Peter Trudgill - Social Variation Flashcards
Where and when did Trudgill’s study take place?
Norwich, 1974
What were the three different linguistic variables he looked at?
- ‘h’ dropping
- using |n| instead of |ŋ|
- t glottaling
Give an example of ‘h’ dropping
Norwich: _ot
R.P: hot
Give an example of using |n| instead of |ŋ|
Norwich: fishin’
R.P: fishing
Give an example of t glottaling
Norwich: Li’le (Liʔl)
[ʔ = glottal stop]
R.P: Little
What was Trudgill’s Methodology?
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.
What did this way of collecting data do?
Create a scale of formality, each context was considered at a different formality and therefore they gave different results depending on this.
What were the four different contexts used?
Reading a wordlist
Reading an anecdote
Formal conversation
Casual conversation
Which was the most formal activity and which was the least?
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.
What could have affected the results of the contexts?
Observers Paradox
What is the Observers Paradox?
Where the results of an experiment may be altered due to the presence of and observer or the unnatural context of an experiment.
What type of study was this?
Vernacular Study
What does Vernacular mean?
(Regional accent and dialect)
The language form naturally spoken by the people of a particular region or country.
How did Trudgill divide up the people?
Between their social classes
How did Trudgill get a more accurate representation of each person’s social class?
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