Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Social Groups (Marthas Vineyard - William Labov (1966) (Martha's…
Social Groups
Marthas Vineyard - William Labov (1966)
Martha's vineyard is a small island off the east coast of America. It has around 5,800 residents
However it is an extremely popular tourist destination and every year it attracts over 60,000 visiters in the summer months meaning the residents live along side vasts amounts of tourists.
Labov conducted a study on Mathas vineyard by interviewing 69 tourists consisting of different ethnicity's, both genders, different social groups and a variety of ages to give a representative sample. Labov used a particular technique where he asked questions in order to get a specific response he was studying the vowel sound made, or diphthongs to give them there correct name.
Labov found that the islanders, specially those who lived in areas with the most amount of tourism had changed the way they pronounce their diphthongs and diverged away from the tourists and the standard American accent. This in turn has meant they have created their own social group of islanders by diverging away from the American visitors.
Paul Kerswill -Milton Keynes
In Milton Keynes Paul Kerswill conducted a 4 year study to see how children spoke in comparison to their parents. Milton Keynes is a new town which has been recently developed meaning that the residents have arrived from all over Britain
Kerswill interviewed 48 children, 16 four year old's, 16 eight year old's and 16 twelve year old's. He also interviews the children's parents or caregivers to compare the language between child and parent/caregiver. The age categories of 16 strong were split into 8 boys and 8 girls to make sure gender was not an influencing factor.
The interview process consisted of reading from a list, a pronunciation test and a recording from a conversation with a friend
Kerswill found that the children had created their own, new unique language - the Milton Keynes Language - regardless of whether their parents were from London or Glasgow.
He found that the 4 year old children spoke in much the same way as their parents -this was before they started school. But by the time they were 8, and had started school, most liguistic similarities with their parents had gone. At twelve nearly all the children were speaking in the new 'Milton Keynes way' and sounded nothing like their parents.
The Milton Keynes accent is fairly similar to the London one linguistically and is nothing like the Buckinghamshire one which is where Milton Keynes is situated. One phonological example of the Milton Keynes accent is the glottal stop.
It is predicted that in the future language will continue levelling across the south of the country and 'the Milton Keynes' way of speaking, which is now officially know as 'Estuary English' will eventually take the place of many other regional accents in cities like in Norwich, Exeter and Dover.
One example of the language levelling was a child who arrived in Milton Keynes from Scotland aged just one. By 4 he was speaking in a strong Scottish accent by by the times he was eight he sounded like all the other Milton Keynes boy.
MLE (Multicultural London English)
Paul Kerswill (2004 -2010)
MLE or Multicultural London english is a 'new' language on the scene in London along with other major cities in England. Is is more common in deprived areas with a low social status where immigration has been rife over the years. The majority of Kerswills work was conducted in Hackey, an area in East London which is traditionally associated with the cockney accent.
During the post war slum clearance many people living in Hackney were rehoused in different areas while Hackney could be re developed in order to reconstruct the area. This meant lot's of immigrants coming over found themselves in Hackney in the East end of London. The earliest immigrants to come over were West Indians but they were soon joined by people from other countries.
The amount of immigration meant that there were lot's of different accents and dialects in a certain area. In the year 200 Baker and Eversley recorded 26 first languages spoken by students at Hackney Schools, by 2011 this was 88. This meant that they began to merge together to create a multicultural version of English in the city of London hence Multicultural London English.
Multicultural London English is basically a combination of many different accents and dialects (including Caribbean, Asian and Greek). Some features include using 'innit' as a discourse marker and glottal stops. But it doesn't entail 'h' dropping like the Cockney accent and the sounds come from the back of the mouth opposed to the front with Cockey showing that the British children are diverging away from their parents traditional London accents and toward their ethnically diverse friendship groups ways of speaking.
MLE is a fast spreading accent and is now being spoken by young people all over London, not just in Hackney. Versions of it are also occuring all of the country where there is an ethnically diverse population. Their are now many celebrities using the accent such as footballer Rio Ferdinand.
Negative views are being put onto MLE as some people are saying that they don't want to see the death of standard english in young people. People also view the accent negatively because lot's of people in prison speak with an 'urban accent'. There are many perceptions that 'it sounds black' which is not true as many white londoners use the accent.
MLE is now taking over from the standard Cockey accent. Young people are diverging away from their parents ways of taking and converging toward the MLE that nearly all young people are using. MLE is fast becoming the voice of young people in London.
Jenny Cheshire - Circumstances effecting Language
Cheshire conducted a study in an adventure playground in Reading where she recorded speech between groups of teenagers to look at the effect of a peer-group culture.
She found that the toughest girls and boys used more non standard features such as 'ain't'
She also suggested that biological age is not what really effects the way in which people talk, it's the social age of a speaker. For example a 18 year old girl who has a child and has left school would have more 'grown up' adult language compared to a 18 year old girl who has not given birth and is still in full time education. She said that life events determine how we speak more than our biological ages.
Hockey Players
Modern Tribes
Hockey players use a sociolect (specific lexis to that social group only) meaning that 'outsiders' or people who can't play don't know what is being said. This Lexis includes 'Short Corner' 'penalty flicks' 'long corners' among many more
The idea that people use language to 'keep other people out' and to create a community where only a handful of people actually know what is being said is a common one and is one which is implied by Susie Dent in her book 'Modern Tribes