Regional Variation Flashcards
What is meant by Accent
Accent refers to the set of pronunciation features which help to indicate a persons geographical origin and/or their social class
What is meant by Dialect
Dialect refers to the variety of language used by a particular group of people, which has distinctive features of vocabulary and grammar
What is Received Pronunciation (RP)
RP is the accent associated with educated speakers of British English, and the one most commonly used as a model for foreign learners
What is Estuary English
Estuary English is a variety of modified regional speech, a mixture of non-regional and local southeastern English pronunciation and intonation
If one imagines a continuum with RP and London speech at either end, these speakers are to be found grouped in the middle
What is Multicultural London Vernacular
Multicultural London Vernacular is said to contain many elements from the languages of the Caribbean, South Asia, and West Africa, as well as remnants of traditional Cockney. MLE is used mainly by young, inner city, working class people
What did Howard Giles do
Researched the perception of RP and the Birmingham accent by two groups of 17 year olds
Although it was the same speaker using two different accents when speaking about psychology, the teenagers rated the RP speaker higher in terms of competence and intelligence.
Giles reported the findings of another group of British teenagers who were presented with the same speech arguing against the death penalty, spoken in different accent. He found that the teenaged were more likely to value the argument and the content of the speaker used a more prestigious accent.
What did Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks do
Used the same ‘matched-guise’ approach to see if there was a correlation between accent and how we perceive someone’s guilt
Again, using the Birmingham accent as the non standard form, the participants listened to a dialogue between a policeman and a suspect.
For some the suspect spoke with a Birmingham accent, while others listened to a recording when the suspects accent was more standard.
The results showed that the suspect was perceived to be significantly more likely to be guilty when he spoke with the non standard Birmingham form.
What did Neuliep and Speten-Hansen do
They were interested in the link between ethnocentrism and the perception of a speaker with a ‘non native accent’
To begin, the participants were asked a series of questions so that Neuliep and Speten-Hansen could deduce how ethnocentric they were.
The results were : Those considered to be ethnocentric gave lower ratings to the non native speaker
This how a non native speaker is perceived can depend on ethnocentricity of the person they are speaking to
What did Choy and Dodd do
Reached conclusions which suggest that teachers make judgements on a students ability and their personality based on the way they speak
We may draw the conclusion that we view those with a standard and more prestigious accent as superior to those who speak with a non standard form.
Whether this is because we consider the latter to be less intelligent or more likely to be guilty of a crime, this judgement of inferiority is clear
What did Jenny Cheshire and Viv Edwards do
Found that the use of ‘them’ as a demonstrative was reported by 97.7% of the schools who took part in a survey - the highest percentage of any dialectal variation
What did Leslie Milroy do
Argues that increased geographical mobility leads to the ‘large scale distribution of close knit, localised networks that have historically maintained highly systematic and complex sets of socially structures linguistic norms’. Milroy then examined linguistic features of speech, particularly the ‘th’ sound (moTHer) and the ‘a’ sound (hAt).
However, unlike Trudgill and Cheshire who focused on the socioeconomic position of their participants as the way of understanding results, Milroy simply sought to describe how the language was used to form and maintain relationships within groups.
What are Social networks
One of the most significant sociolinguistic studies using this method was Lesley Milroys work on Belfast speech 1987
Milroy described the idea of a social network as a ‘web of ties’
The concept focuses on the relationships between individuals and the contact patterns between group members
Another important factor is the strength of the ties between people - from the close ties of family members to the weak ties of acquaintances
What did William Labov do
Focused in Marthas Vineyard, an island which, although part of the state of Massachusetts, is fairly isolated and can only be accessed via boat or by air
It is a popular tourist destination with the summer population five times that of the winter
The aim was for the participants to be as relaxed and natural as possible: importantly they weren’t aware of what he was looking for or researching.
Labov found that the pronunciation of certain vowel sounds were subtly changing from the standard American pronunciations and noted that locals had a tendency to pronounce these diphthongs with a more central point
Concluded that this was done, albeit subconsciously, in order to establish an identity of themselves as Vineyarders, distancing themselves from the tourists who were frequent visitors
There was, according to the research, a need to retain a social identity and almost propagate a ‘them and us’ mentality and they did so through the language used
What is Overt Prestige
An accent that is generally widely recognised as being used by the ‘culturally dominance group’
What is Covert Prestige
Using Covert Prestige means to put on an accent to show membership to an ‘exclusive community’ in the area, rather than to fit with the ‘dominant culture group’
The movement of people led to radical changes in people’s social networks, away from strictly local ones compromising family and neighbours to ones that encompass far more strangers and people in different walks of life