Regional variations Flashcards

Question

What is matched guise ?

Answer 1

Involved participants listening to the same speaker using a range of different accents and then passing judgment of each variant

Answer 2

1975: Giles used it to research the perception of RP and Brum accent. Although it was the same speaker using the accents when speaking about psychology, teenagers rated the RP speaker higher in competence and intelligence. 1973: Giles reported another group who were presented with the same speech arguing against the death penalty spoken in different accents. Teenagers were more likely to value the argument when it was spoken in a more prestigious accent

Answer 3

used same matched guise approach as Giles using a conversation between a policeman and a suspect A suspect with a Birmingham accent was perceived to be significantly more likely to be guilty

Answer 4

* matched guise approach to research attitudes from an ethnocentric viewpoint * participants were asked a series of questions to deduce how ethnocentric * once ethnocentrism was established, they were split into groups and each watched a video of a male speaker. - everything was the same about the speakers but one had a non - native accent with no decidable regional, ethnic or national associations, while the other had an American accent

Answer 5

* groups asked to rank the two on how attractive, credible and like themselves the speaker was * those considered ethnocentric gave lower ratings to the non native speaker

Answer 6

with an increase in immigration following WW2, immigrants lived in separations from native speakers due to a lack of integration. As a result, immigrants were forced to learn English from other immigrants, thus lacking the influence of native speakers. This is called “group second language acquisition”, and they suggest such a process is the origin of MLE.

Answer 7

novel pronoun use: “man” used for first and second person singular “innit” used as a tag question and as a marker of agreement ending interrogatives with “for”, especially those beginning with why

Answer 8

Belfast change and variation in an urban Vernacular * studied the language of three different working class neighbourhoods in Belfast. She discovered that a speaker’s idiolect is determined in part by their social network rather than being solely a result of their membership of certain social groups (gender etc). * Non-standard language features occurred with high frequency in women’s friendship groups where the social network was dense and multiplex (everyone knew eyerone and friendships were complex), to women might have been friends, sisters in law and colleagues

Answer 9

Dialect, interaction and class positioning at school; from deficit to difference to repertoire * investigated the use of ‘me’ as a possessive by children of different social classes in NE England. * she found that working class children use mi, not necessarily because they were working class but to achieve comedic or derisive effect: he called mi hair girly * changes how the speaker is representing themselves. Represents themselves as more unserious

Answer 10

London Jamaican Language systems in interactions -Sebba gave two reasons * the largest group of migrants were Jamaican * Reggae music and Rastafarianism (originating in Jamaica) were very popular. Therefore, Jamaica was the biggest influence on the rise of a new dialect for second generation immigrants and onwards

Answer 11

white talk, black talk: inter racial friendship and communication among adolescents * showed that there were two distinguishable varieties spoken in London that stemmed form immigration: creole (which marked members of specific ethnic groups) and MLE. White speakers were criticised by the creole speakers (typically Britons with Caribbean ancestry) when they used features from the creole. * Creole speakers cited that the creole was not something the white speakers could take on as they did not inherit it, this is an essentialist view of ethnicity

Answer 12

* MLE does not spread through inheritance since Britons whose parents were not Caribbean speak it. R - Rampton (2004) indicated that it could spread between friendship groups. In diverse Urban environemnts, friendships between Afro-Caribbean, south Asian and British English individuals are common * Rampton (1998) also developed the concept of language crossing - which occurs when one speaker uses small aspects of a language of which they cannot claim ownership. Rampton claims that crossing ha a specific function, it blurs ethnic boundaries and, if received positively,brings speakers together.

Answer 13

* investigated the Sheffield dialect used by a group of people called NORMS (non-mobile, older, rule males) The study gives an insight into the speech of a conservative, somewhat preserved dialect due to the NORM categorisation

Answer 14

Distinguished between traditional dialects and mainstream ( or modern ) dialects - Traditional dialects are very different from standard English so much so that other speakers will sometimes have difficulty understanding them. They are almost all exclusively found in the UK (as opposed to other English speaking countries)and the population of Traditional Dialect speakers is growing smaller, as they are predominantly associated with older speakers - Mainstream Dialects- standard English and the mainstream Non-standard English dialects, ie, dialects that differ from standard English predominantly in terms of accent. They are predominantly associated with younger speakers

Answer 15

* word initial ‘th’ in function words such as ‘that’ and ‘the’ replaced with [d] * words ending in ‘ing’ like ‘running’ change into ‘in’- runnin * ‘was’ is used in the past tense plural as in ‘we was running’ but is declining in favour of the standard ‘were’ —highlighted that a comparison between older and younger speakers

Answer 16

“we can make sweeping generalisations simply because of the sounds of someone’s voice” - RP speakers perceived as unfriendly and arrogant - Children with working class accents and dialects may be evaluated by some teachers as having less educational potential than middle class accents.

Answer 17

People make assumptions based about others based on their accents Most common attitudes - RP is the most socially prestigious accent, associated with wealth and status - RP is associated with competency and authority. Surveys show many associated it with intelligence and self - confidence - RP speakers are however seen less favourably in surveys than speakers with regional accent in terms of qualities associated with sincerity, good - naturedness and sense of humour

Answer 18

Giles presented five groups of students with an identical set of arguments against capital punishment

Answer 19

- Those who heard the RP speaker were most impressed - Least impressed were those who heard the Birmingham speaker - When asked about the persuasiveness of the presentations, those who heard the regional speakers were more likely to report they changed their minds

Answer 20

- RP seen as the accent of the upper class, hence people associate it with authority and status. However, most people do not belong to this class thus they feel socially distanced from it, hence they don't associate RP with warmth and likability - People make connections between accents and regions from which they derive e.g most pole have a positive view of the countyside, associating it with beautiful landscapes, tranquility so they respond favourably to rural accents - Stereotypes of associated with some accents are often reinforced and perpetuated by the mass media

Answer 21

These attitudes mean people may encounter positive or negative discrimination due to their accent - In the workplace, call centres are often located in certain parts of the country as companies feel certain accents make customers respond favourably - Research suggests the legal system may be biased against specific accents - people with specific accents are more likely to be suspected of a crime.

Answer 22

Common attitudes are reinforced by the media - In early years of broadcasting, TV and video presents spoke with RP accents as RP was believed to be an accent that was easy to understand and carried an air of authority - Regional accents are more likely to be heard in local TV and radio stations - Comedy and drama shows often feature regional accents that play up to stereotypes. - Sport's commentators accent reflect social standing of sport. For example, a darts commentator often have a strong regional accent to reflect the sport's working image. However, sports like tennis and horse racing often have commentators with RP accents.

Answer 23

- Sun reported Geordie accent as the sexiest - Daily Mail reported cabin crew from Liverpool to seem the friendliest to flyers - Daily Telegraph found flyers found pilots with London accents the least reassuring, business executives admitted to be less likely to hire working class Essex accent and that Birmingham accent is the least cool accent

Answer 24

- we make assumptions based on accents about unrelated traits - might lead to us making ungrounded judgments on intelligence - risks discriminations and poses a problem for social justice

Answer 25

Studied the –ng sound at the end of words in Norwich. e.g. shopping/ shoppin

Answer 26

- People of lower socio economic status are more likely to use non standard linguistic variants than people of a higher socio economic status - People are more likely to use standard linguistic variants in formal settings, and non - standard linguistic variations in informal settings - Women are more likely to t use standard linguistic variations in informal settings - Women are more likely to over report their use of standard linguistic variants than men, and men are more likely to over report their use of non standard variants - Found that it was more often working class speakers than middle class speakers and men rather than women