Accent + Dialect Theorists

Question 1

Cheshire + Edwards (1997)

Answer 1

Studied grammatical variations in 80% of British school
- use of innit/ain’t
- never used as denial to an event

Question 2

Petyt

Answer 2

‘H’ dropping in Bradford
Upper middle class ‘h’ dropped 12% + lower working class 43%

Question 3

Trudgill

Answer 3

Research in Norwich
Found that men are less formal than women in all classes.

Question 4

Petyt + Trudgill

Answer 4

Both found that the lower the class the more likely the use of non-standard English.

Question 5

Aziz cooperation

Answer 5

Ran a survey to rate UK accents in relation to their business appeal.
79% of business people thought a strong regional accent was a disadvantage.
- Cockney -> successful but not trustworthy
- Geordie -> warm + caring
- Asian accent -> hardworking + reliable

Question 6

Labov-Martha’s Vineyard

Answer 6

Study into how people adapt to accents + dialects over time.
Residents adapted their speech to accommodate visitors + over many years the islanders adopted their speech to the majority + it became the norm.

Question 7

Milroy + Milroy

Answer 7

Looked at inner-city Belfast in 1970s + 3 working class communities
Found that accent/dialect was strongly influenced by the level of integration into a social network

Question 8

Bernstein

Answer 8

Classified language into ‘restricted code’ + ‘elaborated code’
Elaborated code: formally correct syntax, more logical connectives.
Restricted code: looser syntax, simple connectives, more cliches.

Question 9

Foukles + Dockerty - Phonological variants (1999)

Answer 9

Replacement of ‘th’ with ‘f’ or ‘v’ has spread from London outwards.

Question 10

Kerswill (2001)

Answer 10

Reduction in rural employment + construction of suburbs causes social mobility + ‘the consequent breakdown of tight-knit’ working class communities.