William Labov's Martha's Vineyard Study Flashcards
GEOGRAPHICAL REGION
what did labov conduct research into?
he conducted research into phonological change carried out at a place called Martha’s Vineyard (a small island off the northeast coast of America).
how did labov carry out his research?
he carried out his research by interviewing 69 people ranged from different age, ethnic, social groups in order to get a representative sample.
what did labov focus his research on?
he focused his research on diphthongs, for example words like mouse and mice (specifically the /au/ and /ai/ vowel sounds.)
what technique did he use when he interviewed people?
the technique he used was interviewing, which subtly encouraged the participants to say the words containing the vowels (/au/ and /ai/ he wished to study.
how and why did he make the conversation as natural as possible?
to make the conversation as natural as possible, he tried to avoid demand characteristics this was so that the participants didn’t necessarily know what he was looking for.
what words was Labov interested in and subconsciously urged the participants to use?
words containing the desired vowels (e.g. life, might, right) contained the dipthongs Labov was interested in and subconsciously urged the participants to use.
what did he find about the pronunciation of certain vowel sounds?
he found that the pronunciation of certain vowel sounds were slightly differentiating from the standard American pronunciations and the locals tended to pronounce these diphthongs with a more central point.
what did he find out about the vineyards and what were they encouraged to establish?
- the vineyards were encouraged to establish a nonstandard dialect and retain their social identity.
- as more and more people came to speak in the same way the innovation gradually became the norm for those living on the island and was established as a dialect.
