community, meaning that the more people you have around you speaking in the same way as you, the more power that specific language has.
During Wednesday's class this week, we began to explore the effect of culture in language and meaning, furthermore, discussing how social class can have an effect on language itself. In the short clip, there is a rich wealthy man named Tommy who is trying to buy a caravan from a group of car dealers. When we first see Tommy, he is wearing a long coat, his hair is nicely done, and carries a rather clean appearance. In contrast with this character of higher social status we have the car dealer called Pikey, a boy, and his wife who are below the social class bar but do not seem to be bothered by how they are living their daily lives.
Tommy uses higher class dialect when he addresses "Mr. O'neil'" whereas the actual character himself tells him to call him Pikey in a very familiar, considered lower class dialect. You could say that Tommy is trying to introduce himself as a respected individual in hopes that that will influence his argument for a reasonable price for the car. Throughout this scene, the car dealers and other characters are speaking in a very fast, and familiar dialect, trying to confuse Tommy and "push" him into buying a car. In this scene, you may notice that there are more 'lower class' characters in comparison to 'high class' characters. Tommy, the higher arch is put in an uncomfortable setting, where they Pikey's dialect has a higher level of dominance over that specific community, meaning that the more people you have around you speaking in the same way as you, the more power that specific language has.
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