Abstract：Sociolinguistic is aimed to study the relationship between a language and society. Social factors have much influence on people’s language. The identical experience makes people adopted in a speech community acquire the varieties of language. The famous movie—My Fair Lady tells a story about how a poor flower girl turns to a lady by simply changing her language at the help of a linguist， which is a good demonstration to this point. In this paper， the film will be analyzed from a sociolinguistics view， focusing on variations of language caused by gender difference and class difference.

Key words：sociolinguistics；language variation；class-related dialect

1 Introduction

My Fair Lady is a world-famous movie adapted from the play Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw. It illustrates in a dramatic way that the change of language can make a lower-class flower girl named Eliza who speaks “terrible English” turn into an elegant lady who can speak standard English. This paper tries to analyze the dialogues in this movie from an angle of sociolinguistics. It hopes to reveal the linguistic value in this classic movie.

2 Geographical variation

Dialect is regarded as a geographical variety of a language， spoken in a certain area. In English-spoken countries， English has many varieties such as British English， American English， African English， Indian English and so on. Standard English is recognized as standard language which means a variety that in different ways is more correct and acceptable than other varieties. So， regional dialect can distinguish people of one region from another region.

In this movie， linguist Higgins can easily tell where the person is form by the accent he/she wears. He knows Eliza is from the far eastern part of Britain and Charlie Eliza’ father may have a Welsh mother from their speaking. Not only could he tell which part of Britain a person is from but also he could roughly tell which block a person lives if he/she is a Londoner. It illustrates to us how great influence of a dialect can be. As a linguist， Higgins prefer to standard British English. “The Scotch and Irish leave you close to tears. In America they haven’t sued it for years，” said the professor.

3 Social variation

3.1 Class-related social variation

In the class society， people are born into a certain class， which influence the language situation in society. People learn to speak the variety they hear in their social network. They are primarily determined by their family background. In England， upper class use the most prestigious variety of spoken English used at the royal court in London， which is recognized as a standard English. It is generally supposed to bear widely accepted and have systematic grammar and used by these highly educated authoritative people， which is considered pure and correct. While， lower class spoke the local dialect which is regard as non-standard English. It is not widely accepted and the users are mainly uneducated people， who speak with some disordered tense， missing verb， inappropriate usage of word and erroneous negation， etc. Take the following dialogue for example.

Pickering：I’m afraid not. It’s worse than before.

Eliza：If it’s worse， it’s a sign it’s nearly over. Cheer up， Capt’n， buy a flow’r off a poor girl.

Pickering：I’m sorry， I haven’t any change.

Eliza：I can change ’alf a crown. Take this for tuppence.

Pickering： I told you， I’m awfully sorry. Wait a minutes. Oh， yes. Here’s three pence， if that’s any use to you.

Eliza：Thank you， sir.

Stranger：You be careful. Better give ’im a flower for it. There’s a bloke there behind that pillar...takin’ down every blessed word you’re sayin’.

Eliza：I ain’t done nothin’ wrong by speakin’ to the gentleman. I’ve a right to sell flow’rs if I keep off the curb. I’m a respectable girl， so help me. I never spoke to ‘im except to ask him to buy a flow’r off me.

At the beginning of the movie， the figure and the status of the characters are demonstrated by the language used in this dialogue. The upper class speak standard English while the lower class speak nonstandard English varieties. The language of the lower class sounds barbarous and impolite while the language of upper class implicates grace and politeness. From this dialogue， we can easily classified Eliza into the lower class from the hint of her pronunciation and grammar. Phonologically， there is a large number of “g”-dropping in words like “taking - takin”， “speaking – spiakin”， “taking-takin”， etc. Also， She often curtails the vowel in words， such as flower—— flow’r， captain—— Capt’n and often clips the consonant /h/ in words， such as half—— ’alf， him—’im. In addition， Eiza pronounce “you” as “ya” at the end of the sentence， and contract “two pence” as “tuppence”. Grammatically， Eliza says “ I ain’t done” instead of “ I haven’t done.” Her irregular grammar also reveals her status. For another example， “it’s a sign it’s nearly over”. In this sentence， she omits ‘that’ in the nominal-clause. Different ways of speaking may give different impressions to the hearer. Language sets as a natural barrier between the classes. Professor Higgins condemns Eliza as the murder of English and proposes that she should be hanged for not speaking“the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible”. He predicts that the girl will live a miserable life for the whole life because of her language. To him， Eliza is a dirty and shallow girl who drinks a lot and has no feelings like others. All his assumption is merely based on her language.

3.2 Gender-related social variation

Besides class-related social dialects， the difference of the use of language is caused by gender difference. Man and women talk differently. This is a truth generally accepted in sociolinguistics. First， in terms of tone， women prefer to use rising tone in the end of statement， while men like to use a falling tone. In the movie， when Eliza goes to visit Professor Higgins， both the man who answers the door and the house keeper Mrs. Pearce have uttered the sentence “one moment， please”. The difference is that the man used a falling tone on the word “please”， while Mrs. Pearce used a rising tone. Second， women like to add tag questions to statements. As one of the characteristics of woman’s talking， some tag questions added to statements by Eliza can be found. For example， Eliza asks a woman like this—— “He’s your son， is he?” In this way， women want to encourage others to give an explicit answer or to join in the discussion actively. Third， women are more polite but less confident than men in the use of language. They try to maintain a good relationship with others during conversation while men mainly care about the information conveyed in conversation. Contrary to women’s polite way of speaking， men speak in a more forceful and less polite way. No matter how scared or angry Eliza is she only uses the word “ohh” and “garn” to express her feelings. Professor Higgins， on the other hand， repeats “damn” when he is up set and angry. Even in lower class where polite principles are not so restricted as those of upper class， a girl like Eliza would not use “damn” to express her anger. Otherwise she may be condemned as vulgar. Last but not the least， women and men prefer different topics in talk. Modern linguists find out that men like to talk about job or sports while women prefer to talk about personal feelings or trifled things like clothe. This difference is reflected by one of Higgins’ statements “You want to talk of Keats or Milton; she only wants to talk of love. You go to see a play or ballet and spend it searching for her glove， ”said Higgins when he describes how horrible it would be like if a man let a woman in his life. It seems that women and men prefer different topics in talking. That is why Professor Higgins dislikes women because he thinks women are noisy and emotional， and they do not take any interest in his hobby—literature.

4 Conclusion

My Fair Lady has reflected the different usage of language among classes and between genders， and has demonstrated to us in a dramatic way how great the influence of language can be to a person’s characters. After the analysis of the dialogue from the perspective of sociolinguistic， readers could know better about the charm of language and its social functions

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