Dialect Flashcards
Who proposed the theory of dialect levelling?
Paul Kerswill
What is dialect levelling?
Increased social and geographical mobility causes the erasure of regional dialects with increased pressure to use standard English
What is norm enforcement?
Pressure to obey norms e.g. a closed network
What are some features of the Surrey dialect?
Lexis: “timmersome” - timid
Grammar: “how be you” - n/s copular verb
Which area is an example of an extremely closed network?
Forest of Dean
What are some features of the Forest of Dean dialect?
“Ship” - insult for someone who wanders around a village
“How bist dau, butt” - how are you mate (Welsh borrowing and archaic second person inflection)
What did Milroy and Milroy say about dialect levelling?
There is reduced dialect levelling due to people moving out of their local areas and increased pressure to use standard forms
Where did Cheshire conduct her study?
Reading
What did Cheshire’s Reading study aim to investigate?
The dialect variations of networks (a group of mixed-sex teens who dressed separately from mainstream culture) and their use of non-standard features
What did Cheshire’s Reading study identify? (features)
11 n/s features e.g.
n/s ‘s’ inflection - “They calls me names”
n/s copular verbs - “You was there”
multiple negation - “You ain’t no boss”
What did Cheshire’s study reveal?
A positive correlation between the social network and 6/11 features
A link between covert prestige and non-standard features
Who conducted the Matched Guise Experiment?
Howard Giles
What was the aim of Giles’ matched guise experiment?
To identify prejudices about accents
What did Giles find in his matched guise experiment?
Between a Birmingham accent and an RP accent, the Birmingham accent was more often considered guilty in a police interview
What is dialect?
The words and grammar we use
