Language Variation Identified in Downton Abbey

Abstract： This paper aims to identify and justify a sociolinguistic issue， language variation according to different contexts and addressees， reflected in an episode of Downton Abbey， a British-American television series which depicts the life of the aristocratic Crawley family and their household servants in the early 1900s. At the beginning of the body part， the issue is illustrated through the description of the settings where related conversations take place. Then， rationales of introducing such a sociolinguistic issue will be presented in the following section.

Keywords： language variation， addressees， contexts， communicative competence， academic writings

Two scenes in this episode draw our attention to language variation according to different contexts and addressees： Lady Rose MacClare being presented to King George V and Harold greeting Prince of Wales in the ball （see Appendix I）. In the first scene， formal language is expected and used by Lady Rose because the conversation between Lady Rose and the King occurs in a formal occasion and there is social distance between them. It can be seen that she speaks in complete sentences with complex structures. For instance， the use of “was honored to” and the adverbial clause “wherever he went” makes her speech more formal. Besides， she carefully chooses learned words such as “entertain”， “splendidly” and addresses the King “your majesty” in her first sentence and “sir” in the second one. Such a proper adoption of formal language according to context and addressee of Lady Rose contribute to the smooth of the conversation. However， in the second scene， the Prince of Wales expects others to speak formally to him to show respects while Harold Levinson greets him with informal language to cotton up with him by uttering “How do you do？ Harold Levinson.” At last， this conversation ends up with embarrassment because Harold omits “I am” when introducing his name.

The above two scenes reveal the significance of varying language use according to addresses and contexts. For ESL （English as a Second Language） learners， it is beneficial to know how to vary the language variety or code in different social settings to better fulfill their communicative purposes， which is an indication of communicative competence. Communicative competence refers to the underlying systems of knowledge and skills required for communication such as knowledge of vocabulary and skills in using the sociolinguistics conventions for a given language （Canale & Swain， 1980）. In addition， it is important for ESL learners to know that linguistic choices can be influenced by factors such as the social distance and relative status between interlocutors and the formality of the context （Holmes， 2013）. Therefore， introducing the notion of language variation according to different settings and addressee to ESL learners can expand their communicative repertoire and enhance their communicative competence.

To be more specific， imparting this notion to ESL learners enables them to distinguish the difference between formal and informal contexts and choose proper words and sentence structures in different settings which will hopefully promote their writing and speaking skills. For example， writing emails to teachers to consult some academic issues is totally different from writing diaries for recording daily life. In formal academic writings， words or phrases like “okay” “say sorry to” and “a lot of” should be avoided since these words are too casual and informal to make the academic materials convincing. This academic writing capacity is essential to ESL learners’ academic and career development. Delpit （2006） suggests that the ability to balance formal and informal writing will help develop the awareness of their distinctions and appropriate contexts. Likewise， communicating with teachers at school is also different from talking with intimate friends in that too formal language will distance the relationship between interlocutors if they are close friends. While too informal language will cause awkward situations if the two speakers have different social status. Therefore， a qualified second language learner should choose appropriate words in different contexts to make their language production united and cohesive.

To summarize， this paper highlights the significance of language variations applied in different contexts and accordingly provides students with opportunities to practice using the language through task-based language teaching. It also indicates that language should not only be taught to students on the linguistic dimension， but also linguistics on social dimensions ought to be introduced. More importantly， students are anticipated to strengthen their awareness of relating sociolinguistic issues to daily communication scenarios through such guided teaching. Only in this way can learners have enough competence to cope with changeable contexts where they are expected to make the right choice of language.

References

[1]Canale， M.， & Swain， M. （1980）. Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing. Applied Linguistics. London： Oxford University Press.

[2]Delpit， L. D. （2006）. Other people’s children （2nd ed.）. New York， NY： The New Press.

[3]Holmes， J. （2013）. An introduction to sociolinguistics （4th edition）. London & New York： Routledge.

[4]Swain， M. （2005）. The output hypothesis： Theory and research. Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning， 1， 471-483.

Appendix

Movie Clips transcription

1. 34'26''-35'30'' Lady Rose MacClare meet King George V

Guard： The Countess of Grantham presenting the Lady Rose MacClare.

Prince of Wales： Lady Rose is Lord Flintshire’s daughter， sir.

King George V： Ah！ The Prince of Wales has spoken about your father’s hospitality in Bombay.

Lady Rose MacClare： He was honoured to entertain his royal highness， your majesty.

King George V： The Indian tour was a great success， thanks to Lord Flintshire.

Lady Rose MacClare： The prince did splendidly， sir. He was so popular wherever he went.

King George V： Yes. The prince is never short of popularity. Lady Grantham.

2.39’35”-40’00’’ Harold meet Prince of Wales

Harold： How do you do？ Harold Levinson.

Prince of Wales： You’re mistaken， sir. I’m not Harold Levinson， whoever he may be.

Harold： Er， no， no， no. I’m Harold Levinson.

Prince of Wales： And why did you say I was.