LANGUAGE AS A MARKER OF SOCIAL STATUS IN SHAW’S PYGMALION

This paper is an attempt to spotlight the significance of language as an efficacious identifier of social status epitomized in Shaw's Pygmalion. Language is exposed to a large-scale of extrinsic influences which catalyze the production of variations in speech properties that indicate the various circumstances in which language is spoken. Pygmalion is the depository of Cockney dialect through which Shaw endeavors to provide a bona-fide portrait of the language of London's lower-class, during the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century's, embodied in his memorable character Eliza Doolittle. Hence, this paper intends to contextualize the language used by the main character so as to manifest how language can be the reflection of one's social status.