Regional Variation

Question 1

Describe Labov’s Matha’s Vineyard theory

Answer 1

• shows why low status varieties of language persist people see their regional forms as their identity
• covert prestige is used to describe this
• overt prestige is the opposite, people gain prestige by using forms of language that have traditionally been more standardised, more status.
• linked to “change from below”

Question 2

Describe Labov’s Social Startification of English in New York City 1966

Answer 2

• speaker is diverging to sound more prestigious stores
• pronouncing “r” in words like “park” and “cart” reflects higher status

Question 3

Describe Gile’s accommodation theory

Answer 3

• convergence and divergence
• adapt aspects of their own language to signal feelings towards those they are talking to
• change accent to “mirror” and “level” themselves to the person they are speaking to

Question 4

Describe Gile’s Matched Guise Theory

Answer 4

• 5 groups of students, 1 group recieved a written presentation, the other 4 recieved an oral presentation, one with an RP, one with Somerset accent, one by Welsh Speaker, one with Birmingham accent
• RP and written were “most impressive”, birmingham deemed least.
• More people said they had a change of mind with regional speakers than RP about the topic

Question 5

How did Howard Giles use the matched guise approach?

Answer 5

He used control variables to access the impact of someone’s accent on how they were percieved.

Question 6

What does John Honey argue?

Answer 6

Children should be taught Standard English in schools as it’s the prestigious form of English, if children don’t use it, they are disadvantaged.

Question 7

What do Milroy and Milroy argue?

Answer 7

-It’s unfair to correct children for using non-standard varieties of English.
-Implies working class are at disadvantage because regional dialect often reflects social class

Question 8

Define Dialect-levelling

Answer 8

When dialects lose their distinctioness and become more similar over time so regional features are lost.

Question 9

What was Mackinnon’s theory?

Answer 9

• categorises the attitudes people have to language:
  incorrect or correct
  pleasant or ugly
  socially acceptable or unacceptable
  morrally acceptable or unacceptable

Question 10

Give a recent example for Regional Variation

Answer 10

2013 ITV tonight survey:
- investigating social snobbery and stigma
- Middlesborough children said they were ashamed of their accents.
- they believed their accents would affect their life chances.

Question 11

What was Jean Aitchinson’s theory?

Answer 11

Language Change Metaphors:
- Damp spoon
- Crumbling castle
- Infectious Disease

Question 12

What was Peter Trudgill’s theory?

Answer 12

• lower socio economic status are more likely to use non-standard linguistic variations
• women are more likely to use standard linguistic variants in formal settings
• women are more likely to over report their use of standard linguistic variants

Question 13

What was Basil Bernstein’s theory?

Answer 13

• restricted code = simple syntax, concrete/context dependant lexis, used by working and lower class
• elaborated code = subordinate clauses, abstract lexis choices, allows imagination, used by higher classes