Meaning, Image and Attitude (I)
Meaning, Image and Attitude (I)

Summary/Abstract: With every word the speaker utters, with every gesture he makes, he conveys not only a meaning, but also an image of himself and an attitude. To improve get access to higher social strata, the speaker learns to improve his language and paralanguage. The rise in society of Eliza Doolittle (the female protagonist of Shaw’s Pygmalion/Alan Jay Lerner’s My Fair Lady) is analyzed to show that a speaker of modest social origins may gain access into the highest social circles by putting on “the right clothes”: good pronunciation, an elegant outfit and civilized manners.

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