ABSTRACT
Starting from the notion of linguistic code, I will develop in this chapter some ideas about the social hierarchy of cultures, which I first introduced in my work on vocational training. I was inspired to pursue this line of research after translating some of Basil Bernstein’s work from English to French (Grignon 1971; Bernstein 1975; Grignon and Passeron 1989). I will refer here mainly to one of Bernstein’s classic articles, “Elaborated and Restricted Codes: Their Social Origins and Some Consequences”, from a 1964 issue of American Anthropologist which, interestingly, also included “Phonological Correlates of Social Stratification” by William Labov and “The Neglected Situation” by Erving Goffman.
