Evaluate the idea that a person's language is completely determined by the social groups they belong in
Evaluate the idea that a person's language is completely determined by the social groups they belong in
A person's language can be determined by the particular social groups they belong to. This can include gender, ethnicity, age and social class.
William Labov studied the population of Martha's Vineyard and found that the fisherman in the 'up-island' were a desirable kind of social group as they had old-fashioned values. This then affected their language as they spoke non-standard language and had different pronunciations of diphthongs. This was a change from standard pronunciation as the fisherman were from rural areas and had inhabitants that grew up at the time this language was at its peak. It's also worth noting that young men would use this type of pronunciation to identify themselves as native speakers and reject the way of speaking from the mainland. This then shows that language is determined by our social groups as young men actively decided to use a particular type of non-standard language to identify themselves with.
The dialect leveling theory states that language forms from different locations eventually converge together and reduce the amount of diversity in language. Milroy lends this increased geographical mobility, allowing people to have connections all over the country, however their accents start to blend together and variations are lost. Furthermore, the reduction of rural employment and construction of new towns which decreases the variation in accents. We can also relate this to an increased social mobility, as people will change their working environments and develop new accents, leaving their old accents behind. This supports the statement as people are able to take parts of an accent or dialect that they identify with and use it in their everyday lives. This can relate to finding a sense of community in their social group and then using features of that language as their identification.
Peter Trudgill found in his Norwich study that attitudes towards certain accents where very influential. He found that RP speakers were perceived as unfriendly by non RP speakers unless they proved themselves as otherwise. Part of this came from their language as they were from a higher class and pronounced the '-ng' in words such as 'walking' unlike the lower class who pronounced this sound as a '-n'.
A person's language can be determined by the particular social groups they belong to. This can include gender, ethnicity, age and social class.
William Labov studied the population of Martha's Vineyard and found that the fisherman in the 'up-island' were a desirable kind of social group as they had old-fashioned values. This then affected their language as they spoke non-standard language and had different pronunciations of diphthongs. This was a change from standard pronunciation as the fisherman were from rural areas and had inhabitants that grew up at the time this language was at its peak. It's also worth noting that young men would use this type of pronunciation to identify themselves as native speakers and reject the way of speaking from the mainland. This then shows that language is determined by our social groups as young men actively decided to use a particular type of non-standard language to identify themselves with.
The dialect leveling theory states that language forms from different locations eventually converge together and reduce the amount of diversity in language. Milroy lends this increased geographical mobility, allowing people to have connections all over the country, however their accents start to blend together and variations are lost. Furthermore, the reduction of rural employment and construction of new towns which decreases the variation in accents. We can also relate this to an increased social mobility, as people will change their working environments and develop new accents, leaving their old accents behind. This supports the statement as people are able to take parts of an accent or dialect that they identify with and use it in their everyday lives. This can relate to finding a sense of community in their social group and then using features of that language as their identification.
Peter Trudgill found in his Norwich study that attitudes towards certain accents where very influential. He found that RP speakers were perceived as unfriendly by non RP speakers unless they proved themselves as otherwise. Part of this came from their language as they were from a higher class and pronounced the '-ng' in words such as 'walking' unlike the lower class who pronounced this sound as a '-n'.
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