Age (paper 2)

Question 1

Jenny Cheshire

Answer 1

• looked at 11 non-standard forms used by children against their adherence to the law in a playground at a school in Reading
  eg. double negatives, non-standard use of “what” (is this the book what we are learning about?) and “ain’t” being used as a copular verb (you ain’t the teacher)

Question 2

Cheshire - findings

Answer 2

• all children that approved of criminal activities within their peer group were more likely to use non-standard forms
• more girls than boys approved
• non-standard variations are conscious choices in language

Question 3

Emma Moore - 2010

Answer 3

• research into social groups at a school in Bolton and looked at the non-standard use of “were” (it was in maths, weren’t it?)
• her research looked at four groups:
  1) Eden Valley Girls:
• came from very well-off backgrounds, focussed on school but engaged in activities like shopping too
• used the standard form “was” almost all the time and this was put down to them having a higher social class
  2) Populars:
• not focussed on school and engaged in activities like drinking and smoking
• did not always use the standard form
  3) Townies:
• breakaway group from the Populars and engaged in activities like drugs and sex
• mix of upper working class and lower middle class girls and working class boys
• often made use of the non-standard form
  4) Geeks:
• extremely school focussed
• disliked the use of the non standard
• only four did use the non standard and they were all from a lower social class

Question 4

Penelope Eckert

Answer 4

• researched vowel sounds in Detroit (flesh sounding like flush)
• defined two key groups - Jocks and Burnouts
  Jocks - school centred
  burnouts - opposite of this and concentrated on gaining a job in the local workforce

Question 5

Eckert - findings

Answer 5

• Jocks used a significantly higher proportion of the standard form
  their vowels were conservative and their grammatical constructions were practically all standard
• Burnouts were more focussed on their local surroundings so used the Detroit vowels more severely

Question 6

Ekert’s theory of age

Answer 6

• chronological - the physical time someone has been alive
• biological - the maturity of the body
• social - the way someone is developed in society

Question 7

Stenstrom (2014)
FEATURES OF TEEN SPEAK

Answer 7

• slang
• conversational overlapping
• shortening of words
• taboo and expletives

Question 8

De Klerk

Answer 8

• teenagers have a freedom which allows them to rebel against the linguistic norms to mark themselves as different to others