Age Flashcards
Moore
Historically, the use of ‘nonstandard’ I were and s/he were was more widespread and was even found in some counties in the south of England, such as Suffolk and Norfolk, but these days this dialect feature seems to be restricted to northern varieties
investigated patterns of variation in speech among teenage girls in
Bolton (once part of Lancashire but now included in the Greater Manchester area due to boundary changes) and found that the use of nonstandard were is still a robust feature in their dialect.
Moore suggests that it continues to exist there because some of the girls use it to signal their localness to the area. The situation is more complicated than this though.
Moore 2
This detailed ethnographic study follows the girls at school over a two-year period, starting when they were aged 12-13 and ending when they were 14-15 years old.
Moore collected around 50 hours of speech recordings.
Over this span of time she was also able to study the girls’ personal appearance and style, the people that each of them spent time with, the activities that they engaged in and the girls’ attitudes to their own membership of groups and towards other groups.
From this information Moore identified four groups or ‘Communities of Practice’ (CofP) within the school; the Populars, who engaged in rebellious activities such as drinking and smoking and generally had an anti-school attitude; the Townies, a breakaway group who emerged from the Populars and who started to engage in even riskier activities such as drug-taking and sexual activity; the Geeks, who were ‘institutionally orientated’ and took part in school activities such as the
choir and school orchestra and finally, the Eden Valley girls, a group of girls who came from a desirable home area, were also school-orientated and who engaged in activities such as dancing and shopping. All of the girls came from ‘upper working class’ or ‘lower middle class’ social backgrounds, reflecting the relative prosperity of the research location.
Moore 3
Moore’s analysis of the data shows that there are certain internal (linguistic) contexts where speakers are more likely to use nonstandard were. For example, tag questions at the end of clauses as in ‘it was
at Beverley’s party, weren’t it?’ and indefinite pronouns such as everyone in the expression ‘everyone were touchy-feely’ are likely to attract the use of nonstandard were. But it is the analysis of the external (social) constraints that shows the more fine-grained uses of nonstandard were.
Emma moore
Firstly, the seven Eden Valley girls used standard was almost all of the time. This was the only CofP to have speakers who were exclusively from the higher social group. Furthermore, the distance of their
home area from the school precluded them from maintaining friendships with girls outside of their home village and their social engagements tended to be within high status networks with individuals from a wide geographical area. So while the social practices they engaged in patterned with their use of standard English forms, the CofP itself was constrained by wider social circumstances, particularly social class. This of course corroborates with many other studies which have shown that the higher up the social scale a speaker is, the more likely a speaker is to use standard forms.
However, the other three CofPs all draw members from both social class groups. The use of nonstandard were among these adolescents might therefore be seen as a reflection of their social practices, although this is not quite straightforwardly so and other factors also play a role. For example, the Geeks generally disfavour the use of nonstandard were and this may be because they engage with the institutional norms of the school and conform to using standard forms. However, four (out of a total of fourteen) of the Geeks do have high rates of nonstandard were. On closer inspection, these four speakers all come from the lower social class group and have at least one parent born in Bolton. In these cases, their strong local ties and obligations outside school may exert more influence over their language use than their interactions within school. Similarly, the Populars neither favour nor disfavour the use of nonstandard were but three (out of a total of fourteen) of the individuals in this group have no use of nonstandard were at all. These three speakers are all from the higher social class group and their wider social engagements also seem to exert more influence over their speech than their engagement with practices associated with the Populars group. It is the Townies group which highly favours the use of nonstandard were. The four Townies members are drawn from the two social class groups; two from the upper working class group and two from the lower middle class group. All four have at least one parent born in Bolton. What singles these speakers out from the others is not only their engagement in more rebellious social practices but also that their social networks include boys from some of the most working class areas of Bolton where the maintenance of this dialect feature is perhaps more steadfast. What is clear from this paper is that nonstandard were is alive and well in this northwest area but that there is not one single explanation to account for its use. Engagement in social practices was found to be important but clearly there is a complex interaction of both linguistic and social factors. Moore concludes by stating that this dialect feature will be maintained as long as it ‘maintains an active role in sociolinguistic practice’.
Penelope Eckert Jocks and burnouts 1989
Looks at communities of practice and their language habits.
A community of practice (CoP) is where people come together due to sharing common interests, problems, or activities. They have a mutual engagement in the shared practice and work together to fulfil individual and group groups.
E.g. Examples include classes at school, a netball team, governments, a digital marketing team, and so on.
Jocks and burnouts
ethnographic study of social class in Detroit high schools.
Eckert was motivated to conduct her Jocks and Burnouts study as most prior studies of language and class focussed on the speech of adults. Instead of this, Eckert wanted to look at the link between class and language from the perspective of teenagers.
Within this study, Eckert looked at communities of practice in schools and defined two prominent groups of teens. These were split into the jocks and the burnouts. We’ll look at these two groups in more detail and then at the language patterns associated with each group.
Jocks
The first community of practice defined by Eckert was the Jocks. These students embodied middle-class culture and were keen to integrate into school life. They played an active part in school activities such as sports clubs, choir, and other clubs. These people also respected authority, aiming to gain praise and recognition for their actions.
Burnouts
The Burnouts were the opposite of the Jocks. They typically embodied the working-class culture and did not actively involve themselves in any school-life activities. Instead, the Burnouts tended to engage in more rebellious behaviour and had a general anti-school point of view, which also meant that they were generally against authority and did not seek the approval or praise of their superiors.
Findings
Eckert found that language differences were more closely linked to communities of practice rather than to specific social differences (class, ethnicity, gender etc.). Regardless of someone’s background, they were more likely to speak like someone who shared an interest or activity with them than with someone who didn’t.
This finding shows a more human approach to sociolinguistics, showing that people are more likely to speak like their friends (regardless of differing social factors) than those with whom they share a social demographic.
Within Eckert’s findings, she saw a difference in vowel variation amongst the teenagers. This variation correlated with the social categories (such as gender, age, ethnicity, and class) and the communities of practice associated with these categories.
This aligns with many other sociolinguistic studies where it is found that social factors such as age, class, ethnicity, occupation, or gender can have a significant impact on a person’s language use.
Jocks and burnouts key takeaways
Eckert’s Jocks and Burnouts study was released in 1989.
The Jocks and Burnouts study looked at socio-demographic factors and practice communities.
The Jocks were the people who actively participated in school life and activities and embodied middle-class values.
The Burnouts were the social opposites to the Jocks, with anti-school and anti-authority views, and didn’t participate in school life and embodied more working-class values.
The study showed vowel variation occurred because of different social factors such as age and gender and because of people being part of different communities of practice.
