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Prescriptivism
The belief that there is a right/wrong way of writing and talking regardless of context
Descriptivism
The belief that language doesn’t have to only be one way, it can’t be wrong if a certain feature is used regularly
Peter Trudgill Norwich speech study
1970s
One feature he studied was the ‘ng’ sound and whether or not it was dropped
Asked 60 people questions about their jobs, education level, income etc in various scenarios of formality
He linked the answers to these questions with the type of language used
Peter Trudgill Norwich speech study results
Lower class people used more non standard forms than higher social classes
People adopted more standard forms when they felt scrutinised in the higher formality situations like an interview
Men were more likely to use non standard forms than women despite class
“One reason for this is that working-class speech has favourable connotations for male speakers” - Trudgill
His study doesn’t acknowledge that the linguistic choices made by speakers could have been conscious ones
Daniel Jones
The pronunciation of English - book from 1909
said the book was ‘aimed to correct undesirable pronunciations’
In 1950 he revised this and wrote:
‘I no longer feel disposed to recommend any particular forms of pronunciation’
He is an influential academic in this field and changed from pre to descriptivism
William Labov: Martha’s Vinyard study
1963
Martha’s Vinyard is an island on the east coast of the USA. It has a population of about 6000. It attracts 40,000+ visitors yearly.
Labov studied the realisations of the diphthongs ‘aw’ and ‘ay’
Interviewed people of different ages and ethnic groups on the island
William Labov: Martha’s Vinyard study results
The younger speakers (31-45) seemed to be influenced by the Vinyard speakers and they used a more conservative pronunciation to the area
Those who actively sought to identify themselves as islanders and resented the summer visitors used the traditional words the most - young men
Those wanting to move/work in tourism used the more modern accent which was more similar to that of mainland USA - this was done subconsciously
MLE - Multi-cultural London English
A mix of multiple accents and dialects that pooled into one, originally in London as a migration hub (Jamaica, Ireland, Pakistan etc.)
No longer only spoken in London, seen up north and in the media too + in the middle classes
Home life mixed with daily life to influence speech and this can lead to using MLE
Speakers have said they can and will shift their language in formal settings where they feel their accent may put them at a disadvantage and lead people to judge them
Badly stigmatised and misunderstood
Accent Bias Britain 2020 basis
2 large scale studies
How people react to accent categories/labels e.g. cockney
How people react to recordings of people speaking in accents and how this affects perceived job suitability as a lawyer according to age, region, social class and personal beliefs
Accent labels - how people react to accents at a base level
Speech samples - how people react to hearing an accent and if they actually know the accent they are listening to
Accent Bias Britain 2020 results
Found that attitudes have not changed much in 50 years
Accents like RP were rated very positively yet urban, working class and ethnic minority accents are awarded much less prestige
When accents + occupation were considered together, working class accents were still downrated but not so much
When professional lawyers and judges were asked to judge how good the candidates answers were to the mock interview questions they didn’t let accent impact their decisions at all
Most effective intervention strategy is to raise awareness of accent bias
The project shows that accent bias is widespread but people in positions of power have the ability to resist it
Paul Kerswill 2001 Milton Keynes
Studied speech in Milton Keynes - a city established in 1967 (unnaturally)
12 year olds were the group doing the most sociolinguistic work when it came to dialect levelling - new speech community
Older girls had the highest amount of fronting
He investigated through interviews, microphones in playgrounds, quizzes, spontaneous speech
Howard Giles capital punishment 1955
Matched guise technique (one person speaking in multiple accents)
Gave a speech about capital punishment in different accents to see who was the most persuasive
RP accent was rated higher in competence and intelligence
RP seen as self confident, intelligent, ruthless etc
Northern accents were more honest, reliable, warm etc
The teenagers being spoken to were more likely to value the opinion of the argument spoken in RP
BBC
Welsh accent was the least popular in the UK
Believed having a Welsh accent could hinder a career
Those within Wales were proud of the way they spoke
56% of respondents said they were proud of their accent
Queens English beat all others in terms of prestige
Close link between pleasantness and prestige in some cases
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