Language Crossing by B. Rampton - Assignment Example

SUMMARY Rampton focused on language crossing. He defines the term as the use of language of a certain group or ethnicity but generally belongs to another group. It was an established international practice that fore grounded inherited ethnicity itself. After doing a study about the everyday language of a certain adolescent friendship groups, he was able to list down two findings. Rampton (1995) found that the speakers moved outside the language varieties they normally used and they briefly adapted codes which they didn’t have full and easy access to and that these appropriations of someone else’s language occurred in moments and activities when the world of daily life known in common with others and with others taken for granted. These findings have important implications on the ethnic process and the way social identities are negotiated in interactional code-switching. (p.135). According to Cutler (2005), Rampton’s book describes how groups of multiracial adolescents in a British working-class community mix their use of Creole, Panjabi and Asian English. Rampton found that language crossing, in many instances, constitutes an anti-racist practice and is emblematic of young people striving to redefine their identities. The young people he studied used this mixed code to contest racial boundaries and assert a new “de-racinated” ethnicity. (Language Crossing- Borrowing Identity, para. 2). Rampton also cited in his book the two types of code-switching namely situational and figurative. Situational code-switching is a standard speech that indicates a shift in a certain situation while figurative code-switching or double-voicing describes the way that utterances can be affected by a plurality of competing languages, discourse and voices.(Bakhtin, 1984). Under figurative code-switching are metaphorical code-switching (uni-directional) and ironic code-switching (vari-directional). Rampton defines metaphorical code-switching as a switching that introduces varieties of speech that is harder for the recipients to understand. It is uni-directional because speakers go along with the momentum of the second voice, thought it generally retains an element of otherness which makes the appropriation conditional and introduce some reservation into the speakers’ use of it. On the other hand, ironic code-switching (vari-directional) is a speech in which the speaker speaks in someone else’s discourse, but introduce into that discourse a semantic intention directly opposed to the original one. Language crossing is the foreground of ethnicity. Rampton focused more on the manner of mouthing of words using code-switching. These are more popular among the adolescent because of the in-group feeling that they share if they share the same language even it is not their own. Rampton on the other hand was not able to gather data on language crossing of other English speaking countries which should have been part of the study especially now that English is a Universal Language. Cameron on the other hand focused on metaphor in everyday language. She defines the term as a matter of both language and thought in which it is identified within phrase and sentences through some clear disjunction between the two parts namely, the topic and the vehicle. Metaphor has evolved through time from the simple figure of speech until it became as a conceptual metaphor due to the Metaphors We Live By that was published by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980. According to Cameron (1990), a conceptual metaphor appears in language through a range of linguistic expressions which includes the basic ways we have of seeing and physically interacting with the world. (p. 46). Now metaphor can be seen in everyday language due to its cognitive level including the novel and the active metaphors. There are at least three characteristic features of a metaphor especially in classroom talk. These are deliberate, conventionalized, and personifying or animating metaphors. According to OPPapers.com (2010), Cameron’s article supports the idea that metaphor is not simply a creative form of language that individuals may or may not employ, but an inherent part of the cognitive processes that individuals must go through in thought and subsequent speech. When we speak we firstly think of what we are trying to say and the idea that we wish to express and these thought processes access our own personal bank of ideas and language that we have built up over our life times. People from the same cultures and backgrounds will have access to a shared language and this will impact their own stores of figurative language. Just as people from different cultures will have a different cognitive bank of language there will also be individual differences that will be affected by each individual’s personal history. (Metaphor in Everyday Language, para. 2). Cameron (1990) also stated the reasons why people use metaphor nowadays. Most of them are cognitive metaphors because these metaphors use lexical terms that are commonly use. She enumerated three reasons. First, the use of metaphor is a communicative tool that one could find in an interaction that has communication problems to solve. Next, it helps in expressing ideas that concerns with emotions. Last, it is use to lessen threat usually into humorous form of interaction. On the contrary, the use of it has some criticisms. First is the unexplained connection between individual minds and conceptual metaphor. Next is the role of culture in the development of conceptual metaphor has been ignored. Last is the methodological problem of labeling conceptual metaphor. At the same time, it also has limits. The non-metaphorical conceptualization is restricted to direct physical experience of the world and too broad metaphors would be of little use in theory of development. (p. 51). In contrast to Rampton, Cameron used the modern conversational English in her study. One could easily relate to it since she also used an everyday situations that you could find almost everywhere like the classroom setting and the visit to the doctor. The approach is clearly defined because of the examples she used in the study. Even the examples are very common unlike the one that Rampton wrote in his book. He did not use common examples that one could relate even that person did not came from the community of the said group of study. CHOSEN SELECTION: Metaphor in Everyday Language Cameron focused on metaphor in everyday language. She defines the term as a matter of both language and thought in which it is identified within phrase and sentences through some clear disjunction between the two parts namely, the topic and the vehicle. Metaphor has evolved through time from the simple figure of speech until it became as a conceptual metaphor due to the Metaphors We Live By that was published by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980. According to Cameron (1990), a conceptual metaphor appears in language through a range of linguistic expressions which includes the basic ways we have of seeing and physically interacting with the world. (p. 46). Now metaphor can be seen in everyday language due to its cognitive level including the novel and the active metaphors. Cameron (1990) also stated the reasons why people use metaphor nowadays. Most of them are cognitive metaphors because these metaphors use lexical terms that are commonly use. She enumerated three reasons. First, the use of metaphor is a communicative tool that one could find in an interaction that has communication problems to solve. Next, it helps in expressing ideas that concerns with emotions. Last, it is use to lessen threat usually into humorous form of interaction. On the contrary, the use of it has some criticisms. First is the unexplained connection between individual minds and conceptual metaphor. Next is the role of culture in the development of conceptual metaphor has been ignored. Last is the methodological problem of labeling conceptual metaphor. At the same time, it also has limits. The non-metaphorical conceptualization is restricted to direct physical experience of the world and too broad metaphors would be of little use in theory of development. (p. 51). In contrast to Rampton, Cameron used the modern conversational English in her study. One could easily relate to it since she also used an everyday situations that you could find almost everywhere like the classroom setting and the visit to the doctor. The approach is clearly defined because of the examples she used in the study. Even the examples are very common unlike the one that Rampton wrote in his book. He did not use common examples that one could relate even that person did not came from the community of the said group of study. Cameron’s study is very relevant nowadays. Aside from the reasons she listed why people need to use metaphor, it also added to my knowledge that metaphor are not only for poets but for all the people now living in the modern world. I became aware that those words and phrase that I am using including technical words like the computer terms are all metaphors. It is a very good reading since it raises the awareness of the people reading it. The only concern is that since she already listed the criticism, she should have at least give recommendations in order to address the issue. In that way, it will not be just a study but also a solution to the problems she raised in her research. REFERENCES: Cutler, Cecilia. (2005). Language Crossing- Borrowing Identity. Do you Speak American? http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prestige/crossing Metaphor in Everyday Language. (2010). http//www.oppapers.com/essays/Metaphor-In-Everyday-Language/366326 E301-The art of English. Open University Course. (2010). http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/e301.htm Read More