Accent and Dialect

A-Level English Language

Dixon, Mahoney and Cox

Matched guise experiment

RP deemed less suspicious to police, less guilty

Trudgill (1974)

Women overt

Men covert prestige

Lower class unemployed/uneducated men had highest use of non-standard

Milroy and Milroy - Belfast

Higher social network scores = more intergrated into group use more non-standard

Dense social communities can enforce linguistic standards/ preserve dialects

Cheshire - Reading

Confirm to the groups conventions use theinguistic standards the most

Kerswill (1996)

Milton Keynes, dialect mix Children have less distinct dialects somehow merged

Howard Giles (1970s)

RP = authority

national, regional

Non-standard = persuasive

CAT

Labov - Martha's Vinyard (1963)

Non-standard centralised dipthong

Fishermen seek to differentiate themselves from tourists

Covert prestige, intentional divergence

Labov NY Department Store Study

Sale assistants Sach's, Macy's and Klein's

Sach's = prestige post vocalic r

Macy's = most upward shift when asked to repeat

A.J. Ellis

coined the term R.P