Social class

• Labov New York stores study

  Investigated presence of the rhotic R, which is a prestigious pronunciation in New York. Compared to the speech of sales assistance in three different stores of different classes by getting them to say ‘fourth floor’ twice.

  • working class used it the least
  • middle class didnt use it, but used it when asked to repeat
  • upper class, used it both times
• Petyt Bradford study

  people who are socially aspirational tried to pronounce words differently. This letter them using the wrong vowel sound through hypercorrection. He also found that the lower the class a person was the more likely they were to h-drop.
• Bernstein Restricted and elaborated code experiment.


  Argues there are two types of ‘code’ that is used to communicate. Restricted code = conjunctions, context-dependent language, and non-standard syntax. Elaborated code uses more standard English. He found that;

  • Children of all classes understood both codes when it was spoken to them.
  • Working class children use restricted code
  • Middle + upper class children predominantly used elaborate code, but did use restricted code sometimes.
  • Disadvantage to the working class as an elaborated code is used in many formal situations.