Social Class Flashcards
Petyt.
Studied speakers in Bradford. Found a close relationship between the dropping of ‘h’ sounds at the beginning of words and social class. Lower working-class speakers on average dropped 93% of sounds while upper middle-class speakers only 12%.
Trudgill (1983) in Norwich.
Researched the velar nasal. He found that respondents lower down the social class scale were more likely to drop the ‘g’ in their pronunciation of ‘fishing’/’singing’.
Trudgill on ‘ing’.
In all classes, pronunciation of ‘ing’ increased according to the formality of the situation.
Trudgill on the use of verbs which have an ‘s’ ending in Standard English.
The non-standard pronunciation ‘she go’ or ‘he know’ was much more common in the working classes than in the middle classes who favoured the Standard English pronunciation ‘she goes’ or ‘he knows’.
Milroy’s study of social networks in Belfast (1980).
In dense multiple networks, people were more likely to use vernacular (non-standard dialect and regional accent) forms than they were if they existed in looser and more open networks where they had to interact with a variety of people
Trudgill on standard and non-standard English.
‘Standard English is only one variety among many, although a peculiarly important one… All language are equally ‘good’ as linguistic systems. All varieties of a language are structured, complex, rule-governed systems which are wholly adequate for the needs of their speakers.’
Educational achievement and language - deprivation theories.
Lay stress on the fact that working class children are disadvantaged nub their language. They use to learn language in ways that make educational achievement difficult.
Educational achievement and language - difference theories.
Tend to place the blame on the educational system, which is seen as unsympathetic to working class culture and negative in its attitudes towards the language of working class pupils.
Bernstein’s ‘restricted code’.
A speech style characterised by short, simple and sometimes incomplete utterances, a limited use of adjectives and adverbs, frequent use or idioms and relies a lot on ‘implicit meaning’ - that is meanings are understood by the listener rather than openly expressed.
Bernstein’s ‘elaborated code’.
Involves more complex, grammatically complete sentences, a wider range of conjunctions, adverbs and adjectives and a spelling out of meanings more explicitly than is true of the restricted code. Extensively used in schools but not by working-class pupils.
What does Bernstein argue about the ‘elaborated code’?
It’s an essential requirement for the educational process itself. It offer access to ‘universalistic’ orders if meaning, enabling you to discuss things outside your immediate context and experience.
What is Bernstein’s controversial solution?
Children unable to use the elaborated code should be taught how to use it so that they can develop their ability to reason more abstractly.
Why was Labov critical of Bernstein?
Quoted a black boy from New York’s Harlem (a lower-class district) manipulating language very effectively to discuss whether or not God existed - and if he did whether he would be black or white. It is therefore possible for someone to form a complex argument without using the ‘elaborated code’x
