Is there any language difference between Academicians and Peddlers?

Akın Öncül

Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University

Abstract

By the help of technology, hundreds of new occupations have been emerging for the last

few decades. Thus, the prestige of the occupations has been changing so fast. The term

prestige also changes from country to country. However, there is an unchanging view of the

term "prestige". Basically, If an occupation requires higher education and brings more money,

it is a high prestige job. On the contrary, jobs that require less education and bring less money

are seen as low prestige jobs. This research aims to investigate if a language change happens

between a high prestige and a low prestige job. If so, this paper claims that there is a sharp

difference in the prestige between two different occupations. In this research, the term

prestige will be examined on the basis of the preference of Turkish people. Hence,

Academicians will be taken into account as a high prestige job owners. Peddlers, on the other

hand, will be taken into account as a low prestige job owners. This research is going to be

conducted with 20 academicians and 20 peddlers. As for the methods, academicians would be

observed in symposiums and seminars. Also, a question & answer session would be done in

person. For peddlers, brief conversations are going to be made. At the end of the research, It

would be expected that there is a considerable difference between academicians, which is a

high-status occupation; and a peddler; which is considered as a low-status occupation.

1 Introduction
In our world, we now can judge people by looking at their jobs and the amount of money they

earn, instead of looking at their personalities, their way of thinking. This is what prestige

means. Prestige also affects the language we use in daily life. “The word ‘prestige’ derives

from the Latin verb praestringere as generally employed in the phrase praestringere oculos,

‘to bind or dazzle the eyes' (Harold Nicolson, 1937). What we mean by prestige, especially

occupational prestige is depended on the country. While the most prestigious jobs are thought

to be a professor and a physician in Turkey; in the U.S.A., the most prestigious jobs are

thought to be a physicist and a scientist. Additionally, the language also changes when the

occupation changes. There are several factors that affect the language change. These factors

can be education, regional differences, economic factors, personal and social factors. The

reason for the language change according to the occupation might be because when people

get high-status jobs, they want to be seen as prestigious individuals. Thus, they adopt overt

prestige and they abandon their accents or dialects. In this article, the aim is to find out if

academicians have more tendency to use standard language more than peddlers. To find out

an answer to that, the information below will be examined:

● Academicians use standard language more than peddlers.

● Language change happens when a person has a higher education

● Even though most of the academicians use standard language, there might be some

contradictions.

2 Literature Review

Anthony P.M Coxon and Charles L. Jones have conducted the research named The Images of

Occupational Prestige: A study in Social Cognition’’ The article is based on the choices of

the people in terms of occupational cognition.

Neil J. MacKinnon and Tom Langford have conducted the research named "The Meaning of

Occupational Prestige Scores: A Social Psychological Analysis and Interpretation” This

article analyzes the degree to which the education and income levels of occupations influence

occupational prestige and its dominance on the language.

3 Research Questions

These three questions would be asked and examined;

● Is there any difference in terms of the use of the language between an academician and

a peddler?

● Which one is closer to the standard language?

● What are the reasons for language change between these occupations?

4 Hypothesis

Academicians tend to use the standard language, while peddlers use non-standard language as

local accents and various dialects.

5 Methodology

A qualitative research method would be used to prove the hypothesis. Data would be

collected by asking questions to the peddlers and having a short conversation with them.

Academicians would be observed in seminars and symposiums. As it would be too formal,

the question & answer session would be done with academicians in private, as well. As for

the participants, 20 academicians and 20 peddlers are expected to be observed. However,

there would not be any female job owner as it is very rare to find a female peddler. To make it

equal, no female would be observed. For the data analysis, the diagnostic analysis would be

used. Stress and intonation, vocabulary, gestures, and mimics would be observed

6 Expected Results

After the research, it is expected to find out that academicians use a language closer to the

standard, while peddlers use a non-standard language with different accents and dialects. It is

also expected that very few academicians use non-standard language. The reason behind this
might be the choice of that academician who wants to be seen as more sincere, or he would

like to let people know where he is from. As for the main issue, different use of language

between academicians and peddlers are expected to be based on education, regional

differences such as living in a big city or living in a small town, economic factors such as

being unable to get educated or opportunity limitations and lastly, social and personal factors.

7 Conclusion

In daily life, it is obvious to see that people use language differently. Additionally, these

differences have also numerous reasons. In this article, the very first aim was to uncover that

occupational prestige affects the way we use the language. So, two occupations were chosen

to investigate if the language change occurs. One was a low-status job, peddler; another one

was a high-status job, which is academicianship. After all the studies, it was expected that

academicians use the language more prestigious, in a standard way; while peddlers use the

language in a non-standard way, including different accents and dialects.