social groups theorists

Question 1

what is Labov’s (1963) study?

Answer 1

looked at inhabitants of the island of Martha’s Vineyard
notes that younger members converged to vowel pronunciation of the older members of the island when tourists arrived in order to distance themselves

Question 2

what is Bernsein’s (1971) theory?

Answer 2

believes that there are two types of ‘code’ that can be used to communicate
restricted code uses a lot of conjunctions, context dependent language and non standard syntax
elaborated code uses more standard english
he found that children of all classes understood both codes
working class children used restricted code
middle and upper class used elaborate code mostly but also restricted code
elaborated code is used in more formal situations

Question 3

what is Trudgill’s (1974) theory?

Answer 3

how gender effects dialect in each social class
looks at “walking” and “talking” as the standard form “walkin’” and “talkin’”
differentiated between relaxed and careful speech in order to assess participants awareness of their own accents as well as how they wished to sound
women in all social classes are more likely to use overt prestige or RP
men overreported nonstandard usage
women overreported their standard usage
concluded women are more susceptible to overt prestige

Question 4

what is Petyt’s (1985) study of Bradford?

Answer 4

found lower class tended to drop an ‘h’ whereas upper class used ‘h’
lower class often dropped /h/ sound

Question 5

what is Zimmerman’s (2002) theory?

Answer 5

teen speak is influenced by the media, press, music, communication and graffiti

Question 6

what is Stenstrom’s (2002) theory?

Answer 6

proposed distinct features of teen talk: irregular turntaking, indirect articulation, word shortening, teasing, verbal duelling, slang, taboo topics, overlaps, language mixing