language and region

Question 1

What was Choy+Dodd’s ‘Teacher’s judging student’s ability’ Theory?

Answer 1

Teachers make judgements on a student’s ability on their personality based on the way they speak

Question 2

What was Seligman, Tucker+Lambert’s ‘Teachers judging student’s speech’ Theory?

Answer 2

Teachers’ perceptions of students were heavily influenced by their speech

Question 3

What was Foulkes+Docherty ‘ th = f/v’ study?

Answer 3

• Discusses the replacement of th with f or v + how it’s phonological orgins has spread from London

Question 4

What was Ives’ ‘Bradford/London Study’?

Answer 4

• Commissioned 2 studies to be carried out in London + Bradford in order to explore the new dialects which had a growing use of code switching
• In each study, participants were questioned + subsequently discussed their lang use, more specifically , their dialect
• Some key features of the dialect he found were replacing Standard English verb form, changing a noun to a verb (Hype-Hyping) + changing an abstract noun to a less abstract form

Question 5

What was Jones’ ‘Prescriptivism vs Descriptivism’ Theory?

Answer 5

• Jones was a descriptivist linguistic.
• In early 20th century, teachers of English were seen as “missionaries” of speech, whose job it was to ‘correct’ aspects of regional lang by removing them + replacing them w/ RP + standard English, which were seen as hallmarks of refinement

Question 6

What was Rosewarne’s ‘Estuary English’ Theory?

Answer 6

• David Rosewarne coined the term, ‘Estuary’ in 1984
• Described the accent as ‘modified regional speech’ + placed it along a continuum between RP + Cockney
• Many linguists see it as an ‘Umbrella term’ , covering a range of southern English dialects

Question 7

What was Milroy’s ‘Belfast Study’?

Answer 7

• Conducted research in inner-city Belfast
• asked participant how integrated they are in the community
• Found that stronger the social network is, the greater the use of vernacular (everyday, informal speech)
• Criticism- only took in account one community in Belfast

Question 8

What was Trudgill’s ‘Social Class, RP’ Theory?

Answer 8

• Study focuses on the effects of social class on lang use explored the differences between working + middle class backgrounds on their pronunciation of certain sounds.
• The velar nasal /n/ at the end of words like ‘running’, concluded that changing the velar nasal /n/ to an alveolar /n/ - saying ‘runnin’ instead of ‘running’ - was more likely to feature in working class speech than middle class
• Found differences between men’s + women’s use of the non-standard forms; estimated that only 3% of speakers used RP

Question 9

Why do Dialects exist?

Answer 9

Dialects exist because communities used to be geographically isolated and only interacted with each other - it then becomes an integral part of that area’s language + identity

Question 10

What is an Accent?

Answer 10

A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class
E.g. Geordie accent from Newcastle, Scouse from Liverpool, Received Pronunciation (RP)

Question 11

What is a Dialect?

Answer 11

The whole language, including accent, vocab, etc. - may be associated with one area or class

Question 12

What was Howard Giles, ‘Matched Guise’ opinion on accents?

Answer 12

Howard Giles, Matched Guise:
- RP rated highly in terms of intelligence + power

• Regional varieties i.e. Birmingham rated more favourably in terms of integrity + friendliness
• Shows that whilst RP is seen as powerful and intelligent, it didn’t have the same connotations of friendliness as other varieties