AS - Language and social groups

Question 1

What are the main studies of language and social class

Answer 1

Labov- Social Stratification New york (1966)
Trudghill- study of language Norwhich(1982)
Petyts study of language Bradford(1980)

Question 2

What did Labov investigate?

Answer 2

He studied the use of the postvocalic ‘r’ which is the pronunciation of ‘r’ in words such as ‘farm’, ‘floor’ and ‘car’. In New York, since WWII, the postvocalic or rhotic ‘r’ is considered socially prestigious so Labov believed that the higher the social class of the speaker, the more likely they’d be to pronounce it.