The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes

In Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw deals with the social function of language (linguistic competence) as one of the markers of social status and as a source of social power. Pygmalion’s plot revolves around the linguistic idea of the critical period hypothesis. The linguist in the play bets that the...

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Main Authors:	Pirnajmuddin, Hossein, Shahpoori Arani, Fatemeh
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2013
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6582/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6582/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6582/1/2385-9491-2-PB.pdf

id	ukm-6582
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-65822016-12-14T06:41:36Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6582/ The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes Pirnajmuddin, Hossein Shahpoori Arani, Fatemeh In Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw deals with the social function of language (linguistic competence) as one of the markers of social status and as a source of social power. Pygmalion’s plot revolves around the linguistic idea of the critical period hypothesis. The linguist in the play bets that the phonetician cannot change the flower girl into a lady by teaching her a genteel language. The phonetician intends to flaunt his power and skill in fashioning a new ‘self’ for the florist girl through linguistic retraining, even though her ’critical period’ is over. Though this acculturation leads to a crisis of personality for the girl, Shaw’s play goes against the hypothesis of ‘critical period’ by showing the possibility of the language retraining of a grown-up girl. Drawing on the theories of Roland Barthes, this article examines the relation between education and the issues of social mobility and cultural codes in the class-conscious society of Pygmalion. Pygmalion could be read as indicating that culture does not come by nature and it is made of codes, which can be taught and learned. Shaw suggests that it is possible to educate lower class people in upper class cultural codes. Moreover, he demonstrates that culture is time-bound and the boundaries between lower and upper class cultural codes were fading at the time so that it was difficult to distinguish a real upper class agent from a fake one. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2013 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6582/1/2385-9491-2-PB.pdf Pirnajmuddin, Hossein and Shahpoori Arani, Fatemeh (2013) The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 19 (3). pp. 21-34. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/archive
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	In Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw deals with the social function of language (linguistic competence) as one of the markers of social status and as a source of social power. Pygmalion’s plot revolves around the linguistic idea of the critical period hypothesis. The linguist in the play bets that the phonetician cannot change the flower girl into a lady by teaching her a genteel language. The phonetician intends to flaunt his power and skill in fashioning a new ‘self’ for the florist girl through linguistic retraining, even though her ’critical period’ is over. Though this acculturation leads to a crisis of personality for the girl, Shaw’s play goes against the hypothesis of ‘critical period’ by showing the possibility of the language retraining of a grown-up girl. Drawing on the theories of Roland Barthes, this article examines the relation between education and the issues of social mobility and cultural codes in the class-conscious society of Pygmalion. Pygmalion could be read as indicating that culture does not come by nature and it is made of codes, which can be taught and learned. Shaw suggests that it is possible to educate lower class people in upper class cultural codes. Moreover, he demonstrates that culture is time-bound and the boundaries between lower and upper class cultural codes were fading at the time so that it was difficult to distinguish a real upper class agent from a fake one.
format	Article
author	Pirnajmuddin, Hossein Shahpoori Arani, Fatemeh
spellingShingle	Pirnajmuddin, Hossein Shahpoori Arani, Fatemeh The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes
author_facet	Pirnajmuddin, Hossein Shahpoori Arani, Fatemeh
author_sort	Pirnajmuddin, Hossein
title	The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes
title_short	The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes
title_full	The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes
title_fullStr	The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes
title_full_unstemmed	The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes
title_sort	play of codes and systems in pygmalion: bernard shaw and roland barthes
publisher	Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM
publishDate	2013
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6582/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6582/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6582/1/2385-9491-2-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:47:19Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:47:19Z
_version_	1777405986417410048

The play of codes and systems in pygmalion: Bernard Shaw and Roland Barthes

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