Social Groups Studies Flashcards
Giles and Smith (1979)
A/P-Exolore how English speakers converged with French Canadians in conversation
F- Speakers who adjusted their accent (converged) were rated more positively in terms of warmth, attractiveness and competence
C- Convergence is a tool to enhance personal relationships , especially between cultures
Giles and Bourhis (1977)
A/P- Investigated divergence among Welsh speakers in conversation with English speakers
F- Welsh speakers deliberately maintained a distinct accent to emphasise cultural identity
C- Divergence is used to assert identity and maintain a sense of belonging
Labov (1966) Fourth Floor Study
A- Investigate rhoticity and class in American speech
P- Went to 3 department stores of different perceived classes, asked shop assistants for the location of departments on the forth floor, he asked them to repeat fourth floor as he “couldn’t hear them”
F- Upper class used the most rhoticity, middle class wasn’t widely used, but did when asked to repeat, lower class rarely used rhoticity.
C- Assistants would speak which more rhoticity when wanting to sound more professional / understood, supporting the theory of overt prestige
Labov (1963) Martha’s Vineyard
A- investigate how identities shape language use
P- Studies who residents of Martha’s Vineyard were adopting a more local speech pattern
F- Locals would pronounce diphthongs at a more central pint, fishermen would do this more than normal, younger people were more likely to use this fisherman’s pronunciation
C- The more negative views locals had about tourists, the stronger their accent converged to that of the fisherman. Therefore they established a non standard dialect away from the American standard, to establish their culture.
Eckert (1989)
A- Investigate how teenagers consciously alter their language to identify with their in-group
P- Studied negation and multiple negation, and the pronunciation of ‘uh’ in words. Defined two groups (Jocks and Burnouts)
F- Burnouts more likely to use double negative and pronounce ‘uh’ and ‘au’ to distance themself from the prestigious.
C- This change was due to a conscious choice, to appear more or less prestigious
Bernstein (1971)
Theorised two types of language (code) that can be used to communicate.
Observed the performance of working class pupils on language based subjects was worse than middle class pupils, but maths scores were relatively the same
Concluded that middle class children spoke in elaborated code and working class children spoke in restricted code
Trudgill’s Norwich study
Measured social class based on: occupation, income, location, education.
60 participants were asked about their lives, linguistic variables were measured like the pronunciation of ‘ing’ and subject-verb agreement like ‘she say’
Found clear relation between non-standard forms and lower classes, and men were more likely to be non-standard than women.
Petyt (1985)
Investigated the relationship between ‘H-dropping’ and social class
Found 12% of upper middle class used H-dropping, while 93% of lower working class used H-dropping
Concluded that individuals with higher social mobility, moving up social classes, would modify their accent to sound more RP and upper class
Milroy’s Belfast study
Defined two types of network- open (very broad, links to people in many areas) and closed (lacks links in other areas).
Found men have dense, closed networks and women have more open networks.
Women use more standard forms than men.
Cheshire (1982)
Over a period of 8 months, observed the natural speech of 13 teenage boys and 13 teenage girls.
Found the frequency with which adolescent speakers used non standard forms correlated with the extent to which they adhered to social norms.
Non-standard forms included multiple negation, past tense ‘come’ and the use of ‘ain’t’.
