Social groups

• Petyt (1985)

  • Petyt (1985) looked at aitch-dropping and the RP /ʌ / (‘u’) sound in words like good and the / ʊ / (‘uh’) sound in words like ‘put’ in the city of Bradford. 
  • He found that:
  • The lower the social class, the more likely the speaker was to drop the aitch.
  • The socially aspirational speakers incorrectly used the sounds in words like cushion pronouncing it with the / ʊ / sound instead of the / ʌ / sound.
• Peter Trudgill (1974) - research aim

  • Peter Trudgill's (1974) Norwich study looked at the pronunciation of the words ‘walking’ and ‘talking’. Trudgill was looking for the non-standard forms walkin’ and talkin’ (this is called ‘g-dropping’ or a ‘g-drop’). 
  • He also looked at the use of the ‘-s’ in verbs, like ‘he goes to school’ and the non-standard ‘he go to school’.
  • The research’s aim was to see if there was a correlation between class, gender and the use of the non-standard forms.
• Peter Trudgill (1974) - Findings

  • He asked participates to state how often they used standard and non-standard forms. He found that:
  • Women of all classes over-reported the number of standard forms they used which showed that they cared about the overt prestige. 
  • Men over-reported their use of non-standard forms, showing the covert prestige they desire. 
  • Women used more standard forms than men in a direct class-for-class comparison.
  • The higher the class, the more use of standard forms.
  • The research concludes that class is more of a determiner than gender.
• Basil Bernstein (1970s)

  • Conducted research into the way classes talk. 
  • He asked groups of boys to describe a comic strip containing a football smashing a window. 
  • From this, he defines two codes – restricted and elaborated.
  • Restricted code is inherently deictic. It has a relaxed syntax (word order) and uses many simple coordinating conjunctions.
  • Elaborated code is practically the opposite. It uses a standard syntax, more subordinate clauses and subordinating conjunctions.
• Basil Bernstein (1970s) - Findings

  • Bernstein claims that whilst middle-class children can use both codes, it is rare to see a lower-class child using anything other than restricted code. 
  • Saying this, both classes did understand both codes when spoken to them. 
  • There are obviously times when it is advantageous to be able to use both codes. 
  • For example, social situations and bonding situations are helped through restricted code, but formal events are helped by elaborated code.
• William Labov (1969)

  • His research featured black boys speaking in what would be classed as restricted code, but with a logical argument. 
  • This suggests that there is an issue with linguistically articulating ideas rather than there being a cognitive deficit.
• William Labov -research aim

  • investigated the use of the post-vocalic rhotic-r (the ‘r’ sound that appears after vowels) in words like ‘banter’ and ‘mark’.
  • To investigate this, he visited three stores in New York of different price and fashion status: Saks, Macy’s and Klein’s
  • 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.
• William Labov - Findings

  His research details that:

  • The lower middle class were most aware of the overt prestige (biggest change from casual to spontaneous speech). This is indicative of their need to social climb.
  • The lower classes tested were more aware of the prestige form and so more likely to change the way they spoke when consciously speaking.
  • The upper middle class changed the least, indicative of their already higher social status.
• Jenny Cheshire

  looked at 11 non-standard forms used by children against their adherence to the law on the playground at a school in Reading.

  These features included:

  • Multiple negation
  • Non-standard use of ‘what’ (e.g. ‘is this the book what we are learning about?') and 'ain’t’ being used as a copular verb (‘you ain’t the teacher’).
  • All children that approved of criminal activities within their peer group were more likely to use non-standard forms.
  • More boys than girls approved. This means we can deduce that non-standard variations are conscious choices in language.
• Jenny Cheshire (con)

  • There is a clear prestige around standard and non-standard forms. 
  • Those who abide by the law clearly gain their prestige in an overt way from behaving. 
  • The covert prestige of using the non-standard forms fits in with the breaking of laws – these children rebel against the rules in the same way they rebel against the social norms.
• Penelope Eckert

  Penelope Eckert researched vowel sounds in Detroit (the /e/ and the /ʌ/ sounds, so that the word ‘flesh’ would sound like ‘flush’) and also negative concord (this is the same as multiple negation).

  • She defines two key groups – the Jocks and the Burnouts. 
  • The Jocks are school-centred and engaged in school-sphered activities. 
  • The Burnouts were the opposite of this – concentrating on gaining a job in the local workforce. They engaged in activities in the neighbourhood area.
• Penelope Eckert (findings)

  • The Jocks used a significantly higher proportion of the standard form. Their vowels were conservative and their grammatical constructions were practically all standard (no negative concord).
  • The Burnouts were focussed on the local surroundings and so used the Detroit vowels more severely. They also used significantly more negative concord.
• Eckert - Age

  there are three main types of age:

  • Chronological – the physical time someone has been alive.
  • Biological – the maturity of the body.
  • Social – the way someone is developed in society.
• Emma Moore

  Emma Moore’s 2010 research into social groups at a school in Bolton looked at the non-standard use of ‘were’ in sentences like ‘it was in maths, weren’t it?’. Her research looks at four groups:

  Eden Valley girls - higher class, focused on school, lived further away from other girls, used the standard form (‘was’) almost all of the time.

  Populars - not focused on school, engaged in rebellious activities. The group did not always use the non-standard form. But three girls were members of a higher social class – these girls did not use the non-standard form at all.
• Emma Moore (part 2)

  Townies - breakaway group from populars, also rebellious. These girls often made use of the non-standard form. They were a mix of upper-working-class and lower-middle-class girls in the group. But they did have working-class boys in their social group.

  Geeks - focused on school and disliked non-standard form. However, 4 that did use it were all lower class
• Sali Tagliamonte

  • Teenagers have gained a mastery in a new set of registers.
  • ‘Like’ as a quotative verb is on the increase in anecdotes.
  • Almost a quarter of all adjectives are intensified.
• Anna-Brita Stenström (2014)

  there are many features that make-up teen speak. A few of these include:

  • Slang.
  • Conversational overlapping.
  • Shortening of words.
  • Taboo and expletives.
• De Klerk


  teenagers have a freedom which allows them to rebel against the linguistic norms to mark themselves as different to others.