Peter Trudgill - Social Variation Flashcards

1
Q

Where and when did Trudgill’s study take place?

A

Norwich, 1974

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2
Q

What were the three different linguistic variables he looked at?

A
  • ‘h’ dropping
  • using |n| instead of |ŋ|
  • t glottaling
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3
Q

Give an example of ‘h’ dropping

A

Norwich: _ot

R.P: hot

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4
Q

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

A

Norwich: fishin’

R.P: fishing

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5
Q

Give an example of t glottaling

A

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

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6
Q

What was Trudgill’s Methodology?

A

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.

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7
Q

What did this way of collecting data do?

A

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

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8
Q

What were the four different contexts used?

A

Reading a wordlist
Reading an anecdote
Formal conversation
Casual conversation

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9
Q

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

A

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.

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10
Q

What could have affected the results of the contexts?

A

Observers Paradox

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11
Q

What is the Observers Paradox?

A

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

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12
Q

What type of study was this?

A

Vernacular Study

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13
Q

What does Vernacular mean?

A

(Regional accent and dialect)

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

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14
Q

How did Trudgill divide up the people?

A

Between their social classes

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15
Q

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

A
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
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16
Q

What else did Trudgill do to divide up his respondents?

A

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

17
Q

What were the gender differences that Trudgill discovered?

A

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

18
Q

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

A
Yes. 
Lower class people were more likely to use the regional pronunciation than people of a higher class were.
19
Q

Were there any other trends in the data found?

A

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)