Jennifer Cheshire - Social Variation (Networks) Flashcards
Where and when did Cheshire carry out her study?
Reading, 1980s
How does her study differ from Trudgill and Petyts studies?
She looked at a wider range of linguistic analysis, she looked more at grammatical variables.
What was Cheshire’s methodology?
She went undercover and blended in with the gangs to see how they spoke.
What was Cheshire trying to find out?
If there was a relationship between language use and how much of a “hard core” gang member you were.
What were the properties she based people being a “hard core” gang member by?
- participating in more crimes
- carry weapons
- more taboo language
- follow gang dress code
What was Cheshire’s hypothesis?
If you were in the centre of the gang you were more likely to use vernacular pronunciation compared to the people on the edge of the gang.
What sort of study is this?
(Vernacular) Social Network Study
What did the score of all the different properties she based people being a “hard core” gang member give?
The vernacular culture index score
How many different variables did Cheshire look at?
11
What were the 11 different variables she looked at?
- non-s. ‘s’
- non-s. ‘has’
- non-s. ‘was’
- non-s. ‘never’
- non-s. ‘what’
- non-s. ‘do’
- non-s. ‘come’
- negative concord
- ain’t = auxiliary ‘have’
- ain’t = auxiliary ‘be’
- ain’t = copula (not used as an auxiliary)
Who did she compare the variables with?
“Good girls” - less hard core gang members (more middle class)
“Bad girls” - more hard core gang members (more lower class)
What differences did Cheshire find between the good girls and the bad girls?
In most cases, the bad girls used the vernacular forms more than the good girls,
however in two cases the good girls used the vernacular forms the same amount as the bad girls
in one instance the good girls used the vernacular forms more than the bad girls
What did this inconsistency of the data results show?
That there is an increased variability of younger language users and both groups of girls used quite a lot of non-standard English.
Who did she also compare the groups of girls with?
Bad Boys and Good boys
Were the results similar when comparing with the boys groups?
Yes