(A-level English Lang) LANGUAGE + GEOGRAPHY

• Standard English

  The dialect of English that is considered to have the highest prestige and is used in the education system
• Slang

  Words that are informal and colloquial
• Dialect

  Lexical features or grammar variation
• Taboo

  Lexical choices deemed offensive or unacceptable
• Neologisms

  New words added to the language
• Received Pronunciation

  An accent that is viewed as correct and high prestige
• Regional Accent

  pronunciation variation based on where you live
• Les Parrott

  “Wearing the right clothes doesn’t help form teen groups”
• Les Parrott

  Clothes express identity - similar with language
• Parrott’s 5 Factors

  Status symbols - establishment via prestige e.g clothes, possessions, affiliation
• Parrott’s 5 factor

  Forbidden Behaviours: maturity - adult activities, smoking, drugs, drink
• Parrott’s 5 factor

  Rebellion : rebelling authority to demonstrate separations
• Martha’s Vineyard when?

  Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusett, USA in the early 1960s
• Martha’s Vineyard what?

  How and why language varies within a community—specifically, vowel pronunciation among different social groups.
• Martha’s Vineyard analysis

  The centralisation of the diphthongs /aɪ/ (as in “price”) and /aʊ/ (as in “mouth”).
• Martha’s Vineyard key findings

  Young, male, working-class islanders (especially fishermen) centralised vowels more to show solidarity and local identity.
• Martha’s Vineyard key findings

  Covert prestige – speakers used it to signal loyalty to the island and distance from tourists.
• Martha’s Vineyard significance of study

  It showed that language variation is not random—it’s socially motivated and linked to identity.
• Martha’s vineyard topic relation

  Demonstrates language and identity, variation over time, and the influence of social groups on language.