gender and speech

Question 1

what did Giles study

Answer 1

hierachy of accents

Question 2

what did Giles find

Answer 2

RP => most intelligent
regional accent => divided opinion often seen as friendly
Liverpudlian and Brummie => least intelligent and untrustworthy

Question 3

what does Giles’ study reveal

Answer 3

there is a perceived hierarchy of accents
different accents have different associations and characteristics
people are prejudice towards certain accents

Question 4

what did william labov study in his NY study

Answer 4

post vocalic /r / which is the prestige form

saks => upperclass shop
macys =>middle class 
kleins => lower class

Question 5

what method was used for labovs ny study

Answer 5

spoke to sales assistant in stores and measured the use of the p-v/r/
he asked them a question and got them to repeat

Question 6

what did labov find in his NY study

Answer 6

Saks had used the p-v/r/ most which is overtly prestige

Macy’s hyper corrected the most from covert to overt prestige

Question 7

what does labov’s NY study show

Answer 7

effects of overt prestige on language and that class has a subtle effect on sociolect

code-switching is used for clarity and for prestige

Question 8

what did labov measure in his Martha’s Vineyard study?

Answer 8

centralised diphthong

Question 9

what did Labov find in his Martha’s vineyard study

Answer 9

1. local fishermen accentuated their accents in response to tourists
   they do this subconsciously establish and identify themselves, rejecting tourists
2. settlers used diphthong more than down-islanders out of respect for fishermen and associate with island life

Question 10

what does labov’s marthas vineyard study tell us

Answer 10

people use sociolect to associate with certain social groups and show awareness to certain values and how accent can exclude others

Question 11

what did trudgill study

Answer 11

in Norwich

non-standard variants of language and differences between class and gender

Question 12

what did Trudgill measure

Answer 12

elison => missing off the ‘g’ at end of words
h-dropping => missing ‘h’ at beginning of word
glottal stop => replacing ‘t’

Question 13

what did trudgill find

Answer 13

middle class used non-standard forms the least
women tend to use non-standard forms less then men
everyone used n-s f in informal contexts

Question 14

what did Eckert study

Answer 14

non-standard variants of language in American schools

how language reflects identity in social groups

Question 15

who did Eckert research

Answer 15

2 scoial groups :
jocks
burnouts

Question 16

what did Eckert measure

Answer 16

use of phonological variant sounds

eg ‘ae’ ‘uh’ ‘ay’

Question 17

what did Eckert discover about the jocks

Answer 17

accept authority
middle class
conservative adult-like speech

Question 18

what did Eckert discover about the burnouts

Answer 18

focus on rejecting school authority
lower/working class 
more varied, urban speech

Question 19

what did Eckert find

Answer 19

1. people speak like their friends
   2 .shared social practices have impact on language more than background
2. teens use language to conform or rebel; signifies values

Question 20

what did milroy study

Answer 20

the effect of close nit communities on the use of non-standard english

Question 21

what did milroy do

Answer 21

gave each person from 3 ship yards in Belfast a network score from 1-5
1 =>low net work score ; networks more open
5 => high net work score ; closed network, worked and socialised together

Question 22

what did milroy find

Answer 22

people with a high network score used non-standard english more often => stronger accent and dialect

people with low network score used more standard english

Question 23

what did milroy conclude

Answer 23

women often had open networks

close knit communities reinforce linguistic normas which leads to stronger accent and dialect.

Question 24

who proposed the deficit model

Answer 24

robin lakoff

Question 25

what does the deficit model suggest

Answer 25

• women speak in a genderlect that socially reduces them and linguistically disempower women.
• their genderlect makes them subordinate to men

Question 26

what are the features of women’s language proposed in the deficit model

Answer 26

tag Q’s
hedging
empty adjectives
avoiding taboo

Question 27

who proposed the dominance model

Answer 27

Zimmerman and West

Question 28

what does the dominance model suggest

Answer 28

• women are in a position of social weakness

- men deliberately behave in an uncooperative way when talking to women to undermine and dominate.

Question 29

what did Z&W find in their study (dominance model)

Answer 29

• there’s a difference in how turn taking is managed between same sex and mixed sex conversations
• men interrupted women but not other men

Question 30

what did pamela fisherman find (dominance model)

Answer 30

women used tag Q’s in an attempt to stimulate a response from their significant other

when tag q’s are repeated, this indicates malfunction in turn taking

Question 31

who came up with the difference model

Answer 31

Deoborah tannen

Question 32

what does the difference model suggest

Answer 32

• males and females belong to different communities of practice and speak different genderlects
• differences start at childhood and lead to misunderstanding between genders

Question 33

what main differences does the difference model suggest

Answer 33

status Vs support
conflict Vs compromise
orders Vs proposals

Question 34

what critcisms are there of the difference model

Answer 34

• huge generalisation

- ignores factors like context

Question 35

who proposed the diversity model

Answer 35

deborah cameron

Question 36

what does the diversity model suggest

Answer 36

• individuals vary so much it is difficult to generalise
• more differences within genders than between
• the difference model is based on simplistic steryotypes

Question 37

who creates the idea that ‘gender is a performance’

Answer 37

judith Butler

Question 38

what does the ‘gender is a performance’ idea suggest

Answer 38

• people act upon their beliefs which are created by social pressures
• gender is performed differently in different contexts and situations

Question 39

what did butler suggest about policing gender

Answer 39

some of our language polices gender norms:

• women => butch, ladylike
• men => bit of a girl

Question 40

what is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Answer 40

linguistic determinism => language we use and hear determines our ideas about the world

linguistic reflectionism => language we use reflects out beliefs