Region, social groups and social class Flashcards
Paul Kerswill
Estuary English
Relatively new accent identified by Rosewarne, blend of RP and cockney.
It is debatable evidence of social mobility and levelling.
RP
Received pronunciation
Prestige English accent
Not a dialect
Sociolect
Varieties relating to social factors (e.g. age, gender and social class)
Code switching
The ability to use different varieties as a appropriate to context.
Convergence
Language becomes more like that of those around you.
Divergence
Language becomes less like that of those around you.
Mahoney - Worcester Uni
In mock trial, found that defendants with Birmingham accent were more than twice as likely to be found guilty than defendants with an RP accent.
Jenny Cheshire - Reading
Using association between language used and ‘vernacular culture index’ scores, found that teenagers who approved of antisocial/criminal behaviour used more non-standard linguistic features. Also found that boys used more non standard features than girls.
Labov -New York department stores
Tested pronunciation of ‘fourth floor’ in an upmarket, middle market and downmarket store. Found convergence with customers. Also found that middle class store workers were most likely to change their prestige when made conscious about it.
Overt prestige
Mainstream social status such as RP and SE (standard English)
Covert Prestige
Sub-cultural group prestige, as given to non standard varieties, such as MLE, within a particular group.
Milroy and Milroy - Belfast
Researched links between language and social networks, found that the denser the social network, the more non-standard language that was used. Also found that women tended to use more standard variations of language than been but then also tended to have more open social networks.
Labov - Gangs
Research into New York gang members. Found evidence of covert prestige - the more respected a person was within the gang, the more non-standard features in their speech . Similar to Jenny Cheshires reading study. Also found that language skills are highly prized and given status, e.g. in ritual insult battles.
Labov - Marthas Vineyard
A small finishing community increasingly dominated by tourists. Fisherman exaggerated their local accents and dialects in order to diverge from tourists and express their local identity. Whereas people who worked in the tourist industry actually converged with the accents as the NY accent had high prestige in their line of work.
Accent
The pronunciation or the sound that people make when they speak.
Dialect
Refers to lexis and grammar.
Peter Trudgill - Norwich
Conducted research in Norwich on upper class and lower class people looking at their pronunciation of the word ending ‘ing’. Found that there was a high proportion of the walkin’ rather than walking in lower class people but also found that women were much more likely to use the “in’ “ form than men were.
Penelope Eckert
Jocks and burnouts study found that jocks who had a more positive attitude towards school and society tended to have more overt prestige with more standard grammar and low frequency lexis. Whereas the burnouts who has a more negative outlook had used language which had covert prestige within their group, this included more slang and nonstandard grammar. Eckert concluded that people tend to speak like their friends or those who had shared social practices and social networks was more important influence on language than gender or social class.
Emma Moore
Investigated patterns of variation in speech among teenage girls own Bolton Greater Manchester, looked at the nonstandard use of the very ‘were’ with a singular subject. Found that
What is an Idiolect?
Variation in language use which is specific to a particular person.
What is Interactional Speech?
Communication that primarily severs the purpose of social interaction, e.g. small talk and conversation.
What is Jargon?
The vocabulary and manner of speech that define and reflect a particular profession which may be difficult for others to understand.
What is Polari?
A coded language used by the gay community established to prevent discrimination against homosexuality
What is a Repressive Discourse Strategy?
Power is displayed more subtly, and can go unnoticed in conversation. Indirect language is used, and social standing is subconsciously demonstrated. e.g. a group member stating ‘they prefer the quiet’.
What is a Social network?
The structure of a particular speech community. Social networks, and the interactions between the members within them, are a driving force behind language change.
What is taboo language?
A word, topics or phrase that is social custom to avoid using or discussing as people find them embarrassing or offensive
What is transactional speech?
Language which is used to make a transaction, and creates a result. It is different from interactional language which is used to maintain relationships.
What did Stenstrom identify about Teen Speech?
Common features of teen speak include: slang, irregular turn taking, verbal duelling, overlaps, teasing and name calling, indistinct articulation, taboo and language mixing.
What did Martinez identify about Teens vs Adults in language?
Teenagers use more negatives than adults; are more direct and not afraid of face threatening acts. Multiple negation is a common feature of teenage language.
What did Jenny Cheshire state language development is based on?
Adult and child language develops in response to important life events such as marriage, child birth and change in social situations.
What did Lesley Milroy identify in Belfast?
Social networks are composed of a ‘web of ties’ between individuals.
What is an Anti-language?
Coined buy Michael Halliday it is a minority dialect, or method of communicating, within a minority speech community that excludes members of the main speech community
What does Penelope Eckert say about the use of slang?
Slang is used to connect an individual to youth culture and to disassociate themselves with other generations.
What does Unni Berland say about Teenagers use of tags?
Teenagers often use tags such as ‘innit’, ‘right’ and ‘yeah’. ‘Innit’ is used more by working class and ‘yeah’ by middle class.
What does Vivian De Klerk talk about young people being able to do?
Younger people have the freedom to challenge linguistic norms; they seek establish new identities. Patterns of speech formed by parents are eroded by patterns within their peer groups.
What does Zimmerman state influences teen speak?
Factors that influence teen speak include the media, music, graffiti and new forms of communication.
What is a Sociolect?
Dialect associated with the class of a speaker
What is an Ethnolect?
Language associated with ethnic groups
What is a Register?
The situation or context in which a discourse event takes place which motivates the speaker or writer to adopt a particular register.
What is Howard Giles’ Accommodation Theory?
The idea that people have different levels of formality of language at their disposal, and will converge or diverge their language depending on their situation.
What did Jonathon Harrington track in 2000?
Tracked changes in the Queens speech over a thirty year period. Certain aspects of her speech have moved towards a more general southern British English variety, rather than RP.
What is Paul Kerswill’s findings about dialect levelling?
Studied dialect levelling in Hull, Reading and Milton Keynes. The more people mix in different networks, the more people move in from elsewhere and the more scope there is for social mobility can have an impact on language used.
What is MBE, proposed by Drummond?
A variety of English used by people in the UK which incorporates features associated with MLE alongside features from local accent and dialect
What is Accent Bias?
An unwarranted prejudice toward interlocutors based on the sound of their speech
What is a diaspora?
The spread of an accent to other areas
What was the main finding of the Accent Bias Research Project?
Young people are more positive to non-standard forms than older people
What is MLE?
Multicultural London English - an Ethnolect that has been identified by Jenny Cheshire in London and is trasmitted by the Grime music scene.
Bernstein
Found two types of languages, or ‘codes’. Middle class children can switch between elaborated or restricted codes. Working class children can only use restricted code. This means that education disadvantages working class children.
Elaborated code- Lacks dependence on external context e.g. did you see the Manchester United football game
restricted code- requires external knowledge of context e.g. did you see the game
Workman
Matched guise study, surveying attitudes to language, Birmingham was rated lowest for intelligence and attractiveness.
Thorne
Foreigners found the Birmingham accent attractive and beautiful, therefore shows that the dislike of the accent ia based off of prejudice and not actually on the accent being unattractive
Clarke
There has been recent resurgence of the Birmingham accent amongst young people, perhaps to express identity
Martinez
Found that teenagers used negatives more frequently in their speech than adults, especially in response to requests and imperatives. Martinez suggested that this is because teenagers are more direct in their speech and less worried than adults about threatening a speakers face.
Berland
Found that teenagers were much more likely than adults to use the tags ‘innit’, ‘yeah’ and ‘right’
Douglas Bigham
Young people are more likely to have social accents than regional accents. Found that regional accents are levelling but social accents are expanding.
Goal orientation
Participants in a workplace conversations will often focus on specific tasks or goals
(one of the features identified by drew and heritage)
Allowable contributions
In workplaces there may be restrictions on what kinds on contributions are considered ‘allowable’
What did Numberg find about workplace jargon
Found that corporate jargon is like teenage slang and that it provides a sense of identity
Hornyak
Found that ion workplaces, interactional talk tends to be started by the most senior person in an interaction.
Holmes’s and stubbe
Found that when making requests or using imperatives towards equals, workers tended to mitigation or hedges whereas were more direct with inferiors.
Sharma and Sankaran
Studied the use of the retroflex t in Indian English and found that usage varies depending on the age but also on the context. (code switching)
