The Queen's English

As Conley pointed out in our first reading assignment, authority to speak is an ancient concept. Pierre Bourdieu's text Language & Symbolic Power delves into the complexities of this authority through a discussion of what linguistics does and does not accomplish; as a science scrutinizing the power and structure of language.

While Bourdieu examines the intricacies of a dominant language and the social, cultural, and economic layers that evolve from such capital, he dismisses "the ambiguity of Marxist theory" (243) of class. His text states the obvious, those who do no speak the dominant language do not benefit from the capital spin-off. Couched in Marxist vocabulary (product, class, capital, etc.) Bourdieu structures his argument that class struggle is more than just an economic phenomenon.

Religious, educational, political, and economic structures are some of the ways in which domination is perpetuated by the manipulation of language through exclusion guaranteeing a lack of success (attaining capital) of those dominated. For example, educational systems (structures) serve "to impose recognition of the legitimate language" (49). This practice devalues dialects and those who speak them. Bordieu identifies mastering the dominant language as "linguistic capital". The educational systems established to educate, commit in Bordieu's words, "acts of violence" against those who speak dialect, reducing to silence those who fail its mastery.

My English friend, Maureen, tells of being hit with a ruler in school whenever she slipped into the Geordie dialect of Northumberland and stopped speaking "the Queen's English". As noted by Bordieu, most of the students in this structure would drop out of school. "The competence adequate to produce sentences that are likely to be understood may be quite inadequate to produce sentences that are likely to be listened to" (55)-not much use for the Queen's English in the coal mines and ship yards. Thus, the dominated Geordies became "accomplices" in their own lack of success by failing to obtain linguistic capital in a system designed to reaffirm the superiority of the dominant language.

I witnessed the Queen opening a sports center in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Resplendent in a pastel suit and matching broad-rimmed hat, shoes and purse,the gloved Elizabeth cashed in her symbolic capital as the Geordie children curtsied and presented bouquets. The standard bearer of regal authority spoke "the Queen's English" and committed her act of violence on the cheering crowd who became her devalued accomplices.