Age And Social Groups Flashcards
What was labovs department store study?
Looked at 3 different department stores in NYC and asked for directions to departments on the 4th floor and then asked them to repeat it
Looks at different classes, conscious and unconscious speech
264 interviews which were representative of numbers in each class
Found an increased of ‘r’ in careful speech, saks used the rhotic ‘r’ the most and was used most in word final position
What was the milroy and milroy Belfast study ?
Looked at inner city Belfast in the 1970s and 3 wc communities
Milroy lived within the community which reduced Hawthorne effect but also meant more bias and human error
They looked at the correlation between the intergration of ppl in the community and the way they speak
Each person was scored between 1-5 about how intergrated they were
They found that a high score was correlated with the use of more non standard forms
This suggests that accent/dialect was strongly influenced by the level of intergration into a social network
Close knit networks are important for dialect maintenance as it promotes solidarity and identity
What was Bernstein elaborated codes study?
Classified language into restricted code and elaborated code as believed that the titles standard English and regional accents detract from observing the complexity of language and only look at the use of regional words
-elaborated code- formally correct syntax, more subordinate clauses, fewer unfinished sentences, more logcial connectives such as if and unless
Restricted code- looser syntax, simple connectives like and and but more cliches, compound sentences and pronouns
Who did jocks and burnout and what was it ?
Penelope ekhert
Social practices
Research in high school Detroit
2 distinctive groups- jocks and burnouts
Burnouts were actively rebellious and refused to take part in school activities
Jocks participated in school life enthusiastically
Burnouts exaggerated pronounications to sound more Detroit
Jocks more concerned with speaking in a socially prestigious way
Reading study who and what?
Jenny Cheshire
Identified 11 non standard features and measured their frequency of use in boys and girls in a reading playground, differentiating between those who approved and disapproved of minor cirminal offences
All children who approved of peer group criminal activities were more likely to use non standard forms but boys more so
All children who disapproved of such activities use non standard forms less but the difference between the groupings of girls was starker
Suggest that variation in dialects is a conscious choice influenced by social attitude
Males are more susceptible to covert prestige but social attitude is more of a determining factor than gender
A more negative attitude to peer groups criminal activities can be seen as aspirational and therefore those children would be less susceptible to the covert prestige forms
Who did the taboo study and what is it?
De Klerk
Asked teens in the 12-14 and 15-17 age range about the slang that they used for various terms including a good looking girls, good looking boy, ugly girl and boy
The teens came up with 141 derogatory terms for boys and 117 for girls
It turns out that the most popular words used to describe an unpleasant girl are perhaps strogner(botch,cow) than the ones against males but that the range of words used to describe an unpleasant boy is a bit broader than the range used by boys about girls
De Klerk concluded that social pressure acts on male and female teenagers alike and that many a teenager is blissfully unaware of the full import of slang terms he or she uses because the use of slang is often a vague hit or miss affair
Slang is picked up by careful observation and is casually and coolly asking about the meaning of slang items is tantamount to admitting failure as a teenager
