Language and Class Representation

Social class is one of the most powerful — and most linguistically marked — social categories. How you speak, what words you use, and even how you pronounce individual sounds can all serve as indicators of social class, and language is central to how class is represented, reinforced, and contested. This lesson examines the relationship between language and class, the key theories, and how class is constructed through linguistic representation.

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What Is Social Class?

Social class is a system of social stratification based on factors including wealth, occupation, education, and cultural capital. While its precise definition is debated, class remains a significant social category with profound linguistic implications.

Class Category	Traditional Description	Linguistic Associations
Upper class	Aristocracy, inherited wealth	Received Pronunciation (RP), elaborate vocabulary, "U" speech
Upper middle class	Professionals, higher education	Near-RP, standard grammar, technical/specialist vocabulary
Lower middle class	White-collar workers, small business owners	Hypercorrection, aspiration towards prestige forms
Working class	Manual and service workers	Regional accents, non-standard grammar, vernacular vocabulary

Key Definition: Social stratification — the hierarchical organisation of society into groups based on socioeconomic factors; language both reflects and reinforces this hierarchy.

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U and Non-U

In 1954, the linguist Alan S. C. Ross published an influential article distinguishing between U (upper-class) and non-U (non-upper-class) vocabulary. The article was popularised by Nancy Mitford and became a cultural sensation.

U (Upper Class)	Non-U (Non-Upper Class)
Napkin	Serviette
Lavatory / loo	Toilet
Drawing room	Lounge / living room
Looking glass	Mirror
Pudding	Sweet / dessert
Writing paper	Notepaper
Sofa	Settee
Rich	Wealthy
Luncheon	Dinner (for the midday meal)

While these specific distinctions may seem dated, the underlying principle remains important: vocabulary choices function as class markers. People are judged — consciously and unconsciously — based on the words they use.

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Accent Prejudice and Linguistic Discrimination

Accent prejudice (also called accentism) refers to discrimination against people based on how they sound. Research consistently shows that speakers with certain accents are judged more or less favourably in terms of intelligence, trustworthiness, friendliness, and competence.

Key Research

Howard Giles (1970s onwards) conducted extensive research into language attitudes using the matched guise technique — playing recordings of the same speaker using different accents and asking listeners to evaluate the speaker's personality. Key findings include:

• RP speakers were rated higher for competence, intelligence, and ambition
• Regional accent speakers were rated higher for friendliness, warmth, and trustworthiness
• Urban accents (e.g., Birmingham, Liverpool) were rated lower than rural accents on most measures
• These ratings are based on social attitudes to the groups associated with the accents, not on any inherent quality of the accents themselves

Key Definition: Accent prejudice — prejudice or discrimination based on a person's accent, which functions as a proxy for discrimination based on social class, region, or ethnicity.

The Consequences of Accent Prejudice

Accent prejudice has real-world consequences:

• Employment discrimination — studies show that applicants with regional or working-class accents are less likely to be hired for professional positions
• Educational disadvantage — teachers may have lower expectations of children with stigmatised accents
• Legal proceedings — research suggests that accent can influence jury perceptions of credibility
• Media representation — certain accents are systematically associated with particular roles (e.g., RP for authority figures, regional accents for comic characters)

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Bourdieu's Linguistic Capital

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1991) developed the concept of linguistic capital as part of his broader theory of cultural capital. Linguistic capital refers to the ability to produce and use the forms of language that are valued in a given social context — particularly in education, the workplace, and other institutional settings.

Key Concepts

Concept	Definition	Relevance to Class
Linguistic capital	The ability to produce language that is valued in a particular social field	Speakers of Standard English and RP possess greater linguistic capital in education and professional settings
Symbolic violence	The imposition of dominant cultural norms (including linguistic norms) as though they were natural and universal	Working-class speakers are judged as deficient when their language is measured against middle-class norms
Linguistic market	The social context in which language is exchanged and valued	Standard English is the "currency" of education, law, and professional life
Habitus	The set of dispositions, including linguistic habits, that a person acquires through socialisation	Class-based language patterns are deeply embedded and difficult to change

Bourdieu's key insight is that what counts as "correct" or "good" language is not determined by any intrinsic linguistic quality but by power — the language of the dominant class becomes the standard against which all other varieties are measured.

Key Definition: Linguistic capital — the value attributed to particular ways of speaking and writing in a given social context; Standard English and RP carry high linguistic capital in British institutional settings (Bourdieu, 1991).

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Deficit vs. Difference: The Bernstein Debate