STANDARD Case Studies

Question 1

Maxine Peake

Answer 1

Inews
Rada actress told BBC she wasn’t fit for role of ‘educated’ barrister because of her northern accent
‘I’ve been to Rada and still talk like this’
concrete noun ‘Rada’

‘You can still be middle class’
Modal verb ‘still’

Question 2

Insecure people are less likely to use local dialects

Answer 2

The telegraph

Clive Upton professor says ‘people who are comfortable in their own skin are, more likely to use local speech language rather than people who are unsure of themselves

‘Comfortable in their own skin’
Abstract noun -comfortable
Possessive pronoun -own

‘Can slide between standard and non-standard anf fit in easily’
Stative verb slide
Adverb easily

Question 3

Talking proper is aspirational,not snobbish

Answer 3

The daily mail

Moir talks about how people go to speech allocation lessons to change their accents to certain jobs

‘Which is so indecipherable that… it imprisons you’
Indecipherable- pre mod adjective
Metaphorical verb Imprisons

Question 4

Rasta mouse

Answer 4

CBeebies /youtube

Easy crew come to the rescue so one is causing trouble and telling lies as they want to fit in with the easy crew (teaching children morals on not to lie)

‘Easy crew’ noun phrase
‘Ting’ indefinite pronoun
‘Da’ determiner

Episode is spoken in internal rhyme
Cheese is a reference to drugs

Daily mail comments
‘Standards continue to plummet to please the immigrant population’
‘Cheese is a euphemism for ganja’

Question 5

Jafaican’ may be cool, but it sounds ridiculous

Answer 5

The telegraph

Ed West is a journalist and social commentator who specialises in politics, religion, and low culture

‘Never mind that speaking Creole would not have been much of an advantage for a young
black kid trying to get on in London’
-colloquialism, verbal phrase, abstract noun

‘However, its by-product is rather unpleasant, sinister, idiotic and absurd’

-asyndetic list ofevaluative adjectives

Question 6

Should schools ban slang from the classroom? -

Answer 6

YouTube

Lindsay Johns (prescriptivist) and Michael Rosen (descriptivist) debate whether “street
slang” should be banned from the classroom under the presumption that it puts young people at a
disadvantage.

LJ- ‘language is power’ - metaphor abstract noun
‘Sound uneducated and stupid - evaluative adjectives

MR-• “want young people to be empowered”- stative verb,

study it”- dynamic verb

Question 7

Ghetto Grammar Robs the Young of a Proper Voice

Answer 7

The guardian

Lindsay Johns

article is about how “street slang” is ruining young people’s chances of having a successful
future as people will find them stupid and uneducated due to the way they speak.

‘young people find it very hard to code switch”- intensifier, evaluative adjective

‘dole queue”- common nouns, stative verb

Question 8

Should schools be allowed to ban slang words like ‘peng’?

Answer 8

Paige Neal - Holder

article discusses how some people think that slang words should be banned in schools and
young people’s opinion on the subject article discusses how some people think that slang words should be banned in schools and
young people’s opinion on the subject as well as academics in this area

“language is just one part of your identity- just the same way you wear your hair and
clothes”
- abstract noun, common nouns

“Shakespeare is full of slang and we don’t see teachers banning that- there’s a hypocrisy
there, which is rooted in cultural and linguistic snobbery”- proper noun, abstract noun

Question 9

Dilemmas: I hate my son’s working-class accent

Answer 9

Virgina Ironside

discusses an issue brought to her by a reader named Chloe
who’s privately educated son can code-switch to a more working-class accent. Ironside discusses the
positives to him being able to do that.

when talking to builders, Chloe’s son can be matey with them without appearing snobbish”-example of downwards convergence (embedded theory), dynamic verb

“they are like Eurocheques”
- simile, common noun