Language and Social Groups Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is social linguistics?
The study of a language in social groups.
What is a social group?
Individuals who share interests and connections with others or who are classified as having something in common.
What is a social network?
The social groups we are a part of.
What are the three most common criteria for social class?
Occupation, education, income.
Labov’s New York study (1966)
Used occupation, education, income criteria. Divided people into 9 social classes.1-5 = working, 6-8 = middle, 9= upper. 1st study to find a link between class and speech. Studied the post vocalic R (rhotic pronunciation). Informal tests were done to get a natural response.
FINDINGS:
Rhotic pronunciation was deemed as socially prestigious. Lower class people were found to be more conscious of their rhotics in a more formal setting.
Trudgill’s Norwich Study (1982)
Used occupation, education, income, housing type, locality and father’s job as the criteria. Created 6 social classes by splitting the middle class and the working class into three sections each, being: upper, middle and lower. Looked at the pronunciation of -ing at the end of words.
FINDINGS:
Lower on the social scale meant more likely to drop the ‘G’ sound. G sound pronunciation increased as the formality did, despite social class.
Petyt’s Bradford Study (1980)
Looked at dropping the h sound at the start of words.
FINDINGS:
Lower working class speakers drops 93% of h sounds. Upper working class speakers dropped 67% of h sounds. Lower middle class speakers dropped 28% of h sounds. Upper middle class speakers dropped only 12% of h sounds.
What is the elaborate code?
A manner of speech closest to being universally understandable
What is the restricted code?
A code of speaking that two large groups could exclude some listeners but in social groups can create a sense of inclusiveness.
What is code switching?
The ability of a speaker to dip in and out of the elaborate and restricted codes depending on pragmatics / context.
What is bernstein’s (1971) opinion on the codes?
“clearly one code is not better than another; each possesses its own aesthetic, its own possibilities”
Bernstein’s social code theory (1971) findings
Working class often use restricted code whereas middle class often use elaborate code.
What does Atherton 2002 argue about the social code theory?
“everyone uses restricted cold communication sometimes. It would be a very peculiar and cold family which did not have its own language”
What is a closed network?
Where a person’s connected contacts all know each other (tend to be high density)
What is an open network?
Where a person’s connected contacts do not know each other (tend to be a low density)
What is a multiplex network?
Where a person’s connected contacts in a particular network blonde to another group E.G. having a friend who is a colleague
What is network density?
The amount of potential connections and a network that are actual connections.
Milroy’s social network theory (1980)
She took part in the life of three communities as ‘a friend of a friend’.
She investigated the correlation between the integration of individuals in the community and how they speak.
She gave each individual a network strength score based on their knowledge of the other people in the community, workplace and at leisure activities.
Scale was 1-5, 5 being the highest (a closed network).
She then measured each person’s use of several linguistic variables E.G. ‘th’ as a mother and ‘a’ as in hat both with standard and non-standard forms.
FINDINGS:
Well socialised people had strong accents whereas solated people had less strong accents and used less non-standard forms.
There wasn’t necessarily anything gender based about accent strength.
Penelope Echert (2000)
‘jocks’ = participated in school enthusiastically.
‘burnouts’ = actively rebellious and refused to take part in school activities.
Burnouts use pronunciations associated with the urban accent of Detroit (their neighborhood).
Jocks spoke in a more socially prestigious manner (reflecting their more middle-class backgrounds).
She asked the groups to discuss each other’s language use jocks complained about the ungramatical language the frequent swearing and not being articulate. Jocks were seen as talking like their parents.
Teens and their sociolects
Jenny Cheshire (1982) - found that the ‘toughest’ teens use words like ‘ain’t’.
Harriet powney - refers to familect (the private lexis of a family).
What is overt prestige?
Language associated with the acknowledged social status E.G. wealth, money
What is covert prestige?
Language associated with individualized aspects of social status E.G. artistry
Labov’s study on Martha’s vineyard
Focused on the younger populations use of the older chilnark fisherman’s accent when interacting with tourists as a form of divergence.
