paper 2 theory

Question 1

Howard Giles’ Matched Guise Experiment
(accent and dialect)

Answer 1

Giles conducted matched guise experiments to test people’s attitudes towards regional accents.
He used 3 main measures: status, personality and persuasiveness.
Results showed that RP speakers were seen as self-confident, intelligent and ambitious, while northern-accented speakers were seen as honest, reliable and persuasive.

Question 2

Workman (2008)
(accent and dialect)

Answer 2

People’s perceptions of regional accented speakers are based on stereotypes, with Yorkshire accents rated as the most intelligent.

Question 3

John Baugh
(accent and dialect)

Answer 3

did a study- made repeated phone calls in answer to newspaper ads for apartments using differ accents
recorded how many of those apartments were available or unavailable- depending on African, American English, Chicano English or standard English American accents- found that when used a non-standard accent suddenly fewer apartments were available because listeners judged them as markers of racial and ethnic traits that they found undesirable
experiment presents subjects with diff “guises” or accents performed by the same person. Listeners respond differ ways when faced with diff accents. Research has shown that research reinforced how listeners attribute unrelated personal traits to a speaker e.g., height, physical attractiveness, social status, intelligence, education, good character, sociability even criminality- based on how they sound.

Question 4

Gile’s Accommodation Theory
(accent and dialect)

Answer 4

Howard Giles developed Communication Accommodation Theory in the 1970s (CAT), which suggests we tend to alter our speech according to who we are speaking to signal the way we feel about the person we are speaking to. This may result in what Giles called convergence and divergence.

Question 5

William Labov’s 1966 New York department store study
(accent and dialect)

Answer 5

Labov studied 3 stores: Kleins, Macys, and Saks.
He found that higher status of store converged to social standing in their language, with Saks being the highest.
Rhotic use of /r/ reflected social class and aspiration, and was more widespread in younger speakers.
Macys showed the greatest upward shift when asked to repeat.
Labov found hypercorrection was most common in the lower middle class (Macys) as they were most likely to be aware of which speech forms are classy and would use these forms to improve prestige and appear to belong to higher middle class.

Question 6

TRUDGILL 1974 SPEECH OF NORWICH STUDY
(accent and dialect)

Answer 6

Trudgill studied the difference between working and middle-class speakers in terms of elision of the velar-nasal (/g/ dropping at the end of words).
He found that men used this non-standard form more than women, suggesting men wanted covert prestige and women wanted more overt prestige.

Question 7

Lesley Milroy’s 1980 Belfast speech
(accent and dialect)

Answer 7

The study looked at the social network density of inner-city working class of Belfast and found that the higher the density network, the stronger the accent.
It was concluded that a strong sense of identity and a meaning of “Self” was displayed through accent.
Men whose speech revealed high usage of vernacular or nonstandard forms were also found to belong to tight knit social networks, while women tended to belong to less dense social networks.

Question 8

William Labov’s 1963 MARTHAS VINEYARD study
(accent and dialect)

Answer 8

The study focused on fisherman pronunciation of /au/ as in out and /ai/ as in while, and noticed that locals had a tendency to pronounce these diphthongs with a more central start point.
Young men sought to identify themselves as native vineyards, rejecting the values and speech style of the mainland.
This created a linguistic divide between them and the tourists, leading to divergence from tourists and mutual convergence to each other.

Question 9

JENNY CHESHIRE 1987 READING STUDY
(accent and dialect)

Answer 9

Boys use the lack of sub-verb and multiple negation to gain prestige, while girls share a less consistent pattern.

Question 10

SHIRLEY RUSSELL
(gender rep)

Answer 10

(1993) USE OF MASCULINE NOUNS AND PRONOUNS HELPS TO RENDER W INVISIBLE IN PUBLIC LIFE (….) GIVING UP THEIR OWN NAME AND TAKING ON THEIR HUSBANDS ROBS Women OF A PUBLIC IDENTITY OF THEIR OWN (…) SO FAR AS THEY HAVE AN IDENTITY, IT IS ONE SHARED WITH THEIR HUSBANDS”

Feminist theory refers to the use of masculine nouns and pronouns as the “male-as-the-norm-syndrome” which renders women invisible in language. These terms can change our perceptions of the sexes and little kids’ perceptions, making them less equal.

Question 11

Norman Fairclough
(gender rep)

Answer 11

(1989)- how human beings are exploited through language. Believes power, ideology, and language operate in harmony- claiming that “language connects with the social through being the primary domain of ideology (…) and a stake in, struggles for power”- a world like this due to the language we use constantly reinforcing sexist perceptions- influences how people see men and women.

Question 11

Caitlyn Hines 1992

Answer 11

talks about women and how they are compared to desserts in everyday metaphors – it is used so much that it becomes a dead metaphor and has large psychological effects. From Reinventing Identities, The Gendered Self in Discourse (1999) stated “Women as dessert metaphors reduces women to the status of objects (…) women are not just desserts, but pieces and slices (…) structuring our identity”. Metaphors include- tart, cookie, piece of that, slice of that cake, cake face, sugar.

Question 12

Claudine Herrmann

Answer 12

called the dessert metaphors for women “a micro language filled with winks and allusions”-1976.

Question 13

JULIA STANLEY

Answer 13

(1997)
Women occupy negative semantic space cus of marked forms that exist to describe female equivalents of male roles- quotes female surgeon and lady doctor as well as more conventional marked forms thru affixing (suffixes) to claim that we are unable to move into positive space occupied by men as will always carry mark of femaleness and inequality with them.

Question 14

Sara Mills (1995) and Julia Stanley (1997)

Answer 14

Semantic Derogation is the perception or treatment of something as being of little worth, with 220 words for promiscuous women and only 20 for men. This reflects the dichotomy of patriarchal society, where it’s okay for men to sleep around.

Question 15

Dale Spender 1980

Answer 15

her book Man Made Language points out “only real names belong to men, since handed down from father to son, without male heir family dies out.”

Question 16

CAMERON 1990 AND MILLS 1995

Answer 16

ANALYSED LEXICAL PAIRS: MAJOR-MAJORETTE- ASYMMETRICAL. Major= seen as more impo, unequal. Steward and stewardess can be seen as symmetrical/equal. Lord/Lady-lord more imp. Bachelor and spinster-asymmetrical- spinster (unmarried w) negative connotations-old, unwanted, ugly. Bachelor- young, free,handsome,fun. King and queen-symmetrical, sir and madam-asymmetrical. Madam connotes high status, snobby and annoying. Theorist- Kemp says spinster now become pejorative and sparsely used- connotations of it are that a woman is grotesque and unwanted.

Question 17

AMANDA COULTAS (2003)

Answer 17

argues that stereotypes are used to make humorous points, but to either acknowledge or challenge them reinforces them.
She explains that representation is linked to social attitudes and values, leading to feelings of alienation and confrontation.
Examples of this include 5 ways to gain confidence and ‘have a beer, love the gut’.

Question 18

Christian Howe

Answer 18

Men have strategies to gain power, men more likely respond to what’s been said-keen put views across, harder to participate in convo, women are active listeners, use minor interjections-uh huh, oh really (back channeling). Argues that this difference between men and women’s talk is due to socialization.

Question 19

Ann Weatherall

Answer 19

w talk cooperative, men talk competitive, w less likely use hedging “sort of” “kind of”, we speak less time and less likely interrupt, female use more tag que- statement into qu to promote convo or for clarification.

Question 20

Williams O`Barr and Bowmann Atkins

Answer 20

Williams O’Barr and Bowmann Atkins studied the language of courtroom and found that women lawyers tend to be assertive and interrupt. They also found that witnesses of both sexes use Robin Lakoff’s weak “female” language, which suggests no differences in sexes’ language, but rather the situations they face. O’Barr and Atkins argue if there is a difference in language, it is due to male dominance in both home and workplace.

Question 21

Robin Lakoff

Answer 21

Women’s language is weaker because it is expected to be weaker, leading to a set of female characteristics such as hedges, italics, empty adjectives, modal verbs, overuse qualifiers, mitigated responses, special lexis for colours and cloth, and no jokes. This is due to patriarchal society, where women have no power and are often nervous when giving their opinion.

Question 22

Dale spender

Answer 22

also believed in dominant approach- under dominant theory, men and women should use language in same way “ use only language… in a way [that is] acceptable and meaningful”.

Question 23

Shirley Russell

Answer 23

According to Shirley Russell (1993) the terms: dear, love, pet is patronizing when used by a man-girl/woman. They imply that it’s his right as a man to speak to them like this, any right-minded female will welcome it.

Question 24

MILLLER AND SWIT 1980

Answer 24

draws attention to emphasis on physical characteristics and age in references to women in the press. Modifiers used reinforce stereotypes and language to describe women’s actions and sexual innuendos used extensively e.g. “curvy Vicki Walberg” “bursting”.

Question 25

SINCLAIR & COULTHARD

Answer 25

said classroom discourse typically follows this IRF structure -INITIATION (Teacher asks questions) , RESPONSE (student answers) , FEEDBACK (Teacher evaluates).

Coulthard (1977) believes feedback is essential for a correct response.

Question 26

EDWARD MERCER (1987)

Answer 26

CONCLUDED TEACHERS FOLLOW UP (FEEDBACK) IS VERY IMPO IN IRF EXCHANGE.

Question 27

Brown and Levinson, 1987

Answer 27

In UK society we try and meet other peoples negative face needs by accompanying requests with apologies and positive face needs with phatic talk e.g greetings, expressing admiration/approval

Question 28

NORMAN FAIRCLOUGH

Answer 28

argues we are “positioned as subjects within different discourses” so we occupy different “Subject positions” according to context e.g. he says: “teachers are teachers because of the way they speak and behave in the classroom”

Question 29

Grice

Answer 29

argued successful convo is CO-OPERATIVE. This is conversation that follows his maxims: quality, quantity, manner, relevance. Grice believes CO-OPERATIVE communication is necessary in the workplace for getting job done.