Bernstein Elaborated and Restricted Code
Bernstein's elaborated and restricted code refer to two different styles of language use. Elaborated code is characterized by a wider vocabulary and more complex sentence structures, often used in formal or academic settings. In contrast, restricted code involves simpler language and is typically used in informal or familiar contexts. These concepts are important in sociolinguistics for understanding language variation and its social implications.
6 Key excerpts on "Bernstein Elaborated and Restricted Code"
eBook - ePub- Urszula Clark(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...He formulated a theory of language as codes, Elaborate and Restricted. Elaborate Code characterised linguistic use in formal contexts such as education, whereas Restricted Code typified linguistic use characteristic of informal, immediate contexts. Consequently, existing educational practice, Bernstein contended, privileged children familiar with the Elaborate Code, which characterised formal linguistic use to the detriment of those who were not. This is particularly so for children whose code was more restricted. In a later publication (1990: 20), Bernstein argued that such differences in linguistic use could be attributed to the complexities of modern-day distributions of labour. He says that: The simpler the social division of labour, and the more specific and local the relation between an agent and its material base, the more direct the relation between meaning and a specific material base, and the greater the probability of a restricted code orientation. The more complex the social division of labour, the less specific and local the relation between an agent and its material base, the more indirect the relation between meanings and a specific material base, and the greater the probability of an elaborated coding orientation. Bernstein argues that different spatial and temporal locations generate different interactional practices and different coding relations, in relation to their material base. That is, put simply, the economic and political rules that govern the exchange of labour also affect linguistic behaviour. The example he gives (1990: 20), is of a peasant working on a sugar cane plantation, who would see himself or herself as part of a simple division of labour. The peasant’s interactional practices, or core of gravity, would thus be very localised and more than likely encompassed by his or her immediate spatial location with people who lived and worked together...
eBook - ePubKnowledge, Pedagogy and Society
International Perspectives on Basil Bernstein's Sociology of Education
- Daniel Frandji, Philippe Vitale, Daniel Frandji, Philippe Vitale(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...57) With this, Bernstein confers an experimental characteristic to the observations of the ethnolinguist; by allowing speech analysis not to be exclusively a matter of interpretation, he chooses an epistemology that submits theoretical propositions to empirical verification. Moreover, by distinguishing between the two codes according to their unequal degree of predictability, Bernstein defines them not substantially and separately but comparatively. The theoretical definitions of restricted and elaborated code refer to a systematic set of oppositions where each code constitutes one of two poles. As I demonstrate later in this chapter, any comparison between the two codes is likely to be detrimental to restricted code; as soon as it is defined by its relation to elaborated code, restricted code is likely to be defined in terms of gaps and deficiencies. Codes, classes and cultures Linguistic codes (or speech systems) are “the consequence of the form of the social relationship” or, more generally, a “quality” or a “function” of the social structure that Bernstein inserts between language and speech: Between language in the sense defined and speech is social structure…. Changes in the form of the social relationship can affect the planning procedures an individual uses in the preparation of his speech and it can affect the orientation of the listener. (Bernstein 1964, p. 56) The “form of the social relationship” on which the linguistic code depends can be situated at the institutional level. It is the case of the ideal type of the restricted code (restricted code, lexicon prediction), when “the organization and selection of all signals is bound by rigid and extensive prescriptions”, for example when “religious, legal and military social structures” impose on speakers and listeners an impersonal, ritualized and routine speech that must be reproduced verbatim...
eBook - ePub- Gunter Senft(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...in communication'. This ‘open role system' ‘produces the elaborated speech code'. Restricted codes are context-dependent, predictable and therefore ‘particularistic', whereas elaborated codes are context independent, much less predictable and thus ‘universalistic' (Bernstein 1972: 163). Bernstein (1967: 128) points out that ‘[r]estricted codes are not necessarily linked to social class'. However, in non-verbal and verbal intelligence tests as well as in a number of experiments 2 he claims to have found correlations between speech codes and social class which verify the following hypothesis: Children socialized within middle class and associated strata can be expected to possess both an elaborated and a restricted code; while children socialized within some sections of the working class strata, particularly the lower working class, can be expected to be limited to the restricted code. (Bernstein 1967: 131) Thus Bernstein claimed that children who were socialized mainly in a restricted code are limited in their communicative skills (hence the criticism of the code theory as being a deficit hypothesis); usually these children are members of the lower classes; on the other hand, children who acquired and were socialized in an elaborate code are verbally skilled speakers who can deal with all kinds of communicative situations; usually these children grow up in middle class families. This has consequences for the school career of middle and lower class children. Success at school requires the use of the elaborate code which is transmitted there. This constitutes a big disadvantage for children of the lower classes: ‘If a child is to succeed as he progresses through school, it becomes critical for him to possess, or at least be oriented towards, an elaborated code' (Bernstein 1967: 131)...
eBook - ePubLanguage, Structure and Reproduction (Routledge Revivals)
An Introduction to the Sociology of Basil Bernstein
- Paul Atkinson(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Codes regulate persons’ understanding of the relation between appearance and reality, and of the nature of the knowing subject. The analysis depends on a close reading of the text in terms of ‘pictures’ (constituent elements) and ‘voices’ (which are not coterminous with speakers) representing different viewpoints or moral positions within the text. They outline to begin with an ‘interpretation’ of the text which, it is argued, is entirely congruent with that of Bernstein. The interviewer (J.L.) can be heard to express a particular viewpoint reflecting elaborated code, while Larry realizes restricted code: The conception of the world as comprising human subjects (you seeking to know the underlying essence or spirit) is an elaborated one, and indeed in the conversation here recorded, the speech which articulates this conception … is itself’elaborated’. By contrast, the conception of the world as comprising bodies and shit is a restricted one, and the speech which articulates it here … is itself’restricted’. The terms ‘elaborated’ and ‘restricted’ are here being used in the sense of elaborating the difference between ‘appearance’ and ‘reality’ on the one hand, and of restricting ‘reality’ to an identity with ‘appearance’ on the other. (Silverman and Torode, 1980, p. 181, emphases in original) This interpretation goes well beyond the conventional reading of Bernstein, although it certainly preserves and develops the underlying spirit of the work. Silverman and Torode’s analysis of ‘voices’ goes even further, suggesting that the questions and answers of Labov’s text reflect a number of voices whereby Larry can participate in elaborated code speech, but he does so in order to reaffirm his own identification with a restricted code: The restricted code speaker finds his singular voice to be under attack from the elaborated codes which impinge upon it without showing awareness of its existence...
- Daniel Thomas Cook(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...These interpretations were consistently refuted by Bernstein, who stressed instead the Durkheimian position that such code differences were functionally related to and grounded in the social division of labor. Just as the middle class’s access to elaborated codes grew out of what Bernstein theorized as their new position in reproduction rather than production, it was not that restricted codes were deficient, but that context-dependent language was necessary in the context of production. And because schools require elaborated codes for academic success, for him this meant that children of working-class families are often beset with an early disadvantage. This focus on the internal workings of schools, their knowledge, and transmission mechanisms as well as their wider class reproduction functions went on to occupy much of Bernstein’s later work. Joining other sociologists of the curriculum in viewing educational knowledge as a crucial means of socialization, the distinguishing feature of Bernstein’s approach is that for him the message communicated is to be found within the principles upon which such knowledge is structured rather than in the contents of any specific curriculum experience. A large portion of Bernstein’s theoretical expositions thus revolved around the questions of how the curriculum and its subjects have been put together the rules of its construction, circulation, transmission, and acquisition...
eBook - ePubCultural and Economic Reproduction in Education
Essays on Class, Ideology and the State
- Michael W. Apple, Michael W. Apple(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Similarly, restricted orientations are likely to be found in relations of intimacy and close proximity. Elaborated orientations (where there is an indirect relation to a specific material base) are, however, always subject to strong regulation and surveillance; for these orientations have the potential of creating alternative realities, possibilities, and practices. Elaborated orientations are potentially dangerous and those acquiring them have to be made safe. 6 Historically the institutionalising of, access to, and distribution of elaborated codes was regulated by the Church’s control of formal education. See Evolution of Pedagogy in France, Durkheim, E., Alcan Press, 1938, translated by Peter Collins and published as The Evolution of Educational Thought, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977. We do not wish to transpose the technical term ‘mode’ as in the concept ‘mode of production’ to education. However, we wish to distinguish between the various possibilities of a given elaborated code institutionalised as a dominant code in education. Modality refers to the specific values of a given elaborated code (its classification and framing values). See later discussion. 7 There is a problem in making a distinction between physical and discursive resources. For it implies that the latter is qualitatively different from the former. We do not take this view, indeed, on the contrary, we would hold that discursive resources/practices are a condition for, and are constituted in, physical resources. We are using these terms simply as low level descriptions. 8 See Bernstein, B. (1977), Class, Codes and Control, vol. III, revised edn, ch. 8, Routledge & Kegan Paul. 9 Torode, B., and Silverman, D., in their impressive book The Material Word, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980, first drew my attention to the possibilities of ‘voice’...
