AQA English Language - Sociolects Gender & Ethnicity

Jenny Cheshire (1982)

Study conducted in Reading, examined male tendencies to employ non-standard forms, males were found to use ‘seen’, ‘done’ and other non-standard forms of perfect tense (I seen, he done)

Higher frequency of elision of word endings, abbreviations and multiple negatives.

Important to remember: did not indicate whether they were non-standard dialects such as Jamaican English

Fishman (1990)

Challenged idea that women speak more than men. In series of mixed-sex interactions men were found to speak for a length of time around twice as long as women.

In a separate study, boys were found to talk more in whole-class discussions.

Cooperation vs Competition

Female speech is said to be cooperative. Presumed features:

• back channel feedback “aha, hmm”

• repeated agreement

• compliments

• phatic talk

• initiate new topics to prolong conversation

• personal pronouns to address and involve participants

• develop ideas of previous speakers

Robin Lakoff (1975)

Highlights indirect style of women’s speech, exemplified by phatic tag questions or polite tags

Competitive features of male speech

• interrupt

• express repeated disagreement

• ignore previous utterance

• close down topics begun by others

Deborah Tannen (2010) Can’t we talk?

Stated communication problems between men and women is because:

• Men use language to assert dominance and gain information

• Women use language as a medium for more personal and emotional interaction

Deborah identified genderlect. Used to describe a dialect unique to a gender. Argued interactions between genders was similar to interactions between two genders.

Criticism of Tannen

Doesn’t take into account of sociolect, women will interact differently with women of different cultures.

Many male relationships also revolve around support.

Deborah Cameron

Suggested fully integrated analysis of language is desirable.

She argues difference between genders is neural and that only language draws attention to the difference as a social issue.

Overt Prestige

What is socially desirable and considered respectable. Studies show women tend to seek this more often.

Covert Prestige

Behaviour that subverts expectations and conventions of society.

Cheshire

Study of boy who used non-standard forms. Subject had history of deviant and troubled behaviour but was respected by other boys who tried to imitate him.

A boy who used standard forms was more often victimised.

Pennsylvania Dutch

German speaking immigrants. Most often Amish or Mennonites.

• Rising tone for “wh-” questions

• Second language learning patterns - absence of articles

• Absence of copula “Nightclub in bad area”

Spanglish

Dubbed Chicano by Mexican-Americans. Not all are bilingual and use features from Spanish.

Yiddish

Jewish variant based on medieval German dialect. Includes Hebrew, Slavonic and Aramaic elements. Some dialect spread into mainstream English such as “shlep” and “chutzpah”

AAVE/Ebonics

Developed among west African slaves. Language born of necessity as cultures and families were separated to avoid rebellions.

Fabricated language was a pidgin, evolving into a native tongue known as a creole.

Hip-Hop Nation/Global Language

1994 - Hip hop referred to as “black noise” which was later referred to by the music industry in 2004 as “global noise

Dialect spread - “Phat beats”

Eastender character Arthur Chubb - called Fatboy - both because of weight and DJ

Black British English

Also referred to as Jamaican English as a patois.

British Asian English

Distinct languages such as Gujarati and Punjabi have prevented the formation of a distinct Asian dialect.

However there are local dialects reliant on mother tongue used for covert prestige.

Sue Fox: Tower Hamlets

Provided evidence for clear and growing variety which was influencing all in the geographical area, regardless of ethnic background.

Conducted language investigation in the Tower Hamlets borough of London. Found high density of immigration of Bangladeshis, represented 35% of the population. 55% of school children identified as Asian.

She was able to collect data from 3 generations of speakers.

Fox later found a dialect did emerge and influenced white adolescents in the community.

Braj Kachru (1992)

Considers multicultural and social influences on those who use English as a second language enrich and influence the development of the English language.

He sees a supra-national “global” language and that it is better to describe it as “Englishes”

English as a Lingua Franca

Estimates 1 billion learners, 450 million of whom learning as a second language

Coggle (1994)

Traditionalist, argues greater education and awareness only leads to tendency to uniformity of language on a world scale

Crystal (2012)

Provides model for a global language:

• A language attains global status when it develops a special role that is recognised in every country

Kachru Circles Model of Global English

• Expanding circle: English as foreign language (largest outer ring)

• Outer circle: Non-native official SL role (India & Singapore)

• Inner circle: traditional base & primary language

Graddol (1999)

Predicts by 2050, 5% of English speakers will be native due to expanding rings being largest growing

Wolof Borrowings Case Study

Wolof is spoken in Senegal and Gambia.

Hip/Hipster comes from Wolof “hepi” - to open one’s eyes

Dig “to dig it” comes from Wolof “deg” meaning to understand and appreciate