A Level Language and Diversity

What is the definition of a macro-level study?

• A study of social groups and their interactions.

• A research approach that focuses on individuals. It is the smallest unit of analysis in the field of social sciences.

• A research approach that focuses on a large scale aspect of society or psychology, for example the study of social class.

• A research approach that focuses on accent and dialect.

Which of the following studies are an example of a micro-level study?

• William Labov's New York City study

• John C Wells' Bath Lexical Set

• Peter Trudghill's Norwich Study

• Howard Giles' Communication Accommodation Theory

Changing your communication to match the style of another person in order to build a more positive rapport with them.

The findings of Labov's New York Study

• working class people dropped the velar nasal at the end of words

• middle-class people are less likely to /h/ drop

• the post vocalic /r/ is synonymous with prestige

• received pronunciation holds more social status than regional accents

Match the following

• glottal stop

• 
• isogloss

• 
• regional idiom

• 
• dialect

• 
• /h/ dropping

• 

Explain the 'ripple effect'

Dialect is the ______ items associated with a particular region across the UK.

accent is the _________ of different words used across UK regions.

Peyt's Bradford study suggested:

• working class people are more likely to drop the /h/ phoneme in words such as 'hello'

• /h/ dropping is not a new phenomenon as proven through words such as 'honest', 'heir' and 'hour'

• that /h/ dropping is much more common across the UK in function words including pronouns such as 'his' and 'her'

• that Danny Dyer is the world's biggest /h/ dropper

What is the term used when intonation rises at the end of sentences? (This became popular in the 00s and was blamed on too many people watching Neighbours, but has recently undergone the ripple effect and can be seen across the UK now.)

• upspeak

• vocal fry

• phatic talk

• Australian accent