Example Essay – English Language Paper 2 Question 1/2
Accent and Dialect are the most important social factors in contemporary life
Whilst accent and dialect can provide a person with a lot of information about a speaker –
where they geographically grew up; their cultural influences, age, class, demographic – it is
not the most important social factor in language. It is possible to argue that not one stand
alone feature is the most important, as all social factors play a significant, but varying role
on how a person speaks. Accent and Dialect does however play an important part in
determining how a speaker is perceived – regional accents are often regarded as being of
‘lower prestige’ than received pronunciation or a more standard dialect and in some
instances, regional accents are less favoured. In contemporary life however, the regional
accent is gaining implications of originalism, widely believed to make an individual seem
more interesting, and so features of regional accents are now more so desirable. That being
said there is still a prescriptivist view that in some social settings, like the workplace, accents
are too informal to take a place there. Contemporary Linguistics states an accent can be
altered significantly, consciously or unconsciously depending on context through code
switching, while performing identity. And whilst this doesn’t make accent and dialect any
less prevalent as an important social factor, it does make it difficult to state that it is the
most important social factor, because it relies on other subfactors such as context – it
doesn’t act as a stand alone most important feature of language.
Accent and dialect can be regarded as the most important social factor of modern life as
some accents – regional accents are highly stigmatised compared to non-regional dialects
such as RP. This view of linguistic purism can be proved by renowned Linguistic Giles in their
matched guise experiment. Subjects were played two video clips of an actor delivering a line
once in RP, the again in a regional accent. Subjects were then asked what they thought
about each clip. A prevalent opinion was that the clip in which the actor spoke in RP seemed
more intelligent, sophisticated, refined. The study reflects a widely held, and largely purist
belief that RP along with other upper class accents are more favourable, regarded as
prestige accents, implicitly indicating that speakers with regional accents are considered
generally less intelligent. RP is largely expected in some social situations. This in turn
disadvantages some speakers, decreases social mobility and restricts ability to transcend the
class system by accessing better jobs. This shows accent and dialect are important social
factors, due to the advantages and disadvantages and the observable disadvantages adverse
views towards them can cause.
Alternatively, since a single speaker’s identity is so intricately crafted by many influences,
each one not a separate entity from the next, it is not possible to determine a single most
important social factor. In modern study of linguistics in relation to identity, a person is
thought to have multiple personas, each created for a different social function, each one
context influenced. That is, each identity suits a respective social context. The theory of
performative identity, explained and compiled by Dr Devyani Sharma is synonymous to the
above. Martha’s Vineyard study by Labov affirms this idea. Residents of the island had
begun to use features borrowed from the island’s traditional accent spoken by the older
fisherman to affirm their identity as residents of the island. This need to affirm their social
identity through accent arose due to an influx of holiday makers in the summer months who
would descend on the island. Further, Giles’ Accommodation theory illustrates how speech
Accent and Dialect are the most important social factors in contemporary life
Whilst accent and dialect can provide a person with a lot of information about a speaker –
where they geographically grew up; their cultural influences, age, class, demographic – it is
not the most important social factor in language. It is possible to argue that not one stand
alone feature is the most important, as all social factors play a significant, but varying role
on how a person speaks. Accent and Dialect does however play an important part in
determining how a speaker is perceived – regional accents are often regarded as being of
‘lower prestige’ than received pronunciation or a more standard dialect and in some
instances, regional accents are less favoured. In contemporary life however, the regional
accent is gaining implications of originalism, widely believed to make an individual seem
more interesting, and so features of regional accents are now more so desirable. That being
said there is still a prescriptivist view that in some social settings, like the workplace, accents
are too informal to take a place there. Contemporary Linguistics states an accent can be
altered significantly, consciously or unconsciously depending on context through code
switching, while performing identity. And whilst this doesn’t make accent and dialect any
less prevalent as an important social factor, it does make it difficult to state that it is the
most important social factor, because it relies on other subfactors such as context – it
doesn’t act as a stand alone most important feature of language.
Accent and dialect can be regarded as the most important social factor of modern life as
some accents – regional accents are highly stigmatised compared to non-regional dialects
such as RP. This view of linguistic purism can be proved by renowned Linguistic Giles in their
matched guise experiment. Subjects were played two video clips of an actor delivering a line
once in RP, the again in a regional accent. Subjects were then asked what they thought
about each clip. A prevalent opinion was that the clip in which the actor spoke in RP seemed
more intelligent, sophisticated, refined. The study reflects a widely held, and largely purist
belief that RP along with other upper class accents are more favourable, regarded as
prestige accents, implicitly indicating that speakers with regional accents are considered
generally less intelligent. RP is largely expected in some social situations. This in turn
disadvantages some speakers, decreases social mobility and restricts ability to transcend the
class system by accessing better jobs. This shows accent and dialect are important social
factors, due to the advantages and disadvantages and the observable disadvantages adverse
views towards them can cause.
Alternatively, since a single speaker’s identity is so intricately crafted by many influences,
each one not a separate entity from the next, it is not possible to determine a single most
important social factor. In modern study of linguistics in relation to identity, a person is
thought to have multiple personas, each created for a different social function, each one
context influenced. That is, each identity suits a respective social context. The theory of
performative identity, explained and compiled by Dr Devyani Sharma is synonymous to the
above. Martha’s Vineyard study by Labov affirms this idea. Residents of the island had
begun to use features borrowed from the island’s traditional accent spoken by the older
fisherman to affirm their identity as residents of the island. This need to affirm their social
identity through accent arose due to an influx of holiday makers in the summer months who
would descend on the island. Further, Giles’ Accommodation theory illustrates how speech
