The movie My Fair Lady， which is adapted from the drama Pygmalion written by Burnard show， tells a story about how a flower girl changes herself into a fair lady in upper class. The movie has won several items of Oscar Academy Award. Besides the plot and the musical expression that stir up people’s feeling， the classic dialogue and the artistic charm of the language also leave a deep impression.
　　Register can present not only its reflectional meaning but also its social meaning， so it has the function of indicating. People’s social status， educational level， working environment etc. can be reflected from their usage of register， particularly the feature of pronunciation， words and grammar. Languages are influenced by those factors， and different register can lead to different social significance.
　　In this movie， the words Eliza uses can reflect that kind of feature. When she sells flowers in the street， she says：
　　“Tup-pence.” “Why’d ya take down me words？” “you wouldn’t let ‘im spoil a poor girl’s flow’rs and run away without payin’.” “Cheer up， Capt’n， buy a flow’r off a poor girl.”1
　　She says “Tup” not “two”， “ya” not “you”， “capt’n” not “captain”. Besides， we can know how badly her pronunciation is through the evaluation from professor Higgins：
　　“woman， cease this detectable boohooing instantly.” “To croon like a bilious pigeon” “wheeze”， “chatter”， “mutter”， “snivel” and “cry”.
　　And the grammar of her language is also full of mistakes：
　　“I ain’t done nothin’ wrong by speakin’ to the gentleman.” “They’ll take away me character and drive me on the streets for speakin’ to gentlemen.”
　　When professor Higgins gives her chocolate， she says：
　　“ I wouldn’t ’ve ate it， only I’m too lady like to take it out o’ me mouth.”
　　All of those words belong to typical lower class language. Besides， her behavior is so indelicate that she always makes the strange sound “Garn……” .
　　After training， Eliza’s words are normative， grammatical and being spoken by RP and almost nobody could find the trace of her lower class background. At the beginning， when Eliza faces something that offends her， she would yell out “Ah-ah-ow-oo” to show her anger. However， after the training， in the communication between Higgins and her， even when the professor loses his temper and shouts at her， she could face everything calmly and do the response wisely：
　　“No，I don’t . That’s not the sort of feeling I want from you. I want a little kindness. I know I’m a common， ignorant girl， and you’re a book-learned gentleman， but I’m not dirt under your feet.” 　　The poor flower girl， Eliza， who comes from lower class， can improve， with the help of linguistic training， her ability of using formal register and advance her status in people’s eyes. And that is the strong proof of register’s indicating function of social status. However， only having the ability of choosing RP pronunciation and formal style of speaking is not enough. In the scene that Eliza takes part in a garden party， which is held in Mrs. Higgins’ house. Although Eliza’s performance earns people’s favor at first， the content of her words finally gives the show away. When Eliza hears a woman talking about influenza， she just wants to insert topic：
　　“My aunt died of influenza， so they said. But it’s my belief they done the old woman in.”
　　When others doubt the phrase “done her in”， she still keeps explaining.
　　“But it can’t have been right for your father to pour spirits down her throat like that. It might have killed her.”But she answers： “Not her. Gin was mother’s milk to her. Besides， he poured so much down his own throat he knew the good of it.”
　　Later in the horse race， when those ladies are watching the race elegantly， Eliza seems to forget her status at that moment， she begins to yell：
　　“ Come on， Dover！ Move your bloomin’arse！”
　　This sentence reveals real her social status and lead to the faint of a lady. The exaggerate description here shows that the strict criterion and higher expectation of women’s language in upper class.
　　From the above-mentioned， we can see that the selection of register has the strong effect of indicating people’s social nature. The formal register and polite register always reflect people’s higher breeding-up and social status， but the informal register and slang always have the opposite indicating. Participants need to improve their abilities of choosing register according to their own needs and they need to choose formal or informal register to achieve their goals. However， register is a kind of complex linguistic phenomenon， which contains the difference of not only tone and accent， but also vocabulary， grammar， pattern of sentence and even the topic. So the content of the speech is the key to indicating people’s social nature.
　　【作者簡介】蔺蓉，武警工程大学基础部。