A public language: some sociological implications of a linguistic form

Abstract

YN AN EARLIER PAPER an attempt was made to show a | relationship between two forms of linguistic expression and the way Xrelationships to objects were established.l It was argued that one form of language use, called a public language, facilitated thinking of a descriptive order and sensitivity to a particular form of social interaction. In the earlier paper a public language was discussed with reference to its use by the unskilled and semi-skilled strata, but approximations to a public language may well be spoken in such widely separated groups as criminal sub-cultures, rural groups, armed forces and adolescent groups in particular situations. Characteristics of a public language are: 2 I. Short, grammatically simple, often unfinished sentences, a poor syntactical construction with a verbal form stressing the active mood. 2. Simple and repetitive use of conjunctions (so, then, and, because). 3. Frequent use of short commands and questions. 4. Rigid and limited use of adjectives and adverbs. 5. Infrequent use of impersonal pronouns as subjects (one, it). 6. Statements formulated as implicit questions which set up a sympathetic circularity, e.g. 'Just fancy?', 'It's only natural, isn't it?' 'I wouldn't have believed it.' 7. A statement offact is often used as both a reason and a conclusion, or more accurately, the reason and conclusion are confounded to produce a categoric statement, e.g. 'Do as I tell you', 'Hold on tight', 'You're not going out', 'Lay of that'. 8. Individual selection from a group of idiomatic phrases will frequently be found. 9. Symbolism is of a low order of generality. IO. The individual qualification is implicit in the sentence structure, therefore it is a language of implicit meaning. It is believed that this fact determi-'es the form of the language.