Language and Ethnicity

Question 1

Labov Gangs

Answer 1

Research of New York gang members, mainly young black men. Found evidence of covert prestige - the more respected a person was within the gang, the more non-standard features in their speech

Question 2

Bernstein

Answer 2

Looked at the role of language and its affects in educational success. Argued that there are two types of language use, elaborated and restricted code.

Question 3

Kerswill MLE

Answer 3

Sees MLE as a positive sign of the intergration of different ethnic groups amongst young people - convergence

Question 4

Drummond MUBE

Answer 4

Regional variations of MLE studied by Rob Drummond. Blend of MLe with various regional features. Drummond notes variation withing MUBE for gender, region, ethnicity and context

Question 5

Sharma and Sankran

Answer 5

Studied use of retroflex T in Indian English and found that usage varies depending on age and context

Question 6

Sebba and Edwards

Answer 6

Code-switching - the ability to use differeny varieties as appropriate to context

Question 7

Viv Edwards 1980

Answer 7

Recorded young people of Jamaican descent in Dudley in the West Midlands in five settings. She calculated what she called a ‘Patois Index’, which was an aggregate of the use of Patois vs English forms by all participants. Found the use of Patois features averaged at 5.57% when being interviewed by a white researcher compared to 43.29% when in a black peer group

Question 8

Ethnicity

Answer 8

A concept which relates to a person’s cultural identity

Question 9

Mark Sebba (1980s)

Answer 9

Researched ‘London Jamaican’. Pointed out that code-switching is common (where one language is used for one portion of a conversation, for example a speaker’s turn, with another language replacing it in the next portion). One recorded conversation suggested a speaker switched to Creole when in teasing mode and in order to reduce a face threatening act.

Question 10

The first, large group of migrant workers to arrive in the post-Second World War period came from

Answer 10

The Caribbean, followed by people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

Question 11

Immigrant groups in London include

Answer 11

Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, West Africans, Greeks, Cypriots, Chinese, Turks and Somalis, as well as people from other European countries and the USA.

Question 12

Sharma and Sankaran

Answer 12

Investigated the English of three age groups of Punjabi-speaking Indians in West London. Found that the older generation code switched much more than the younger generation.

Question 13

Creole

Answer 13

A variety that has developed from a ‘pidgin’ or trade language to become a stable language used by speakers as their mother tongue

Question 14

Patois

Answer 14

An alternative term for creole, sometimes spelt ‘patwa’ to distance the language from apparent connections with Europe, and to suggest how it should be pronounced.

Question 15

Code switching

Answer 15

the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation.

Question 16

Empire Windrush

Answer 16

A troop ship which, in the spring of 1948, brought 492 Jamaicans to Britain, thus marking the first wave of large-scale immigration to Great Britain, which they regarded as their ‘mother country’. Many young men in their twenties, jumped at the chance of seeing England, perhaps making some money and then returning home. These immigrants and those of their dependence who followed them to Britain, later became known as the ‘Windrush generation’.

Question 17

Restricted Code Verses Elaborated Code

Answer 17

The two codes of Bernstein.The restricted code is used among speakers with similar backgrounds who share much of the same background knowledge and experiences. This code is more restricted in that the users tend to use certain grammatical features with less frequency because the interlocutors understand each other’s assumptions, perspectives, feelings, ways of speaking. The elaborated code is used with speakers who do not share the same background or experiences. This code is more elaborate in the use of grammar structures, pronouns, amount of language used to express ideas because the interlocutors are not as familiar with the backgrounds, experiences, assumptions, outlooks, perspectives etc. of each other. Therefore they use more words, phrases, forms to express meaning.

Question 18

Post-creole continuum

Answer 18

The range of varieties that evolves in communities where a creole is spoken, usually as a result of decreolisation then hypercreolisation

Question 19

Decreolisation

Answer 19

A reduction in the number of creole features in the speech of an individual or community.

Question 20

Hypercreolisation

Answer 20

An exaggeration of creole language features found in the 2nd and 3rd generation of immigrants

Question 21

Black Vernacular English

Answer 21

A non-standard form of English spoken by some Black people

Question 22

Pidgin language

Answer 22

A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages.