Week 2 - Gender and Language variation (Non-essay) Flashcards
What is quantitative variationist sociolinguistics?
The study of sociolinguistic patterns, such as variable features and social factors
What happened in the 1960’s?
Focus on relationship between language and social structures
Issues with 1960’s work?
- Male/Female was included as a major social variable and gender differences were noted in relation to other patterns eg. politeness associated with females
What was said about limits and by who, date?
Wardhaugh 1998
- Variation in speech of everyone, but there are boundaries
- No one is free to do as they please with language
- Limits can be described with accuracy, of groups and individuals
What are the two variable types?
Social and Linguistic
Define social variable
- Made up of aspects of speaker’s social identity that correlates with their language
Define linguistic variable
- A feature with two or more linguistic forms, same meaning eg. I am and I is
Who spoke about variation structure, when?
What were their key points?
Swann et al. 2004
- Variation is structured along linguistic, stylistic and social dimensions
Give an example of a linguistic, stylistic and social dimension
Linguistic: Using -in instead of -ing
Stylistic: -in is used in more informal settings
Social: -in is used more by boys and middle class children
Define prestige forms
- Positively evaluated in society
- Associated with the dominant class
Define stigmatised forms
- Negatively evaluated in society
- Associated with the subordinate class
Define overt prestige
- Attaches to the speech forms of the socio-economically dominant classes
- Status marker
- Standard English
Define covert prestige
- Attaches to speech forms which are locally valued within small groups/communities
- Marks in-group solidarity
Who investigated /n/ variable, when, where?
Peter Trudgill 1974, Norwhich
What was the social stratification for Trudgill’s study?
MMC - Middle middle class LMC - Lower middle class UWC - Upper working class MWC - Middle working class LWC - Lower working class
What word styles did Trudgill look at?
- Reading passage
- Formal speech
- Casual speech
What were Trudgill’s findings?
- Lower social status and formality = more non-standard forms
- Men use more non-standard forms, as do WC
- UWC highest stylistic variation, MMC lowest
What did Trudgill say about women?
- They are more status conscious
- They must secure and signal status using language
- Cannot be rated on occupation like men
What did Trudgill say about WC speech?
- Connotations of masculinity
- Associated with roughness and toughness
- Desirable masculine attributes
Who spoke about Gender and age and when?
- Eisokovits 1987/1998
What did Eisokovits say about girls?
- Younger ones use more non-standard past tense forms
- Decline of non-standard forms with age
Who spoke about women and status consciousness, when?
Key points
Cameron 1992
- They are reflecting their awareness of sex-stereotypes
- Desire to fulfil normal expectations of women speaking better
Issues with Trudgill’s study?
- Male seen as the norm, women the exception
- Analysis carried out by all men, no female perspective
- Other explanations eg. Milroy 1980 social networks
- Little focus on function or context
Who spoke about social networks, when?
Milroy 1980
What are the social networking effects?
- Takes into account socialising habits of individuals
- High network = strong association with local community and more vernacular
- More open networks = less socially constrained and less vernacular
What is the basic social network hypothesis?
- Most consistent use of vernacular found amongst people most integrated into social networks
- Vernacular is a positive force
Define dense network
The people you know and interact with, also interact with each other
Define multiplex network
You know people in more than one way and interact with them in more than one setting
Where did Milroy do her study?
Belfast
Clonard, Hammer and Ballymacarrett
What were the different patterns of employment and social networks in the 3 Belfast areas of Milroy’s study?
Clonard: Men high unemployment, women working with more social networks, young women high vernacular
Hammer: Population being dispersed, diff. less extreme between sexes
Ballymacarrat: Traditional, men close-knit groups and high vernacular, women less dense
Who studied social networks other than Milroy and when?
Cheshire 1982
Where was Cheshire’s study, what was the focus?
Playground in Reading
Frequency of use of vernacular
What were boy’s vernacular culture markers?
- Hair/dress style
- Skill at fighting
- Swearing
- Weapon carrying
What are the two groups of girls defined as, why?
Bad - use of vernacular
Good - use of standard language
What was Cheshire’s conclusion?
- Some non-standard features are universal between the sexes, some mark gender
- Peer group pressure
What did Holmes say about women and when?
- Their identity is signalled by their need to construct a wider range of social identities and roles, more so than men
1997
