Notes on Social Class for AQA's latest English Language specification (A-level 7702)
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Language and Social Class
In order to gain your AO2 marks, you need to know key theories:
Malcolm Petyt
Studied the usage of common linguistic variables in Bradford
The omission of the initial /h/ in their speech (H-dropping) in words like 'hat' in which they
say
The upper MC rarely used H-dropping (12%)
The lower WC had a very frequent use of it (93%)
His conclusions supported Giles idea of upward convergence
Emma Moore (2010)
Studied patterns of variation in speech among teenage girls in Bolton
Found that non-standard ‘were’, as in ‘She were’, was common in their dialect
Suggests that some girls used it to signal their localness to their area
Reflects Labov’s Martha’s Vineyard study
Moore identified four “Communities of Practice” within the school:
The Populars Rebellious, anti-school, drinking/smoking
The Townies Drug talking, sexual activities
The Geeks Institutionally orientated
The Eden Valley Girls (EVG) Privileged, dancers/shoppers
Community of Practice
A group of people who share understandings, perspectives and forms of language use as a result of
meeting regularly over time
All girls were upper WC or lower MC
Found that EVG used standard ‘was’ all the time because of higher class
Other three groups had mixed classes, and non-standard ‘were’ could reflect social status
Concluded that although class was a factor, there was no single explanation for its use
, William Labov (1966)
Investigated social stratification of the pronunciation of the /r/ in New York 3 department
stores
(generally identified as working class, middle class and upper)
Found that the pronunciation of /r/ depended on the social-class membership of the
employees;
Those with higher socioeconomic status pronounced /r/ more frequently than those with
lower socioeconomic status
Basil Bernstein (1971)
Suggests there’s two types of language - restricted code and the elaborated code
He says that our social group determines which of these we use:
Restricted Code
Characterised by short, simple, sometimes incomplete sentences;
Limited use of adjectives and adverbs;
Use of idiom and reliance on implicit meaning
We all use this, but the WC tend only to be able to use it
Mid/Upper classes use this code when talking to friends and family
Elaborated Code
Characterised by more complex
Grammatically complete sentences;
A wide range of adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions and explicit meanings
This is used by the Mid/Upper classes, but not generally by the working classes
Claimed that the WC were disadvantaged as education uses a lot of elaborated code
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