Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady

Besides being one of the most popular plays and musicals of all time, Shaw's Pygmalion and its musical offshoot My Fair Lady will always hold a special fascination for teachers and linguists, in particular teachers of phonetics. Is it really possible to transform a common flower girl into a...

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Main Author: Tony T.N. Hung,
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2003
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3109/1/1.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3109/
http://www.ukm.my/~ppbl/3L/3LArchives.html
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spelling my-ukm.journal.31092016-12-14T06:33:37Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3109/ Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady Tony T.N. Hung, Besides being one of the most popular plays and musicals of all time, Shaw's Pygmalion and its musical offshoot My Fair Lady will always hold a special fascination for teachers and linguists, in particular teachers of phonetics. Is it really possible to transform a common flower girl into a princess merely (or mainly) by changing her pronunciation? And is every successful teacher essentially a kind of Pygmalion figure, creating a new being out of lifeless stone and shaping it in his own way? The present paper traces the development of the Pygmalion legend from its classical origins to its ultimate transformation in Pygmalion (1912) and My Fair Lady (1956), which have in tum spawned plays and musicals in other languages, including Cantonese (Yaotiao Shunu). Various linguistic, sociolinguistic and educational issues thrown up by these modern-day versions - including how pronunciation is taught, the phonological features of different accents, the role of accent in defining a person's social class, linguistic prejudice, and the relationship between teacher and pupil-are touched on. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2003 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3109/1/1.pdf Tony T.N. Hung, (2003) Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 8 . pp. 144-156. ISSN 0128-5157 http://www.ukm.my/~ppbl/3L/3LArchives.html
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Perpustakaan Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description Besides being one of the most popular plays and musicals of all time, Shaw's Pygmalion and its musical offshoot My Fair Lady will always hold a special fascination for teachers and linguists, in particular teachers of phonetics. Is it really possible to transform a common flower girl into a princess merely (or mainly) by changing her pronunciation? And is every successful teacher essentially a kind of Pygmalion figure, creating a new being out of lifeless stone and shaping it in his own way? The present paper traces the development of the Pygmalion legend from its classical origins to its ultimate transformation in Pygmalion (1912) and My Fair Lady (1956), which have in tum spawned plays and musicals in other languages, including Cantonese (Yaotiao Shunu). Various linguistic, sociolinguistic and educational issues thrown up by these modern-day versions - including how pronunciation is taught, the phonological features of different accents, the role of accent in defining a person's social class, linguistic prejudice, and the relationship between teacher and pupil-are touched on.
format Article
author Tony T.N. Hung,
spellingShingle Tony T.N. Hung,
Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady
author_facet Tony T.N. Hung,
author_sort Tony T.N. Hung,
title Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady
title_short Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady
title_full Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady
title_fullStr Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady
title_full_unstemmed Pygmalion: from Greek Legend to My Fair Lady
title_sort pygmalion: from greek legend to my fair lady
publisher Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM
publishDate 2003
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3109/1/1.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3109/
http://www.ukm.my/~ppbl/3L/3LArchives.html
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