Age

Age - Jenny Cheshire

Jenny Cheshire looked at 11 non-standard forms used by children against their adherence to the law on the playground at a school in Reading.

Examples of non-standard forms

These features included:
- Multiple negation (double negatives – using more than one negative in a sentence).
- Non-standard use of ‘what’ (e.g. ‘is this the book what we are learning about?') and 'ain’t’ being used as a copular verb (‘you ain’t the teacher’).

Research findings

All children that approved of criminal activities within their peer group were more likely to use non-standard forms.
More boys than girls approved.
- This means we can deduce that non-standard variations are conscious choices in language.

Research findings (cont.)

There is a clear prestige around standard and non-standard forms.
Those who abide by the law clearly gain their prestige in an overt way from behaving.
The covert prestige of using the non-standard forms fits in with the breaking of laws – these children rebel against the rules in the same way they rebel against the social norms.

Emma Moore’s 2010 research into social groups at a school in Bolton looked at the non-standard use of ‘were’ in sentences like ‘it was in maths, weren’t it?’. Her research looks at four groups:

The Eden Valley Girls

These were girls who came from very well-off backgrounds. They were focussed on school but engaged in activities like shopping too.
They used the standard form (‘was’) almost all of the time. This has been put down to them having a higher social class. They also lived geographically distant to the other girls, so maintaining a friendship with other girls was harder.

The Populars

These were girls who were not focussed on school. They engaged in activities which were rebellious like drinking and smoking.
The group did not always use the non-standard form. But three girls were members of a higher social class – these girls did not use the non-standard form at all.

The Townies

This group were a breakaway group from the Populars. They were more rebellious and often engaged in activities like drugs and sex.
These girls often made use of the non-standard form. They were a mix of upper-working-class and lower-middle-class girls in the group. But they did have working-class boys in their social group.

The Geeks

These girls were school focussed on school. They engaged in activities in school like the choir.
Generally speaking, the geeks disliked the use of the non-standard.
But the four that did use the non-standard were all from a lower social class.

Age - Penelope Eckert

Penelope Eckert researched vowel sounds in Detroit (the /e/ and the /ʌ/ sounds, so that the word ‘flesh’ would sound like ‘flush’) and also negative concord (this is the same as multiple negation).

Jocks and Burnouts

She defines two key groups – the Jocks and the Burnouts.
- The Jocks are school-centred and engaged in school-sphered activities.
- The Burnouts were the opposite of this – concentrating on gaining a job in the local workforce. They engaged in activities in the neighbourhood area.
N.B. American films like ‘High School Musical’ may have you thinking that the athletic/sporty males are jocks – this is not the case in this study!

Research findings

The Jocks used a significantly higher proportion of the standard form. Their vowels were conservative and their grammatical constructions were practically all standard (no negative concord).
The Burnouts were focussed on the local surroundings and so used the Detroit vowels more severely. They also used significantly more negative concord.

Research findings (cont.)

Only one Jock girl used negative concord.
Considerably more Jock boys used negative concord.
There was practically no difference between the Burnout girls and Burnout boys' use of negative concord.

Theory of age

Eckert also believes there are three main types of age:
- Chronological – the physical time someone has been alive.
- Biological – the maturity of the body.
- Social – the way someone is developed in society.

1Language Levels

1.1Assessment Objectives

1.1.1Assessment Objectives

1.2Lexis

1.2.1Introduction

1.2.2Common, Proper, Abstract & Concrete Nouns

1.2.3Collective Nouns

1.2.4Adjectives

1.2.5Main, Auxiliary & Copular Verbs

1.2.6Dynamic & Stative Verbs

1.2.7Transitive, Intransitive, Active & Passive Verbs

1.2.8Mood of Verbs

1.2.9Adverbs

1.2.10Personal, Possessive & Reflexive Pronouns

1.2.11Relative & Demonstrative Pronouns

1.2.12Determiners

1.2.13Conjunctions

1.2.14Synonyms, Antonyms & Phonological Features

1.2.15End of Topic Test - Lexis

1.3Grammar

1.3.1Morphology

1.3.2Clauses

1.3.3Phrases

1.3.4Present Tense

1.3.5Past Tense

1.3.6Future Tense

1.3.7End of Topic Test - Grammar

1.4Semantics & Pragmatics

1.4.1Semantics

1.4.2Pragmatics

1.5Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography

1.5.1Discourse Structure

1.5.2Graphology & Orthography

1.5.3End of Topic Test - Semantics, Graphology etc.

2Language, The Individual & Society

2.1Children’s Language Development

2.1.1The Exam

2.1.2Phonemes, Vocal Tract & Articulation

2.1.3Writing About Phonemes

2.1.4Phonological Simplification

2.1.5A Child's First Year & Consonant Acquisition

2.1.6Beginning Stages of Language

2.1.7Lexical Development

2.1.8Stages of Development

2.1.9End of Topic Test - Child Language Development

2.2Children's Language Development - Theories

2.2.1Behaviourism

2.2.2Interactionism

2.2.3Challenging Interactionism

2.2.4Nativism

2.2.5Nativism - Exam Answer

2.2.6Cognitivism

2.2.7Social Constructionism

2.2.8Writing About Spoken Acquisition

2.2.9End of Topic Test - Development Theories

2.3Literacy Development: Reading

2.3.1Introduction

2.3.2Phonics vs Whole Word

2.3.3Debates in Reading

2.3.4Modelling Reading Acquisition

2.3.5Other Reading Theories

2.3.6End of Topic Test - Reading

2.4Literacy Development: Writing

2.4.1Orthography

2.4.2Kroll's Theory

2.4.3Barclay's Theory

2.4.4Creativity vs Accuracy

2.4.5Other Writing Theories

2.4.6The Exam

2.4.7End of Topic Test - Writing

3Language Diversity & Change

3.1The Importance of Gendered Language

3.1.1Writing About Gender

3.1.2Dominance Theory

3.1.3Interruptions - Zimmerman & West

3.1.4Deficit Theory

3.1.5Difference Model

3.1.6Difference Model - Men

3.1.7Diversity Model

3.1.8End of Topic Test - Gendered Language

3.2Social Groups

3.2.1Writing About Social Groups

3.2.2Social Class

3.2.3Social Class 2

3.2.4Age

3.2.5Age - Teen Speak

3.2.6Milroy’s Belfast Study

3.2.7Labov’s Martha’s Vineyard Study

3.2.8End of Topic Test - Social Groups

3.3Occupational Groups

3.3.1Writing About Occupational Groups

3.3.2Jargon

3.3.3Conversations

3.3.4Hierarchy & Power

3.3.5End of Topic Test - Occupational Groups

3.4Accents & Dialects

3.4.1Writing About Accent & Dialect

3.4.2Introduction to Accents & Dialects

3.4.3Accents - Matched Guide Experiment

3.4.4Accents - Received Pronunciation & Brummie

3.4.5Dialects - Dialectal Variations

3.4.6Accent & Dialect Case Study - London

3.4.7End of Topic Test - Accents & Dialects

3.5Language Change

3.5.1Writing About Language Change

3.5.2Modelling Change

3.5.3Modelling Change 2

3.5.4Lexical Change

3.5.5Semantic Change

3.5.6End of Topic Test - Language Change

3.6History of English

3.6.1Old English

3.6.2Old English 2

3.6.3Middle English

3.6.4Middle English 2

3.6.5Early Modern English

3.6.6Late Modern English

3.6.7Present Day English

3.6.8Global English

3.6.9American English

3.6.10Modelling Global English

3.6.11End of Topic Test - History of English

Jump to other topics