| Ethnicity and Social Networks | Language Change | Language Variation | Analyzing Discourse | Attitudes |
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To express one’s identity and show group membership.
Why might an individual use linguistic tags?
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To express solidarity and signal group identity.
It was noted in the 1960’s that some of the inhabitants of Martha’s Vineyard were intentionally centralizing some of their vowels sounds in a pattern that was thought to have been dying out in the region. Why did this conscious language change occur?
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Fossilization
What is the process in which acquisition of (specific features of) a language becomes arrested before native fluency can be achieved?
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1) Greetings & Farewells
2) Questions & Answers 3) Invitations & Acceptances / Refusals 4) Accusations & Denials / Apologies
Adjacency pairs are related utterances produced by two speakers in such a way that the second utterance is identified as a follow-up to the first. Identify three examples of potential adjacency pairs.
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Covert Prestige
What is the term used to describe the attitude people may toward a speech variety or characteristic that may be publicly or ‘officially’ shunned, but seems to still be widely used and valued?
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Children tend to become more aware of society’s attitudes towards speech around their adolescence. As such, they may adopt certain speech varieties to express negative attitudes towards the majority culture while asserting their identity.
What are possible reasons why an individual begins to adopt a certain speech variety during his or her adolescence when there were no signs of such speech during his or her childhood?
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1) Changes from below people’s level of conscious awareness
2) Changes that spread from a lower social group upwards through to higher social groups
Changes in pronunciation are often noted to be ‘changes from below’. What are the two meanings of the term ‘changes from below’?
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The process by which a speaker’s language usage converges towards the speech of the person they are talking to.
Speech accommodation is a strategy used by individuals to gain acceptance or demonstrate politeness to another speaker. What is speech accommodation?
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The maxim of Relation
Consider the following dialogue.
Harry: Where is the car? Joyce: Dan needed to do some shopping. In this conversation, Joyce violates one of the maxims of cooperative talk. Which one does she violate? |
Difficulty in achieving educational success
Difficulty in finding a good job Discrimination and stigmatization
Many adults believe that their children may experience some difficulties in life if they grow up speaking a non-standard variety of a language, such as AAVE. What are three concerns parents often express in this regard?
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Tom’s social network is dense because his friends and relations regularly interact with one another, as well as with him. It is also multiplex because he interacts with the same people in a variety of settings (work, pub, neighbor).
*Daily Double*
See Ethnicity and Social Networks - 600 |
1) Geographical isolation from outside influence
2) Community with strong political and cultural ties 3) A way of life highly based on kinship, friendship, and social interaction
Iceland is a well-known example of linguistic conservatism. There is not much dialectical difference between Icelandic communities, and the language has not changed much over the years. What are three reasons for such a lack of linguistic change?
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1) Increase of high frequency words
2) Fewer contractions 3) Use of nouns instead of pronouns 4) Shorter sentences, simpler grammar 5) Use of tag questions 6) Repetition
‘Foreigner talk’ and adult speech to young children tend to be similar in a number of ways. Name four characteristics that are often shared between the two.
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1) Renee interrupts Clara, talking over the last few words in her sentence.
2) Renee puts extra emphasis and volume on the word ‘you’. 3) Clara raises her eyebrows and puts emphasis on the word ‘trying’.
See Analyzing Discourse - 600
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Familiarity with 'display what you know' type questioning
Familiarity with the variety of language used in school Less knowledge of the vocabulary used in school Lack of identification with school values Differences in norms for social interactions
Although of comparable intelligence, working-class children tend to have a higher failure rate than their middle-class peers. What are three reasons that might account for this?
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