3.2.2

Social Class

Test yourself

Social Class - Peter Trudgill

Social class is often looked at in relation to language, and this is often to do with the way that people pronounce certain sounds, and so has a strong grounding in your work in accent.

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Peter Trudgill (1974)

  • Peter Trudgill's (1974) Norwich study looked at the pronunciation of the words ‘walking’ and ‘talking’. Trudgill was looking for the non-standard forms walkin’ and talkin’ (this is called ‘g-dropping’ or a ‘g-drop’).
  • He also looked at the use of the ‘-s’ in verbs, like ‘he goes to school’ and the non-standard ‘he go to school’.
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Research aim

  • The research’s aim was to see if there was a correlation between class, gender and the use of the non-standard forms.
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Research method

  • He asked participates to state how often they used standard and non-standard forms. He found that:
    • Women of all classes over-reported the number of standard forms they used which showed that they cared about the overt prestige.
    • Men over-reported their use of non-standard forms, showing the covert prestige they desire.
    • Women used more standard forms than men in a direct class-for-class comparison.
    • The higher the class, the more use of standard forms.
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Research conclusion

  • The research concludes that class is more of a determiner than gender.

Social Class - Petyt's Bradford Study

Social class is often looked at in relation to language, and this is often to do with the way that people pronounce certain sounds, and so has a strong grounding in your work in accent.

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Petyt (1985)

  • Petyt (1985) looked at aitch-dropping (losing the ‘h’ in words like ‘horse’ and ‘hold’) and the RP /ʌ / (‘u’) sound in words like good and the / ʊ / (‘uh’) sound in words like ‘put’ in the city of Bradford.
  • He found that:
    • The lower the social class, the more likely the speaker was to drop the aitch.
    • The socially aspirational speakers incorrectly used the sounds in words like cushion pronouncing it with the / ʊ / sound instead of the / ʌ / sound.

Jump to other topics

1Language Levels

2Language, The Individual & Society

3Language Diversity & Change

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