Theories

• Accent


  Variation in pronunciation
• Dialect


  Variation in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation within a language
• Class


  Socioeconomic grouping of people
• Labov's Martha's Vineyard study


  • Investigated (ar) and (ai) sounds
  • Interviewed 69 people of different age and social group
  • Fishermen pronounced the ar and ai sounds more prominently to distinguish themselves from tourists
  • Shows that social groups have a big influence on language variation and change
• Ives' code-switching

  • Children at a school in Bradford would code-switch from English to parents but Punjabi to friends
  • Staff also code-switched, hence it is age-related
  • MLE in London schools was influenced by Afro-Caribbean culture, even in White British pupils, suggesting it is about group identity rather than cultural identity
• Kerswill's MLE


  • Young Londoners don't use h-dropping anymore
  • More correct grammatically
  • More age-related than ethnicity
  • Many words have originated in England like 'my ends' - Jamaican patois hasn't invaded
  • Established as a sense of social identity
• Milroy's Belfast study


  • Those with a closed (close-knit) network use more non-standard forms than those with open networks
  • Men used more non-standard forms than women, women had more open networks
  • High unemployment rates in Clonard led to men searching for work outside the community, reversing this
• Giles' capital punishment test

  • Participants found the RP speakers the most impressive but were persuaded to change their opinions
  • They also rated the RP speaker as more intelligent in his mixed guise study, and thought their opinion was more valuable
• Trudgill's Norwich study


  • People in lower classes dropped the 'g' in 'ing' words more commonly
  • Women dropped more than they thought they did, the other way round for men
  • They pronounced it more when they were more focused on their speech
  • Men are less formal than women in all classes
• Cheshire and Edwards' school study

  • In over 80% of UK schools there was: unmarked plurality, demonstrative use of them/those, should of, never as a past negation for one event, ain't/init
• Petyt's h-dropping study in Bradford


  • Upper middle class h-dropped 12% of the time, lower working class 93%
• Azis' business attitudes study

  • 79% of business people thought a strong regional accent was a disadvantage
  • 77% thought home counties accents are successful
  • Scottish was the best regional accent at 40% hardworking and 31% trustworthy
  • Liverpool was the worst at 9% hardworking and 8% trustworthy
  • Cockney = successful but not trustworthy
  • Geordie: Warm and caring
  • Indian Asian accents: hardworking and reliable
• Labov's department store study

  • Saks, the upper class store, used the rhotic 'r' the most, especially in the recasted utterance
• Elaborated code


  The way the upper classes talk
• Restricted code


  The way lower classes talk
• Social network theory


  • Language is based on social networks which affect nuances of our language
• Choy and Dodd's teacher study

  • Teachers had lower expectations of those with regional accents, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Nevliep and Speten-Hansen's ethnocentricity study

  • Ethnocentric participants rated non-native speakers lower in credibility and attractiveness, suggesting a listener-based rather than speaker-based approach
• BBC accent variety study

  • 78% of respondents enjoy hearing a variety of accents
• Wells' Longman Pronunciation Dictionary

  • Considered local dialects to preserve accent
• Kerswill's dialect levelling


  • Urbanisation, increased social mobility and travel has broken down many accents
  • Present tense 's' has survived in the South
• Drummond's Polish immigrants study

  • Polish immigrants who intended to stay in the UK were more likely to adopt the local accent
• Pitts' study on oppressive culture

  • The oppressive culture of the UK encourages resistance from individuals from minority ethnic groups in the form of strengthening regional accent
• Rampton's study on creole


  • Using creole was seen as cool and tough
• Multicultural Urban British English

  • The way in which MLE has moved from London
• Bucholtz's 'White nerds' study

  • 'White nerds' distance themselves from white people who adopt elements of other dialects