basics - revision (World Englishes)

Question 1

accent definition

Answer 1

• restricted to pronunciation
• 2 most relevant accents of English:
  received pronunciation (RP) = southern standard British Eng.
  general American (GA) = idealized US accent

Question 2

dialect

Answer 2

• particular region, certain group of people
• normally spoken WITH an accent

Question 3

sociolect

Answer 3

• variety of language which identifies people as belonging to a certain group of people

Question 4

idiolect

Answer 4

= language spoken by an individual

Question 5

register

Answer 5

= vocabulary and a way of speaking
- language varieties associated with certain channels (spoke, written,…) or situational contexts (letter writing, texting, giving a political speech,…)

Question 6

variety

Answer 6

= a lot of concepts (language, dialect, sociolect, idiolect, accent,…)
=> any specific COMPLETE type of language
- distinctive properties on the levels of vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar
- more neutral than a dialect
= any kind of language production

Question 7

basilect

Answer 7

• spoken at different social levels
• LOWEST prestige, MOST DISTANT from a standard language form

Question 8

acrolect

Answer 8

• spoken at different social levels
• HIGHEST prestige, CLOSEST TO a standard language form

Question 9

rhoticity

Answer 9

rhotic varieties: retain postvocalic historical /r/
= ‘r-ful’ varieties
e.g. American varieties

non-rhotic varieties: loose the postvocalic historical /r/
= ‘r-less’ varieties
e.g. British varieties, Australian Eng.

Question 10

Pidgin

Answer 10

• no native speakers, range of use limited (trade, contact language), structure simplified
• reduced second-language form, not anyone’s mother tongue

Question 11

Creole

Answer 11

• pidgin can become creole
  = first language of a new generation of speakers
• fully fledged language
• novel and frequently complex grammatical qualities