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Social dialect, the semantic barrier, and access to curricular knowledge*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

David Corson
David Corson
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education, The University of Wollongong
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Abstract

This paper introduces the theory of the lexical bar. It reports research studies conducted in England and Australia. A semantic barrier exists in the English lexicon that emerges from socio-historical factors and is reinforced by the socio-occupational orderings of contemporary society. This barrier separates the lexes of conservative peripheral social dialects from the lexes of dominant central dialects. It serves to produce differential attainment rates in education and to reproduce a social class-based division of labour in English-speaking societies. (Language and thought; language and knowledge; language and education; diachronic linguistics and the sociology of language; the lexes of social dialects; semantic field theory; measures of semantic complexity; the priority of words in meaning; history of English.)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 213 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

REFERENCES

Corson, D. J. (1981). Social class, the semantic barrier, and access to curricular knowledge. Ph.D. thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Corson, D. J. (1982a). The Graeco-Latin (G-L) instrument: A new measure of semantic complexity in oral and written English. Language and Speech 25(1):1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Corson, D. J. (in press b). The case for oral language in schooling. Elementary School Journal.Google Scholar
Corson, D. J. (forthcoming). The Lexical Bar: lexical change from twelve to fifteen years measured by social class, region and ethnicity. British Educational Research Journal.Google Scholar
Hirst, P. H. (1974). Knowledge and the curriculum – A collection of philosophical papers. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar