World Englishes/Accent And Dialect Theorists

Question 1

David Crystal

Answer 1

(Numbers may be outdated, but the theory is still relevant)

• there are around 400 million L1 speakers
• there are around 400 million L2 speakers
• there are around 600-700 million ELF speakers

Question 2

First Diaspora

Answer 2

• 17th century
• First English settlements in America
• 1770 – Australia ‘discovered’ (became a penal colony), by 1800s British settlements began
• 1790 – English settlers move to New Zealand
• English became an L1

Question 3

Second Diaspora

Answer 3

• Late 15th century in West Africa (during slave trade period)
• 1600s (South Asia, including India and Pakistan)
• Late 18th century in South Africa and South East Asia
• English became an L2

Question 4

Streven’s World Map of English

Answer 4

• One of the first attempts to model the spread of English around the world.
• It illustrates the dominance of English and the separation of British English and American English
• Explores how the world has been affected by these Englishes

Question 5

Kachru’s Circles Theory

Answer 5

Inner Circle: native language (USA and UK)

Outer Circle: 2nd language (India and Singapore)

Expanding Circle: ELF (China and Russia)

Question 6

McArthur’s Circle of World Englishes

Answer 6

• Shows examples of different Englishes and dialects

- Doesn’t show how they’re linked or their history

Question 7

Modiano’s Model

Answer 7

• English as an International Language

- positions EIL in the centre with other Englishes positioned as equals around it

Question 8

Schneider’s Dynamic Model- How Englishes Have Evolved

Answer 8

Foundation: English is brought to a new territory, leading to an emerging bilingualism

Exonormative stabilisation: An elite bilingualism spreads, led by the politically dominant country

Nativisation: Bilingual speakers forge a new variety of English as ties with settlers’
country of origin weaken

Endonormative Stabilisation: After independence and inspired by the need for ‘nation-building’ a new linguistic norm is established and codified

Differentiation: This may follow, with international social group identities gaining importance and thus reflected in the growth of dialectal difference.

Question 9

‘Inner Circle’ Variety- American English

Answer 9

Words: fall, trash, faucet (from Middle English), diaper (from French)

Theory:
-Noah Webster’s 1806 spelling reform (-ize not -ise, -or not -our, -er not -re)

-Jamestown in 1607

Question 10

‘Outer Circle’ Variety- Jamaican English

Answer 10

• origins in the slave trade
• pidgin language became a creole

Features:
-no auxiliary verb ‘to be’

• passive constructions avoided (de grass cut)
• nouns tend to not have a plural form
• pronouns have alternate forms (I = mi, a You = yu, unu)
• th stopping, h dropping, consonant cluster reduction (respect/respeck)

Question 11

Joanna Thornborrow

Answer 11

-“one of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity, and shaping other people’s views of who we are, is through our use of language”

Question 12

William Labov- Vineyard and Department Store studies

Answer 12

1:
-at Martha’s Vineyard

• pronunciation of diphthongs [aw] and [ay]
• a group of fishermen/up islanders pronounced the vowels differently to establish their identity and distance themselves from tourists

2:
-studied how the final or preconsonantal [r] was sounded in different words (guard, beer, bare)

• sound is associated with prestige
• compared Saks (used it most), Macy’s (greatest upward shift when asked to repeat) and Klein’s (used it least)

Question 13

Paul Kerswill

Answer 13

• discusses MLE
• has West Indian, South Asian, Cockney, Estuary and Jamaican roots
• dialect is picked up at a young age by people with “low opportunities”
• an exclusionary strategy

Question 14

Gary Ives

Answer 14

School A: Bradford (95% of students have Pakistani backgrounds)

• dialect is a conscious choice and code switching is frequently used
• “we mix Punjabi and English”

School B: South London (range of different ethnic backgrounds)

• use MLE terms like ‘bredrin’ and ‘bruv’ to “set them apart”
• dialects aren’t based on your ethnic origins/where you’re from, but based on where you live now

Question 15

Leslie Milroy, and Paul Kerswill’s support

Answer 15

-geographical mobility “leads to the large-scale disruption of close knit, localised networks”, or dialect levelling

Kerswill:
-‘Mobility, meritocracy and dialect levelling: the fading (and phasing) out of Received Pronunciation’

• 1831 (34% of brits lived in cities) vs 1991 (90% of brits lived in cities)
• greater dialect contact results in standardisation and popularisation of features eg multiple negation

Question 16

Paul Foulkes and Gerard Docherty

Answer 16

• replacement of ‘th’ with ‘f’ or ‘v’ has spread from its origins in London
• geographical and social mobility is also the reason why non standard forms are spreading across the country

Question 17

Peter Trudgill

Answer 17

• views on RP: “guilty until proven innocent”
• views on regional dialects: “having less educational potential
• in all social classes, those speaking more carefully will use forms such as ‘running’ (with velar nasal). Women are more likely to exaggerate how often they use that instead of ‘runnin’

Question 18

Howard Giles

Answer 18

1:
-matched guise approach

• RP vs Birmingham accent
• teenagers rated the RP speaker higher in terms of competence and intelligence

2:
-we adjust our speech to accommodate other people (convergence)

-we emphasise our own dialects to establish identity (divergence)

Question 19

Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks

Answer 19

• matched guise approach
• standard English vs Birmingham
• Birmingham accent more likely to be seen as guilty

Question 20

Neuliep and Speten-Hansen

Answer 20

• matched guise approach
• researched ethnocentrism
• ‘ethnocentric’ people have lower ratings to the non native speaker

Question 21

Seligman, Tucker and Lambert

Answer 21

-teachers perceptions of students are heavily influenced by their speech

Question 22

Choy and Dodd

Answer 22

-teachers make judgments on a student’s ability and personality based on their speech

Question 23

Paul Coggle

Answer 23

• people are stereotyped by their accents

- “the stereotypes are the loving reminders of Britain’s continuing class system”

Question 24

Jane-Stuart Smith

Answer 24

• explored why Glaswegian had more ‘English’ features such as TH fronting
• argued that it has been influenced by media such as Eastenders

Question 25

Milroy

Answer 25

• took part in different communities as ‘a friend of a friend’
• tight knit social networks were more likely to use vernacular or non standard forms

Question 26

Bernstein

Answer 26

• restricted and elaborated code:
• elaborated: syntax more formally correct (more subordinate clauses), more logical connectives (if, unless), less clichés, reference is more explicit, conveys facts and abstract ideas instead of attitude and feelings
• middle class children use elaborated code more and in appropriate contexts, working class children still use it but tend to use restricted code more