Give an example of research into perception of different accents. Include names, dates, a brief methodology and a description of the results.
- In 2008, Workman researched the perceptions of different accents.
- Participants listened to recrodings of accents whilst looking at photos of people.
- Pictures with Yorkshire accents were rated the most intelligent whilst Birmingham accents were rated the least intelligent.
Give an example of research into male and female dominance in conversation.
- Zimmerman and West recorded interruptions in coversations between men and women in 1975.
- 96% of the interruptions were by men.
- This suggests men are dominant in male-female conversations.
Give an example of research into male and female differences in language use.
- Tannen, in 1990, described male and female language use in terms of differences
- Men are concerned of status and independence, leading them to interrupt more.
- Men give direct orders and don’t mind conflict.
- Men are more interested in gaining factual information and finding solutions to problems.
- Women are more interested in forming bonds. They talk less and agree more than men.
- Women use indirect language to avoid conflict.
- Women attempt to display understanding via compromising and offering support rather than solutions.
What is a supposed reason for the male and female language gap?
Male topics of conversation revolve around sport and work, where status and factual information are important. Meanwhile female topics of a conversation relve arpund home and family, where emotions, support and compassion are important.`
What are two reasons to discredit the research on differences in male and female language use? Give names and dates of the people who came up with the arguments.
- Beattie (1982) criticised Zimmerman and West’s dominance research by stating that interruptions can be supportive.
- Cameron (2007) asserts that much of the research on male and female language is biased as it focuses on differences over similarities, of which there are many.
Give two examples of how men and women use different accents/dialects and how this affects prestige.
- Trudgill (1983) studied the class of men and women’s accents.
- He found women’s accents were closer to RP (received pronunciation) than men’s.
- Cheshire (1982) researched teenage speech.
- He found that boys use more non-standard grammatical forms than girls.
Give an example of research into differing levels of politeness between men and women.
-Robin Lakoff (1975) discovered that there were features used more often by women than men.
-These are: Hedges and fillers Tag questions Apologetic requests Indirect requests
- Robin Lakoff also discovered that women tend to speak less, use fewer expletives and use more intensifiers.
- Lakoff stated that this makes women seem indecisive and makes them be taken less seriously.
- O’Barr and Atkins (1975) suggested this may instead be to do with with women feeling less powerful as lower classed men and women reflected the same female speech patterns in court.
Give an example of research into how we present ourselves.
- Goffman (1955) presented the idea that everyone presents an image of themselves called a face.
- He proposed that most of a conversation revolves around preseving oneself’s and others face by avoiding face-threatening acts.
- A lower status person will pay more attention to the face-needs of others.
- A positive face revolves around being liked whereas a negative face revolves around being able to exert power.
What are the proposed four politeness strategies?
Positive politeness: making the hearer feel loved and respected.
Negative politeness: avoidance of imposition,
Off record indirect: indirect requests.
Bald on-record: No measures taken to reduce face threatening acts.
Give an example of research into what each dialogue needs to work.
- HP Grice proposed the theory of the four maxims in 1975. These were defined as what was needed for a conversation to work and the fact that people follow them is the co-operative principle . These were as follows.
- Maxim of quality: be truthful.
- Maxim of quantity: do not say more or less than is requried.
- Maxim of relevance: Everything said should be relevant to the conversation.
- Maxim of manner: avoid ambiguity, confusion and obfuscation.
When these maxims are broken in a conversation they are said to have been flouted.
Give an example of research into implied meaning.
- HP Grice coined the idea of conversational implicature in 1975.
- Three facts needed to understand conversational implicature are usual linguistic semantics, contextual informatoin and knowing if both parties are following the co-operative principle.
