social groups

• trudgill - Norwich study

  looked at the pronunciation of 'walking' and 'talking', looking for non-standard forms. Also looked at the use of '-s' in verbs like 'he goes to school' and 'he go to school'. Found that:

  • women of all classes over-reported number of standard forms they used
  • men over-reported their use of non-standard forms
  • women used more standard forms than men in a class-for-class comparison
  • the higher the class, the more use of standard forms
• petyt - bradford study


  looked at 'aitch-dropping' and the RP 'u' sound in words like 'good' and the 'uh' in 'put'. Found:

  • the lower the social class, the more likely the speaker was to drop the 'h'
  • socially aspirational speakers incorrectly used the sounds in words like 'cushion'
• berstein

  He defines 2 codes – elaborated and restricted.

  Restricted – inherently deictic, has relaxed syntax and use many simple coordinating conjunctions

  Elaborated – uses standard syntax, more subordinate clauses and subordinating conjunctions

  Whilst middle-class can use both, it is rare for lower-class children to use anything other than restricted. However, both classes understood both codes when spoken to them.
• labov


  Researched black boys speaking in what would be classes 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
• Labov


  • Investigated the use of the post-vocalic rhotic r (the 'r' sound that appears after vowels) in words like 'banter' and 'mark'
  • Visited 3 stores in New York – one high status, middle status and low status
• labov - Lower middle class


  • Most aware of the overt prestige (biggest change from casual to spontaneous speech)
  • Indicative of their need to social climb
• labov - Lower classes

  • More aware of the prestige form
  • More likely to change the way they spoke when consciously speaking
• labov - Upper middle class

  • Changed the least
  • Indicative of their already higher status
• chesire - age

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

  • Multiple negation (double negatives – using more than one negative in a sentence)
  • Non-standard use of ‘what’ (eg: ‘is the book what we are learning about)
  • ‘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.
• Moore - Eden Valley girls, populars

  • EVG – Girls that came from very well-off backgrounds, focused on school but engaged in activities like shopping as well. They use the standard form ‘was’ almost all the time, put to them being a higher social class.
  • Populars – girls not focused on school. Engaged in activities that were rebellious like drinking and smoking. Group didn’t always use the non-standard form. 3 girls had a higher social class and never used the non-standard form
• moore - townies and geeks

  • Townies – breakaway group from Populars. More rebellious and often engaged in activities like drugs and sex. Often made use of the non-standard form. Mix of upper-working-class and lower-middle-class girls in the group, as well as working-class boys
  • Geeks – girls were focused on school and engaged in activities like the choir. They disliked the use of the non-standard. The 4 that did use it were from a lower social class
• Jocks


  • School-centred and engaged in school-sphered activities
  • Used a higher proportion of standard form
  • Their vowels were conservative
  • Grammatical constructions were all standard (no negative concord)
• Burnouts

  • Concentrated on gaining a job in local workforce and engaged in activities in the neighbourhood area
  • Used Detroit vowels more severely
  • Used significantly more negative concord
• No difference between Burnout girls and Burnout boys' use of negative concord

  Only 1 Jock girl used negative concord

  More Jock boys used negative concord
• stenstrom


  states that there are many features that make up teen speak:

  • slang
  • conversational overlapping
  • shortening of words
  • taboo and expletives
• De Klerk


  States that teenagers have a freedom which allows them to rebel against the linguistic norms to mark themselves as different to others
• Tagliamonte

  Produced many theories about how teenagers use language:

  • Teenagers have gained a mastery in a new set of registers
  • ‘like’ as a quotative verb is on the increase in anecdotes

  Almost ¼ of all adjectives are intensified
• milroy - belfast study

  Looks at men and women using non-standard forms (like the non-standard pronunciation of the /th/ in ‘father’ and the /a/ in ‘flat’). She identifies 2 networks – closed (consists of people that all know each other and a lack of links outside it) and open (many links to people outside the normal area). She found that:

  • Men have dense, closed networks. They use a high number of non-standard forms
  • Women have less dense and open networks. They use less non-standard forms
• labov - martha's vineyard

  Looked at 3 groups of people in Martha’s Vineyard – older Chilmark fisherman, the younger population and tourists. Looked at the /aw/ and the /ay/ phonemes in words like ‘house’ and ‘spice’. He found:

  • The younger population used the vowels used by the Chilmark fisherman to appear distant to the tourists
  • The Chilmark fisherman exaggerated their vowel sounds
• Parrott


  Teen identity is characterised by:

  1. rebellion
  2. forbidden behaviour
  3. exclusions
  4. idolisation
• Zimmerman


  teenspeak is influenced by media, music and the internet
• Baker


  The gay community use puns, acronyms and lexical items that only make sense to those in the community