Language and social class

ACCENT AND DIALECT

 Accent  Dialects
 Non-standard  Non-standard
pronunciation of a word  Pronunciation
 21 accents  Grammar
 Vocabulary
 Black American dialect

WHAT IS SOCIAL CLASS?

 Grouping people together
 Giving them status in society according to
the groups they belong to

WHAT IS SOCIAL CLASS?

 Accent or dialect?
 Where you live?
 Your occupation?
 Your income?
 How much money your family has?

WHAT DETERMINSES SOCIAL CLASS?

 Everyone gets
four cards
 Education
 Income
 Occupation
 Wealth

WHAT DETERMINES SOCIAL CLASS?

 Some people get
face cards and
land in the upper
middle class
 Others may only
get low cards and
be in the lowest
class

CLASSES IN THE U.S.
 Two upper classes
 Upper upper: Old money (George Bush)
 Lower upper: New money (Bill Gates)
 Two middle classes
 Upper middle: professional
 Lower middle: White collar and entrepreneurs
 Two lower class
 Upper lower: Blue collar (factory workers)
 Lower lower: Unemployed and homeless

THE AMERICAN DREAM

 Do Americans believe that they can move
from one class to another?
 40% of Americans believe that the possibility to
move up has increased.
 35% believe that there has been no change.
 23% believe that the possibility to move up has
decreased.

THE AMERICAN DREAM - REALITY

 One study found that fewer families moved
up the income ladder during the 1980s than
during the 1970s
 And even fewer moved up in the 1990s
 Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the
ability to move up declined from the 1980s to
the 1990s.

IDENTIFYING SOCIAL CLASS
 How you look
 How you dress
 What you eat
 What you like to do
 Where you live
 What your house looks like
 How you talk

HOW DOES SOCIAL CLASS AFFECT LANGUAGE?

 William Labov’s Department Store Study in New
York City
 Saks 5th Avenue – Upper class
 At 50th St. and 5th Ave., near the center of the high
fashion shopping district
 Macy’s – Middle class
 On Herald Square & at 34th St. and 6th Ave. near
garment district
 S. Klein – Lower class
 On Union Square at 14th and Broadway, not far from
the Lower East Side

DEPARTMENT STORE STUDY
 Location
 Number of advertisements in New York
newspapers
 Prices of women’s coats
 Saks: $90
 Macy’s: $80
 Klein’s: $23
 Size and layout of store


Interviewer: Excuse me, where are the
women’s shoes?
Salesperson: Fourth floor.
Interviewer: Excuse me?
Salesperson: Fourth floor.


 Pronunciation of postvocalic /r/ is variable
 Labov’s hypothesis:
 Prestigious stores will have most /r/
 Middle ranked store will have an intermediate
number
 Lowest ranked store will have the least /r/

PERCENT OF /R/ IN “FOURTH FLOOR”

DIFFERENT SPEECH COMMUNITIES

 The same linguistic variable is likely to have
different values in different speech
communities.
 New York: /r/ is pronounced more by higher
social classes.
 Reading, England: /r/ is pronounced less by
higher social classes.

CONCLUSIONS
 Language variation, the use of standard and
non-standard dialects, often reflects
speakers social class.
 Lower classes tend to speak non-standard
dialects.
 Upper classes tend to speak standard
dialects.
 Middle classes sometimes speak more
standard dialects because they hope to
move to a higher class.

REFERENCE:

 Presentation adapted from:
http://www.english.wisc.edu/rfyoung/336/clas
s.pdf Accessed on April 25, 2011.

Language and social class

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