Terms

• Overt-prestige


  Gaining power through using Standard forms of English
• Covert-prestige


  Gaining power through using Non-Standard forms of English
• Mutual Convergence 


  Where both speakers move towards eachother in accents
• Upward convergence 


  Where one person tries to move up towards a person's accent e.g someone with a Lancashire speaker becomes more RP
• Downward Convergence 


  Where a RP speaker softens their accent down to the other speaker
• Mutual divergence 


  Both speaker moves apart in accent
• Upward Divergence


  Rp speaker strengthens their accent away from the other speaker
• Downward divergence


  A speaker strengthens their accent away from RP