British identity and English (only?)

Aurolyn Luykx aurolynluykx at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 22 17:46:21 UTC 2005


I wasn't referring to "manners" in the etiquette
sense, but rather in terms of the sorts of things
highlighted in Gumperz's film -- interactional styles,
implicit "codes" and expectations guiding
conversation, etc. Certainly not agreed upon by all
the people speaking English in Britain! (as the film
shows). No doubt it would look quaint these days, but
the arguments still hold.
Aurolyn

--- Anthea Fraser Gupta <A.F.Gupta at leeds.ac.uk> wrote:

> (I should think that Crosstalk would look very very
> quaint now, Aurolyn
> -- I used to have a copy but I've no idea where it
> is now!)
> 
> I have no idea about the manners and the child
> rearing one. It's widely
> believed in the UK that people only queue (=line up)
> in the UK, which is
> manifestly untrue, though queuing in an orderly
> fashion is fairly
> prevalent. Other shared manners??? Well, some people
> hold the door open
> for people behind them and some don't. In some parts
> of the UK people
> thank the bus driver when they leave the bus, and in
> other places they
> don't (and doubtless people who move around get it
> wrong). Some people
> get rolling drunk and others don't (it's the
> beginning of the academic
> year, so this is a common sight at the moment). Re
> children: some people
> use corporal punishment and some don't. All I see is
> diversity, even if
> we only look at white English people.
> 
> I wish they would really spell out these shared
> values. 
> 
> BTW, neither Trevor Phillips nor Jeevan Singh Deol
> is white. James
> Naughtie is white, but Scottish.
> 
> Anthea
> 
> 
> *     *     *     *     *
> Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
> School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
> <www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>
> NB: Reply to a.f.gupta at leeds.ac.uk
> *     *     *     *     *
>  
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu 
> > [mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu] On
> Behalf Of 
> > Aurolyn Luykx
> > Sent: 22 September 2005 17:21
> > To: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
> > Subject: Re: British identity and English (only?)
> > 
> > 
> > As if having everyone speak English would ensure
> that
> > all Britishers share "certain codes of manners"! I
> > guess this guy has never seen John Gumperz's film
> > "Crosstalk" (which, as far as I know is out of
> print.
> > Anyone know where I can get it?).
> > Aurolyn
> > 
> 
> 



		
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