Accent Studies

Question 1

Peter Trudgill’s Norwich Study

What research did they undertake?/ what was the set up/context of this research.

Answer 1

Looked at the ‘ng’ phoneme at the ends of words.

Question 2

Peter Trudgill’s Norwich Study
What did they find?

Answer 2

1* Lower classes more likely to drop their ‘g’.
2* Women did it less often than men
3* Claim vs Reality/findings.
a* Claimed they did it less than they did.
b* Men claimed they did it MORE than they did.

Question 3

Peter Trudgill’s Norwich Study

Any terminology/theory that came out of the study?

Answer 3

Conclusion: women more likely to use overt prestige forms, men might actually take pride and seek more covert prestige.

Question 4

Jenny Cheshire’s Reading Study
What research did they undertake?/ what was the set up/context of this research.

Answer 4

1* Studied a set of non-standard grammatical features in Reading amongst teenage boys and girls.
2* Some of the students were deliberately chosen because they were frequently in trouble at school and often truanted.

Question 5

Jenny Cheshire’s Reading Study
What did they find?

Answer 5

1* Cheshire argued they belonged to a ‘vernacular subculture’ and found out more about their values and norms. They were likely to carry weapons, involve themselves in minor crime and like fighting.
2* The group who belonged to this more ‘delinquent subculture’ used more non standard forms than the group who were less connected to the subculture.

Question 6

Jenny Cheshire’s Reading Study
Any terminology/theory that came out of the study?

Answer 6

“vernacular subculture” -they are connected in a subculture because of their values.
She saw this as especially a teenage thing.

Question 7

Milroy’s Belfast Study
What research did they undertake?/ what was the set up/context of this research.

Answer 7

Milroy called the close knit communities ‘closed networks’ and this meant that the people all knew each other and had the same set of contacts. In a more ‘open network’ people have contacts with people from a wider range of different social groups.

Question 8

Milroy’s Belfast Study
What did they find?

Answer 8

The women in two areas of Belfast (the Hammer and The Clonard) had particularly high use of non-standard forms. The women in these communities all worked because of high unemployment amongst men. The women worked together. Their networks were therefore very closed – they lived, worked and socialised with people who all knew each other.

Question 9

Milroy’s Belfast Study
Any terminology/theory that came out of the study?

Answer 9

Close-knit communities used more non-standard forms than more open communities.
They are when people aren’t talking to many people outside of the group.