Accent & dialect

Question 1

what is overt prestige

Answer 1

the obvious type & use language associated w education, wealth & power
e.g) dialect= standard English, accent= RP

Question 2

what is covert prestige

Answer 2

secret type & use language associated w coolness & authenticity
e.g) MLE

Question 3

what is geographical mobility

Answer 3

how ppl migrate over time (causes accent & dialect change)

Question 4

what is social mobilty

Answer 4

movement of ppl between social strata in society (causes accent & dialect change)

Question 5

what is code-switching

Answer 5

the ability to move between different languages/dialects depending on context

Question 6

what is upward convergence

Answer 6

move to a more overtly prestigious form of language

e.g) SE in a job interview

Question 7

what is downward convergence

Answer 7

move to a more covertly prestigious form of language

e.g) MLE

Question 8

what is accentism

Answer 8

prejudice against ppls way of speaking

Question 9

what is classism

Answer 9

prejudice agaisnt ppls belonging to a social class

Question 10

what did Giles’ accomodation theory suggest

Answer 10

Convergence: ppl make their language resemble that of their audience to improve communication

Divergence: use language to distinguish & distance themselves from others
e.g) Martha’s Vineyard

Question 11

what happened in Labvo Martha’s Vineyard study

Answer 11

• found that locals created a sense of group identity through accent to differentiate themselves from tourists to maintain own distinct social identity
• subconciously converged accent w each other & diverged from tourists (them & us mentality)

Question 12

Features of Bristolian

Answer 12

• rhotic r e.g) carrr
• terminal l e.g) concrete noun Asdal
• noun phrase ‘me babber’
• adjective phrase ‘gert lush’
• standardisation of the verb ‘to be’ e.g) I am= I be, she is= she be

Question 13

features of MLE (multi-cultural London English)

Answer 13

• slang nouns ‘yard’ ‘mandem’ ‘ends’
• adjective ‘peng’
• tag ? ‘innit’
• new quotatives e.g) clauses ‘this is me…this is him’ (I said…he said)

Question 14

who uses MLE & what prestige does it have

Answer 14

• black, white & Asian teens use it as a marker of social identity
• has covert prestige due to association w musicians, celebs etc.

Question 15

what critiscms about MLE have been made

Answer 15

• quite new
• used by young ppl
• associated w wc communities
• associated w ethnic minorities & immigrant populations

Question 16

features of Cockney

Answer 16

• th fronting pronouncing ‘th’ as ‘f’ & ‘v’
• glottal stop (wa? er)
• h dropping e.g) (h)appy
• Cockney rhyming slang e.g) apples & pears=stairs, mince pies=eyes

Question 17

which RP speaker downwardly converged to Estuary English in their speech

Answer 17

Politician George Osborne

Question 18

what is recieved pronunciation (RP)

Answer 18

a social accent associated w authority, power & wealth

-can evoke a hostile response b/c seen as elitist

Question 19

explain Giles’ capital punishment study (1970s)

Answer 19

• 5 groups of students were presented w identical set of arguements against capital punishment
• 1 written & 4 oral presentations
• RP & written presentations deemed most impressive (more professional?)
• Birmingham presentation least impressive

Question 20

what did the 2014 survey on accents show

Answer 20

in the UK Brummie accent voted least attractive (-53)

Question 21

what did Choy & Dodd (1976) find out

Answer 21

teachers judged students’ abilities & personalities based on the way they speak

Question 22

what did Dixon, Mahoney & Cocks (2002) find

Answer 22

• 119 pps listened to an exchange between a criminal & policeman
• 1 w an RP accent & 1 w a Brummie accent
• suspect rated more guilty when employing a Birmingham accent

Question 23

who propsed the idea of social snobbery

Answer 23

Steven Thorne

• Uni of Birmingham found that the 2nd city’s much-maligned accent is highly favoured by foreign visitors
• see it as lilting & melodious rather than ugly & inferior

Question 24

what did Julia Snell mean by accent solidarity

Answer 24

• in the face of powerlessness, wc communities turn to group solidarity
• vernacular forms which lack status within dominant sociolinguist economy may be used to assert status within local interactional use

Question 25

what is dialect levelling

Answer 25

the theory that regional varieties are converging

Question 26

what do prescriptivists believe

Answer 26

• there should only be 1 form of language used (standard English)
• see varieties as wrong, vulgar, stupid

Question 27

what do descriptivists believe

Answer 27

• we should just describe & understand language rather than making value judgements
• language varieties are inevitable & important markers of identity