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Mock languages and symbolic power: the South African radio series Applesammy and Naidoo
Author(s) -
Mesthrie Rajend
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/1467-971x.00234
Subject(s) - symbolic power , linguistics , interlanguage , power (physics) , series (stratigraphy) , sociology , history , political science , politics , philosophy , law , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
This paper examines the text of a popular radio series in Natal in the 1940s, Applesammy and Naidoo by Ray Rich, with a view to adding to the historical data base on Indian South African English. In order to ascertain its reliability as a source of colloquial data a comparison is made between direct speech of the Indian characters in the series and tape recordings of pre‐basilectal speakers (the least proficient within Indian South African English). These comparisons reveal that although the radio series draws on constructions that do occur in the dialect/interlanguage of the times, the grammatical functions of these constructions are greatly distorted. Rather than illuminating early forms of the dialect in question, the text reveals more about the nature of linguistic stereotyping. This turns out to parallel social stereotyping, especially in the nature of the overgeneralisations involved. The term ‘mock language’ seems most appropriate for the parody under discussion (cf. Hill, 1993; Ronkin and Karn, 1999), which serves to reinforce relations of what Bourdieu describes as ‘symbolic power’.