Bourdieu (1984, 1986, 1990) has proposed that language is symbolic. As Western domination has led to the accreditation of English globally, English is bestowed power through price formation and redefined as marketable skills in exchange for other items such as monetary rewards and higher socioeconomic status.
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English is viewed as linguistic capital. Bourdieu’s theories allow theoretical accounts for why English is favored in the society. Nonetheless, Bourdieu’s theory could not account for cases of English being dispreferred in private contexts. In other words, Bourdieu focuses on standard forms used in formal contexts and overlooks the fact that speakers are equally pressured to accommodate to vernaculars or local languages even in private contexts (Woolard 1985). The section is thus aimed at accounting for the sociolinguistic profile of English in Taiwan with the theoretical frameworks by Bourdieu and also commenting on the insufficiency of the model to reason the dispreference of English in local contexts.
6.3.1 English as linguistic capital
Adopting theoretical frameworks by Bourdieu, the study suggests that English is highly favored in formal and public contexts. The notion that English has instrumental values is deeply-rooted. In the previous two chapters, it has been presented with excerpts from both English users and non-English users that English is thought to enhance one’s competitiveness in labor markets. Moreover, symbolic values of English surpass its actual use. These observations demonstrate that English is viewed as linguistic capital, the accumulated labor that can later be transformed into economic values (Bourdieu 1984, 1986).
Excerpts (37a) and (37b) below are reproduced from (6) and (7) in Section 4.1.
Both Violet and Egan are non-English users. When they were inquired about disadvantages brought by incompetence, they directly associated English to the competitiveness of their professions in workplace.
(37)
a. VIOLET 在職場上會吃虧 (03:54)
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‘You are relatively deprived in workplace.’
b. 3 EGAN 我覺得 (.) 覺得 (.) 競爭能力比較差一點
‘I feel I am less competitive in workplace.’
4 覺得 (.) 有時候 (.) 如果有更好的機會的話
‘Sometimes when I am offered better chances,’
5 ANN 嗯嗯
‘Hmm.’
6 EGAN 我就沒辦法去 (.) 例如說出國去怎樣怎樣
‘I can’t take the offer and got abroad, for example.’
7 比較沒辦法去爭取這些
‘I am in a less privileged position to fight for these chances.’
Using chikui ‘at a disadvantage’, cha ‘bad’, and meibanfa ‘have no way to’, Violet and Egan were suggesting that incompetence places them at a less privileged position where they may not be able to fight for chances. English is thought to play a make-or-break role career-wise.
English is linguistic capital which must be acquired through long disposition.
When English is a linguistic capital, it can be transformed into economic one.
Therefore, English has economic values. In non-English speaking countries like Taiwan, competence in English can mean better-paid occupations. In these sense, English can be marketed under the new forms of consumer economy, the knowledge economy as termed by Heller (1999, 2003, 2010). Heller proposes commodification of language to account for the marketing of language and the authenticity constructed on language in tourism and globalization. In Heller’s definition, a commodified language is redefined as measurable skills which could be sold. Based on Heller’s definition, commodification of language should refer to the marketing of both English and indigenous languages. Yet, commodification of language is found to describe the marketing of indigenous languages only. Seldom are the economic values of English connected to the term when the definition should work for both the global language
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and local languages. The study is unable to go further with the interesting observation.
It requires further exploration to account for the issue and the relations between capital of language and commodification.
6.3.2 English as a marker
English as linguistic capital can exist in embodied states to reproduce itself and to generate profit (Bourdieu 1986). The majority of the population in Taiwan is non-English users and the number of English users remains relatively small. The contrasting number of English users and non-English users showed that English as linguistic capital is unequally distributed. Consequently, ownership of English is able to make social distinctions. English indexes to social attributes which frame the person’s position in social stratification and expect the person to behave in a way that conforms to norms in social hierarchy. Competence in English is a marker which indexes to social differentiations. To be more specific, competence in English connotes and regulates how its users should behave. Excerpt (38) is edited and reproduced from (12) in Section 4.1.
(38)
11 SHANE 我還是一樣
‘I still dislike him.’
12 所以我一直強調我還是討厭他
‘So I keep emphasizing that I despise him.’
13 就英文而言的話
‘When it comes to English,’
14 他講的是不錯
‘he does speak it well.’
15 可是我不會因為他講 (.) 會講英文
‘But even though he speaks English,’
16 我對他那種 (.) 那個事件 (.) 然後就 (.) 就 (.) 有加分什麼
‘I won’t start to like him all of a sudden after the scandals.’
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17 沒有
‘Nope!’
18 還是很 (.) 反而更 (.) 更減分
‘On the contrary, it makes me disdain him even more.’
19 這種人然後還做這件事
‘He speaks perfect English and gets involved with scandals.’
20 高學歷份子還這樣
‘How could a well-educated person behave like this?’
The excerpt shows that Shane was surprised to find that a scandal-stricken celebrity speaks articulated English. Shane remarked that the fact the celebrity speaks good English made him disdain the celebrity even more (line 18). The fact that Shane believed the celebrity to be well-educated (line 20) showed that English is thought to connect with education. The correlation between the two has been discussed and commented on. It can be seen that English is perceived to be related to education and high morality and that English is a marker which individuals rationalize to evaluate its speakers.
6.3.3 Public market values and private market values
Bourdieu’s theoretical framework could perfectly account for English as linguistic capital in public and formal markets. Yet, the theoretical frameworks could not explain the phenomenon in which English is undesired and English users are stressed not to breach the linguistic norms, as discussed in Section 5.3. Woolard (1985) criticizes Bourdieu’s frameworks for the fact that it overlooks non-standard languages and vernaculars in less formal contexts. In Bourdieu’s term, speakers are pressured to speak the more standard form in formal and public markets, but are relatively free from the tension in private ones. Woolard argues that it is equally demanding for speakers to adjust their styles to both public and private markets. The discrepancies
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between public and private market values have also been observed in the study.
Excerpts (25) and (28) are represented as (39a) and (39b) respectively below.
(39)
a. 1 GABRIELLA 聊天也會啊
‘I codeswitch while chatting.’
((omitted))
5 GABRIELLA 聊天加英文 (.) 真的很像撂什麼英文 ((laughs))
‘Chatting with English words mixes is just like showing off.’
6 ROCCO 你以為你是老[外啊(.) ABC 啊]
‘Do you think that you are a foreigner, or Taiwanese-American?’
7 SHARON [you know 啊 (.) yes 啊] (.) 就是英文
‘Like you know and yes, they are English.’
((omitted))
→ 21 ROCCO 怎樣 (.) 你們是 (.) 這麼國際觀喔
‘What’s wrong with you guys being oh so international?’
b. 15 IVY 對 (.) 然後我有隱隱約約的覺得他
‘Yeah. I could sense that
16 並沒有很高興說我的 (.) 我就是打英文 (.) 這樣子
‘he wasn’t too happy that I typed in English.’’
It can be seen that the use of English is constructed by contexts and addressees. In private contexts, the use of English invokes negative perceptions therefore English users are pressured to consciously refrain themselves from speaking English. What can be concluded here is that conforming to private market values are no less prevailing and demanding than meeting public market values.