Age

Q: 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.

Q: Age - Emma Moore

__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:

Q: 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).

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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.

Age - Emma Moore

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.