144
Popular Culture Review
Finally, choice of language reflects the values that speakers convey to
listeners, in this case, to suspects. In many instances of COPS, officers took pride
in conveying to the audience the satisfaction that they receive in making the
community a better place for residents if they can bring a sense of order and
control in law-breaking events. In many instances, an officer can be heard saying,
“This is why I do my job. If I can take the bad guys off the street, it makes the
job meaningful.”
Conclusion
In this study our purpose was to show that there is a relationship between
certain forms of language used by police officers in encountering suspects and
certain social values associated with police officers. We found that commands
were the chief forms of language used by officers in confronting suspects. This
use of language I attributed to the nature of crime, that is, especially severe ones.
Studies of this type should also support existing studies of language in its social
context.
Morgan State University
Milford A. Jeremiah
Notes
1. This type of study has been given the label of “sociolinguistics” or “the sociology of
language.”
2. In some instances, speakers stop to make overt corrections as they communicate with
listeners.
3. In his study of language in Martha’s Vineyard, Labov (1963) identified the topic of
centralized diphthongs [?u] to show that islanders used this form of pronunciation as a sign
of group solidarity.
4. These are very broad categories and there will be instances of overlap in that one
linguistic category can merge into another as the dialogue between officers and suspects
continues.
5. By focusing on the initial forms of language, I am better able to facilitate the discussion
regarding the type of language used since other forms of language will surface as officers
engage in dialogue. If, in questioning a suspect, for example, an officer has concluded on
the guilt of a party, an officer can then use commands (e.g., “Turn around,” “Place your
hands behind your back”).
Furthermore, research in language processing and
comprehension relies on first utterances, as well.
Works Cited
Chomsky, Noam. Reflections on Language. New York: Pantheon Books, 1975.
Finegan, Edward. Language, Its Structure and Use. 3rd ed. Boston: Heinle and Heinle,
1999.
George, Darre, and Paul Mallory. SPSS for Windows Step by Step. Boston: Allyn and
Bacon, 2001.