theorists

• Robert lowth 


  author of 'a short introduction to English grammar (1762)' one of the most influential grammar books
• Lynne Truss 


  eats, shoots and leaves. ' satanic sprinkling of redundant aspotrophes '
• David crystal 


  language is a tidal flow

  language change is inevitable
• Paul warren 


  rising intonation has come under scrutiny. this 'uptalk' was perceived by the media as displaying uncertainty and insecurity.

  Paul was a big critic of this and suggests its based on stereotypes rather than linguistic research
• howard giles and CAT


  communication accommodation theory

  convergence - an individual changing their language to fit in with others around them

  divergence - an individual changing their language to stand out from others around them
• Martha's Vineyard (1962)


  found that the locals would divert their language from the tourists to establish the fact that they are equals
• the department store study 


  3 different stores of class and moved workers from higher class shop to lower class and found that the workers converged to match the customers dialect
• Peter Trudgill 


  wanted to find out wether Labovs findings were also true of the UK by exploring this in dialect

  found that those of a middle class would be more likely to drop the -ing sound
• Jenny Cheshire 


  explored syntactic not just phonological variation. 'since the majority of our analyses of linguistic variations have focused on phonetics and phonological variation'
• howard giles and Peter powesland 


  'matched guise' studies. set script for a lecture. delivered in a similar context to a similar audience but on in RP and one in a Birmingham accent
• stewart, Bouchard ryan, and giles (1985)


  identified the concepts of 'status and solidarity'

  participants reacted to a range of accents, British and American

  essentially RP was considered to have the highest status but as low in solidarity
• Chens s curve model 


  language change starts off slowly but then speeds up and then slows down again. creating an s-curve shape on a graph as the change becomes embedded and the norm
• Aitchison 


  potential - there needs to be potential for words to change or for a new word

  implementation - the word is hinted and used in society and perhaps used in newspaper articles or media

  diffusion - it spreads through the skin of society and reaches out to people

  codification - it becomes a recognised word in dictionaries
• functional theory - Halliday 


  language change as a result of the needs of its users

  new discoveries/ learning/ inventions

  technological words

  slang
• Hockett - random fluctuation 


  'fashions in language are as unpredictable as fashions in clothes'

  significance on random errors and events having an effect on language change. language occurs due to the unstable nature of language itself
• Peter trudgill (1974)


  Norwich study looked at pronunciation of 'walking' + 'talking'. looking for non-standard forms, 'walkin' + 'talkin'. (g-dropping or g-drop). research concludes that class is more of a determiner than gender.
• petyt (1985)


  looked at aitch - dropping (losing the 'h' sound) and the RP sound in words like good and the sound in words like 'put'. the lower the social class, more likely the speaker was drop the aitch. socially aspiring speakers incorrectly used the sounds in words like cushion pronouncing.
• William labov 


  conducted research in 1969. his research featured black boys speaking in what would be classed as restricted code but with a logical argument. suggests there is an issue with linguistically articulating ideas rather than there being a cognitive deficit