Social Groups

Question 1

What are the social groups?

Answer 1

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Social class
4. Ethnicity
5. Sexuality
6. Occupation

Question 2

Eckert - age

Answer 2

There are three forms of age:
- Chronological - how long someone has been alive.
- Social - how someone interacts socially.
- Biological - physical maturity.

Question 3

Stenstrom - age

Answer 3

Teen speak contains:
- Slang
- Expletives
- Contractions
- Name calling
- Insult battles

Question 4

Eckert - age

Answer 4

Teenspeak distances teenagers from adults.

Question 5

Zimmerman - age

Answer 5

Teenspeak is influenced by:
- Media
- Music
- Internet

Question 6

Labov - age

Answer 6

Martha’s Vineyard Study:
Labov looked at the inhabitants of the island of Martha’s Vineyard. He noted that the younger members (who worked or studied there for some of the year) converted to the vowel pronunciation of the old members of the island when tourists arrived to distance themselves.

Question 7

Trudgill - social class

Answer 7

Norwich study:
Trudgill was looking at the pronunciation of words which end with - ing. He was looking at whether the pronunciation had the word final /g/. He asked participants to estimate how many times they use standard and non-standard forms and compare these to what they actually did. Here are the results:
- The higher the social class, the lower the number of non-standard forms.
- The lower the social class, the higher the number of standard forms.
- Women of all classes reported higher usage of standard forms then they actually used.
- Women used more standard forms than men.
- Men of all classes reported high usage of standard forms and they actually used.
Therefore, social class influences language more than gender.

Question 8

Bernstein - social class

Answer 8

Restricted and elaborated code experiment:
Bernstein believes there are two types of ‘code’ that can be used to communicate. Restricted uses lots of conjunctions, context dependent language and non-standard syntax. Elaborated code uses much more standard English.
His research found that:
- Children of all classes understood both codes when it was spoken to them.
- Working-class children speak using restricted code.
- Middle and upper-class children speak using elaborator code predominantly but can use restricted code.
- This disadvantages working class children, as elaborated code is used in many formal situations.

Question 9

Multicultural London English MLE - ethnicity

Answer 9

There is a variety English which started in London called Multicultural London English (MLE). This variety is popular amongst young black teenagers. For example, ‘peng for good’ , ‘creps for shoes’ etc. There is no standard set of features in MLE - it varies depending on the location. The media often labels it is as ‘Jafaican’ due to its Jamaican roots.

Question 10

Kerswill - ethnicity

Answer 10

MLE will replace Cockney rhyming slang.

Question 11

Drummond - ethnicity

Answer 11

MLE is a key part of the sociolect of young people in Manchester. Drummond has retitled MLE as ‘Multicultural Urban British English’ which reflects its spread.

Question 12

Lakoff - sexuality

Answer 12

Gay men adopt deficit features to mirror women’s language.

Question 13

Baker - sexuality

Answer 13

The speech of gay people uses puns, acronyms and lexical items which only makes sense to those in the community.

Question 14

Baker - sexuality

Answer 14

The speech of gay people uses puns, acronyms and lexical items which only makes sense to those in the community.

Question 15

Butler - sexuality

Answer 15

your use of language and your behaviour can perform an identity. For example, gay men may choose to adopt feminine speech patterns to consciously be different from heterosexual men.