social group theories

Question 1

Trudgill’s study of language in Norwich (1982)

Answer 1

-studied the social differentiation of english in norwich
-investigated correlation between social class and phonological features - ‘ing’
-method: 5 classes: lower working; middle working; upper working; lower middle; middle middle
-made them read passages, formal speeches and casual speech
-results: lower classes used nonstandard variation and dropped the ‘ing’.

Question 2

milroy: closed network

Answer 2

closed network: when a person’s connected contacts all know eachother, tends be high density

Question 3

milroy: open network

Answer 3

open network: when a person’s connected contacts don’t know each other

Question 4

milroy: multiplex networks

Answer 4

multiplex networks: connections belong to multiple group

Question 5

Milroy’s Social Network Theory in 1980 ( Belfast ) method and findings:

Answer 5

Method: studied 3 communities and said she was a “friend of a friend”.
high density networks: strong accent (these individuals socialised well)
low density networks: weak accent (these individuals were more isolated)

Question 6

Bernstein’s Social code Theory (1971)

Answer 6

elaborate code- universally understood
restricted code- excludes listeners
code switching- switching between elaborate and restricted code

-a working class person communicates in restricted code as a result of the conditions they were raised
-middle class is exposed to the elaborate code

Question 7

Atherton (2002) / Bernstein counter argument

Answer 7

“Everyone uses restricted code communication some of the time. It would be peculiar and cold if a family did not have their own language”

Question 8

Labov’s ‘The social Stratification of New York City’ (1966)

Answer 8

• studied the postvocalic ‘r’ (rhotic pronunciation)
  -the postvocalic ‘r’ is considered socially prestigious
  -believe the higher the social class of the speaker, the more likely they are to pronounce it
  -formal situations: lower middle class were conscience of their speech and pronounced it more frequently

Question 9

Petyt’s Study of Language in Bradford (1980)

Answer 9

-dropping the ‘h’ sound at the beginning of words
-close relationship between ‘h’ dropping and social class
-93% of the lower class dropped it
-12% of the upper middle class dropped it

Question 10

William Labov - Martha’s Vineyard

Answer 10

covert prestige- local, anti authoritarianism
overt prestige- posh prestigious

people try to copy the overt prestige of the fishermen accent rather than sound like a tourist

Question 11

Penelope Eckert (2000)

Answer 11

jocks and burnouts: burnouts’ more often used the exaggerated pronunciations associated with the urban accent of their Detroit neighbourhood, while the ‘jocks’ were more concerned with speaking in a socially prestigious way - sometimes reflecting their more middle-class backgrounds.