Attitudes to Accents Links

http://www.aston.ac.uk/research/research-impact/case-studies/you-are-what-you-speak/

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/14/do-accent-matter-modern-britain

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/02/britain-accent-sound-foreign-snobs

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9052562/Neutral-accents-the-best-if-you-want-to-get-ahead.html

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/may/13/birmingham-bristol-accents-advertising-government

References

Butler (1999) - Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis (p.25) (featured), Gender Trouble (1990)

Hall (1995) - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Caldas-Coulthard (1996) - Text and Practices

Machin and Van Leeuwen (2004) - Global Media: Generic Homogeneity and Discursive Diversity

Benwell - The Handbook of Language, Gender and Masculinity

Johnson and Meinhof (1997) - Language and Masculinity

Fishman (1990) - Conversational Insecurities

Coates - Gossip

Zimmerman and West and Beattie - Interruptions

Tannen - Male and Female Differences

O'Barr and Atkins (1980) - Social Status

Lakoff (1975) - Hedgers and Fillers

Cheshire (1982) - Grammar Conformity

Trudgill (1983/1979) - RP

RP

Trudgill (1983)

In 1974, he investigated the use of the -ng at the end of words, and found that the lower class you were, the less likely you were to use the -ng, preferring -n', and concluded that it wasn't unique to Norwich, and extended to the whole English speaking world.

Found:

1. In all social classes, the more careful the speech, the more likely people were to say walking rather than walkin'.
2. The proportion of walkin' type forms was higher in lower social classes.
3. The nonstandard -in' forms occurred much more often in men's speech than in women's, and this was true for all social classes.
4. 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 really did.
5. When men were questioned about what they thought they were saying, they tended to say they used the nonstandard -in' forms more often than they really did.

He found that the use of -ing in Norwich were as follows:

	Male	Female
middle middle class	96	100
lower middle class	73	97
upper working class	19	32
middle working class	9	19
lower working class	0	3

as So men used informal language more often than women in every scenario. And in addition, women thought they were using the -ing more than they really did, and men thought they used -ng more tan they really did.

Grammar

Cheshire (1982)

Observed groups of boys and girls in Reading, investigating the relationship between grammatical variables and adherence to peer group culture. Recorded the frequency that they used each of 11 variables:

1. non-standard -s	They calls me all the names under the sun
2. non-standard has	You just has to do what the teachers tell you.
3. non-standard was	You was with me, wasn't you?
4. negative concord	It ain't got no pedigree or nothing.
5. non-standard never	I never went to school today.
6. non-standard what	Are you the little bastards what hit my son over the head?
7. non-standard do	She cadges, she do.
8. non-standard come	I come down here yesterday.
9. ain't = auxiliary have	I ain't seen my Nan for nearly seven years.
10. ain't = auxiliary be	Course I ain't going to the Avenue.
11. ain't = copula	You ain't no boss.

Found that those who conformed to the conventions of a social group used the linguistic standards of the group - people change their grammar to fit in.

Hedgers, Fillers etc

Lakoff (1975)

Published the book Language and Woman's Place, and in a related article, Woman's Language, she listed a set of basic assumptions about what marks out the language of women:

Hedge: using phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”,and so on.

Use (super)polite forms: “Would you mind...”,“I'd appreciate it if...”, “...if you don't mind”. 

Use tag questions: “You're going to dinner, aren't you?” 

Speak in italics: intonational emphasis equal to underlining words - so, very, quite. 

Use empty adjectives: divine, lovely, adorable, and so on 

Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation: English prestige grammar and clear enunciation.

Use direct quotation: men paraphrase more often.

Have a special lexicon: women use more words for things like colours, men for sports. 

Use question intonation in declarative statements: women make declarative statements into questions by raising the pitch of their voice at the end of a statement, expressing uncertainty. For example, “What school do you attend? Eton College?”

Use “wh-” imperatives: (such as, “Why don't you open the door?”)

Speak less frequently

Overuse qualifiers: (for example, “I Think that...”)

Apologise more: (for instance, “I'm sorry, but I think that...”)

Use modal constructions: (such as can, would, should, ought - “Should we turn up the heat?”)

Avoid coarse language or expletives

Use indirect commands and requests: (for example, “My, isn't it cold in here?” - really a request to turn the heat on or close a window)

Use more intensifiers: especially so and very (for instance, “I am so glad you came!”)

Lack a sense of humour: women do not tell jokes well and often don't understand the punch line of jokes.

So overall, women take longer to get to the point than men, and prefer to offer rather than tell, and generally be more polite than men.

Social Status

O'Barr and Atkins (1980)

Their findings looking at courtroom cases and witness' speech challenges Lakoff's theory of women language. Analysed the 10 basic speech differences between men and women's language from Lakoff's theory and found 'powerless language', showed that language differences are based on situation-specific authority or power and not gender.

Said: “neither characteristic of all women nor limited only to women", as women who used least women's lanaguage were in positions of  "unusualy high status" (according to researchers) - well educated middle class backgrounds. The researchers also found that there was a "corresponding pattern" for men who had the lowest frequency of women's language traits . O'Barr and Atkins tried to stress that a powerful position "may derive from either social standing in the larger society and/or status accorded by the court". So there were a number of power-related reasons why people used powerful/less language.

Male and Female Differences

Tannen (1990)

You Just Don't Understand, her book, shows male vs female language in six contrasts:

Status vs. Support

For men, conversation is competitive - seek to achieve the upper hand to prevent them being dominated. For women, talking is to gain confirmation and support for their ideas. Men sees world as a place where people try to get and keep status, while women see it as a network of connections seeking support and consensus.

Independence vs. Intimacy

Tannen said:Women often think in terms of closeness and support, and struggle to preserve intimacy. Men, concerned with status, tend to focus more on independence. These traits can lead women and men to starkly different views of the same situation. Professor Tannen gives the example of a woman who would check with her husband before inviting a guest to stay - because she likes telling friends that she has to check with him. The man, meanwhile, invites a friend without asking his wife first, because to tell the friend he must check amounts to a loss of status. (Often, of course, the relationship is such that an annoyed wife will rebuke him later). 

Advice vs. Understanding

Tannen said:

“When my mother tells my father she doesn't feel well, he invariably offers to take her to the doctor. Invariably, she is disappointed with his reaction. Like many men, he is focused on what he can do, whereas she wants sympathy.”

So many men see a complaint as a solution for them to solve.

Information vs. Feelings

Anecdotal evidence from Tannen showed that the length of phone calls reflects different gender's priority when communicating:

A young man makes a brief phone call. His mother overhears it as a series of grunts. Later she asks him about it - it emerges that he has arranged to go to a specific place, where he will play football with various people and he has to take the ball. A young woman makes a phone call - it lasts half an hour or more. The mother asks about it - it emerges that she has been talking “you know” “about stuff”. The conversation has been mostly grooming-talk and comment on feelings.

Showing that while men's opinions used to be considered more important, it is no longer the case, and the giving of info and brevity of speech are considered of less value than sharing emotions or elaboration.

Orders vs. Proposals

Women often suggest in indirect ways - 'lets, why don't we?' etc, while men use and prefer to hear direct imperatives.

Conflict vs. Compromise

Tannen wrote: In trying to prevent fights, some women refuse to oppose the will of others openly. But sometimes it's far more effective for a woman to assert herself, even at the risk of conflict. 

For example a management situation, where a change would prompt men to complain vocally, while women would say nothing but complain afterwards.

Often considered generalisations - there are many exceptions to these rules.