Re: mock linguistic play an (fwd)

Angel M.Y. Lin (mylin who-is-at oise.on.ca)
Thu, 7 Dec 1995 01:55:17 -0500 (EST)

Dear fellow xmca'ers, Geoff posted me this message, which I think would
be of interest to you, too; so, I'm reposting it to you. Cheers, Angel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 7 Dec 1995 09:43:02 U
From: Geoffrey Williams <geoffrey.williams who-is-at english.su.edu.au>
To: "Angel M.Y. Lin" <mylin who-is-at oise.on.ca>
Subject: Re: mock linguistic play an

Reply to: RE>>mock linguistic play and

Angel
The most recent published formulation of BB's coding orientation theory is in
Class, codes and control Volume 4. Volume 1 was his very earliest
formulation, and it has changed a great deal. Some of the linguistic
descriptions there are quite crude, and Bernstein has subsequently withdrawn,
or extensively modified them. In North America his views were reductively and
inaccurately discussed by Labov in 'The logic of nonstandard English', and
that seems to be all many people know of his work. But I find it much more
helpful for thinking about social class and language variation in many ways
than Bourdieu.

The idea of linguistic play as subversion is a familiar one in children's
literature, where some of the analyses are parallel to the one you proposed.

In the metalanguage development project here, which I mentioned in an earlier
post, we find play is central to children as they 'take on' metalinguistic
description. Interestingly, when they can use the metadescriptions for
critical purposes they often play derisively with the texts they are
critiqueing. I am sure this is related to their sense of power in the new
discursive practices.
Geoff