language and class

Question 1

Nancy Milford

Answer 1

upper class spoke more non- u (non- upper class) words as they had the money therefore they had nothing to prove

• middle class by using upper class words sounded like social climbers

Question 2

William Labov (1970)

Answer 2

New York study- 3 stores: MACY’S, SAK’S and KLEIN’S

Klein’s- post- vocalic ‘r’ is not emphasised (fourth floor)

middle class Macy’s and Sak’s- more prestige because of ‘r’ sound

• speaking casually was not as emphasised
• reading was more emphasised

Question 3

Peter Trudgill (1970)

Answer 3

speech in Norwich

• working class (speech ‘n’)
• middle class (speech ‘ng’)

crossover with language and gender

women- /ng/- felt like they were talking with ‘ng’ when in reality they were using ‘n’ (hyper correct- fragile, delicate etc.)

men- ‘n’

Question 4

Lesley Milroy (1987)

Answer 4

WEB OF TIES:

LANGUAGE VARIATION could be EXPLAINED by RESIDENTS SOCIAL NETWORKS

CAUSES OF HIGH NETWORK

> PEOPLE who BELONG to MORE THAN ONE SOCIAL GROUP, maybe OUTGOING and CONFIDENT

CAUSES OF LOW NETWORK DENSITY SCORES:

> PEOPLE whose JOBS WERE ISOLATED or UNSOCIABLE,

Question 5

Howard Giles accommodation theory

Answer 5

Convergence = changing language to suit audience.

Divergence = changing language to distance and distinguish from audience.

Question 6

Penelope Eckert (2000)

Answer 6

Jocks and Burnouts

jocks: speak like the people they are around

burnouts: showed their neighbourhood language