Labov's New York Department Store (1968)
Found that individual speech patterns were part of a highly systematic structure of social and stylistic stratification in the Lower East Side of New York of City. He investigated the difference in the /r/ sound in different words, this can be measured very easily. Three stores in Manhattan, Saks (high class), Macy's (middle class) and Klein (low class) all pronounced /r/ slightly differently. The higher class they were the more frequently they pronounced the /r/.
Labov's Martha's Vineyard (1963)
On Martha's Vineyard a small group of fishermen began to exaggerate a tendency already existing in their speech. They did this seemingly subconsciously, in order to establish themselves as an independent social group with superior status to the despised summer visitors. A number of other islanders regarded this group as one which epitomised old virtues and desirable values, and subconsciously imitated the way its members talked. For these people, the new pronunciation was an innovation. As more and more people came to speak in the same way, the innovation gradually became the norm for those living on the island. - taken from a website, not my own writing
Chesire's Reading Study (1982)
The aim of the study was to gain understanding about the use of grammatical features in peer group culture of boys and girls in Reading. This was gained by long term participant observation. 13 boys and 12 girls were recorded over 8 months. Chesire had to gain acceptance by these groups and recorded how often they used non standard features, such as non-standard was, what, do and come and ain't. Chesire then found out about some of the girls attitudes and whether they used these lexical features. The girls that found weapons, criminal activities and swearing acceptable used these language features, and that boys used these features more than girls.
Trudgill's Norwich Study (1974)
He studied the final constant in 'walking' and 'running' and other similar words, as in Norwich (not only there however) it was pronounced as 'walkin' '. Trudgill had 60 different subjects and used questionnaires and found that being in the lower middle class or upper working class determined whether the final constant was dropped. Men also tended to use this more than women.
MLE/Estuary English/Dialect Leveling
MLE - A recent variety combining elements of the language of different ethnic groups, particularly Afro Caribbean English. The variety arose in London but has spread to different parts of UK. It isn't slang because it also has phonological, grammatical and discourse characteristics. These linguistic features vary from place to place.
Estuary English - modified regional speech between RP and Cockney. Some linguists see it as an umbrella term for a range of southern English dialects. Speakers are thought to be aiming for a 'classless' profile, avoiding negative connotations of RP and regional speakers.
Dialect Leveling - this is when aspects of regional language (particularly vocabulary) have been dying out. However, certain aspects of cultural life still seem to have persevered some significant variation
Howard Giles Matched Guise (1970)
This was a technique used to determine people's feelings towards people with certain accents and dialects. Different students listened to people with different accents and then evaluated their personalities based on the accent. However, they didn't know that the all the accents were from the same person as they couldn't be seen. The findings were that RP was the most impressive and Brummie the least. A limitation in this study is people may realise part way through that one person is doing all the accents.
Howard Giles Convergence and Divergence
This was developed from the accommodation theory which states that we change our language to accommodate the person we're talking to. Convergence is when we move our speech closer to that of the person and divergence is when it gets further away. Someone with an RP accent might tone down their accent to speak to someone with a lower class accent and this is downward convergence. A lower class accent talking up is called upward convergence. If both people converge towards each other is mutual convergence. Divergence is exaggerating current accents to make yourself sound different.
Bernstein Elaborated and Restricted Codes (1975)
Elaborated is used by middle classes and has wider vocab, complex sentences, abstract ideas. It is context free - the speaker does not assume others share their experiences. The restricted is used by working classes. It has limited vocab and short, often unfinished sentences. Speech is predictable and may include hand gestures and is context-bound, assuming the experiences are shared.
Milroy & Milroy Belfast Studies (1987)
Milroy researched three areas in Belfast, Ballymacarrett, the Hammer and the Clonard which all have high areas of unemployment. These areas had blurred gender roles as men and women often switched roles. She used interviews and spontaneous questioning and discovered that men used rounded vowels 61% and women used 20%. The conclusion is that women are more linguistically aware and have a better effort to use appropriate pronunciation in situations.
Found that individual speech patterns were part of a highly systematic structure of social and stylistic stratification in the Lower East Side of New York of City. He investigated the difference in the /r/ sound in different words, this can be measured very easily. Three stores in Manhattan, Saks (high class), Macy's (middle class) and Klein (low class) all pronounced /r/ slightly differently. The higher class they were the more frequently they pronounced the /r/.
Labov's Martha's Vineyard (1963)
On Martha's Vineyard a small group of fishermen began to exaggerate a tendency already existing in their speech. They did this seemingly subconsciously, in order to establish themselves as an independent social group with superior status to the despised summer visitors. A number of other islanders regarded this group as one which epitomised old virtues and desirable values, and subconsciously imitated the way its members talked. For these people, the new pronunciation was an innovation. As more and more people came to speak in the same way, the innovation gradually became the norm for those living on the island. - taken from a website, not my own writing
Chesire's Reading Study (1982)
The aim of the study was to gain understanding about the use of grammatical features in peer group culture of boys and girls in Reading. This was gained by long term participant observation. 13 boys and 12 girls were recorded over 8 months. Chesire had to gain acceptance by these groups and recorded how often they used non standard features, such as non-standard was, what, do and come and ain't. Chesire then found out about some of the girls attitudes and whether they used these lexical features. The girls that found weapons, criminal activities and swearing acceptable used these language features, and that boys used these features more than girls.
Trudgill's Norwich Study (1974)
He studied the final constant in 'walking' and 'running' and other similar words, as in Norwich (not only there however) it was pronounced as 'walkin' '. Trudgill had 60 different subjects and used questionnaires and found that being in the lower middle class or upper working class determined whether the final constant was dropped. Men also tended to use this more than women.
MLE/Estuary English/Dialect Leveling
MLE - A recent variety combining elements of the language of different ethnic groups, particularly Afro Caribbean English. The variety arose in London but has spread to different parts of UK. It isn't slang because it also has phonological, grammatical and discourse characteristics. These linguistic features vary from place to place.
Estuary English - modified regional speech between RP and Cockney. Some linguists see it as an umbrella term for a range of southern English dialects. Speakers are thought to be aiming for a 'classless' profile, avoiding negative connotations of RP and regional speakers.
Dialect Leveling - this is when aspects of regional language (particularly vocabulary) have been dying out. However, certain aspects of cultural life still seem to have persevered some significant variation
Howard Giles Matched Guise (1970)
This was a technique used to determine people's feelings towards people with certain accents and dialects. Different students listened to people with different accents and then evaluated their personalities based on the accent. However, they didn't know that the all the accents were from the same person as they couldn't be seen. The findings were that RP was the most impressive and Brummie the least. A limitation in this study is people may realise part way through that one person is doing all the accents.
Howard Giles Convergence and Divergence
This was developed from the accommodation theory which states that we change our language to accommodate the person we're talking to. Convergence is when we move our speech closer to that of the person and divergence is when it gets further away. Someone with an RP accent might tone down their accent to speak to someone with a lower class accent and this is downward convergence. A lower class accent talking up is called upward convergence. If both people converge towards each other is mutual convergence. Divergence is exaggerating current accents to make yourself sound different.
Bernstein Elaborated and Restricted Codes (1975)
Elaborated is used by middle classes and has wider vocab, complex sentences, abstract ideas. It is context free - the speaker does not assume others share their experiences. The restricted is used by working classes. It has limited vocab and short, often unfinished sentences. Speech is predictable and may include hand gestures and is context-bound, assuming the experiences are shared.
Milroy & Milroy Belfast Studies (1987)
Milroy researched three areas in Belfast, Ballymacarrett, the Hammer and the Clonard which all have high areas of unemployment. These areas had blurred gender roles as men and women often switched roles. She used interviews and spontaneous questioning and discovered that men used rounded vowels 61% and women used 20%. The conclusion is that women are more linguistically aware and have a better effort to use appropriate pronunciation in situations.
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