LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011

Slide 1 Wardhaugh Ch 7

Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Socioling studies cliff’s notes:

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/research/research.html

You should be able to provide basic info for at least Milroy, Labov and
Trudgill
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
Slide 2 Wardhaugh Ch 7

Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Fischer (1958)
Variable = (ing) = runnin’ vs. running
Findings: boys use -in’ more than girls
More use of -ing in formal styles
Difference between model boy and typical boy
See p. 167 for fancy charts!
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
Slide 3 Wardhaugh Ch 7

Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Fischer (1958)
Variable = (ing) = runnin’ vs. running
Findings: boys use -in’ more than girls
More use of -ing in formal styles
Difference between model boy and typical boy
See p. 167 for fancy charts!
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
Slide 4 Wardhaugh Ch 7

Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Labov - NYC (and from article)
Variable = (r) =
Department store study and Lower East Side study - diff methodologies,
similar findings
Dept Store - where are the women’s shoes? Fourth floor. Excuse me?
Fourth Floor! - see p. 169
LES study shows hypercorrection pattern (see next slide) – style shifting
shows some consciousness/prestige
Also investigated (th) = use of stop [t] instead of fricative in words like thin
(see p. 169)
Sharp stratification between MC and WC shown in (th) data – indicates
some consciousness - prestige
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

What does this graph show?

 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
Slide 6 Wardhaugh Ch 7

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

What does this graph show?

 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
Slide 7 Wardhaugh Ch 7

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

What does this graph show?

Sharp stratification
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
Slide 8 Wardhaugh Ch 7

Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

England - Norwich (Trudgill) and Reading (Cheshire)
Trudgill looks at 16 phonological variables
Finds social correlation with (ng), (t) and (h)
Similar patterns to Labov - style and class show distribution with more
attention, more standard, and higher class, more standard (and women, more
standard)
Chershire looks at grammatical variable (s) [and others]
She finds that there are linguistic factors as well as social ones - what word
the variable is in = uses a vernacular index to indicate how vernacular a child
was in participating in various events and how vernacular a word was (kill
more vernacular)
Covert prestige vs. overt prestige
Gender differences
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

England - Norwich (Trudgill) and Reading (Cheshire)
Trudgill 1972 (article)
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Detroit - Wolfram and Shuy
African Americans in Detroit
Variables (ng), (z) = 3rd person singular present tense agreement
(ng) finds [again!] that more formal styles, more standard (more -ing); higher
social class has more standard variant; women have higher standard variant
See graphs p. 178-179 - contrast (z) grammatical variable vs. (r)
phonological one shows sharp stratification vs. gradual stratification,
respectively
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Detroit - Wolfram and Shuy
Sharp stratification (morphosyntax) vs. Gradual stratification (phonological)
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Various
Macaulay finds variation within variation
Each class had variation that was more continuous than the group averages
indicate - reflect more complexities of social structure
Still informative because each class varies around a central point and those
point (averages) are different for each class
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Various
Kiesling (1998) - frat men
Uses discourse analysis and comes up with explanations for men who do not
fit pattern of (ing) usage (see p. 181)
He has an article on use of DUDE as a discourse marker indicating solidarity
in American Speech if interested!
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Various
Kiesling (1998) - frat men – not all men behave the same (p. 77)
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Various
Kiesling (1998) - frat men – not all men behave the same (p. 78)
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Various
Kiesling (1998) - frat men – not all men behave the same in contexts (p. 85)
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Various
Kiesling (1998) - frat men – not all men behave the same – ling factors (p. 82)
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Montreal French
Various studies (Sankoff and Cedegren) or (Sankoff and Vincent) show that
linguistics factors are important as well as social ones
See p. 182 for discussion

Teheran Persian
Hudson’s discussion of Jahangiri of Tehran Persian
See p. 180 for clear differentiations and use of standard deviation - different
than Maccaulay
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Belfast - the Milroys
Looked at 3 communities in Northern Ireland: Ballymacaarrett, the Hammer,
and the Clonard
(a) and (dh) variables
Show mixed findings but links social networks with the use of vernacular
forms - indicating that a close-knit network serves as a norm enforcement
mechanism which means the ling norms (use of vernacular forms) can be more
enforced in close-knit networks than not - not the same orientation to the
standard forms if the “standard” within the group is seen as a different form
Kind of like covert prestige
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Other issues
Final consonant cluster reduction or AKA t/d deletion AKA coronal stop
deletion - Wolfram and Labov show that there is a mix of linguistic and social
factors affecting the variation
This shows linguistic and social effects
Variable rules used to more to satisfy Chomsky (Sociolinguists use Varbrul
to calculate weight of effect of variable – over .5 means that this factor favors
production – under .5 means this factor disfavors production)
Variable analysis now used to compare the weight of all these factors on
their influence of variation - VARBRUL = Variable Rule program -
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/webstuff/goldvarb/
See p. 187-194
With respect to t/d/ deletion - With ling factors, there is an order of
constraints - which factors affect the variation the most
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Other issues
Labov shows a different order for some speakers rather than others (e.g.,
before pause)
Table on p. 191 shows that different varieties have a different constraint
system - one ling variable is realized in different ways in different varieties -
not just that one variable EXISTS in some varieties but not others; rather how
each variety treats that variable is what differentiates it from another variety
Variable rules used to be used more to satisfy Chomsky
Variable analysis now used to compare the weight of all these factors on
their influence of variation
 LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011
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Wardhaugh – Chapter 7 – SOME FINDINGS

Other issues
t/d deletion – Labov (1994)

p. 554 – What does

p. 553 functional/counterfunctional mean?