peter trudgill's norwich study

Question 1

what did trudgill find out in his Norwich study? (1974)

Answer 1

he found out how and why people’s ways of speaking varied and examined how residents’ pronunciation varied based on their social standing.

Question 2

what is one of the variables he studied?

Answer 2

one of the variables he studied was a phonological feature ‘velar nasal’ which is the sound spelled ‘–ng’ in standard British English, and the prestigious variable for the ending of words.

Question 3

what pronunciation was frequently heard in Norwich?

Answer 3

in Norwich, the pronunciation of walkin’, talkin’ is frequently heard, as if there was simply ‘n’ on the end.

Question 4

which class used the ‘ng’ ending?

Answer 4

• formal/higher-class

Question 5

which class used ‘n’ ending?

Answer 5

• informal/lower-class

Question 6

what did he find in all social classes?

Answer 6

the more careful the speech is, the more likely people were to say walking instead of walkin’.

Question 7

what was Trudgill able to determine about people using more standard language terms?

Answer 7

• Trudgill was able to determine that people adopted more standard language forms when they felt more scrutinized, for example, when being interviewed.
• On the other hand, they tended to use more non-standard English when simply telling funny stories.​

Question 8

what does this results suggest about social class? (prestige)

Answer 8

this suggests that regardless of social class, men were significantly more likely to use covert prestige than women, who tend to use overt prestige.

Question 8

what did women and men tend to say, when they looked at the results of the interview?

Answer 8

• when women were questioned about what they thought they were saying they tend to say that they used the standard -ing forms more often than they really did.
• when men were questioned about what they thought they were saying they tend to say that they used the nonstandard in’ forms more often than they really did.