Accents and Dialects
- Created by: chloebutler02
- Created on: 28-05-21 10:36
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- ACCENTS AND DIALECTS
- Accents
- Definition: The way that a person pronounces their English die to their regional background.
- Received pronunciation (RP): Most recognised accent in England, has no regional tinge and is associated with high class and educated.
- Overt prestige: most recognised pronunciation e.g. RP.
- Covert prestige: belongs to a small community.
- Dialects
- Definition: Someone's vocabulary that they use due to their regional background
- Standard English (SE): The vocabulary most widely used within the upper and middle class, is associated with wealth.
- Attitudes towards accents and dialects
- Prescriptivism: The belief that English is governed by a certain set of rules that show the correct way to use language. Prescriptivists believe that if you stray from this, then it is wrong.
- Descriptivism: Look at how language is pronounced due the the person that is speaking and their background. See change as inevitable.
- Trudgill's Theory: Researched men and women from different social classes. Trudgill found that women were more likely to use overt prestige to seem like she was from a higher social class due to social insecurity. Men tended to use covert prestige to seem down to earth.
- Trudgill's New York study: Went to four different stores, all of different social classes and asked the shop assistants where an item was that he knew to be on the fourth floor. The shop assistants that worked at the higher class stores were more likely to use the post-vocalic /r/.
- Martha's Vineyard (Labov): Found that the younger members of the community were using the old language and vocabulary, to stay attached to their heritage and to diverge from the tourists.
- Bernstein: Restricted and elaborated code. Lower class tend to speak restricted code, which is rather basic language, which often includes colloquialisms and slang. Elaborated code tended to be used by the middle and upper class, which is alot more sophisticated and you need to be able to understand the context of what they are saying.
- Accents
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