Week 2, Language and Dialect Part 2 Flashcards
(20 cards)
What else is there vairation in?
Register, or level of formality
The filler word “like” illustrates condmenation of certain speech. Is this theme new?
-in 1712 Jonathan Swift wanted to create an academy to preserve the English language
-however, language is always changing
-this illustrates that concerns over English language are not new, as use of the word “like” is often condemned
Misconception of the use “like”
often thought to be meaningless or for people who don’t have an ability to articulate or has limited vocab
Who is the use of the word like associated with
associated with popular culture, adolescents and young, adults, particularly women
How are people who use the word like perceived as?
perceived as less educated, intelligent, or interesting
Four distinct uses of the word like
- quotative
- approximation
- discourse marker
- discourse/emphasis particle/focus marker
Quotative Like
used to introduce a quote, thought, or reported speech
E.g. I was like “where do you find these people.”
Approximation Like
used as an estimate and can be parahrased with the word “about”
E.g. It was like 108F when we arrived at the beach
Discourse Marker Like
signals a relationship between sentences in a discourse
*Sentence A is related to sentence B and sentence B is related to sentence C and I’m going to indicate this discourse relationship by marking these connected sentences with the word like
E.g. Like one of my cats meows so much. Because like he’s really picky about the food he’ll eat.
Common misconception of the use of like as a discourse marker
Because this use of the word like are subtle, it actually indicates deep knowledge on the part of the user (by understanding when to use it), rather than lack of intelligence
Discourse Particle Like
It tells the listener that what follows is important or emphasizes it
E.g. He’s like dumb or something. He seems nice, but he’s like real dumb.
How long has the use of like been around?
New Zealand Broadcasting Service recordings of elderly speakers from 1946-1948 shows that colloquial use of like has been around for more than a century
However, it’s often associated with the valley girl
What may have contributed to the use of the word like becoming popular
Movies may have played a role in make “like” seem more popular
Linguistic Profiling
using the characteristics of a person’s speech to identify the as a member of a particular group
What did the Purnell, Idsari, and Buagh study test
They wanted to know the extent to which discrimination by race or ethnicity could be based only on linguistic profiling for housing in the Bay area
What dialects were used in the Purnell, Idsari, and Baugh study?
Standard American English (SAE), African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and Chicano English (ChE)
What was the first experiment in the Purnell, Idsari, and Baugh study?
-John Baugh (a tri-dialectal) called the landlords on three different occasion, using one of the three different dialects
-each area has a distinct ethnic makeup
-Each call began with the same phrase
What were the results of the first experiment in the Purnell, Idsari, and Baugh study?
Found that the ethnic makeup of the community correlated with the number of confirmed appointments
Decline in the number of confirmed appointments as the city population becomes less ethnically diverse
What did the second experiment of the Purnell, Idsari, and Baugh examine?
Second study examined only with the word hello (chose this because it’s not particular to any dialect)
Second experiment results
The subjects were able to successfully identify SAE, AAVE, and ChE 70% of the time, based only in the word “hello”
