English Paper 2 theorists

Benor (2010)

Ethnolingusitic Repertoire - a set of linguistic resources available to be used by a speaker to signal their ethnic identity

Viv Edwards

• Jamaican creole singled out as an educational disadvantage in schools, teachers had negative attitudes towards non-standard varieties - e.g. absence of ‘th’ sound and compounding like ‘foot bottom’ for ‘feet’

• Negative attitudes of teachers towards any non-standard variety noting that; The teacher who does not or is not prepared to recognise the problems of the Creole-speaking child in a British English situation can only conclude that he is stupid when he gives either an inappropriate response or no response at all.

• The stereotyping process leads features of Creole to be stigmatised and to develop connotations of, amongst other things, low academic ability.

Sapir Whorf hypothesis

Language affects the way we think and perceive the world around us - lingustic determinism

Devyani Sharma (2011)

evidence that ethnolinguistic repertoires exist - speech can be adapted phonologically for different interactions - British Asian Anwar used fewer “Indian sounds” when conversing with cockney mechanic e.g. Retroflex consonants

Ben Rampton & Devyani Sharma (2015)

an individual used more ‘Indian’ pronunciations when expressing political outrage or cultural insult - link between Indian sounds and topic - e.e. Retroflex consonants in words like ‘tap’ or ‘dog’

Howard Giles Matched Guise technique (1975)

Recording delivered in different accents with listeners rating using dif criteria’s - RP rated as most prestigious (acrolect), regional and ethnic accents rated as more pleasant

Criticism: Anderson and Trudgill

Paul Kerswill & Jenny Cheshire (2004-10)

high level of immigration from Jamaica and Nigeria etc. to London in 1950s, influencing slang used by young people today (MLE) - spoken by white birthed people as well as those from ethnic backgrounds - ‘home grown’ speech style

Kerswill

Sociolinguistic Maturation - the point where our Idiolect settles down and stops evolving so rapidly - young peoples language is more dynamic and creative due to a desire to be different, but as we age and change less, our language use becomes more secure like our identity

Support: Stenstrom

Challenge: could be class (Trudgill)

Milroy (2002)

an increase in geographical mobility and reduction of close-knit communities leads to a disruption of linguistic norms - e.g. Belfast study

Kerswill (2001)

Migration from rural areas to urban cities caused dialect levelling - urbanisation leads to minimisation of regional dialects

Support: Dominic Watts Newcastle

Challenge: Milroy migration increased non-fluency features

David Crystal and Global English (2003)

“a world of linguistic diversity can continue to exist in a world united by a common language” - the reason for the spread of English wasn’t just colonisation, instead it was because of power and economics

David Crystal and Threats to having English as a global language

1. Could create imbalance of power

2. Could create complacency and decrease in multilingual abilities

3. Could lead to demise/death of minority languages

Trudgill (1998)

one of the greatest cultural tragedies ever to befall humans is linguistic death

Robert McCrum

Argued the spread of global English is both inevitable and useful

Graddol (1997)

He takes the view that English’s spread across the world may lose momentum

McArthur (1998)

He says english is changing so radically around the world that it may fragment into a ‘family of languages’ as international populations diversify and add their own adaptations to the language

Support: Saraceni, Kachru, Schneider

Kachru’s three circle model of global English (1992)

Inner circle sets the ‘standard’, outer circle creates own variation, expanding circle follows the ‘standard’ - implied a hierarchy of varieties

Saraceni’s model of global English

Suggests that there are Englishes rather than English - English doesn’t belong to England

Schneider’s dynamic model (2007)

English was brought in by settlers:

1. Exonormative Stabilisation - settler speakers look to the colonial centre for language instruction, language formally established through education and legislation - indigenous acquire second lang and code-switching occurs

2. Nativisation - settler ties with their ‘land of origin’ weaken and colonised lang strives towards independence - heavy lexical borrowing, changes in phonology, morphology and syntax

3. Endonormative Stabilisation - moves to a local variety and indigenous people acquire a second language where post-independence varieties developed new standards and norms - stage of self reliance and codification of new norms

Schlegoff

phone calls replicate in-person language uses where telephone conversations follow the Summon and Answer, identification and greeting sequence

Criticism: but not every irl convo follows this sequence, some may start with “its so nice to see you” or more formally start with an introduction so maybe tech is limiting us to a certain format

Werry

people try and imitate their real life speech for example, using more letters than necessary in the texts to imitate semantic nuance

David Crystal and technology

• We aren’t destroying the language, we are just using it differently with new linguistic practices e.g. abbreviations

• Non-standard is not incorrect - change is not decay, it is simply change and adaptation “no more than a few ripples on the surface of the sea of lang”

• Digital communication reflects how people adapt for efficiency, creativity and social interaction - e.g. OMG so excited 2 cu ltr is much quicker

John Humphrys

texting is ‘ruining’ our language, seeing technology as a barrier rather than an aid - hyphen being removed from over 16,000 words in the dictionary due to lazy use of technology - suggests that abbreviation, slang and casual tone of digital communication undermine traditional grammar and vocab - also highlights the real, present day change which is taking place

Lynne Truss

advocates for correct grammar and punctuation in modern day use - standard conventions are essential for clarity and meaning and their erosion diminishes effective communications

Coventry Uni researchers

Children using ‘textisms’ are more familiar with phonemes, demonstrating how it helps our creativity and language manipulation skill - e.g. LOL or Plz

Sherry Turkle

Online communication can lead to less meaningful conversation - people may sacrifice face-to-face interactions - perhaps not impacting our grammar and lexis but rather our psychology and relationships - e.g. can sustain a convo with just back channeling

David Crystal and language change

“All living languages change. They have to. Languages have no existence apart from the people who use them. And because people are changing all the time, their language changes too. The only languages that don’t change are dead ones”

Jean Aitchison’s metaphors

Damp spoon, crumbling castle, infectious disease models

Labov

Martha’s Vineyard study - people alter their local variety to diverge from tourists and form their own identity

Saks study - 3 department stores, middle class store using hyper correction of /r/ sounds to show higher status - links change with class

Milroy and language change

Social Network Theory - change is spread through social networks, with individuals use of language being influenced by their social ties - people with dense networks tend to use language in ways that reinforce existing norms, people with looser social networks are more likely to adopt innovative linguistic forms

Bernstein (1971)

working class speakers are in deficit and have Restricted lexis (inherently deictic, relaxed synaptic, simple coordinating conjunctions) whilst higher social classes are associated with Elaborated codes (standard syntax, subordinate clauses, subordinating conjunctions)

Halliday’s functional theory

language changes because society does (lexical expansion) as a result of changing social function - language is inherently adaptive to accommodate the changing needs e.g. conversion of google from noun to verb or introduction of technology lexicon like laptop, download, zoom

change from above

Government, organisations, church pushed down and said what should happen - e.g. Toubon Law (1994) mandatory for all commercial advertisements and public announcements to be made in french, otherwise fines and penalties

change from below

everyday people create stylistic variations and Sociolects which filter upwards - e.g. the merger of the pronunciation in New Zealand English of the vowels in beer and bear

Bailey’s wave model

A drop of water hitting the surface of a lake - a new aspect of language is initiated (drop), change then spreads out from epicentre like a wave (ripple) - affects locally first, then moves outwards so the closer you are to the epicentre the stronger the ripple - e.g. ‘reem’ used more frequently in Estuary English, this wouldn’t be seen further away in Edinburgh (but, maybe with tech…e.g. MBE)

Chen’s S-Curve model

change occurs at a slow pace creating the initial curve, then increases at speed as it becomes more common and accepted, this can then slow down again and level out once it has fully integrated and is widely used

Substratum theory

change in language comes about through language contact with other languages - e.g. borrowings like Doppelgänger or Americanisms like ‘candy’ or ‘movie’

Penelope Eckhert ways of discussing age (1998)

chronological - number of years since birth

Biological - physical maturity

Social - social maturity

Younger speakers drive linguistic innovation, older speakers prefer to use more traditional forms

Julia Coleman

compares to life cycle of frog in the right habitat - needs to be a standard official form of lang, sense of group identity at bottom of a hierarchy, threat to individuality or self expression, awareness that conditions could be better, frictions that can only be expressed verbally, some toleration of slang from those in authority, adaptability

Giles Accommodation theory and age

Young converge towards language used in time spent with peers, but diverge from adults to maintain identity

Anna-Brita Stenstrom

teen talk = irregular turn taking, overlaps, taboo topics and slang, word shortening - e.g. isn’t → innit, lit and LOL colloquialisms, expletives

Ives

Interviewed teenagers in West Yorkshire - teenager-specific language includes: frequent slang, colloquial word choices, taboo subjects

AC Grimson (1962)

argued that there are time where RP could be a disadvantage, especially in social situations where empathy and affection are required

George Osbourne RP case study

dropped his RP accent when addressing workers and was seen to pick it back up in parliament - e.g. using ‘kinda’ instead of ‘kind of’

John Swales (2011)

Created idea of discourse communities who share common goals and specialist lexis - poses a required level of skill and knowledge for function

Almut Koester (2004)

Phatic talk is important as banter and interaction is key to a productive work environment and creates positivity - workers need to establish interpersonal relationships and have interactions which are not work related

Michael Nelson

found existence of business lexis when investigated corpora of business English vs general - includes an avoidance of personal topics and a lack of negative lexis (neutral and informative language) - coincides with semantic field of business eg people, money, companies

Hornyak (1994)

Shift from work to personal talk initiated by highest ranking person - discourse largely chosen by individual with most power - challenges swales as Hornyak assumes discourse is chosen not pre-existing

Fairclough (1992)

modern trend towards ‘conversationalism’ at work, exchanges becoming less formal

Drew and Heritage (1992)

created theory of Institutional talk - members of a discourse community have the same goal outcome - those in power interrupt more - no personal discussion allowed - specific professional jargon - also suggested there are strong hierarchies of power within organisations, with asymmetrical relationships marked by language use

Waering (1990)

identified personal power as often stemming from occupation - convos have “inescapable power asymmetry” stemming from knowledge imbalance

Mischler (1984)

convos between doctors and patients formed struggled between ‘voice of medicine’ and ‘voice of the life world’

Karoline Stefanias (2010)

voice of medicine is objective, neutral, depersonalised - voice of life world is subjective, emotional, set in patients biography - supports existence of dif voices and miscommunication between them too

Catrina Cox and Zoe fritz (2022)

lang used by medical professionals can belittle patients making them feel “blamed and helpless” - doctors searching for the ‘presenting complaint’ - clinical medicine lang renders patient as object of doctors actions, conferring passivity e.g. ‘sending’ patient home

Herregard (2000)

Workplace is time constrained so initialisms, acronyms and other jargon make workplace more efficient e.g. VNP at the Ivy

Holmes (1998)

female managers more likely to negotiate and reach consensus before applying mandate, male managers less likely to ensure general agreement - more of a gender issue, not role or power issue

Adam Fox

without language, there would be no competence of profession - jobs wouldn’t work without the language - tech and scientific lexis is necessary

Labov (1962)

Certain work environments cultivate certain repertoire - department store study, asked for ‘fourth floor’ in 3 different stores, more prestigious forms used in more prestigious shops - looking at pronunciation of phonological variable /r/ in the middle and ends of words - Saks had highest value of /r/ - but is this not bc of class, not work?

Fishman

52 hours of convos between American couples - women use tag questions e.g. “you know?”, following a thought or suggestion to gain conversational power - argues questioning is required for females when speaking with males, an effective way of maintaining conversations with males

Zimmerman and West (1975)

10 pairs of men/women, 11 men and women pairs - men spoke more and interrupted more (96-100%) but rarely interrupted other men - women only interrupted other women - but this is an unrepresentative sample - interruption as a tool of conversational dominance

Beattie (1982)

Challenges Z and West and considered over 10 times the corpus- men and women interrupted with more or less equal frequency - confirms idea that society has chosen to believe in male dominance?

Lakoff (1975) ‘language and woman’s place’ conclusions

lang had the effect of putting and keeping women in their place e.g. foregrounding women with their physical attributes - but also women kept in place by the way they use lang themselves, socialised to use trivial and powerless sounding lang e.g. super polite forms - not stylistic choices, but socially conditioned behaviours

Lakoff ‘lang and woman’s place’ findings

• women use more backchanneling, hedging, intensifiers, hyper polite forms and apologies, indirect commands, less slang and taboo (women setting the standard with less slang?)

• But carried out in 1975 and largely based on anecdotal evidence

Deborah Cameron (2012)

difference is a myth - ‘verbal hygiene’, people clean the way they speak bc of how they think they should based on gender - it is a conscious effort

Dale Spender (1980)

The structure of lang is patriarchal ‘man-made language’ - men dominate in convo bc men dominate in society, conditioning makes women polite and respectful towards men, marginalising female voices - lang defaults to the idea of men

Jennifer Coates

girls and boys develop dif speaking styles due to dif interactions in their larger hierarchy boy/ smaller girl friendship groups - all female talk is cooperative, unlike male or mixed gender talk - girls being encouraged to be typical ‘girls’ and boys encouraged to be typical ‘boys’ - cooperative vs competitive discourses

Jane Pilkington

women aim for positive politeness, men in all-male talk are less collaborative (verbal sparring), women talk to affirm solidarity and maintain relationships

Kuiper

men use insults to express solidarity, men spend less attention on saving ‘face’ - so perhaps men can also be considerate and empathetic, but just differently to women

Trudgill Norwich study

Studied the speech of ppl in Norwich to find out how gender and social class affected pronunciation - ppl from lower classes were more likely to use non-standard pronunciation, and men were more likely to use non-standard forms than women - gender or class issue?

O’Barr and Atkins

lang differs on situation specific power NOT gender - studied courtroom observing witnesses and examining them for basic speech difs between men and women - ‘women’s language’ consisted of hedges, empty adjective, apologising more etc - they discovered that Lakoff’s proposed differences were not necessarily the result of being a women, but of being powerless.

Miller and Swift (gender)

provided practical ways of improving gender equality - use of pronoun ‘them’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’ to replace gender bias or replacing marked terms with neutrals - ‘handbook of non-sexist writing’

Tannen (1990)

men try to fix problems while women try and find sympathy, men are direct in demands while women make suggestions instead, men speak briefly around facts while women talk lots about feelings

Miller and Swift (PC)

handbook of non-sexist writing - using gender neutral terms to replace bias and marked terms e.g. “they” or “people” instead of mankind

Deborah Cameron (PC)

verbal hygiene - ‘in the mouths of sexists, language can always be sexist’

Pinker

Euphemism treadmill - against linguistic reflectionism - replacement words will develop negative connotations, PC terms will pejorative and need replacement - e.g. third world → developing world → less economically developed world

Fairclough (PC)

PC isn’t enough, we need to change society and the way it thinks about minority groups - linguistic reflectionism idea

Dwight Bolinger (1980)

language the loaded weapon - ‘the writer or speaker has to choose between perpetuating sexist language and making a mess of the grammar’

Amanda Cole university of Essex

Found that cockney and RP are vanishing among young Briton and being replaced by MLE, Estuary English and standard southern British English

Dominic Watt dialect levelling in Newcastle (2002)

Supra local = larger local area - Hyper local = very specific local area. Younger speakers were using more supra-local vowel forms. Watt believed that wanted to disassociate themselves from stereotypes around northerners but they also felt a sense of loyalty towards their dialect so did not drop it completely. A balancing act

Kerswill talking about spread of MLE

"Adolescence is the life stage at which people most willingly take on new visible or audible symbols of group identification," - so can the spread of MLE be solely put down to age?

Wilde

'The great majority of English dialects are of little importance, and we can afford to let them go.'

Keith Harvey (2000)

‘Camp Talk’ - surface features such as puns, sexual puns and co-occurrence of explicitness with delicacy

Deborah Cameron (2003)

homosexual speech seen as ‘gender-deviant’ - gay men speak like women, lesbians speak like men - e.g. gender deviance seen in Margaret thatcher as a tool of power like making her voice deeper

Lakoff (1975) and sexuality

gay men’s speech traits are intentionally similar to those of women’s e.g. hedging, superlatives

Cameron and Klick (2003)

’those structures, institutions, relations and actions that promote and produce heterosexuality as natural, self evident, privileged and necessary’ - describing heteronormativity

Gender Binarism

The social construct that assumes only two genders exist (male and female)

Judith Butler (1990)

performativity/constructivism - we all perform our gendered and sexual identities every day, consciously or not

Jespersen (1922)

men use more difficult words, women use simpler words, more false starts and emotional language, and speak with less thought

Deficit model marketing example

male is used as the default in marketing e.g. men’s razors are the standard versions, but women’s razors are the deviation/variation

Dynamic model social Media profile example

modern day example, online identity construction, designing and refining profile to produce an ongoing narrative about ourselves

Little (2012)

’gender is something we do or perform, not something we are’

Hyde

With age, binary view of gender ingrained in us = more expectation to perform ideas of masculinity/femininity

Eckhert and gender

gender is not a discrete variable and interacts with other aspects of identity - gender must be seen as active and viewed under and intersectional lens - other factors e.g. class, the topic being talked about, and who they are talking to

Talbot (2010) f

gender is socially constructed - people admire “masculine” or “feminine” characteristics - “Being born male or female has far-reaching consequences. It affects how we act in the world and how the world treats us”

Anderson and Trudgill (1990)

Argued that attitudes towards accents are based more on social connotations and prejudices surrounding the location or social group, rather than the sound itself - e.g. experiment with outsiders, American speakers know nothing about the Birmingham accent or the area and do not find it unpleasant - but could just be saying this bc they are being studied/dont want to be rude

ITV tonight and ComRes study (2013)

28% of Britons feel they have been discriminated against because of their regional accents and 80% of employers admitted to making discriminatory decisions based on regional accents

Joanna Thornborrow (2004)

‘One of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity, and of shaping other people’s views of who we are, is through our language use’

Gary Ives Bradford study (2014)

8 teenage boys with a Pakistani background, code switching to emphasises group identity and exclude others - conscious choice to switch between punjabi and English to distinguish themselves from ‘freshies’

Chloe Burrows code switching

Altered her repertoire when speaking to mixed race contestants on love island - ‘blaccent’ when speaking to mixed race toby

Fareed Zakaria

American Indian CNN broadcaster - notably used more Indian phonemes when speaking on CNN India, compared to US TV - code switching