Non-rhotic accents include most varieties of British English, Welsh English, New Zealand English, Australian English, South African English, Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Standard Malaysian English and Singaporean English.
In non-rhotic varieties, speakers no longer pronounce /r/ in postvocalic environmentsโthat is, when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. For example, in isolation, a rhotic English speaker pronounces the words hard and butter as /หhษหrd/ and /หbสtษr/, whereas a non-rhotic speaker "drops" or "deletes" the /r/ sound, pronouncing them as /หhษหd/ and /หbสtษ/. When an r is at the end of a word but the next word begins with a vowel, as in the phrase "better apples", most non-rhotic speakers will pronounce the /r/ in that position (the linking R), since it is followed by a vowel in this case.
Michael Halliday (1978) proposed that there are 7 stages or functions of a child's speech. These are as follows:
Instrumental function -ย language that isย used toย fulfil a need, such as to obtain food, drink orย comfort. This typically includes concreteย nouns.
Regulatory function -ย language that is used to influence the behaviour of others including persuading, commanding or requesting.ย
Interactional function -ย languageย that is used to develop relationships and ease interaction. This could include phrases like "I love you mummy" or "Thank you".ย
Personal function -ย language thatย expresses personal opinions, attitudes and feelings including a speaker's identity.ย
Representational/Informativeย function-ย language that is used toย relayย orย request information.
Heuristic function -ย language that is used toย explore,ย learnย andย discover. This could include questions or a running commentary of a child's actions.ย
Imaginative function -ย the use of language toย tell storiesย andย create imaginary constructs. This typically accompanies play or leisure activities.ย
Robin Lakoff in 'Language and Woman's Place' presented a deficit approach to the study of gender by arguing that women's language is weaker than men's. She argues that this is a reflection of their weaker position in society and that socialisation plays an important role in its construction. Lakoff proposed a precise set of features which characterise women's weaker speech style, some of which are listed below:
Hedging: the use of phrases such as 'sort of', 'kind of', 'it seems like' etc
Overuse of qualifiers: opinion phrases like 'I think that'
Empty adjectives: the use of adjectives such as 'divine', 'lovely', 'nice', 'adorable' etc
Intensifiers: the use of words such as 'really' and 'so'
Polite forms: the use of words and phrases like 'woukd you mind?', 'I would appreciate it if...', 'if you don't mind...'
Modal constructions: words such as 'can', 'would', 'should', 'ought' etc
Indirect commands and requests: 'isn't it cold in here?' instead of directly asking for the window to be closed
Wh-imperatives (disguised imperatives): an order beginning with a question i.e: 'why don't you open the door?'
Tag questions: ending the phrase used with a question to push for a reply such as 'you're going to dinner, aren't you?'
Special lexicon: women use more words for things like colours,and men use more words for things like sports
Hyper-correct grammar / pronunciation: English prestige grammar and clear enunciation
Speak in italics: intonational emphasis equal to underlining words such as 'so', 'very', 'quite'
Questioning intonation in declaratives: women make devlarative statements into questions by raising the pitch of their voices at the end of a statement, expressing uncertainty
According to Lakoff, women also have the tendency to:
avoid coarse language: they don't swear as much as men
use direct quotations: verbal receipts basically
apologise more: similar to the use of polite forms
Dialect levelling is a form of standardisation whereby local variations of speech lose their distinctive, regional features in favour of a more urban or mainstream dialect. This means that the speech forms of different parts of the country are becoming more similar over time and this results in a reduction of language diversity.ย There are several factors involvedย in dialect levelling:
Geographical mobility results in greater dialect contact between commuters.
Social mobility and consequent breakdown of tight knit working class communities.
Increased interaction with people of other speech varieties.
Children are less likely to adopt their parentsโ pronunciation as they come under peer pressure to conform to the linguistic norm of the group. Adolescents take on a vital role in language change.
Economic change lead to loss of rural employment and construction of suburbs and new towns.
World Wars meant a change in roles within society especially WWII when women went out to work and soldiers mixed with a wide range of geographical and social backgrounds which may never have previously clashed.
Traditional Dialect Features:
ย North/Midlands - โthaโ for โyouโ, โhissenโ for โhimselfโ, โI isโ or โI areโ for โI amโ, โreetโ for โrightโ
ย Southwest - โherโ for โsheโ, โI beโ for โI amโ, 'ummanโ for โwomanโ
ย
Modern Dialect Features:
Multiple negation โI donโt want noneโ
Use of โainโtโ for negative auxiliaries
Use of โthemโ as a demonstrative adjective โLook at them big spidersโ
Use of glottal stops for /t/ at the end and in middle of words โbu/?/erโ โle/?/ meโ
Replacement of /th/ sounds by /f/ or /v/ so โthinโ becomes โfinโ and โbrotherโ becomes โbruvverโ
ย
Order of Spread of Levelling
London and surrounding area
Southeast
Central England โ Midlands, East Anglia
ย Northern England
ย Northeast England and Scotland
The outcome of levelling is a convergence of accents and dialects towards each other. In some cases, this leads to southern features being adopted in the whole country contributing to the spread of Estuary English as a nationwide dialect.
Kerswill investigated the changes in dialect in Milton Keynes, Reading and Hull by interviewing local residents of different ages and studying their pronunciation of certain speech sounds. He generally used children of the ages 4, 8 and 12 (equally divided by sex) and one caregiver, usually the mother.
ย The recordings were from either specific tasks given to the children such as quizzesย or spot the difference games or spontaneous speech obtained by interviews or playground recordings. The childrenโs caregivers were also interviewed.
ย Milton Keynes and Reading are both viewed as towns where social and geographical mobility is high as there are plenty of newcomers from all social classes expanding the economy of the areas. However, as Reading is a more established town the population is more stable and local they do not rely on commuters as much.ย
Hull is geographically more isolated and more economically depressed than the other two towns; cut off from the south by the River Humber and remote from other large metropolises, the town is less attractive to commuters. Social networks are closed as the city is largely working class while surrounding villages are middle class so working/middle class children attend different schools and teenagers living on the estate studied were often third generation locals.
ย
ย Milton Keynes:
Older residents used vowel sounds typical of the traditional, local accent, newcomers (e.g. parents) spoke with a variety of regional accents, while children spoke like their parents/carers for the firstย 4 years (ย school age โ one child sounded Scottish at 4 yrs but had changed to local accent by 5 ยฝ yrs. before changing to a new Milton Keynes accent) which had developed into Estuary English (watered down cockney with some vowels closer to received pronunciation) and were typical of south-eastern speech.
Reading:
Gradual change as children were influenced by their local born-parents and grandparents. Some change was apparent with older residents pronouncing the post- vowel /r/ sound in โstartโ and โnurseโ and young speakers replacing /t/ with a glottal stop /?/.
Hull:
Young speakers retained the northern accent of their older relatives, notable in vowel sounds such as /u/ in โbutโ. They differed again in the use of glottalling and /th/ fronting in words like โthinkโ and โbrotherโ.
North/South Levelling:
Kerswill identified a gradual move among adolescent, Southern speakers towards the more standardised, less localised variations of speech. However, in Hull, the closed social networks encourage the continuation of traditional pronunciations, for example, dropping the /h/ was widespread in both old and young residents of Hull but far less so in Reading and Milton Keynes.
He suggests an economic factor โ the prosperity of southern towns makes social mobility and achievable goal for young people, however, the high levels of unemployment in northern towns such as Hull makes children unconvinced of the value of education as a passport to social mobility and therefore reject the pressure from authoritarian systems such as the educational one to modify their accents. Why the /th/ fronting and glottalling in Hull then, as this is common in Reading and Milton Keynes as well.
Kerswill says that these linguistic variations are associated with youth culture rather than social class as they are spread though the media and celebrity culture popular with adolescents. Hull teenagers can signify their allegiance to their region and class by maintaining the traditional northern accent as well as identifying themselves with their peer groupย by adopting new phonemes popular with youth culture which may still be working class but not traditionally northern.
Norwich speech was studied by Peter Trudgill in the 1970s to find out how and why people's ways of speaking varied. One of the variables Trudgill studied was the final consonant in words like 'walking' and 'running'. In standard British English, the sound speeled '-ng' is a velar nasal. In Norwich, however, the pronunciation 'walkin' and 'talkin' is more frequently heard, as though there was simply 'n' on the end.
Trudgill notes that this feature is not unique to Norwich: "nearly everywhere in the English speaking world we find alternation between higher-class (formal -ng) and lower-class (informal -n) "
Trudgil's study discovered the following:
In all social classes, the more careful the speech, the more likely people were to say walking rather than walkin'.
The proportion of walkin' type forms was higher in lower social classes.
The nonstandard -in forms occurred much more often in men's speech than in women's, and this was true for all social classes.
When women were questioned about what they thought they were saying, they tended to say they used the standard -ing forms more often than they actually did.
When men were questioned about what they thought they were saying, they tended to say they used the standard -in forms more often than they actually did.
Trudgill's figures for social class and sex differences in the use of standard, prestige -ing form in Norwich when people used a formal style of speaking arecas follows:
(-ng) in Norwich by social class and sex for Formal Style (Trudgill 1974a)
In linguistics, accommodation is the process by which participants in a conversation adjust their accent, diction or other aspects of language according to the speech style of the other participants. This is also known as linguistic accommodation, speech accommodation and communication accommodation.
Accommodation most often takes the form of convergence, when a speaker chooses a language variety that seems to fit the style of the other speaker. Less frequently, accommodation may take the form of divergence, when a speaker signals social distance or disapproval by using a language variety that differs from the style of the other speaker.
The basis for what was to become known as Speech Accommodation Theory (SAT) or Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) first appeared in 'Accent Mobility: A Model and Some Data' by Howard Giles (Anthropological Linguistics, 1973)
Examples of Speech and Communication Accommodation Observations can be seen below:
Accent and Accent Prejudice
Adaption
Appropriateness (Communication)
Communication
Contact Linguistics
Dialect and Dialect Leveling
Idiolect
Koineization
Pronunciation
Sociolinguistics
Style-shifting
Word Lengthening
Convergence and Divergence:
According to Howard Giles' accommodation theory, speakers may modify their speech in order to sound more like others they talk with to achieve greater social integration with them.
However, Giles' approach deals not only with convergence through accommodation, but also with divergence, where deliberate linguistic differences can be employed by a group as a symbolic act for asserting or maintaining their distinct identity.
Communication accommodation is a communication theory which emphasise the adjustments that people make while communicating. Howard Giles developed the theory which according to him is when people try to emphasise or minimise the social difference between the others whom they interact with.
The factors that lead to the accommodation activity are adjustments which can be through verbal communication or through gestures. The theory was evolved from speech adjustment theory, which demonstrates the value of psychological concepts to understand the dynamics of speech. But the theory encompasses more fields such as nonverbal and gestures.
A useful word to remember is 'INTERACTANT': refers the close relations between people and their communication.
Theory:
Communication Accommodation Theory elaborates the human tendency to adjust their behaviour whole interacting. The reason behind this behaviour is explained as to control the social differences between interactants. People accommodate their communication activities to get approval and to set a positive image in front of the interactant. The environment in which they are interacting also affects the communication behaviour.
There are two types of accommodation processes explained in this theory:
Convergence: the process in which people tend to adapt the other person's communication characteristics to reduce social differences (if I made you talk like me)
Divergence: the process that contradicts the method of adaption and in this context the individual emphasis is on the social difference and nonverbal differences between the interactants (we may speak as we like)
The two processes are usually dependant on the characteristics of the interactant. People accommodated their communication while interacting with a person who has higher standards and other characteristics which they believe is better than them. The divergent exhibits an opposite characteristic as it emphasises the difference among the close relations with each other. Communication Accommodation Theory is influenced by social psychology and is guided by four major assumptions:
Whole communicating there will be similarity and difference in the speech and behaviour. The characteristics that people exhibit are based on our experiences and the cultural backgrounds we grew up in.
A conversation is evaluated by understanding the perception of the speech and behaviour of the other. Through evaluation people decide to accommodate and fit in.
The social status and belonging is determined by language behaviours. While people communicate they tend to accommodate the behaviours of those who are of higher social status than them.
Norms guide the accommodation process which varies in the degree of appropriateness. Norms define the behaviours of people and they are expected to act accordingly.
Application:
The Communication Accommodation Theory is applicable in various communication processes. In an organisation the Communication Accommodation can be used to communicate effectively among the employees as long as they adapt while communicating to a senior employee.
Example:
Mike was a new employee in a certain organisation. While understanding about the environment, he came to know about his senior officer who apparently had interest in painting from his co-workers. When Mike got an opportunity to interact with him, he glorified the beauty of a painting the officer has displayed in his office which pleased the officer. In this situation, Mike accommodated his behaviour according to the situation and thus could create an impression on his senior officer.
The concept of Bernstein's restricted and elaborated codes is a way of accounting for the relatively poor performance of working-class pupils on language-based subjects when they were achieving as well as their middle-class counterparts on mathematical topics. Interestingly, it was stimulated directly by his experience of teaching in further education.
It is important to note that 'restricted code' does not refer to the use of restricted vocabulary, in the equal way that 'elaborated code' does not refer to the 'flowery' use of language.
One of Bernstein's research studies involved showing a group of children a comic strip and recording theor descriptions of the events occurring in it. Some said things like
While others said things like:
Bernstein points out that the first account makes good sense if you have the comic strip in front of you, but means little to nothing without it. This is an example of restricted code. The second account can 'stand on its own' and is an example of elaborated code, as it makes perfect sense without the comic strip.
The essence of the distinction is in what the language is suited for. The restricted code works better than elaborated code for situations wherein a great deal of shared and taken-for-granted knowledge is apparent between a group of speakers. It is economical and rich, conveying a vast amount of meaning with a few words, each of which has a complex set of connotations and acts like an index, pointing the hearer to a lot more information which remains unsaid.
Not only that, but because it draws on a store of shared meanings and background knowledge, a restricted code carries a social message of inclusion, of implicitly acknowledging that the person addressed is 'one of us'. It takes one form within a family or friendship group, and another with the use of occupational jargon within a work group. Its essential feature is that it works within,,and is tuned to, a restricted community. Everyone uses restricted code communication some of the time. It would be a very peculiar and cold family with did not have its own language.
One of the most common 'padding' expressions in English is 'you know' or even 'you know what I mean'. Indeed in restricted code usage, there is an expectation that others will need to know what you are 'getting at' from a few key words.
A major failing in badly-written novels, films and TV plays is the inability to strike the fune balance between expressing the restricted code of the characters, and spelling things out to the audience who do not 'know'. Getting it wrong makes things either incomprehensible or 'wooden'.
Elaborated code spells everything out; not because it is better, but because it is necessary so that everyone can understand it. It has to elaborate because the circumstances do not allow speakers to condense ('condensed' is noted to have potentially been a better label for 'restricted code')
Restricted (or condenced) code is therefore great for shared, established and static meanings (and values) but if you want to break out to say something new, particularly something which questions the received wisdom, you are going to have to use an elaborated code. Bernstein's research argued that working-class students had access to their restricted code (s) but middle-class students had access go both restricted and elaborated codes because the middle classes were more geographically, socially and culturally mobile.
Because schools and colleges are:
concerned with the introduction of new knowledge which goes beyond existing shared meanings
relatively anonymous institutions which may not share many taken-for-granted meanings in their formal structures (although quite a lot in their informal structures within the staff and student groups)
โ they need to use elaborated code. The bottom line is that if you can't handle elaborated code, you are not going to succeed in the educational system.
.
Here are some more examples of restricted and dlaborated code use:
โThe Difference Approachโ proposes an alternative perspective from the deficit and dominance approaches โ it argues that distinctions between men and women simply reflect different sub-cultures and attitudes to speech.
The Difference Approach as explored by Tannen is generally summarised into six categories, each of which contrasts the use of language by males and females.
The approach avoids โblamingโ men for being dominant and avoids suggesting that womenโs language is inferior.
Terms you should know!
Status Vs Support -ย men use language to show power and dominance in conversation. women are more likely to support and agree with others in the conversation.
Independence Vs Intimacyย - men will use language to show they do not rely on others. women would prefer to use language to maintain closeness with each other and connect with others.
Advice vs Understanding -ย men will offer solutions to a problem through their language. Women will show empathy and understanding to a given situation.
Information Vs Feelings -ย men are more likely to be factual in their speech than women. Women will use language that bis less factual and stem from a more emotional viewpoint.
Orders Vs Proposals -ย in conversation, men are more likely to be more direct in their language using imperatives to command others. Women are more likely to use more suggesting language in oppose to commanding e.g. man - 'close that window it is cold' (direct imperative), women - 'isn't it cold in here' (therefore suggesting she wants the window closed ย but uses an interrogative in oppose to a imperative).
Conflict Vs Compromise -ย ย Men are more likely to use language to argue a point. women are more likely to use language avoid such conflict and are far more likely to negotiate with others to try and find a solutions or compromise.
Tannen believed that females engage in rapport talk (a communication style that heavily focuses on building and maintaining relationships between 2 speakers) and men engage in report talk (a communication style focused on the transfer of information)
What is good about Tannenโs difference approach?
It's reliable as we can set up observations of conversations and look for the key characteristics of her gender talk
It's easy to see in everyday contexts.
How can this be criticised?
A very generalised viewpoint- it isnโt present in everybody as not everybodyโs language is the same.
May also be viewed as offensive.
The approach was made over 32 years ago- outdated as these features may not be the same in modern day.
Jenny Cheshireย used long-term participant observation to gain data about the relationship between use of grammatical variables and adherence to peer group culture by boys and girls in Reading. She gained acceptance from three groups (two of boys, one of girls) in two adventure playgrounds in Reading and recorded how often they used each of eleven variables:
For the girls she made a distinction between the girls who did not have positive attitudes to such group activities as carrying weapons, fighting, participation in minor criminal activities, preferred job, dress and hairstyle and use of swearing (Group A) and those who approved of these features and activities (Group B). She then set out how often the two groups used eight of the variables already defined.
These figures are as follows:
Similar findings when boys against boys and when boys against girls were compared, showed clearly that those who conformed to the conventions of the group also used the linguistic standards of the group - and that conforming boys conformed most of all.
In short, the language of the group was an integral part of the group.
William Labov was interested in phonological variation. He investigated the /au/ (ow) and /ai/ (eye) vowel sounds, in words such as mouse and mice, which in linguistic terms is called a diphthong.
Marthaโs Vineyard, a small island off the North east coast of America. At the time, the island had a population of approximately 5,800, however it is important to note that during the summer months this figure would swell as it was a popular holiday resort for up to 60,000 Americans.
What was his method?
Labov interviewed 69 people, each from different age, ethnic and social groups as to get a representative sample. Rather than getting his informants to read simple word lists, Labov used an interview technique to subtly encourage the participants to say the words containing the vowels which he wished to study. By using this research method Labov tried to avoid demand characteristics and make the conversation as natural as possible so that the participants didnโt necessarily know what Labov was looking forโฆ
What did he find out?
Labov found that the pronunciation of certain vowel sounds were subtly changing from the standard American pronunciations and noted that locals had a tendency to pronounce these diphthongs with a more central point, more like [ษu, ษi].
- Fishermen centraliseย /au/ and /ai/ more than any other occupational group
This was done subconsciously, in order to establish and identify themselves as Vineyarders, an independent social group rejecting the norms of mainland America which was bought over by the summer holiday makers.
- People of the age group 30- 60 tend to centraliseย diphthongs more than younger or olderย people
This was a move from the standard American norms emerged, particularly in the younger speakers of this bracket between the ages of 31-45, towards a pronunciation associated with the fishermen.
- Up-Islanders used the centralisedย diphthongs more than people living in the area of Down-Island
Down island (East) was much more densely populated and favoured by summer visitors, whilst Up island (West) had many more original inhabitants and was much more rural.
.
ย A big factor to consider when discussing the cause of these differences in pronunciations in Marthaโs Vineyard is largely down to theย attitudeย of its inhabitants;
ย The heaviest users of this type of centralised pronunciation of diphthongs were young men who sought to identify themselves as native Vineyarders, rejecting the values and speech style of the mainland.
The fishermen in particular also resented the influx of wealthy summer visitors and were antipathetic to their presence as they believed it infringed on their traditional way of island life. This, in turn, encouraged theย Vineyarders to establish a somewhat non-standard dialect and retain theirย social identity.
The tight knit community subconsciously ensured that they created a linguistic divide between them and us. The fishermen were seen to epitomise desirable values, which in turn caused other Vineyarders to adhere to a similar style of pronunciation.
For these Vineyarders, the new pronunciation was an innovation. As more and more people came to speak in the same way, the innovation gradually became the norm for those living on the island and was established as aย dialect.
Therefore, there seems to be enough evidence to state that generations, occupations, or social groups might be a big factor in language use as a sociolinguistic consideration.
Diphthong:ย Two vowel sounds occurring in the same syllable e.g cow (kah-oo), eye (ah-ee).
Centralised diphthong:ย Diphthongs articulated with the tongue body in the centre of the mouth.
Demand Characteristics:ย A demand characteristic is a subtle cue that makes participants aware of what the experimenter expects to find or how participants are expected to behave. Demand characteristics can change the outcome of an experiment because participants will often alter their behaviour to conform to the experimenters expectations.
Dialect:ย A variety of language distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar and vocabulary. A dialect is distinguished by its speakers, and their geographic and social whereabouts.
Phonological Change:ย Any sound change which alters the number or distribution of phonemes in a language over time.
Monothong: A vowel that has a single perceived auditory quality.
Glottal Stopping: Glottal stopping is the dropping the 'g' sound in words like 'runnin'.
TH Fronting: TH fronting is replacement of the 'phth' sound in words like 'think' wherein the 'phth' sound becomes more of a 'ff' i.e 'fink'.
