Language And Region

Question 1

Difference between accent and dialect

Answer 1

Accent refers to the way in which people pronounce sounds. Dialect refers to vocabulary and grammar

Question 2

What are the two types of language?

Answer 2

Prescriptivism and descriptivism

Question 3

What is prescriptivism?

Answer 3

Belief that there is an absolute authority determining what is correct usage, language is absolute and unchangeable, based on rules established in the past

Question 4

What is descriptivism?

Answer 4

Correctness is dependent on context and should be defined by what is appropriate in any context, therefore depending on how the majority of people use language

Question 5

Problems with descriptive approaches

Answer 5

The phonemic alphabet of English sounds is based on the RP accent, so other accents are described by saying how they differ from RP

Question 6

Distribution

Answer 6

Where a feature is used, within the language inventory of an individual or group

Question 7

Inventory

Answer 7

A list of items. Eg. List of sounds used in a person’s accent

Question 8

Non regional

Answer 8

Alternative name for RP accent

Question 9

Non standard

Answer 9

Different from normal or majority usage

Question 10

Phonetic alphabet

Answer 10

Alphabet designed for transcribing the sounds of all of the world’s languages

Question 11

How the phonemic alphabet can cause problems for some regional speakers?

Answer 11

Eg. Difference between northern and southern accents in the distribution of two pairs of vowel sounds:
/ae/ and /a:/ like bath and grass

Question 12

Daniel Jones

Answer 12

Revised his book The Pronunciation of English in 1950.
“ it can no longer be said that any standard exists, it must be left to individual English speaker people to decide whether they should speak in the manner that comes to them naturally or whether they should alter their speech in any way”

Question 13

Who was Daniel Jones? Attitudes to regional varieties?

Answer 13

Descriptive linguist. 20th C. Teachers of English were seen as missionaries of speech, whose job it was to correct aspects of regional language by removing them and replacing them with RP and Standard English- seen as hallmarks of refinement

Question 14

Rhotic

Answer 14

Accents where speakers produce the post vocalic r, such as in many rural accents in the south west region of the UK

Question 15

Judgments of the use of velar nasal /n/

Answer 15

In prescriptive, sometimes people talk about g dropping characterising as sloppy speech. This is not an accurate description of what is happening, because there was no g to be dropped in the first place

Question 16

What does the attitude towards g dropping show about people?

Answer 16

People are thinking about writing, rather than spoken language

Question 17

Glottal stop /?/

Answer 17

A closure of the vocal cords. Eg. Replacing /t/

Question 18

Covert prestige

Answer 18

Status gained from peer group recognition, rather than public acknowledgement

Question 19

Estuary English

Answer 19

A recent accent variety used in South East England which combines RP with some aspects of regional southern accents.

Question 20

Linguistic variable

Answer 20

An item of language that is likely to vary and is therefore of interest to sociolinguists

Question 21

Multicultural London English

Answer 21

A recent variety combining elements of the language of the language of different ethnic groups, particularly AfroCaribbean English

Question 22

Overt prestige

Answer 22

Status that is publicly acknowledged

Question 23

Self reported usage

Answer 23

People describing their own language use

Question 24

Where are glottal stops also used?

Answer 24

Connected speech, alternatives for some plosives. Eg. /t/ in button

Question 25

Trudgill’s accent variation investigation

Answer 25

Trudgill developed a complex and thorough method which involved recording people speaking in a range of different ways, to see whether increased formality of the context reduced the frequency of non standard features

Question 26

Trudgill’s accent variation results

Answer 26

Men tended to over report their own usage while women tended to under report, suggesting a connection with gender identity

Question 27

Dialect levelling

Answer 27

The way in which dialect terms have been dropping out of use

Question 28

Isogloss

Answer 28

A geographic boundary indicating where certain items of language are used

Question 29

Slang

Answer 29

Language that is used in informal contexts and widely recognised

Question 30

Use of pronouns in regional speech

Answer 30

Eg. Liverpool- plural of you-yous- which is a subtlety that SE doesn’t have.
Reflexive pronouns, are often regularised in regional dialect grammar, so the system that begins with myself and yourself continues in some regional speech with hisself and theirselves

Question 31

Shibboleth

Answer 31

A language item used as a marker or test of group membership

Question 32

What did Labov’s early work of language on Martha’s Vineyard on accent variation show?

Answer 32

Offered insights into why low status varieties of language persists.
Showed how some younger residents were unconsciously adopting older, rural speech in order to show their resistance to the island’s commercialisation by tourism. Linked to covert prestige

Question 33

Matched guise technique

Answer 33

Experimental technique where a single actor puts on a different accent for different audiences, but keeps the content of the speech the same

Question 34

3 main parameters that Giles used to test different accents

Answer 34

Status- testing how powerful and important the speaker appeared to be
Personality- testing what traits of character came across
Persuasiveness- testing how believable the person seemed

Question 35

Gile’s status ranking

Answer 35

RP, National accents such as Welsh and Irish, regional rural accents, regional urban accents

Question 36

How was RP seen as?

Answer 36

In terms of personality, self confident, intelligent and ambitious, but also cold and ruthless

Question 37

How was northern accented speech seen as?

Answer 37

Honest, reliable, generous, sincere

Question 38

People’s attitudes to accents

Answer 38

although RP is associated with high social status (in terms of wealth, level of education and employment), regional speakers are trusted more (honest and reliable)

Question 39

Estuary English

Answer 39

David Rosewarne. It’s a modified regional speech, placed it along the continuum between RP and Cockney

Question 40

Attitudes to Estuary English

Answer 40

Speakers of this are though to be aiming for a classless profile-avoiding the privileged and unfriendly connotations of RP while also, for regional speakers, sidestepping the tag of being ill-educated. Represents a shift towards more centralised varieties. It can be heard all over the British Isles.

Question 41

Eye dialect

Answer 41

Using the regular alphabet to represent sounds, rather than a phonetic or phonemic alphabet

Question 42

Milroy and Milroy 2014

Answer 42

• Differences between the grammatical systems used by contemporary regional speakers
• Constructions which may appear to be ungrammatical are in fact perfectly grammatical and follow the rules which are unconscious to the native speaker