Laurens uses sociolect and variations of idiolect to achieve covert prestige. Lauren and her friends respond to the teacher in unison with the word ‘awwrite.’ The sociolect shows elision and it also shows that a stereotypical ‘chav’ shows disrespect and they act together; to intimidate and show authority. The teacher tries to defend his authority by saying ‘just Lauren,’ in order to separate them. This allows Lauren to display her covert prestige hence she responds with repetition – ‘awwrite.’ This shows that Lauren has the highest authority in her ‘gang’; the humorous element of this, is her attitude towards the teacher breaks politeness principles because Lauren doesn’t respond with the appropriate formality – ‘sir.’ It forces the teacher into a corner and Lauren gives the teacher a bad first impression. The variation of sociolect used by both stereotypes is used for humour.
Further into the transcript, the teacher employs non-standard forms of vocabulary but whereas Lauren used convergence for comic effect, the teacher inadvertently uses convergence as a sign of frustration. This is seen by his use of ‘gonna’ and ‘c’mon’ as they are both elision. This is atypical of a teacher as they are expected to use Standard English however, in this transcript; the audience know that Lauren has caused the teacher to use it which makes it funnier.
The use of discourse markers characterises the teacher’s stereotype. He uses it in response to Lauren using ‘whilst,’ this shows power as it shows planned speech. It’s used later again when he uses a face-threatening act against Lauren. As shown by, ‘right, that’s it young lady,’ the effect of the ‘right’ and ‘whilst’ is that it produces emphasis on the following phrases which shows reassertion of authority and the ‘young lady’ shows he is telling her he is older and therefore he possesses the higher authority. Teachers have higher authority than students but the sketch shows that the socially stereotyped Lauren defies ‘normal’ expectations and therefore tells the audience something humorous will follow which in effect does.
Lauren uses value-laden vocabulary to emphasise the strength of her utterances. This can mainly be seen through the use of Lauren’s sociolect differs from that of the teachers as the teacher addresses Lauren by name whereas Lauren addresses the teacher not by ’sir’ but by ‘you.’ Lauren asks the teacher, ‘are U a geek?’ The emphasis on the ‘U’ is a play on the teacher’s jargon, which is used to show position; the teacher is presented with a face-threatening act as he is issued a challenge directly. The topic shift shows she is gaining authority. The effect of the pronoun you on the teacher is that he is given no options and he is forced into a corner by Lauren.
Typical classroom speak is used in the transcript. Examples are ‘What on earth do you think you are doing?’ and ‘if you’ve got something to say, why don’t you tell the whole class?’ This shows the topic of the conversation and how this affects the conversation. It’s humorous as well because Lauren defies these conventions. Lauren dominates more than teacher is expected to. Moreover, Lauren makes a face-threatening act when she says ‘is it?’ This is negative back-channelling as it’s almost challenging. The teacher responds with ‘yes. It is.’ This is a counter-challenge as it’s mocking her. The conflict of the differing stereotypes provides a humorous element to the sketch.
The teacher asks questions such as ‘what about Ca?’ This represents his authority as he is controlling the topic shift however later in the conversation Lauren starts to gain control as she controls the topic shift. Though, the teacher attempts a topic loop by saying ‘Ba. Lauren.’ Lauren seizes control by playing on the teacher’s jargon by saying ‘But are you a geek though?’
The structure of the transcript reflects the stereotypes of both characters. The convention is that longer interchanges have authority but the sketch defies this for comic effect. This can be seen by the adjacency pairs and turn-taking in the transcript. Lauren’s stereotype uses shorter interchanges for aggressiveness but the teacher’s stereotype makes him use longer interchanges. An example of this is ‘M I bovvered though.’ The teacher shows a lack of authority here as he doesn’t question her impudence but moves on saying ‘Ru.’ The adjacency pair here shows that Lauren has more authority as her statement is more powerful. She defies politeness theory by Lakoff by disobeying turn-taking laws.
The normal conventions of a classroom say that speech will either be question and answer or corroboration. A teacher’s purpose is to educate students; longer interrogative utterances will be used. Here, Lauren acquires the teacher’s role by using most of the interrogatives for comic effect. Lauren uses a topic shift and asks the teacher if he is ‘Stephen Hawkins.’ Lauren uses corroboration to her advantage with transactional language. In a normal classroom, repetition will be used in tie with topic loops. Lauren employs the use of repetition, not to show she is inquisitive but to annoy the teacher. She uses variations of her idiolect for this. Examples of this are ‘Face. Bovvered’ and ‘look at my face.’ The repetition of this enforces her confident and cheeky attitude. It also shows that some stereotypes of a ‘chav’ as uneducated are wrong and some might be clever.
Lauren’s body language shows her relaxed attitude towards the teacher whereas his body language shows insecurity in his authority. At the start of the sketch, Lauren says ‘awwrite (rolls eyes).’ The back-channelling in the phrase shows she isn’t ‘bovvered’ at all. However, the ‘(rolls eyes)’ adds meaning to the word and changes it into a rude word. In contrary, the teacher ‘(taps the table and speaks louder).’ This shows he isn’t respected by the students; this is stereotypical as students don’t normally listen. Lauren dominates the conversation as she uses more paralinguistic features than the teacher, examples are: ‘(pointing to her face)’ and ‘(pointing to the teacher).’ This reasserts the speech and makes her idiolect and sociolect more aggressive. The teacher’s body language, ‘(hand on hip),’ says he is weak in authority as it isn’t as adept as using tone or dialect. This worsens Lauren’s attitude and allows her to show covert prestige.
In the end, the teacher reaches his limits. This can be seen by the exclamatory, ‘And don’t say another word!’ It shows reassertion of authority but Lauren shows her tough persona. This can be seen when she ‘knocks the skeleton to the floor’ and ‘gathers things noisily.’ The teacher uses the filler, ‘err,’ and ‘(touches his glasses),’ this shows his relief that Lauren is gone. Afterwards, she shows she is still in control by ‘bellowing’ the answer from the corridor. The phrase ‘magnesium, innit’ acts like a punch line. It’s effective at showing the stereotype of Lauren through her sociolect, ’innit,’ and the humour is that she still shows disrespect despite being sent out.
Prosodic features are used mainly by Lauren. She uses it to express her tough persona and assertiveness. One example is ‘crew’ and ‘brethren,’ Lauren clearly differentiates between friends and enemies with this. The harsh sound of ‘crew’ shows she is talking about enemies whereas the soft, monosyllabic word ‘brethren’ shows she is talking about friends. Although it shows Lauren’s tough persona, it also shows that Lauren is rebellious to the status quo. The teacher, however, perceives this as her being worthless and challenges her. Another example of this is ‘(with mock empathy),’ the intonation shows Lauren is bullying the teacher. Lauren uses bored monotones with words to show she isn’t ‘bovvered.’ This can be seen with the word ‘Zinc,’ the use of paralinguistic features along with prosody portray stereotypes effectively.
As the end of the transcript progresses Lauren’s tone escalates and the pace increases from ‘Face. Bovvered’ to the words becoming like missiles. She dominates the whole time only letting the teacher use monosyllabic utterances. She starts using phrases in an elliptical way which is accentuated by the alliteration, ‘Boron. Bunsen Burner,’ shows this. The imitation of Stephen Hawkins is used for comic effect and pauses are used, ‘(pause) ain’t bovvered,’ to depict her attitude. It expresses her dislike of the teacher and represents her stereotype effectively.
To conclude, Catherine Tate’s periodic table sketch very effectively reveals the stereotypes of modern society and how sociolect, idiolect and dialect differ for each stereotype. The stereotypes are depicted successfully for comic effect and it shows that even though Lauren was cheeky and arrogant, she was quite clever. This means that some stereotypes may be wrong, likewise the teacher also failed to keep hold of his authority from the start and this may have led Lauren to take advantage.
by
mistas (student)
