Diversity Part 2 165-179 Flashcards
Geordie accent
Seen as soothing, friendly, unchallenging, honest and relaxed
Yorkshire
Reassuring and trustworthy
Alternative factors to the way we speak, besides geography
Age
Gender
Occupation
Gary Ives
Carried out a survey in a Secondary School located in West Yorkshire, 63 teens of various ages were asked, ‘do you think people of different ages speak differently.’ 100 & replied yes.
Penelope Eckert (1998)
Argues that there are different ways of defining the concept of age
Chronological Order (Number of years since birth)
Biological Order (Physical Maturity)
Social Age (Linked to life events such as marriage and having children)
Anna-Brita Stenstrom
Discusses a range of features that she claims are common in teenage talk:
Irregular turn-taking
Overlaps
Indistinct Articulation
Word shortenings
Teasing and name calling
Verbal dueling (when teenagers try to outdo
each other)
Slang
Taboo
Language mixing - using language from other cultures
Igancia Palacios Martinez (2011)
In spoken English, teenagers use negative more frequently that adults do. Roughly 1/3 of these negatives occurred in orders, suggestions and refusals, making the argument that teenagers are more direct in their speech
Unni Berland (1997)
Findings of different groups of teenagers concluded that social class was also an important factor: ‘innit’ was more common among the working class teenagers while ‘yeah’ was used by more middle class group
Anita Strenstrom, Gisle Anderson and Ingrid Kristine Hasund (2002)
Largely focus on the speech of 14-16 year olds in London, the researchers found that common features included; multiple negation, use of ‘ain’t’, ellipsis of auxiliary verbs, non-standard pronouns
Christopher V. Odato (2013)
Carried out research on the use of ‘like’ in children’s speech. While you may consider this to be part of teen sociolect, Odato found that children as young as 4 were using ‘like’, Odato identified three stages in the use of ‘like’ as a discourse marker
Stage 1 - Children use ‘like’ infrequently and in ‘only a few syntactic positions’ mainly at the beginning of a clause: ‘like you won easily’
Stage 2 - Children uses ‘like’ more often and in ‘a greater number of positions ‘ Girls tended to move to this stage aged 5, boys when they were 7
Stage 3 - Children now use it more frequently in other positions, such as before a prepositional phrase: ‘Look at how yours landed like right on the target.’ Again, girls moved to this stage at an earlier age than boys
UK Teacher Training Authority (2005)
Celebrated teenspeak when recruiting more teachers.
Influential factors to Teenspeak (Written and Spoken)
Yours peers and the need to feel part of a group
Technology
Adults - either copying adult speech or diverging from adult speech
Zimmerman Argues:
The media and the press
New means of communication
Music
Street art and graffiti
Vivian de Klerk (2005)
Young people have the freedom to ‘challenge linguistic norms’
They ‘seek to establish new identities’
The patterns of speech previously modelled on the speech of adults are ‘slowly eroded by the patterns of speech’ by their peer group
They need to be seen as ‘modern … cool, fashionable [and] up to date
They need to establish themselves as ‘different’
THey need to belong to a group whose ‘habits … are different from their parents, other adults and other young people’ distinguishing themselves as members of a distinctive social group
Gender representation
Refers to how the image of men and women are portrayed and constructed.
Jespersen’s Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin (1922)
Some features of language were used exclusively by males
Some features of language were used exclusively by females (and never by males) - there are clear links here to masculinity
Language use was clearly linked to maintaining an identity
Robin Lakoff (1975)
Had undeniable influence of language and gender.
- Hedges - Phrases like ‘sort of’, ‘kind of’, ‘it seems like’
- Empty adjectives ‘divine’ ‘adorable’ ‘gorgeous’
- Super-polite forms: ‘Would you mind…’ ‘is it okay if…’
- Apologize more ‘I’m sorry, but I think that..’
- Speak less frequently
- Avoid coarse language or expletives
- Tag questions - ‘You don’t mind eating this do you?’
- Hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation - Use of prestige grammar and clear articulation
- Indirect requests - ‘I’m so thirsty’ - really asking for a drink
- Speak in italics - Use tone to emphasis certain words, e.g, ‘so’ ‘very’ ‘quite’
Jenny Cheshire (1982)
Looked at certain grammatical variations in the speech of young children
Boys used the non-standard forms more frequently than girls did. Cheshire concluded that ‘variations is controlled by social and linguistic factors. In boys’ speech, variation is governed by norms that are central to the vernacular culture, and are transmitted through the peer group. Variation in the girl’s speech appears to be a more personal process and less rigidly controlled by vernacular norms.
Pamela Fishman (1983) - The dominance model
She carefully listened to 52 hours of pre-recorded conversations between young American couples.
She agreed that Tag-question were used more by women, however she argued that women use tag questions to extend the conversation and start conversations which gives them conversational power.
Coining the term ‘conversational shitwork’
But also comments on how due to Male dominance and reluctance to do the the ‘shitwork’ because of what they perceive to be their dominant role
Deborah Tannen (1990)
An advocate for the difference model, affirming that men and women do speak differently.
1. Status vs Support
2. Independence vs Intimacy
3. Advice vs Understanding
4. Information vs Feelings
5. Orders vs Proposals
6. Conflict vs Compromise
Jennifer Coates (1989)
Coates argues that girls and boys tend to belong to same-sex friendship groups when growing up and subsequently develop different styles of speaking
Coates theorizes that female language is cooperative in single-sex conversations. She views tag questions and modality as characteristics that help to make women’s talk supportive and cooperative
Jane Pilkington (1992)
Pilkington found that women in same sex conversation were collaborative and used positive politeness strategies. She found that men in same sex talk were a lot less collaborative, less complimentary and less supportive than women
Deborah Cameron (2008)
Has criticized the idea that there are innate differences in male and female speech.
She argues ‘The idea that men and women…. use language in very different ways and for very different reasons is one of the great myths of our time.’
