Peter Trudgill - Social Variation

Question 1

Where and when did Trudgill’s study take place?

Answer 1

Norwich, 1974

Question 2

What were the three different linguistic variables he looked at?

Answer 2

• ‘h’ dropping
• using |n| instead of |ŋ|
• t glottaling

Question 3

Give an example of ‘h’ dropping

Answer 3

Norwich: _ot

R.P: hot

Question 4

Give an example of using |n| instead of |ŋ|

Answer 4

Norwich: fishin’

R.P: fishing

Question 5

Give an example of t glottaling

Answer 5

Norwich: Li’le (Liʔl)
[ʔ = glottal stop]
R.P: Little

Question 6

What was Trudgill’s Methodology?

Answer 6

Used 4 different contexts to gather his data, allowing him to get a better range.
Recorded the number of times each person used the regional linguistic variable and correlated it to their social class.

Question 7

What did this way of collecting data do?

Answer 7

Create a scale of formality, each context was considered at a different formality and therefore they gave different results depending on this.

Question 8

What were the four different contexts used?

Answer 8

Reading a wordlist
Reading an anecdote
Formal conversation
Casual conversation

Question 9

Which was the most formal activity and which was the least?

Answer 9

Reading wordlist - highly formal and respondents responded very formally as they were more conscious of their pronunciations
Casual conversation - least formal, respondents were more relaxed here.

Question 10

What could have affected the results of the contexts?

Answer 10

Observers Paradox

Question 11

What is the Observers Paradox?

Answer 11

Where the results of an experiment may be altered due to the presence of and observer or the unnatural context of an experiment.

Question 12

What type of study was this?

Answer 12

Vernacular Study

Question 13

What does Vernacular mean?

Answer 13

(Regional accent and dialect)

The language form naturally spoken by the people of a particular region or country.

Question 14

How did Trudgill divide up the people?

Answer 14

Between their social classes

Question 15

How did Trudgill get a more accurate representation of each person’s social class?

Answer 15

Separated the social classes into different categories:
MMC - Middle Middle Class
LMC - Lower Middle Class
UWC - Upper Working Class
MWC - Middle Working Class
LWC - Lower Working Class

Question 16

What else did Trudgill do to divide up his respondents?

Answer 16

Also divided them into gender to see if there was a correlation between male and female speech and social class as well.

Question 17

What were the gender differences that Trudgill discovered?

Answer 17

Working Class women were less likely to use regional pronunciation, especially in the formal styles of conversation.

Question 18

Did Trudgill find a correlation between social class and regional accents?

Answer 18

Yes. 
Lower class people were more likely to use the regional pronunciation than people of a higher class were.

Question 19

Were there any other trends in the data found?

Answer 19

Yes.
Standard ways of speaking were more common in the more unnatural contexts (such as reading the wordlist)
Non-standard ways of speaking were more common in the more natural contexts (such as casual conversation)