Language and Self-identity
What is self-identity comprised of?
Gender, national and tribal/regional identity, identity within a religious/family/school/work group
What is politeness principle and who proposed it?
Robin Lakoff (1975) identified the ‘politeness principle’ in women’s conversation stating that women use politeness strategies more frequently, such as ‘please’ and ‘thanks’.
CAT (Communication Accommodation Theory) - Howard Giles (1973): We don’t like to appear different to those around us, therefore, we “accommodate” our language (convergence - use of language in a similar way to others in the group; divergence - use of language in a different way to others in the group)
Where did Labov conduct his study, what did he observe and what conclusion did he come up with?
Studied the presence of the consonant /r/ in New Yorkers’ speech; the rhotic /r/ (/r/ pronounced in all positions, just like in the present-day US) was considered prestigious at the time.
Those with higher socioeconomic status pronounced /r/ more frequently than those with lower socioeconomic status. Working and lower middle class accommodated their speech when asked to repeat themselves (they pronounced the /r/ the second time around)
Who proposed the idea that thinking occurs in a mental language (The language of thought hypothesis - LOTH)?
Jerry Fodor
What is Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
A hierarchy of needs which is used to explain human motivation. This theory which puts forward that people are motivated by five basic categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.
What are some of the common stereotypes regarding male and female language?
Women are passive listeners whose lightweight discourse is described as ‘gossip’; men have been thought to deal with more weighty and serious matters in debate and discussion. Men are seen to interrupt and to ‘hold the conversational floor’ more than women.
What is linguistic prestige? Explain the two types of linguistic prestige.
In sociolinguistics, the concept of prestige concerns the degree of respect that a variety of language has. Overt prestige is the prestige assigned to forms of language that are widely considered "correct." Covert prestige is when a positive value is assigned to a variety of language that is within a specific group.
Where did Trudgill conduct his study, what did he observe and what conclusion did he come up with?
Norwich, UK Study;
Two of the key variables Trudgill looked at were:
Subject-verb agreement with the third-person singular e.g. 'she say' compared to 'she says'.
The pronunciation of the -ing ending of words e.g. 'walkin' compared to 'walking'. Lower classes dropped the /g/ more frequently (walkin’, talkin’, drinkin’). “Norwich -g” became a marker of social class.
What is the Euphemism Treadmill and who proposed it?
The Euphemism Treadmill is a concept coined by Steven Pinker. The concept explains how words that are used to replace offensive terms over time become offensive themselves. Pinker's Euphemism Treadmill serves as a prediction of possible offensive terms in the future.
What is: 1 idiolect; 2 sociolect?
1 Individual speech pattern (idiolect) - a specific way a person speaks which includes vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar... 2 Form of language in an individual geographical area or social group (sociolect) - shared vocabulary, speech patterns, communication styles.
What is the Genderlect Theory and who are its representatives?
Deborah Tannen (1990s): women and men use language differently, which can cause miscommunication, disagreements, and conflict.
What are the three theories on language and thought?
Linguistic determinism - language determines the way we think.
Linguistic relativity (weaker version of linguistic determinism) - people who speak different languages perceive the world differently from one another.
Linguistic reflectionism - language reflects our thoughts (racist terms exist because some people have racist attitudes); it influences people’s views of their world but does not determine it.
Where did Milroy conduct her study, what did she observe and what conclusion did she come up with?
Belfast, Northern Ireland. Some of the key linguistic variables Milroy observed in the study include: phonological variable (th) as in 'mother'; phonological variable (a) as in 'hat'.
Milroy's study showed that people used more non-standard forms when they came from lower social classes.
When comparing men's and women's language use across the study, Milroy also observed that men used more vernacular and non-standard forms than women did.
What is the Social Identity Theory and who proposed it? What two groups are detected in this theory?
Henri Tajfel (1979) proposed that individuals tend to group things based on certain criteria - This is a common cognitive process that is called stereotyping. When engaging in stereotyping, individuals tend to overemphasise the differences between groups and the similarities within a group.
This way, the theory detects two groups: the in-group (us) and the out-group (them)
What is the Cooperative Principle and who proposed it?
Paul Grice (1970s): the assumption that participants in a conversation usually attempt to be truthful, informative, relevant, and clear in order to facilitate successful communication
What is the Standpoint Theory and who are its representatives?
Harding and Wood: this theory suggests that, in most societies, women’s lives and experiences are significantly different from those of men and so women have a different type of knowledge, which may not be given equal status to that of men.
What is the difference between the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the Boas-Jakobson principle?
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (1929): The words and grammar of a language influence the way the speakers of that language think. Sapir and Whorf thought that language acted like a prison, restricting the speakers’ abilities to reason and understand.
The Boas-Jakobson principle (late 1950s): In theory, every thought can be expressed in every language but languages differ in the types of information they require speakers to mention when they use the language.
What is the difference between open and closed networks (Milroy's study)?
Closed network: Often referred to as being high-density, meaning the closer the contacts within a network, the more power the group will have over language use; Language is less varied.
Open Network: Tend to be lower density and have weaker links, meaning the contacts within the network have much less influence over each other's language use and tend to be under less pressure to conform to a group; language is more varied; language change occurs due to the language variations which are spread between weak ties.
What are Lera Boroditsky's idea on language and though?
Boroditsky suggests a reciprocal relationship between language and thought, implying that just as language can shape thoughts, our cognitive processes and inherent personality traits can also influence our language use. Boroditsky's work on linguistic relativity implies that different languages can foster different cognitive skills and, by extension, personality traits.
What is the Theory of Conversational Face and who initiated it? What are face-threatening acts and what are strategies to deal with them?
Each speaker’s sense of his or her own linguistic image and worth: positive face - the desire for approval/admiration; negative face - the desire for autonomy. Theory was initiated by Erving Goffman.
Face-threatening acts: every conversation could threaten, this sense of face - the effect is to make speakers feel intimidated, ignored or ridiculed rather than supported and included. Positive politeness strategies are intended to avoid giving offense by highlighting friendliness. Positive politeness includes juxtaposing criticism with compliments, establishing common ground, and using jokes, nicknames, honorifics, tag questions, special discourse markers (please), and in-group jargon and slang.
What is the Muted Group Theory and who are its representatives?
Cheris Kramarae: this theory suggests that certain minorities in a society have much less power than others and, as a consequence of this lack of power, they are silenced as no one wishes to listen to them. In many societies, women are dominated by male status and power.
What are the four theories of language and self identity and who are their representatives?
Empiricism: A theory which also states that our sense of self-identity and our knowledge of language come through our senses and experiences, and not through any reasoning or logical argument. John Locke who argued that the mind at birth was a ‘blank slate’.
Behaviourism: stated that the development of the mind, and also language, sprang directly from the child’s observation and imitation of those in the world around them. All thoughts and emotions are explained in terms of encouraging desired behaviour.
Innatism: the idea that there is something special about the human brain which enables it to master the complexities of language. Plato and Descartes.
Nativism - the individual is born with genetic abilities which include the development of language. Noam Chomsky has been the leading proponent of the view that the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) enables the initial development of language.
Where did Penelope Eckert conduct her study, what did she observe and what conclusion did she come up with?
The study revolves around the examination of two distinct social groups in a typical American high school: the 'Jocks' and the 'Burnouts'. Eckert saw a difference in vowel variation amongst the teenagers. Eckert found that language differences were more closely linked to communities of practice rather than to specific social differences. Regardless of someone’s background, they were more likely to speak like someone who shared an interest or activity with them than with someone who didn’t.
What is anti-language and who coined the term? Give one example.
A minority language used by a small specific group which actively excludes the wider society (also called secret languages or cants). The term anti-language was coined by Halliday.
Polari is considered a 'secret' language that took vocabulary from multiple different places (e.g., Italian) and strategies so that gay men could talk about their lives without fear of prosecution.