Theories and Studies

Question 1

Peter Trudgill

Answer 1

Norwich Study (G DROPPING)

WC- ‘thinkin’ MC- thinking

Question 2

Docherty- urban voices

Answer 2

• Th-fronting
• Replacement of ‘‘th” with “f” or “v”
• Original origin is London

Question 3

(Attitudes to accent in the news and popular media)

Thomas Pear

Answer 3

Researcher found ou the people had different perceptions of a speaker according to the accent they heard them talk with.

Question 4

Howard Giles

Answer 4

Matched guise- this involves participants listening to the same speaker using a range of different accents and then passing judgement on each different variant.

First used in 1960 by Lambert to determine attitudes towards bilingual speakers

Question 5

Howard giles(1975)

Answer 5

He used the matches guise technique on a teacher. The teacher listened to the same student talking about psychology in and RP and Brummie accent. She gave the RP accent a higher score in terms of competence and intelligence.

Question 6

Howard Giles(1973)

Answer 6

He used this on a group of British teenagers. They listened to the same speech on death penalty in different accents and they valued the ones that had a prestigious accent.

Question 7

Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks(2002)

Answer 7

A study to see whether there was a correlation between accent and how we perceive someone’s guilt.

1. Participants listened to a policeman and a suspect with a standard and non standard Brummie (B) accent.
2. The suspect was perceived to be more likely to be guilty when he spoke with a non standard B accent.

Question 8

Neulip and Speten-Hansen(2013)

Answer 8

Matched guise approach to research attitudes from an ethnocentric view
(Link between ethnocentrism and the perception of a speaker with a ‘Non-native accent’)

1. Ethnocentricity is when people perceive their culture to be superior and important than others.
2. They may use their cultural values as the basis to judge others.

Question 9

Seligman Tucker and Lambert (1972)

Answer 9

They found out that a teacher’s perception of a student was heavily influenced by their speech.

Question 10

Choy and Dodds (1976)

Answer 10

that teachers make judgements on a student’s ability ans personality based on the way that they speak.

Question 11

(Language and age) Gary Ives

Answer 11

carried out a study at a secondary school in West Yorkshire asking 63 teenagers of various ages whether they thought people spoke differently based on their age and he got a 100 percent ‘yes’.

Question 12

Penelope Eckert (1998)

Answer 12

argues that there are different ways of defining the concept of age:

1. Chronological age (number of years since birth)
2. Biological age (physical age)
3. Social age (linked to life events such as marriage and having children)

Question 13

Jenny Cheshire (1987)

Answer 13

It is becoming recognised that adult language as well as child language develops in response to important life events which affect the individual’s social relation and social attitudes