Familiar versus Formal Language in Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack Monkey
Primary Faculty Mentor’s Name
Dr. Donald Pardlow
Proposal Track
Student
Session Format
Paper Presentation
Abstract
Culture and communication are intrinsically related. Languages develop or are created over time in heterogeneous cultures. Languages can be viewed as the cultural blueprints of particular societies. Members of such societies are cultured into their language and way of speaking by variables such as family, religion, education, or the general society.
In postcolonial Caribbean countries, the formal language of the colonizers (which becomes L3) is compared to the familiar, culturally developed dialects (L1), which are usually historical pidgins formed by this new clash of people (African slaves, Indian indentured laborers and white slave-owners) who mixed the lexicon of different languages in order to create a common language understandable to all parties. Despite history, there is a continuous thread of negativity attached to these creolized languages. The idea of the superiority of formal language gives rise to the belief that its speakers are twice as superior.
This paper explores Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack Monkey presents the dichotomy between formal and the familiar language. Hodge depicts dichotomy in her archetypal or symbolic characterization of Tantie and Aunt Beatrice who are always at strife. Tantie, who uses L1, is characterized as being lower class, living in a rural area, and uneducated, whereas Aunt Beatrice, who religiously uses L3, is educated, lives in the suburbs, and is from a higher economic class. Hodge also reveals flaws in the linguistic belief in the superiority of L3. Aunt Beatrice seems out of place in society; she may be educated, but Tantie is cultured.
In such societies, many are coerced to “speak English” and are castigated because of the lack of compliance to L1. Over time, this condescension is recycled through social institutions. This pressure to adapt often leads to linguistic phenomena such as code-switching, and hypercorrection.
Keywords
Postcolonialism, Language, dialect, Caribbean, pidgin
Award Consideration
1
Location
Room 2908
Presentation Year
2015
Start Date
11-7-2015 9:00 AM
End Date
11-7-2015 10:00 AM
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Payne, Crystal, "Familiar versus Formal Language in Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack Monkey" (2015). Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (2014-2015). 4.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gurc/2015/2015/4
Familiar versus Formal Language in Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack Monkey
Room 2908
Culture and communication are intrinsically related. Languages develop or are created over time in heterogeneous cultures. Languages can be viewed as the cultural blueprints of particular societies. Members of such societies are cultured into their language and way of speaking by variables such as family, religion, education, or the general society.
In postcolonial Caribbean countries, the formal language of the colonizers (which becomes L3) is compared to the familiar, culturally developed dialects (L1), which are usually historical pidgins formed by this new clash of people (African slaves, Indian indentured laborers and white slave-owners) who mixed the lexicon of different languages in order to create a common language understandable to all parties. Despite history, there is a continuous thread of negativity attached to these creolized languages. The idea of the superiority of formal language gives rise to the belief that its speakers are twice as superior.
This paper explores Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack Monkey presents the dichotomy between formal and the familiar language. Hodge depicts dichotomy in her archetypal or symbolic characterization of Tantie and Aunt Beatrice who are always at strife. Tantie, who uses L1, is characterized as being lower class, living in a rural area, and uneducated, whereas Aunt Beatrice, who religiously uses L3, is educated, lives in the suburbs, and is from a higher economic class. Hodge also reveals flaws in the linguistic belief in the superiority of L3. Aunt Beatrice seems out of place in society; she may be educated, but Tantie is cultured.
In such societies, many are coerced to “speak English” and are castigated because of the lack of compliance to L1. Over time, this condescension is recycled through social institutions. This pressure to adapt often leads to linguistic phenomena such as code-switching, and hypercorrection.
