Jenny Cheshire

Linguistic Variation and Social Function

The fact that linguistic variation is correlated with a wide range of sociological characteristics of speakers has been extensively documented over the last 15 years by the many studies that have been inspired by the work of William Labov. It is well established, for example, that the frequency with which speakers use non-standard linguistic features is correlated with their socioeconomic class. More recently, studies involving speakers from a single socioeconomic class have been able to reveal some of the more subtle aspects of sociolinguistic variation. It has been found, for example, that the frequency of use of non-standard phonological features in Belfast English is correlated with the type of social network in which speakers are involved (see Milroy and Margrain 1980). This chapter will show that the frequency with which adolescent speakers use many nonstandard morphological and syntactic features of the variety of English spoken in the town of Reading, in Berkshire, is correlated with the extent to which they adhere to the norms of the vernacular culture. It will also show that linguistic variables often fulfil different social and semantic functions for the speakers who use them.

The telling or the tale? Narratives and gender in adolescent friendship networks

The paper analyses the narratives told between adolescent friends, recorded in single-sex friendship groups with a fieldworker. It confirms the importance of narratives in the construction of friendship and, specifically, in the interpretation of past experience according to peer group norms. The link between the self and others is different in the narratives told by the male friends and the female friends. The boys establish a sense of group identity through the joint activity of ‘telling’, whilst for the girls the links are between individual selves, constructed through their tales. Key figures in the friendship groups take the lead in demonstrating how events are interpreted. The same speaker uses styles that could be labelled ‘competitive’ and styles that could be labelled ‘cooperative’, depending on the interactional context.

Parallel patterns? A comparison of monolingual speech and bilingual codeswitching discourse

Abstract The extensive work done on the structure of monolingual discourse is now paralleled by a strong tradition of studies of the conversational functions of bilingual codeswitching (Gumperz, 1982; Myers-Scotton, 1993a; Auer, 1998a). So far, however, no direct comparisons have been made between the two. In this paper we compare the way in which four common conversational functions are realised (a) monolingually and (b) through codeswitching by members of a Punjabi and English-speaking network in London. The samples are thus ideally matched - the same speakers in the same context - and we establish that codeswitching may be used in two ways within these conversations. On the one hand it may take the place of monolingual ways of marking significant moves in the conversation (e.g. emphasis, change in voice quality), or add itself to these to reinforce the effect. On the other hand it can be used as a further dimension to the monolingual means which are available, allowing the speakers to introduce structural contrasts, manage the conversational ‘floor’, or highlight the different connotations of each variety as a counterpoint to the referential meaning of their utterance.

Code-switching and the sociolinguistic gender pattern

In this paper we test the widely reported finding that women use more Standard and fewer nonstandard forms than men in relation to bilingual code-switched data. First we review the principal explanations that have been offeredfor this pattern within monolingual data setst concluding that the sex ofthe Speaker is not in itself determinant, but that numerous other factors that tie in with gender roles must be considered. We then review a few studies of code-switching where gender differences are apparent and present the results of a small-scale study of gender differences in codeswitching in Punjabi and Greek-Cypriot communities in Britain. Although code-switching is generally considered a nonstandard form of speech, there is no consistent pattern of sex differentiation emerging from the bilingual data. This reinforces our contention that fur ther factors, including the r ole of nonstandard varieties in particular subgroups and types of discourse, need to be considered inpreference to blanket explanations basedon gender.

That jacksprat: An interactional perspective on English that ☆

Abstract This paper analyses the use of English that in a range of socially distinct discourses. The uses that are conventionally considered to be nonstandard or colloquial express interpersonal, affective meanings by co-ordinating the speakers and the addressees attention on those points in the discourse where a shared perspective is assumed to exist. Other uses of that in the corpus analysed here, including the relativizer and the complementizer, also have a primarily interactive function in discourse. When seen within this perspective, several problems that previous scholars have noted in the analysis of deictic that no longer appear problematic, but instead follow a regular pattern of use. This pattern reflects the ways in which speakers and addressees co-operate in order to manage the cognitive and social constraints on their joint creation of discourse.

Dialect and education : some European perspectives

Part 1 Dialect in education - some national perspectives: dialect and education in Belgium dialect and education in Denmark dialect Frisian and education in the Netherlands dialect and education in West Germany dialect and education in the United Kingdom. Part 2 Research 1970-1987: aspects of dialect and school in the Federal Republic of Germany the Kerkrade project background, main findings and an evolution dialect and standard Dutch in the first year of secondary school language attitudes in education dialect in school written work the survey of British dialect grammar. Part 3 Classroom initiatives: the development phase of the Kerkrade project teaching materials for dialect speakers in the Federal Republic of West Germany the contrastive booklets language in the classroom the Amsterdam and Groningen projects language awareness in British schools. Part 4 Language planning and policy: Frisian in schools problems in planning education and the vernacular language variation and mother tongue education in the Netherlands reflections on some old disputes about language and education dialect and education in Europe

Dialect Features and Linguistic Conflict in Schools

Abstarct This paper analyses some of the educational problems that can arise from a lack of awareness of the systematic differences between standard English and non‐standard English dialects. Research in Reading, Berkshire, found that children used fewer dialect features in writing than in their vernacular speech style, but that they also used a number of hypercorrect forms in writing that did not occur in speech. The marking strategies that teachers adopted could not help their dialect‐speaking pupils. The linguistic and more general implications of this situation are extremely serious, since the majority of school children in Britain speak a non‐standard variety of English.

English as a Contact Language: English as a contact language: the role of children and adolescents

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Information Structure in Male and Female Adolescent Talk

In this paper, we explore further the idea that differences in syntax and discourse may reflect different orientations to talk, which may in turn be relevant to the social construction of gender. We take as the basis for our investigation an area at the interface of syntax and pragmatics that has not previously been investigated from a sociolinguistic perspective: the management of information structure in natural discourse.

Schoolchildren as sociolinguistic researchers

Abstract This paper discusses a recent British research project that aimed to incorporate sociolinguistic research into classroom procedures. One of the goals of the project was to enlist teachers and their students as researchers, in order to obtain systematic information on local dialect grammar. A further aim was to encourage students to explore their own reactions to linguistic diversity and to investigate for themselves different aspects of linguistic variation in their local community. The paper reports the results of work carried out by students on their personal reactions to linguistic diversity (including the correction of nonstandard forms, attitudes toward regional variation, linguistic variation as an expression of social identity) and of some empirical research that they carried out in the community. It is argued that collaboration of this kind can be of value to the sociolinguistic research community, who can obtain useful research material in this way. It is also of interest to teachers in that it challenges conventional classroom procedures by giving students the status of experts. Most importantly of all, the incorporation of sociolinguistic research in classroom procedures has an educational value for students. In the British context it can provide a range of pedagogically valid activities that can be actively promoted within the framework of the severe educational changes that are currently taking place.