labovs NY department store study

• Labovs department store study-

  He was looking for social stratification of 'r' in New York City.People from the mid west moved into NYC and they had a rhotic accent and this then came popular. This made it become the new standard after OVERT PRESTIGE.
• what did labov in NY want to investigate?

  He wanted to investigate whether the change from non-rhotic to rhotic was down to social class. He went to 3 department stores and ranked them in regards to their class.
• How did Lobov carry out his department store study?

  Asked for directions to a certain department up on the 4th floor of the store. Here he expected the answer, 'it's on the 4th floor (OWTTE)' from the employee to be spontaneous speech.• He then asked again by saying: 'excuse me?'.• They would reply with: 'it's on the 4th floor (OWTTE)' and Labov expected this to be careful speech as the employer would now be thinking about the way they are saying their utterance to ensure they're understood.
• What were labov's findings?

  When using careful speech, the employee used the rhotic accent more than during spontaneous speech.SAKS used the rhotic accent more showing that the current standard accent in NYC favored rhoticity as it was used by a higher social class.the social class will affect the manner of how the English language is spoken and pronounced. The need to improve one's social class may cause this change to spread.
• AO3 of labov ny study

   Labov didn't record the conversations being said so the only evidence of it was down to Labov's interpretation of what he heard.
• Labov ny store


  To investigate this, he visited three stores in New York of different price and fashion status: A high status (Saks), a middle status (Macy’s) and a low status (Klein’s). In a UK equivalent, you may expect, Gucci, Next and Primark.
• What did labov ask the assistants

  Labov asked a question about the location of a department which would evoke the answer ‘fourth floor’. He would then tell the assistant that he had not heard them and ask them to repeat. At this point, the speech stops becoming spontaneous and starts becoming more conscious.
• In each store labov went too

  He would get random shoppers to repeat fourth floor and the second time would be more careful speech to ensure they're heard correctly.
• The use of /r/ was highest in Saks and lowest in Klein's