Accent and Dialect

Question 1

What is dialect?

Answer 1

When a users social or regional background appears in their vocabulary or grammar

Question 2

What is accent?

Answer 2

A users pronunciation that shows regional or social identity

Question 3

What does gender have to do with Dialect? (Labov)

Answer 3

• women tend to use forms that are more ‘correct’
• men will often use non-standard forms to seek covert prestige in resisting ideas of respectability associated with Standard English

Question 4

What did Trudgill find in his investigation of gender and social class? (1970s)

Answer 4

1. He observed their saying of”singing”
2. Men were less likely and women were more likely to use prestige pronunciations of sounds
3. In aiming for higher prestige women tended towards hypercorrectness
4. Men used low prestige pronunciation seeking covert (hidden) prestige by appearing “tough” or “down to earth”

Question 5

What did Trudgill do to follow up on his language investigation?

Answer 5

He followed up by asking the users about their language:

• men were more secure and less socially aspirational
• men claimed to use more lower prestige forms than they actually did to ensure their masculinity was emphasised
• women also claimed to use more higher prestige forms than they were observed to, to fulfil their social class aspirations

Question 6

What did Barrie Rhodes find in West Riding?

Answer 6

Predictable gender speech was not applicable to all regions

- younger women tended to use more non-standard lexis

Question 7

Is there any conflict between Trudgill and Rhodes’ theories?

Answer 7

No, Rhodes’ theory changes the focus and emphasises that social factors can affect speech. Gender is one of many factors that change the way someone talks