Language and Region

Question 1

What was Choy+Dodd’s ‘Teacher’s judging student’s ability’ Theory?

Answer 1

Teachers make judgements on a student’s ability on their personality based on the way they speak

Question 2

What was Seligman, Tucker+Lambert’s ‘Teachers judging student’s speech’ Theory?

Answer 2

Teachers’ perceptions of students were heavily influenced by their speech

Question 3

What was Foulkes+Docherty ‘ th = f/v’ study?

Answer 3

• Discusses the replacement of th with f or v + how this phonological variant has spread from its origins in London

Question 4

What was Ives’ ‘Bradford/London Study’?

Answer 4

• Commissioned 2 studies to be carried out in London + Bradford in order to explore the new dialects which had a growing use of code switching
• In each study, participants were questioned + subsequently discussed their lang use, more specifically , their dialect
• Some key features of the dialect he found were replacing Standard English verb form, changing a noun to a verb (Hype-Hyping) + changing an abstract noun to a less abstract form

Question 5

What was Jones’ ‘Prescriptivism vs Descriptivism’ Theory?

Answer 5

• Jones was a descriptivist linguistic.
• In early 20th century, teachers of English were seen as “missionaries” of speech, whose job it was to ‘correct’ aspects of regional lang by removing them + replacing them w/ RP + standard English, which were seen as hallmarks of refinement

Question 6

What was Rosewarne’s ‘Estuary English’ Theory?

Answer 6

• David Rosewarne coined the term, ‘Estuary’ in 1984
• Described the accent as ‘modified regional speech’ + placed it along a continuum between RP + Cockney
• Many linguists see it as an ‘Umbrella term’ , covering a range of southern English dialects

Question 7

What was Giles Matched ‘Guise Technique’?

Answer 7

• Involves participants listening to the same speaker using a range of different accents + passing judgement on each different variation
• In terms of personality. RP was seen as the most confident, intelligent + ambitious, but also cold + ruthless.
• Northern accented speech was characterised as honest, reliable, generous, sincere, warm + humorous
• Factor of persuasiveness is more complex to analyse because someone can seem persuasive , because of social status, or friendliness, so persuasiveness isn’t really an independent dimension

Question 8

What was Milroy’s ‘Belfast Study’?

Answer 8

• Found that stronger the social network is, the greater the use of vernacular (everyday, informal speech)
• Also showed that apparent norms, like women’s well-documented preference for prestige forms (hypercorrection), can be reversed (consciously or otherwise) by the need to express something more

Question 9

What was Trudgill’s ‘Social Class, RP’ Theory?

Answer 9

• Study focuses on the effects of social class on lang use explored the differences between working + middle class backgrounds on their pronunciation of certain sounds.
• The velar nasal /n/ at the end of words like ‘running’, concluded that changing the velar nasal /n/ to an alveolar /n/ - saying ‘runnin’ instead of ‘running’ - was more likely to feature in working class speech than middle class
• Found differences between men’s + women’s use of the non-standard forms; estimated that only 3% of speakers used RP

Question 10

Why do Dialects exist?

Answer 10

Dialects exist because communities used to be geographically isolated and only interacted with each other - it then becomes an integral part of that area’s language + identity

Question 11

What is an Accent?

Answer 11

A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class
E.g. Geordie accent from Newcastle, Scouse from Liverpool, Received Pronunciation (RP)

Question 12

What is a Dialect?

Answer 12

The whole language, including accent, vocab, etc. - may be associated with one area or class

Question 13

What was Howard Giles, ‘Matched Guise’ opinion on accents?

Answer 13

Howard Giles, Matched Guise:

• RP rated highly in terms of intelligence + power
• Regional varieties i.e. Birmingham rated more favourably in terms of integrity + friendliness
• Shows that whilst RP is seen as powerful and intelligent, it didn’t have the same connotations of friendliness as other varieties

Question 14

What were Ellen Ryan, ‘Status and Solidarity’ opinions on accents?

Answer 14

Ellen Ryan, Status and Solidarity:
RP has a high status but low solidarity
- Meaning that it has high prestige and status - could be due to associations with the elite 3% who speak it + work in positions of authority
- Low solidarity = didn’t gain mutual support - is it threatening, patronising, unrelatable…?

Question 15

What did the COMRES study by ITV Tonight (2013) show about accents?

Answer 15

• Liverpool was rated by the public to be the least friendly, trustworthy + intelligent
• Showing how the public has preconceived ideas about people based - will they judge a person from Liverpool as less intelligent?

Question 16

What was the University of South Wales opinion on accents?

Answer 16

• Birmingham accent is perceived as less intelligent
• Could be due to the flattening of vowels; despite there being no empirical evidence that it is less intelligent
• Suggesting that non-standard variations of English are less popular with the public

Question 17

What was Chris Montgomery’s opinion on accents?

Answer 17

• Stereotype of the place transfers onto all the people and finally onto the accent
• After the Hillsborough disaster there were countless reports of crime + violence - became associated with the Scouse accent - will be hard to shake

Question 18

What did Malcolm Petyt at the University of York say about modifying our accents based on certain opinions?

Answer 18

• Looked at H omission
• Found working-class participants dropped the H in almost every opportunity
• Whereas, middle class only 1/10 opportunities
• Shows there’s a class divide in the way we speak
• Is this study some kind of way evidence as to why some accents are viewed more favourably than others?
• Working-class use a feature more frequently = feature becomes working-class = seen as inferior = any dialect, including this feature is working-class and lesser
• So do we actually dislike accent/dialect features? Or just the people using it?

Question 19

What did Peter Trudgill, perceptions of accent say about modifying our accents based on certain opinions?

Answer 19

Peter Trudgill, perceptions of accent - a gender difference?
- Research in Norwich looking at the -ing/in’ variable

• Found that participants used the standard ‘-ing’ variable in contexts they deemed formal, i.e. reading a passage, but used the non-standard -in’ variable in casual conversation
  An example of code-switching, changing our speech style to suit the context

Real-life application: a person with non-standard speech may speak in a more standard style if they wish to fit in a formal setting (e.g. job interview) in order to change someone’s perception of them

Interestingly…

• Found women tended to fall closer to hypercorrectness (rarely dropping the ‘g’)
• Why? Could be since women are judged more harshly in society + there are fewer ways for them to gain prestige
• Need to speak ‘correctly’ to be seen as correct, smart, useful

Question 20

How does Grime music help with Accent, Dialect, and Identity?

Answer 20

• Skepta, Stormzy, etc. use Multicultural London English (MLE) features in their music + in speech
  For example, ‘bare’, ‘beef’, ‘wagwan’
• Someone who aspires to be like this may choose to converge their dialect (or just their accent) closer to these big names + use these features
• It’s a way to ‘show off’ their identity and perform in a similar way

Question 21

How does the Accommodation Theory (Howard Giles) relate to Accent, Dialect, and Identity?

Answer 21

• Convergence: a person may move their speech closer to that of the person they’re speaking to
• Divergence is the opposite; speaking differently to the audience

Question 22

How is the 2013 Election an example of Convergence?

Answer 22

Examples of Convergence in the 2013 election:
- George Osborne presented Morrisons employees
- Chose to speak with Estuary English accent rather than his usual RP
- Was he aware that RP has low solidarity + could alienate his audience
- Though that EE would win over his audience + improve his political chances
This was naive:
- he was criticised by the press for being desperate to gain votes
- Who is he to say that supermarket employees are “below” RP + need to be accommodated

Question 23

What did Kevin Watson say about Scousers in presenting their Accent, Dialect, and Identity?

Answer 23

Young Scousers aren’t giving up:

• Many young people are sounding increasingly Scouse
• Shows a sense of regional pride; want to incorporate it in their identity
• Not letting outdated opinions shape them

Question 24

How in the workplace can these applications of language studies be applied?

Answer 24

In the workplace:

• 80% of employees discriminated against candidates on accent
• There’s obviously prejudice in this area

Question 25

How in school can these applications of language studies be applied?

Answer 25

In school:
- Teeside Sacred Heart primary school in Middlesbrough
- Banned students from using regional non-standard features
E.g. ‘Gizit ere’, elision, H omission

• Surely just playground lang, more chatty + informal with friends
• The school thought this would open up future opportunities for students
• Dangerous; children picked up features from parents, are the school implying the parents have limited own lives, are they at risk of being detrimental to their children
• Asked parents to police children’s lang at home = invasive
• School emphasised what the children say, not how they say it