Week 2 - Gender and Language variation (Non-essay)

Question 1

What is quantitative variationist sociolinguistics?

Answer 1

The study of sociolinguistic patterns, such as variable features and social factors

Question 2

What happened in the 1960’s?

Answer 2

Focus on relationship between language and social structures

Question 3

Issues with 1960’s work?

Answer 3

• Male/Female was included as a major social variable and gender differences were noted in relation to other patterns eg. politeness associated with females

Question 4

What was said about limits and by who, date?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What are the two variable types?

Answer 5

Social and Linguistic

Question 6

Define social variable

Answer 6

• Made up of aspects of speaker’s social identity that correlates with their language

Question 7

Define linguistic variable

Answer 7

• A feature with two or more linguistic forms, same meaning eg. I am and I is

Question 8

Who spoke about variation structure, when?

What were their key points?

Answer 8

Swann et al. 2004

• Variation is structured along linguistic, stylistic and social dimensions

Question 9

Give an example of a linguistic, stylistic and social dimension

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Define prestige forms

Answer 10

• Positively evaluated in society

- Associated with the dominant class

Question 11

Define stigmatised forms

Answer 11

• Negatively evaluated in society

- Associated with the subordinate class

Question 12

Define overt prestige

Answer 12

• Attaches to the speech forms of the socio-economically dominant classes
• Status marker
• Standard English

Question 13

Define covert prestige

Answer 13

• Attaches to speech forms which are locally valued within small groups/communities
• Marks in-group solidarity

Question 14

Who investigated /n/ variable, when, where?

Answer 14

Peter Trudgill 1974, Norwhich

Question 15

What was the social stratification for Trudgill’s study?

Answer 15

MMC - Middle middle class
LMC - Lower middle class
UWC - Upper working class
MWC - Middle working class
LWC - Lower working class

Question 16

What word styles did Trudgill look at?

Answer 16

• Reading passage
• Formal speech
• Casual speech

Question 17

What were Trudgill’s findings?

Answer 17

• Lower social status and formality = more non-standard forms
• Men use more non-standard forms, as do WC
• UWC highest stylistic variation, MMC lowest

Question 18

What did Trudgill say about women?

Answer 18

• They are more status conscious
• They must secure and signal status using language
• Cannot be rated on occupation like men

Question 19

What did Trudgill say about WC speech?

Answer 19

• Connotations of masculinity
• Associated with roughness and toughness
• Desirable masculine attributes

Question 20

Who spoke about Gender and age and when?

Answer 20

• Eisokovits 1987/1998

Question 21

What did Eisokovits say about girls?

Answer 21

• Younger ones use more non-standard past tense forms

- Decline of non-standard forms with age

Question 22

Who spoke about women and status consciousness, when?

Key points

Answer 22

Cameron 1992

1. They are reflecting their awareness of sex-stereotypes
2. Desire to fulfil normal expectations of women speaking better

Question 23

Issues with Trudgill’s study?

Answer 23

• 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

Question 24

Who spoke about social networks, when?

Answer 24

Milroy 1980

Question 25

What are the social networking effects?

Answer 25

• 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

Question 26

What is the basic social network hypothesis?

Answer 26

• Most consistent use of vernacular found amongst people most integrated into social networks
• Vernacular is a positive force

Question 27

Define dense network

Answer 27

The people you know and interact with, also interact with each other

Question 28

Define multiplex network

Answer 28

You know people in more than one way and interact with them in more than one setting

Question 29

Where did Milroy do her study?

Answer 29

Belfast

Clonard, Hammer and Ballymacarrett

Question 30

What were the different patterns of employment and social networks in the 3 Belfast areas of Milroy’s study?

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Who studied social networks other than Milroy and when?

Answer 31

Cheshire 1982

Question 32

Where was Cheshire’s study, what was the focus?

Answer 32

Playground in Reading

Frequency of use of vernacular

Question 33

What were boy’s vernacular culture markers?

Answer 33

• Hair/dress style
• Skill at fighting
• Swearing
• Weapon carrying

Question 34

What are the two groups of girls defined as, why?

Answer 34

Bad - use of vernacular

Good - use of standard language

Question 35

What was Cheshire’s conclusion?

Answer 35

• Some non-standard features are universal between the sexes, some mark gender
• Peer group pressure

Question 36

What did Holmes say about women and when?

Answer 36

• Their identity is signalled by their need to construct a wider range of social identities and roles, more so than men

1997