Sociolinguistics lecture 6: First, Second, Third Wave studies

23/10/20

SOCIOLINGUISTICS L.6


F IRST WAVE STUDIES

First wave sociolinguistic tried to establish correlations between
prede ned macro-social categories (class, age, sex etc) and
linguistic variables
Importance of the observer was realized (see observer’s
paradox


L ABOV’S NY STUDY:
Key ndings
- Phonological variables are strati ed according to social class
and style (attention to speech
- Members of middle social groups can change their
pronunciation because of their social aspiration
(hypercorrection). Members of highest and lowest social group
generally do not change it once it’s xed
Hypercorrection: people try to emulate higher social classes'
ways of speech but go too far and start a variation. It occurs in
more careful speech styles
Thanks to hypercorrection
we can see what are people’s
aspirations

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, 23/10/20




S HUY & WOLFRAM’S STUDIES
Sample of 48 speakers selected from 702 participants based on
age, gender, clas
They observed multiple negation (I ain’t no prophet for ex
Key ndings
- Fine (gradient) strati cation: between the different classes
there is a continuum. A variant is harmoniously distributed
(there is no sharp break
- Sharp strati cation: sharp break (especially with grammatical
variables


T RUDGILL’S STUDY IN NORWICH
Key ndings
1. People of lower socio-economic status use non-standard
variants more than higher s-e status speakers
2. Men use more non-standard variants than woman. The
explanation was that they aimed at a different type of
prestige.
The sex-prestige pattern: when a variable is socially
strati ed and when men and women have equal access to the



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