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- Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
- Sprache: Englisch
Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2007 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 10,00, University of Bucharest, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relation which can be established between language and stereotyping as a socio-cognitive process. With this purpose in mind, what I will try to do is to analyze the linguistic material – consisting of a corpus made up of vocabulary for nicknames, forms of address, collocations, and expressions, on the one hand, and the proverbs on the other) so as to justify the way in which the stereotypical image of some of the groups (the Rroma, the Jews, the Turks, the Greeks, and the Hungarians), which represent or have represented ethnic minorities in Romania throughout the centuries, is delineated.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010
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1 Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relation which can be established between language and stereotyping as a socio-cognitive process. With this purpose in mind, I will try to do is to analyse the linguistic material - consisting of a corpus made up of vocabulary for nicknames, forms of address, collocations, and expressions, on the one hand, and the proverbs on the other so as to justify the way in which the stereotypical image of some of the groups (the Rroma, the Jews, the Turks, the Greeks, and the Hungarians), which represent or have represented ethnic minorities in Romania throughout the centuries, is delineated. It is not within the scope of this paper to provide a holistic image of the discussed phenomenon, because each community develops its own set of verbal clichés which encode different specific mental stereotypes, according to their own history of mentalities, and to their ingroup - outgroup relations. The main purpose of my corpus-based analysis to focus on the peculiar traits of the Romanian language to encapsulate otherness, and emphasize outgroup ethnicity. Still, comparisons with other languages will be drawn.
Chapter 2 the focus will be on some of the pioneering work related to stereotyping, with a special subsection dedicated to Lippmann, the founding father of the concept of stereotyping. A review of his main tenets will be provided, as most of them can still be found today in most of the research conducted on stereotypes. In Chapter 3 the possible types of relation between the self and the group will be discussed mostly in the light of Simon Bernd’s 1997 theory on the self. I consider that it is essential to provide such insights because, in order to understand the formation of stereotypes, it is necessary to take both individual and group interests into account.
In Chapter 4 I will discuss some aspects related to stereotype formation. The literature dedicated to this topic is extremely rich, and I have chosen to focus on the approaches which have proved particularly enlightening for the understanding of the
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mechanism which lies behind the formation of stereotypes in general, and ethnic stereotypes in the case of the present study. Therefore, concepts such as ethnocentrism, illusory correlation, outgroup homogeneity, or categorization are discussed in distinct subsections.
Chapter 5 will consist of a review of the main aspects relating language and stereotyping, followed by a corpus-based analysis of the linguistic material indicative of stereotypical perceptions of several ethnic groups such as: the Rroma, the Jews, the Turks, the Greeks, and the Hungarians.
Finally, some conclusions will be drawn and the major findings will be highlighted.
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2 The Coordinates of Stereotype Thinking
Social life ceaselessly generates impressions. We are struck by the attractiveness of a woman passing by. We are irritated by the sloth of the old person in front of us at the post office. We are puzzled by the unexpected behaviour of our partner. Or we are looking forward to meeting a politician at a reception. Many of these impressions are affected by the way we perceive other people, be it as individuals or as groups. Even before we meet these people, we have an idea of what they will look like, how they will behave and how we will react towards them. We have expectations about how attractive an average woman is, so we can notice the difference with the woman passing by. We have preconceptions about the speed by which older people move and we might get irritated by the older person in front of us, even if he or she does not move any slower than the younger person in the other line. We expect our partner to be kind and understanding and we are upset if he or she reacts otherwise. And we might have assumptions about how pleasant the interaction with the politician will be, based on our preconceived idea that politicians should be extroverted.
In social interactions it is important to know whom and what we are dealing with. Will this person be kind and thoughtful to me or should I protect myself against their outlash? Will this group of people understand what I say, or should I adjust my message? Although in most situations, physical survival is not at risk, yet psychological survival may be and information about others could be useful. Nevertheless, in a world that teeming with information, we cannot remember everything about everyone. To avoid information overload, we have developed all sorts of skills to organize information into simplified and systematically ordered patterns, such as social categories. These categories make it easier to know whom we are dealing with, since we only have to know to discover to what group a person belongs to, a clue enabling us to choose how to behave towards him or her. His or her group membership may offer an overwhelming amount of information that we can successfully use then when interacting with this person. The simplified and
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systematically ordered information about a group that is stored in memory can be referred to as a stereotype.
Traditional views define stereotypes is frozen, solidified concepts, preestablished constructs. The term comes from the Greek wordsstereosandtúpos.Literally translated “stereos” means rigid, solid or firm, and “túpos” means trace, impression or model. Indeed, in most definitions of stereotypes given in the literature such properties prevail. For instance, Allport defines stereotypes as “a fixed idea that accompanies the category” (1954: 191). Similarly, in their dictionary of psychological terms English and English refer to stereotypes as “a relatively rigid and oversimplified or biased perception or conception of an aspect of reality, especially of persons or social groups”(1958: 253). Lippmann also notes that stereotypes are relatively fixed, as in his view, they are related to personal values: “No wonder, then, that any disturbance of the stereotypes seems like an attack upon the foundations of the universe” (1922, p. 95).
A distinction needs to be operated between a stereotype and other terms that refer to something that is pre-established and assimilated in the collective mentality, being disseminated with a certain consistency. In all studies carried out in sociology, linguistics, social psychology specialists ran into the matter of thinking in stereotypes. Psychologists consider that stereotyping is a natural process that is a part of the evolution of human cognition.
To achieve a full understanding of stereotypes and stereotyping it is essential to know why we distinguish between groups, and consequently which aspects entitle us to distinguish between groups. It is therefore necessary to consider not only the cognitive aspects, but also the socio-cultural and motivation-related features of stereotypes.
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2.1 Lippmann's view
Back in 1922, Lippmann who introduced the concept in hisPublic Opinion,conceived of stereotypes as a complex phenomenon. According to Lippmann, stereotypes are complex structures, they fulfil several key functions and are acquired through life from different sources and through various means of dissemination. To some extent, we shape our beliefs about group members and ethnic groups on the basis of what we see but to a remarkably greater extent, we acquire and reinforce such beliefs on the basis of what we are taught to see. Stereotypes fulfil the function of simplifying a complex reality and this simplification is made on grounds of values shared in the culture in which we are socialized. Lippmann argues that: “…it is not merely a way of substituting order for the great blooming, buzzing confusion of reality. It is not merely a short cut. It is all these things and more. It is the guarantee of our self-respect; it is the projection upon the world of our own sense of our own value, our own positions and our own rights. The stereotypes are, therefore, highly charged with feelings that are attached to them. They are the fortress of our tradition, and behind its defenses we can continue to feel ourselves safe in the position we occupy” (Lippmann 1922: 64).
The concept of stereotype as introduced by Lippmann in 1922 is still being used today within social psychology. The most valuable aspect of his theorizing about stereotyping is that he stressed the importance of the simultaneous working of three factors: motivation, cognition and society. The main assumption is that what people do does not derive from direct and unquestionable knowledge, but from mental pictures that are either made by themselves or are taught to them. His widely used expression “pictures in our head” strikingly resembles the notion of “schema” as used nowadays. He calls these pictures people acquire of themselves, others, their needs, purposes, and relationships, “publicopinions”.People cannot do without those pictures, so he claims, because:
